|
|
Online Texts for Craig White's Literature Courses
|
|
|
Sophocles (ca. 497-405BC)
Oedipus
at written 406, produced 401 BC |
Oedipus cursing Polynices, with Ismene & Antigone |
Translation by Francis Storr, 1912: The old-fashioned feel of Storr’s translation derives partly from age but also style: its rhymes and meters often require archaic diction (word-choice), rendering some passages nearly unintelligible, but the ancient sound of the language elevates the play’s ritual nature and legendary atmosphere.
To simplify reading, changes include modernized spelling; simplified punctuation; division of long speeches; and substitution of fresher diction from later translations. Bracketed annotations in small font are by instructor.
Historical background: Sophocles’s “Theban Trilogy” concerns the “House of Cadmus”—the royal family of the Greek city-state of Thebes:
Sophocles’s Theban plays in order of dramatic action:
- Oedipus the King: Oedipus learns his crime and punishes himself
- Oedipus at Colonus: Oedipus ends his wanderings and accepts his fate
- Antigone: Oedipus’s daughter struggles to reconcile family and state
Sophocles’s Theban plays were written
in the following order:
[Years count down instead of up Before Christian / Common Era.]
- Antigone around 442 BCE
- Oedipus the King in the 420s
- Oedipus at Colonus, written shortly before Sophocles’s death in 406 and produced posthumously by his grandson (also named Sophocles) in 401.
Another “Theban Trilogy” on the House of Cadmus, written by Aeschylus, won first prize in Athens’ dramatic competition of 467BCE. The plays were Laius, Oedipus, and Seven Against Thebes. Only the last survives; its action takes place between the action of Oedipus at Colonus and Antigone.
Plot Description of Oedipus at Colonus (adapted from Storr translation):
Oedipus, the blind and banished King of
Thebes, is led by his daughter Antigone to Colonus, a place near
Oedipus, who has been told by an oracle that Colonus would be his final resting-place, refuses to leave. The Stranger summons the Elders of Colonus, who form the play’s Chorus. The elders greet Oedipus and initially pity the blind beggar and his daughter.
When the Chorus of Elders learns
the identity of Oedipus, however, they are horrified and order him to leave their land. Oedipus appeals to the renowned
hospitality of
The elders agree to await the decision of King Theseus, an old-time companion of Oedipus. Oedipus asks Theseus for protection in life and burial in the area of Athens, with benefits and blessings to follow. Theseus departs having promised to aid and befriend Oedipus.
No sooner has Theseus left than Creon, now King of Thebes, enters with an armed guard who have captured Ismene, Oedipus's other daughter. The guards now seize Antigone. Creon is about to take Oedipus captive when Theseus, hearing the tumult, returns and, reprimanding Creon for his lawless act, threatens to detain him until he frees the captives.
In the next scene Theseus returns after rescuing Antigone and Ismene. Theseus informs Oedipus that someone wishes to see him—a Stranger who has taken sanctuary at the nearby altar of Poseidon (the god of the sea, very important to Athens as a naval empire). The Stranger is Polynices, Oedipus’s son and rival to his brother Eteocles for the throne of Thebes. Polynices has come to ask his father's forgiveness and blessing, knowing (by an oracle) that victory will fall to the side that Oedipus favors.
But Oedipus spurns Polynices as a hypocrite with a curse on both his unnatural sons. Thunder is heard, and Oedipus, knowing his final hour has come, asks Antigone to summon Theseus. Self-guided, Oedipus leads Theseus and his daughters to the spot where death will overtake him. Halfway he bids his daughters farewell. What happened next was seen by no one but Theseus. The Messenger reports that the gods took Oedipus.
Character Backgrounds for
Oedipus at Colonus
OEDIPUS: For audiences today, Oedipus is now known foremost as the tragic hero of Oedipus the King and the namesake for the Oedipus Conflict theorized by Freud. But as with many heroes of mythology, Oedipus’s story underwent numerous variations and extensions. His character may have sometimes served as an all-purpose hero, and he and Theseus shared many adventures, though in this play they have only heard of each other.
Sophocles’s Oedipus at Colonus shows Oedipus as a legendary figure whose suffering and nearness to the gods make him something of a holy man. Oedipus’s sacrifice to the will of heaven and his assumption into the afterlife may broadly anticipate features of the Christ story. A number of cults endured in Greece concerning Oedipus and his supposed burial sites.
Nietzsche writes in Birth of Tragedy (ch. 9, 46-7), "Sophocles saw the most suffering character on the Greek stage, the unhappy Oedipus, as the noble man who is predestined for error and misery despite his wisdom, but who finally, through his terrible suffering, exerts a magical and beneficial power that continues to prevail after his death. The noble man does not sin, the profound poet wishes to tell us: through his actions every law, every natural order, the whole moral world can be destroyed, and through these actions a higher magic circle of effects is drawn, founding a new world on the ruins of the old, now destroyed. . . . [S]uch is the truly Hellenic [Greek] delight in this dialectical unravelment that it casts a sense of triumphant cheerfulness over the whole work, and takes the sting from all the terrible premises of the plot. In Oedipus at Colonus, we encounter this same cheerfulness, but elevated in a process of infinite transfiguration. . . ."
THESEUS,
who also appears in Euripides's Hippolytos, was a
legendary king of Athens and a popular hero of Greek mythology, comparable to
Hercules in swashbuckling and sexual adventures. Theseus destroyed monsters and
villains plaguing the Greek highways and countryside. His most famous victory
was over the half-bull, half-man Minotaur in the
labyrinth of King Minos at
- Theseus’s mother was Aethra, a daughter of King Pittheus of Troezen.
-
Theseus had two
fathers—one mortal, one immortal. His mortal father was
Aegeus, a founding king of
Setting:
Colonus, Kolonis, or Kolonosh may be found on the map northeast of Athens. This ancient district of Attica surrounding Athens in southern Greece was Sophocles’s birthplace.
- Ancient Colonus was home to a temple of Poseidon and a grove sacred to the Furies or Eumenides, both mentioned in Oedipus at Colonus.
- Poseidon the sea god was important to Athens's identity as a naval empire—also Theseus's father (maybe).
- The Furies / Eumenides—spirits of the dead seeking revenge or reconciliation—were important to Athens as a city of laws. (Compare Aeschylus's The Euminides)
- Trespassing on the Furies’ sacred grove, Oedipus re-enacts a crime like that he committed against his family. But he has heard a prophecy that the grove will be his final resting place, appropriate because the Furies were concerned with justice to relatives. The end of the play suggests reconciliation between the gods, earth, and humanity.
YouTube videos
Greek-language film / stage production of Oedipus at Colonus
Trombone overture: Oedipus at Colonus: The Grove of the Eumenides
Dramatis Personae
OEDIPUS, banished King of Thebes
ANTIGONE, his daughter
ISMENE, his daughter
THESEUS, King of
CREON, brother of
Jocasta, now reigning at
Polynices, elder son of Oedipus
STRANGER, a native of Colonus
MESSENGER, an attendant of Theseus
CHORUS, citizens of Colonus
Sophocles,
Oedipus at Colonus
[SCENE 1]
Scene: In front of the grove of the Eumenides.
[Eumenides = vengeful
spirits, a. k. a. Furies or Erinyes]
Enter the blind Oedipus led by his daughter, Antigone.
|
OEDIPUS: Antigone, Child of an old blind sire,
ANTIGONE: Long-suffering father
Oedipus, the towers |
|
OEDIPUS: Guide these dark steps and seat me there secure.
ANTIGONE: If time can teach, I need not to be told.
OEDIPUS: Say, prithee, if you know, where we are. [prithee = I pray thee]
ANTIGONE:
OEDIPUS: That much we heard from every wayfarer.
ANTIGONE: Shall I go on and ask about the place?
OEDIPUS: Yes, daughter, if it be inhabited.
ANTIGONE:
Sure there are habitations;
but no need
To leave thee; yonder
is a man nearby.
OEDIPUS: What, moving hitherward and on his way? [hitherward = in this direction] 30
ANTIGONE: Say rather, here already.
Ask him straight
The needful
questions, for the man is here.
[Enter STRANGER]
OEDIPUS: O stranger, as I learn from
her whose eyes
Must serve both her
and me, that you are here
Sent by
some happy chance to serve our doubts—
STRANGER:
First leave that place you rest, then
question me at large:
The spot you
tread on is holy ground.
OEDIPUS: What is the site, to what god dedicated?
STRANGER:
Inviolable, untrod;
goddesses,
Dread brood of Earth
and Darkness, here abide.
[brood = Furies as children of original divine
beings] 40
OEDIPUS: Tell me the awful name I should invoke?
STRANGER:
The Gracious Ones,
All-seeing, so our folk [Gracious
Ones = Furies*]
Call them,
but elsewhere other names are rife.
[*Many euphemisms or
inoffensive names were attached to the Furies who, as vengeful spirits of the
dead, must be spoken of carefully]
OEDIPUS:
Then may they show hospitality, for I
From this your sanctuary will never depart.
STRANGER:
What do you mean?
OEDIPUS: I do as my fate
commands.
STRANGER:
Nay, 'tis not my duty to drive thee away* without
Due warrant and instruction from the State.
[the State = local
authorities, in this case Athens]
[Stranger basically says, "I wouldn't
bother you except for the law.]
OEDIPUS:
Now in God's name, O
stranger, scorn me not
50
As a
wayfarer; tell me what I need to know.
STRANGER: Ask—your request shall not be scorned by me.
OEDIPUS: What do you call the place where we are?
STRANGER:
Whatever I know, you too
shall know; the place
Is all
to
great Poseidon consecrated. [Poseidon, sea god important to
Nearby, the Titan, he who bears the torch,
[Titan Prometheus stole fire from gods and
gave it to humanity]
Prometheus, has his worship; but the spot
You tread, the
Brass-footed Threshold named,
[Brass-footed Threshold=protected]
Is Athens's bastion, and the neighboring lands
[bastion = stronghold]
Claim as their chief and patron yonder knight
60
Colonus, and in common bear his name.
[yonder knight Colonus =
namesake of area]
Such, stranger,
is the spot, to fame unknown,
[to fame unknown =
secluded]
But dear to us its
native worshipers.
OEDIPUS: You say people live in these parts?
STRANGER:
Surely; they bear the name
of yonder god.
[yonder
god=Athena>Athenians]
OEDIPUS: Ruled by a king or by the general voice? [general voice = democracy]
STRANGER:
The lord
of
OEDIPUS: Who is this monarch, great in word and might?
STRANGER: Theseus, the son of Aegeus our late king.
OEDIPUS: Might one be sent from you to summon him? 70
STRANGER: Wherefore? To tell him aught or urge his coming?
OEDIPUS: Say that a small service may avail him much. [i.e., if Theseus will help Oedipus, Theseus and AThens will be rewarded]
STRANGER: How can he profit from a sightless man?
OEDIPUS: The blind man's words will be gifted with sight. [compare Teiresias in Oedipus the King & Antigone]
STRANGER:
Heed then; I fain would see
thee out of harm;
For by the
looks, marred though they be by fate,
I judge thee noble. Tarry where you are,
[tarry = linger]
While I go seek the burghers—those at hand,
[burghers = established
citizens]
Not in the city. They
will soon decide
Whether you are
to rest or go your way.
80
[Exit STRANGER]
[SCENE 2]
OEDIPUS: Tell me, my daughter, has the stranger gone?
ANTIGONE:
Yes, he has gone; now we
are all alone,
And you may speak,
dear father, without fear.
[Oedipus in the speech below addresses the Furies, spirits of justice inhabiting the sacred grove and refers to the Oracle at Delphi, who prophesied the grove as his final resting place.]
OEDIPUS:
Stern-faced queens, since
coming to this land
[queens = the Furies]
First in your sanctuary I bent the knee, [bent
the knee = prayed, did homage]
Frown not on me or Phoebus, who, when erst [Phoebus = Apollo,
chief divinity of Delphi; erst =
formerly]
He told me all my
miseries to come,
Spake of this
respite after many years,
[respite = opportunity for
rest or relief]
Some haven in a
far-off land, a rest
Vouchsafed at
last by dread divinities.
90
"There," said he, "shalt thou
complete
thy weary life,
[he = Apollo (via oracle)]
A blessing to the land
wherein thou dwellest,
But to the
land that cast thee forth, a curse."
[blessing / curse motif]
And of my fate he promised signs should come,
Earthquake, or thunderclap, or lightning flash. [see
act 9, l. 1598; act 11, 1650]
And now I recognize as yours the sign
[yours = the Furies']
That led my wanderings to this your grove;
Else had I never lighted on you first,
A wineless man on your seat of native rock.
[wineless = not honored]
O goddesses, fulfill Apollo's word,
100
Grant me some redemption of my life,
If by chance I appear not all too vile,
A captive to sorrow worse than any slave.
Hear, gentle daughters of primeval Night,
[daughters = Furies]
Hear, namesake of great Pallas;
Of cities, pity this dishonored ghost,
The shadow of him who once was Oedipus.
ANTIGONE:
Hush! for I see some
elders on their way,
Their mission to find out our resting-place.
OEDIPUS:
I will be mute, and you
shall guide my steps [contrast
Oedipus's earlier, bolder, hot-tempered nature] 110
Into the
covert from the public road, [covert =
thicket, hiding place]
Till
I have learned their drift. A prudent man
Will ever shape his course by what he learns. [learning
theme of tragedy]
[Enter Chorus]
[as in other plays
of the Theban trilogy, the Chorus = local elders]
CHORUS:
(Strophe 1)
[strophe = part of choral
ode or song, as Chorus moves left to right]
Ha! Where is he? Look around!
[he = Oedipus, not yet identified]
Every nook and corner scan!
He the all-presumptuous man,
[Oedipus
re-enacts his original sin by trespassing on sacred ground]
Whither vanished? search the ground!
[Whither vanished? = Where's he gone?]
A wayfarer, I imagine,
[wayfarer
= wanderer]
A wayfarer, no
countryman of ours,
That old man
must have been;
120
Never had native
dared to tempt the Powers,
[the Powers = the sacred
Furies]
Or enter their domain,
The Maids in awe
of whom each mortal cowers,
[the Maids = again, the
Furies]
Whose name no voice
betrays nor cry,
And as we pass
them with averted eye,
We move
hushed lips in reverent piety.
But now some godless man, [Oedipus,
his identity still unknown to Athenian chorus]
It’s rumored, here abides;
The precincts through I scan,
Yet know not where he hides,
130
The wretch profane!
I search and search in vain.
|
OEDIPUS:
I am that man; I know you're
near CHORUS: O dreadful to see and to hear! [spectacle?] OEDIPUS: Oh sirs, I am no outlaw under banishment. CHORUS: Who can he be —Zeus save us!—this old man?
OEDIPUS:
No favorite of fate,
|
1962 performance of "Oedipus at Colonus" at Athens.
|
CHORUS:
(Antistrophe
1)
[antistrophe=response to strophe; Chorus moves right
to left]
Were you then
sightless from your birth?
Evil,
methinks, and long
Thy pilgrimage
on earth.
Yet add not curse to
curse and wrong to wrong.
I warn
thee, trespass not
Within this
hallowed spot,
Lest you should
find the silent grassy glade
[the sacred grove as sanctuary of gods or spirits]
Where
offerings
are laid,
150
Bowls of spring water
mingled with sweet mead. [mead =
fermented drink of water, honey, malt, yeast]
You must
not stay,
Come, come away,
Tired wanderer, do you hear?
(We stand far off, but sure our voice
can reach.)
If anything you would
beseech,
[beseech = request]
Speak where it is right; till then refrain from speech.
OEDIPUS: Daughter, what counsel should we now pursue?
ANTIGONE: We must obey and do as here they do.
OEDIPUS: Your hand then! 160
ANTIGONE: Here, O father, is my hand.
OEDIPUS:
O Sirs, if I come forth at
your command,
Let me not suffer
for my trust in you.
CHORUS:
(Strophe 2) [strophe = part of choral
ode or song, as Chorus moves left to right]
[dance]
Against thy will no man shall drive thee hence.
164
OEDIPUS: Shall I go further?
CHORUS: Aye.
OEDIPUS: What, further still?
CHORUS: Lead, maiden, you can guide him where we intend.
ANTIGONE: Follow with blind steps, father, as I lead.
CHORUS:
In a strange land, strange
thou art;
[cf. Exodus 2:22]
170
To her will, incline thy
heart;
[her will = the laws of the
land]
Honor whatsoever the State
Honors, all she frowns on hate.
[she = the State]
OEDIPUS:
Guide me child, where we may
range
Safe within the paths of
right;
Counsel freely may exchange
Nor with fate and fortune fight.
CHORUS:
(Antistrophe
2) [Chorus moves right
to left]
Halt! Go no further
than that rocky floor.
[floor = ground]
OEDIPUS: Stay where I now am?
CHORUS: Yes, advance no more. 180
OEDIPUS: May I sit down?
CHORUS:
Move sideways towards the
ledge,
And sit thee crouching on
the scarped edge.
[scarped = steeply sloped]
ANTIGONE:
This is my office, father,
O incline—
[office=duty] [O
incline=please conform]
OEDIPUS: Ah me! ah me!
ANTIGONE: Thy steps to my steps, lean thine aged frame on mine.
OEDIPUS: Woe on my fate unblest!
CHORUS:
Wanderer, now thou art at
rest,
Tell me of thy birth and
home,
From what far country art
thou come,
190
Led on thy weary way,
declare!
OEDIPUS:
Strangers, I have no
country. O forbear—
[forbear = hold back, lay
off]
CHORUS: What is it, old man, that you would conceal?
OEDIPUS: Forbear, nor urge me further to reveal—
CHORUS: Why this reluctance?
OEDIPUS: Dreadful my lineage. [lineage = family story, family curse]
CHORUS: Say!
OEDIPUS: What must I answer, child, ah welladay! [welladay! = whatever!]
CHORUS: Say of what stock you come, what man's son—
OEDIPUS: Ah me, my daughter, now we are undone! 200
ANTIGONE: Speak, for you stand on the slippery verge. [verge = threshold; i.e., Oedipus stands at a point where fate may turn good or bad, fulfilled or frustrated]
OEDIPUS: I will; no plea for silence can I urge.
CHORUS: Will [you] neither speak? Come, Sir, why dally thus!
OEDIPUS: Know you of Laius's—
CHORUS: What? Who!
OEDIPUS:
Seed of Labdacus—
[Laius, Oedipus’s
father, was son of King Labdacus of
CHORUS: Oh Zeus!
OEDIPUS: The hapless Oedipus.
CHORUS: Are you he?
OEDIPUS: Whatever I utter, have no fear of me. 210
CHORUS:
Begone! [Recognition
scene completes
OEDIPUS: O wretched me!
CHORUS: Begone!
OEDIPUS: O daughter, what will happen next?
CHORUS:
OEDIPUS: How keep you then your pledge? [you, your = chorus; pledge=of refuge in sanctuary of grove; see l. 164]
CHORUS:
Heaven's justice never smites
[smites = strikes]
Him who ill with ill requites.
[requites = answers,
retaliates]
But if guile with
guile contend,
[guile = cunning,
hypocrisy]
Curse, not blessing, is
the end.
[bane = affliction,
hardship] 220
Arise, begone and take
thee hence straightway,
Lest on
our land a heavier curse thou lay.
[lest = unless]
ANTIGONE:
O sirs! ye suffered not my
father blind,
[suffered = accepted]
Albeit gracious and to ruth inclined,
[ruth = mercy]
Knowing the deeds he wrought, not innocent,
But with no ill intent;
Yet heed a maiden's moan
Who pleads for him alone;
My eyes, not void of sight,
Plead with you as a daughter's might
230
You are our providence,
[providence = caretaker]
O make us not go hence!
O with a gracious nod
Grant us the nearly-despaired-of blessing we crave?
Hear us, O hear,
By all that ye hold dear,
Wife, children, homestead, hearth and God!
Where will you find one, search ye never so well.
Who escapes destruction if a god impel!
CHORUS:
Surely we pity thee and him
alike
240
Daughter of Oedipus, for
your distress;
But as we reverence
the decrees of Heaven
We cannot
say aught other than we said.
[aught = anything]
OEDIPUS:
O
what avails renown or fair repute?
[renown = fame; repute = reputation]
Are they
not vanity? For, look you, now
And shelters the
troubled stranger, so men say.
Have I
found so?
I whom you uprooted
250
First from my seat of rock and now would drive
Forth from your land, dreading my name alone;
For me you surely dread not, nor my deeds,
Deeds of a man more sinned against than sinning, [more
. . . sinning < cf. Shakespeare, King Lear 3.2 57-60]
As I might well convince you, were it right
To tell my mother's story and my father's,
The cause of this your fear.
But
am I then
A villain born because in self-defense,
Stricken, I struck the striker back again?
[Oedipus recalls his
deadly fight with his father Laius] 260
Even if I’d known, no villainy it would prove:
But all unknowing, wherever I went, I
went—
To ruin; my destroyers
knew it well,
Wherefore, I pray
you, sirs, in Heaven's name,
Even
as ye made me leave my seat, defend me.
O pay not a lip service to the gods
And wrong them of their dues.
[i.e.,
hospitality and mercy to suffering; just because one speaks of the gods' will
doesn't mean that the gods might not intend otherwise]
Bethink ye well,
The eye of Heaven beholds the just of men,
And the unjust, nor ever in this world
270
Has one sole godless sinner found escape.
Stand then on Heaven's side and never blot
I came to you a
beggar, and you pledged
Your honor; O preserve me
to the end,
O let not this marred
visage do me wrong!
[this marred visage =
Oedipus’s wounded face]
A holy and god-fearing man is here
Whose coming purports comfort for your folk.
[purports comfort =
signifies blessings]
And when your
chief arrives, whoever he be,
[chief = king, later id. as Theseus]
Then
shall ye have my story and know all.
280
Meanwhile I pray you do me no injury.
CHORUS:
The plea thou urgest, needs
must give us pause,
Set forth in
weighty argument, but we
Must
leave the issue with the ruling powers.
OEDIPUS:
Where is he, strangers, he
who sways the realm?
[he = Theseus, king of
[Instructor's
note: Beyond
the tragedies, Oedipus shared many adventures with Theseus, legendary
king of Athens]
CHORUS:
In his ancestral seat—a
messenger,
The same who sent us
here, is gone for him.
OEDIPUS:
And think you he will have
such care or thought
For the blind
stranger as to come himself?
CHORUS: Aye, that he will, when once he learns thy name. 290
OEDIPUS: But who will bear him word!
CHORUS:
The way is long,
And many travelers pass to speed the news.
Be sure he'll hear and hasten, never fear;
So wide and far thy name is spoken
That, were he never so tired and reluctant to move,
He would stir himself when he hears of thee.
[he = Theseus; thee = Oedipus]
OEDIPUS:
Well, may he come with
blessing to his State
And me! Who
serves his neighbor serves himself.*
299
[*Translator’s note: To avoid the blessing, still a secret, [Oedipus]
resorts to an epigram, literally,
"For what generous man is not (in befriending others) a
friend to himself?"]
[SCENE 3]
ANTIGONE: Zeus! What is this? What can I say or think? [Zeus! = OMG!] 300
OEDIPUS: What now, Antigone?
ANTIGONE:
I see a woman
Riding upon a colt of Aetna's breed;
[Aetna = city in
She wears for
headgear a Thessalian hat
[<Thessaly, region of
north-central
To shade her from the sun. Who can it be?
She or a stranger? Do I wake or dream?
'Tis she; 'tis not —I cannot tell,
alack;
It is no other! Now her
bright'ning glance
Greets me with
recognition, yes, 'tis she,
Herself, Ismene!
[Ismene = Antigone’s
sister, Oedipus’s other daughter; recognition scene]
310
OEDIPUS: Ha! what say ye, child?
ANTIGONE:
That I behold thy daughter
and my sister,
[+ thy (Oedipus's) sister?]
And you will know her straightway by her voice.
[Enter Ismene ]
ISMENE:
Father and sister, names to
me most sweet,
How hardly have I
found you—I hardly now,
[how hardly = with what
difficulty]
When found at last,
can see you through my tears!
OEDIPUS: Art thou come, my child?
ISMENE: O father, sad thy plight!
OEDIPUS: Child, thou art here?
ISMENE: Yes, it was a weary way. 320
OEDIPUS: Touch me, my child.
ISMENE: I give a hand to both.
OEDIPUS: O children—sisters!
ISMENE: O disastrous plight!
OEDIPUS: Her plight and mine?
ISMENE: Aye, and my own no less.
OEDIPUS: What brought thee, daughter?
ISMENE: Father, care for thee. [care = concern]
OEDIPUS: A daughter's yearning?
ISMENE:
Yes, and I had news
330
I would myself deliver, so I came
With the one thrall who yet is true to me.
[thrall = servant-slave]
OEDIPUS: Thy valiant brothers, where are they at need?
ISMENE: They are—enough! 'Tis now their darkest hour. [enough! = Don't ask!]
OEDIPUS:
Those two! Wouldn't you know!
The thoughts and actions all
Are framed and modeled on Egyptian
ways. [Greeks thought Egyptian
gender roles were crossed-up?]
For there the men
sit at the loom indoors
While the wives
slave abroad for daily bread.
So you, my children—those sons whom I
expected
340
To
bear the burden, stay at home like girls,
While in their stead my daughters do hard and menial work
To lighten their father's misery. The one
[The one = Antigone]
Since first she grew from girlish feebleness
To womanhood has been the old man's guide
And shared my weary wandering, roaming oft
Hungry and footsore through wild forest ways,
In drenching rains and under scorching suns,
Careless herself of home and ease, if so
Her sire might have her tender ministry.
350
And you, my child, I remember you went
forth,
[my child = Ismene]
Eluding the Cadmeians' vigilance,
[Eluding . . . vigilance =
in secret]
To bring thy father all
the oracles
Concerning Oedipus,
and didst make thyself
My faithful
spy, when they banished me.
[spy: Ismene informed
Oedipus of events in his old palace]
And now what mission summons thee from
home,
What news, Ismene, do you
have for your father?
This much I
know, you come not empty-handed,
Without a warning of some new alarm.
ISMENE:
The toil and trouble, father,
that I bore
360
To find thy
lodging-place and how you fared,
I
spare thee; surely it would be a double pain
To suffer, first in act and then in telling;
It is the misfortune of thine
ill-starred sons [ill-starred
= doomed; sons = Eteocles & Polynices]
I come to tell
thee.
At first they willed
[they = Eteocles & Polynices; willed = wanted]
To leave the throne to Creon, minded well
Thus to remove the inveterate curse of old,
A canker that infected all thy race.
[canker = malignant sore or infection; thy race = House of
Cadmus]
But now some god and an infatuate soul
[infatuate soul = crazed spirit]
Have stirred betwixt them a mad rivalry
[betwixt them = between Eteocles & Polynices] 370
To grasp at sovereignty and kingly power.
Today the hot-branded youth, the younger born,
[younger=Eteocles, one of
Oedipus’s sons]
Is keeping
Polynices from the throne,
[Polynices = Oedipus’s
other son]
His elder, and has
thrust him from the land.
The banished brother (so all
Fled to the vale of
Of new alliance there and friends in arms,
Swears to establish Argos straight as lord
[straight = directly; Argos rule Thebes with
Polynices installed]
Of the Cadmeian
land, or, if he fail,
Exalt the
victor to the stars of heaven.
380
This is no empty tale, but deadly truth,
My father; and how long thy agony,
Ere the gods pity thee, I cannot tell.
OEDIPUS:
Have you indeed then
entertained a hope
The gods at
last will turn and rescue me?
ISMENE: Yea, so I read these latest oracles.
OEDIPUS: What oracles? What has been uttered, child?
ISMENE:
Thy country (so it runs)
shall yearn in time
[Thy country = Thebes]
To have thee
for their weal alive or dead.*
[weal = well-being, protection]
[*According to the Oracle, Thebes (and whoever wants to rule it) will want Oedipus as a patron saint or a blessing. Even if Oedipus is dead, his presence will deliver power to whoever protects him, a variation or distortion on the oracle that Oedipus has previously heard that, if he is buried at Colonus, he will provide a blessing to that area including Athens. This aspect of the Oedipus legend provides some background for the presence of mystery cults in ancient Greece dedicated to Oedipus, especially at sites that competed with each other in claiming to be his final resting-place.]
OEDIPUS: And who could gain by such a one as I? 390
ISMENE: On thee, 'tis said, their rulership depends.
OEDIPUS: So, when I cease to be, my worth begins. [irony]
ISMENE: The gods, who once abased, uplift thee now. [romance of transcendence?]
OEDIPUS: Poor help to raise an old man fallen in youth.
ISMENE:
However that be, it is for
this cause alone
That
Creon comes
to thee—and comes directly.
OEDIPUS: With what intent, my daughter? Tell me plainly.
ISMENE:
To plant thee near the Theban
land, and so
Keep thee within
their grasp, yet not allow
[Creon would hold Oedipus
near but not in
Thy foot to pass beyond their boundaries.
400
OEDIPUS: What gain they, if I lay outside?
ISMENE:
Thy tomb,
If disregarded, brings on them a curse.
[another best-of-both-worlds arrangement:
OEDIPUS: It needs no god to tell what's plain to sense.
ISMENE:
Therefore they fain would
have you close at hand,
[fain would = would be well-disposed to]
Not where
you would be master of yourself.
OEDIPUS:
Mean they to shroud my bones
in Theban dust? [shroud . .
. dust? = bury my body in Theban soil?]
ISMENE:
Nay, father, guilt of
kinsman's blood forbids.
[Oedipus can’t be
buried in
OEDIPUS: Then never shall they be my masters, never!
ISMENE: Thebes, you will regret this bitterly some day!
OEDIPUS: When what conjunction comes to pass, my child? 410
ISMENE: Thy angry ghost, when at thy tomb they stand. . . .
[Translator’s note on dialogue above: Creon desires to bury Oedipus
on the periphery of
[Instructor's
note: In
following passages here omitted, Ismene tells
Oedipus of a recent prophecy that previews the blessings Oedipus's
burial will bring to Athens; that Theban invaders of Athens will some day be
routed in a battle near the grave of Oedipus.]
OEDIPUS: And who told you what you’re telling me, child?
ISMENE:
Envoys who visited the
Delphic hearth.
[envoys=ambassadors;
OEDIPUS: Hath Phoebus spoken thus concerning me? [Apollo, through oracle]
ISMENE:
So say the
envoys who returned to
OEDIPUS: And can a son of mine have heard of this?
ISMENE: Yea, both alike, and know its import well.
OEDIPUS:
They knew it, yet the
ignoble greed of rule
Outweighed
all longing for their sire's return.
ISMENE: Grievous thy words, yet I must own them true. 420
OEDIPUS:
Then may the gods never
quench their fatal feud,
And mine
be the judgment of the fight,
For which they now are arming, spear to spear;
That neither he who holds the scepter now
[he = Eteocles]
May keep this throne, nor he who fled the realm
[he = Polynices]
Return again.
They never raised a hand,
When I their sire was thrust from hearth and home,
When I was banned and banished, what did they care?
Say you this was done at my desire, a grace
[this = Oedipus being banished]
Which the state,
yielding to my wish, allowed?
430
Not so; for, mark you, on that very day
[i.e., the day
depicted in Oedipus the King]
When in the tempest of my soul I craved
Death, even death by stoning, none appeared
To further that wild longing, but later,
When time had numbed my anguish and I felt
My wrath had all outrun those errors past,
Then, then it was the city went about
By force to oust me, after delaying for years;
And then my sons, who should as sons
have helped,
Did nothing: and, one
little word from them
440
Was all I
needed, and they spoke no word,
But let me wander on for evermore,
A banished man, a beggar.
These two maids
[two maids = Antigone & Ismene]
Their sisters, girls, gave all their sex could give,
Food and safe harborage and filial care; [harborage
= shelter; filial
care = care of child for parent]
While their two brethren sacrificed their sire
For lust of power and sceptred sovereignty.
[sceptred sovereignty =
right to rule]
No! me they ne'er shall win for an
ally,
[they = Eteocles & Polynices]
Nor will this Theban
kingship bring them gain;
That I
know from this maiden's oracles,
450
And those old prophecies concerning me,
Which Phoebus now at length has brought to pass.
Come Creon, then, come all the
mightiest [Creon as another possible
ruler of Thebes might also try to enlist Oedipus's help]
In Thebes to seek me;
for if ye my friends, [my
friends = chorus of Athenian elders]
Championed
by those dread Powers indigenous,
[indigenous = native; Powers = Furies?]
Espouse my cause; then for the State ye gain
A great deliverer, for my enemies a curse.
CHORUS:
Our pity, Oedipus, you have to go,
You and these maidens; and the stronger plea
You urge, as the savior of our land,
460
Disposes me to speak on behalf of your wellbeing.
OEDIPUS: Aid me, kind sirs; I will do all you bid.
CHORUS:
First make atonement to the
deities,
[deities = the Furies]
Whose grove by trespass thou didst first profane.
[profane = violate]
OEDIPUS: After what manner, stranger? Teach me, pray.
[i.e., How to atone or
appease the Furies]
CHORUS:
Make a libation first of
water fetched
[libation = offering]
With undefiled hands from living spring.
[living spring = fresh
source of water]
OEDIPUS: And after I have gotten this pure draught? [draught = draft = portion]
CHORUS:
Bowls thou wilt find, the
carver's handiwork;
Crown thou the
rims and both the handles crown—
470
OEDIPUS: With olive shoots or blocks of wool, or how?
CHORUS: With wool from fleece of yearling freshly shorn. [yearling = year-old lamb]
OEDIPUS: What next? how must I end the ritual?
CHORUS:
Pour thy libation, turning to
the dawn. [libations were poured or shaken out to the earth as
the gods’ portion]
OEDIPUS: Pouring it from the urns whereof ye spake?
CHORUS:
Yea, in three streams; and be
the last bowl drained
To the last
drop.
OEDIPUS:
And wherewith shall I fill
it,
[wherewith = with what]
Ere in its place I set it?
This too tell.
CHORUS: With water and with honey; add no wine.
OEDIPUS: And when the embowered earth hath drunk thereof? [embowered=full of trees, referring to grove of Furies] 480
CHORUS:
Then lay upon it thrice nine
olive sprays
[thrice nine = 27]
With both thy hands, and offer up this prayer.
OEDIPUS: I want to hear that prayer; that's most important.
CHORUS:
That, as we call them
Gracious, they would deign
[them = Furies; deign = think fit]
To grant the petitioner their saving grace.
So pray thyself or whoso pray for thee,
In whispered accents, not with lifted voice;
[lifted voice = out loud]
Then go and look back. Do as I bid,
And I shall then be bold to stand thy friend;
Else, stranger, I should have my fears for thee.
490
OEDIPUS: Hear ye, my daughters, what these strangers say?
ANTIGONE: We listened, and attend thy bidding, father.
OEDIPUS:
I cannot go, disabled as I
am
Doubly, by lack of strength and
lack of sight;
But one of you may
do it in my stead;
For one, I
trust, may pay the sacrifice
Of thousands, if his heart
be loyal and true.
So to your work with speed, but leave me not
Untended; for this frame is all too weak
To move without the help of guiding hand.
500
ISMENE:
Then I will go perform these
rites, but where
To find the spot,
this have I yet to learn.
CHORUS:
Beyond this grove; if thou
hast need of anything,
[aught = anything]
The guardian of the sanctuary will lend his
aid.
ISMENE:
I go, and you, Antigone,
meanwhile
Must guard our father.
In a parent's cause
Toil, if there
be toil, is of no account.
[i.e., no end to a child’s
debt and service to a parent]
[Exit ISMENE]
2003 production of
Oedipus at Colonus
http://www.didaskalia.net/reviews/2003/ocepidavaros03.html
[SCENE 4]
CHORUS: (Strophe
1) [Chorus moves left to right]
Ill it is, stranger, to
awake
Pain that long since has
ceased to ache,
And yet I
want to hear—
510
OEDIPUS: What thing?
CHORUS:
Thy tale of cruel suffering
For which no cure was found,
The fate that held thee bound.
OEDIPUS:
O ask me not (as guest I
claim
This grace) to expose my shame.
[shame/honor]
CHORUS:
The tale is reported far and
near,
And echoes still from ear
to ear.
The truth, I would like
to
hear.
OEDIPUS: Ah me! 520
CHORUS: I pray thee consent to tell.
OEDIPUS: Ah me!
CHORUS: Grant my request, I granted all to thee.
OEDIPUS:
(Antistrophe
1) [Chorus moves right
to left]
Know then
I suffered
ills most vile, but none
(So help me Heaven!) from acts in malice done.
CHORUS: Say how.
OEDIPUS:
The State around
An all-unwitting bridegroom bound
[all-unwitting = naive, clueless]
An impious marriage chain;
That was my bane.
[bane = curse]
530
CHORUS:
Didst thou in sooth then
share
[sooth = truth]
A bed incestuous with her that bare—
[her = Jocasta]
OEDIPUS:
It stabs me like a sword,
That two-edged word,
O stranger, but these maids—my own—
CHORUS: Say on.
OEDIPUS:
Two daughters, curses twain.
[curses twain = both
products of incest]
CHORUS: Oh God!
OEDIPUS:
Sprang from the wife and
mother's travail-pain.
[travail-pain= childbirth, labor]
CHORUS:
(Strophe 2) [Chorus moves left to right]
What, then thy offspring are at once—
540
OEDIPUS:
Too true.
Their father's very sisters too.
CHORUS: Oh horror!
OEDIPUS:
Horrors from the boundless
deep
Back on my soul in
choking
surges sweep.
CHORUS: Thou hast endured—
OEDIPUS: Intolerable woe.
CHORUS: And sinned—
OEDIPUS: I sinned not.
CHORUS: How so? 550
OEDIPUS:
I served the State; would I
had never won
That graceless grace
by which I was undone.
CHORUS:
(Antistrophe 2)
[Chorus moves right
to left]
And next, unhappy man, thou hast shed blood?
OEDIPUS: Must ye hear more?
CHORUS: A father's?
OEDIPUS:
Flood on flood
Whelms me; that word's a second mortal blow.
[whelms = overwhelms]
CHORUS: Murderer!
OEDIPUS: Yes, a murderer, but know—
CHORUS: What canst thou plead? 560
OEDIPUS: A plea of justice.
CHORUS: How?
OEDIPUS:
I slew him who otherwise would have me
slain;
I slew without intent,
A wretch, but innocent
In the law's eye, I stand, without a stain.
[SCENE 5]
|
CHORUS:
Behold our sovereign,
Theseus, Aegeus's son,
[Enter Theseus]
THESEUS:
Oft had I heard of thee in
times gone by—
[thee = Oedipus] All that I lately gathered on the way
[lately gathered =
recently learned] Declare it; desperate indeed must be the
tale |
|
OEDIPUS:
Theseus, thy words so apt, so generous
So comfortable, need
no long reply
Both who I am and of what lineage sprung,
And from what land I came, thou hast
declared.
590
So
without prologue I may utter now
My brief petition, and the tale is told.
THESEUS: Say
on, and tell me what I fain would learn.
OEDIPUS:
I
come to offer thee this woe-worn frame,
[woe-worn frame = body near
death]
A gift not fair to look on; yet
its worth
More
precious far than any outward show.
THESEUS:
What
profit dost thou proffer to have brought?
[What’s
in it for me to inherit responsibility for your body in death?]
OEDIPUS:
Hereafter you shall learn, not yet, methinks.
THESEUS: When
may we hope to reap the benefit?
OEDIPUS: When
I am dead and you have buried me.
THESEUS:
You
crave life's last service; all before—
[last service =
final or funeral rites; all before = Oedipus's life story]
Is it forgotten or of no account?
[it
= Oedipus’s dishonored life]
OEDIPUS: Yea,
the last boon is warrant for the rest.
[my
death will redeem my life]
THESEUS: The
grace you crave is then small indeed.
OEDIPUS: Nay,
weigh it well; the issue is not slight.
THESEUS: You
mean that between thy sons and me?
OEDIPUS:
Prince, they wish to convey me back to
THESEUS: If
there be no compulsion, then methinks
To rest in banishment befits not thee.
OEDIPUS: Nay,
when I wished it they would not consent.
THESEUS: For
shame! such temper isn't appropriate for fallen men.
[given his backstory, Oedipus shouldn’t complain.]
OEDIPUS:
Chide if you like, but first attend my plea.
[chide
= scold]
THESEUS: Say
on, I wait full knowledge ere I judge.
OEDIPUS: O
Theseus, I have suffered wrongs on wrongs.
THESEUS:
Wouldst tell the old misfortune of thy race?
[your family
curse?]
OEDIPUS:
No,
that has grown a byword throughout
THESEUS: What
then can this be beyond mortal grief?
OEDIPUS: My
case stands thus; by my own flesh and
blood
I was expelled from my country, and can never
There return again,
a parricide. [parricide
= murderer of a parent]
THESEUS: Why
fetch thee home if thou must needs obey?
OEDIPUS:
The Oracle has commanded
them to do so.
[them=Oedipus’s sons,+- Creon?]
THESEUS:
What are they
threatened by the oracle?
[What will they
lose if they disobey the oracle?]
OEDIPUS:
Destruction that awaits them in this land.
THESEUS: What
can beget ill blood 'twixt them and me?
OEDIPUS: Dear
son of Aegeus, to the gods alone
[son
of Aegeus = Theseus]
Is given immunity from old age and death;
[eld
= old age]
But nothing else escapes all-ruinous time.
Earth's might decays,
the might of men decays,
Honor grows cold, dishonor flourishes,
There is no constancy
'twixt friend and friend,
Or city and city; be it soon or late,
Sweet turns to bitter, hate once
more to love.
If now 'tis
sunshine between Thebes and thee
[Thebes represented by Eteocles & Polynices; Athens by
Theseus ("thee")]
And not a cloud, Time in his endless course
Gives birth to endless
days and nights, wherein
The merest nothing shall suffice to cut
With serried spears
your bonds of amity.
[serried
= toothed, serrated]
Then shall my slumbering and buried corpse
In its cold grave
drink their warm life-blood up,
If Zeus be Zeus and Phoebus still speak true.
No more:
'tis ill to tear aside the veil
['tis ill = it's wrong]
Of mysteries; let me cease as I began:
Enough if you will
keep thy solemn pledge,
Then you shall never complain that Oedipus
Proved an
unprofitable and thankless guest,
Except the gods themselves shall play me false.
[except
= unless]
CHORUS: The man, my lord, has from the very first
Declared his power to offer to our
land
These and
like benefits.
THESEUS: Who
could reject
The proffered amity of such a friend?
[proffered
= offered, extended]
First, he can claim the hospitality
To which by mutual contract we stand
pledged:
Next,
coming here, a petitioner to the gods,
He pays full tribute to the State and
me;
His favors
therefore never will I spurn,
But grant him the full rights of citizen;
And, if it suits the
stranger here to stay, [stranger
= Oedipus]
I place him in your charge, or if he please
[your
= chorus of elders']
Rather to come with
me —choose, Oedipus,
Which of the two thou wilt. Thy choice is mine.
OEDIPUS:
Zeus, may thy blessing fall on men like these!
THESEUS: What
dost thou then decide —to come with me?
OEDIPUS: Yea,
were it lawful—but 'tis rather here—
THESEUS: What
do you want here? I shall not thwart thy wish.
[thwart = oppose]
OEDIPUS: Here
shall I vanquish those who cast me forth.
THESEUS: Then
were thy presence here a boon indeed.
[boon
= blessing]
OEDIPUS: Such
shall it prove, if you fulfill your pledge.
THESEUS: Fear
not for me; I shall not play thee false.
OEDIPUS: No
need to back thy promise with an oath.
THESEUS: An
oath would be no surer than my word.
OEDIPUS: How
will you act then?
THESEUS: What is it thou fearest?
OEDIPUS:
My
enemies will come—
THESEUS: Our
friends will look to that.
THESEUS:
Teach me not my duty.
OEDIPUS:
'Tis fear constrains me.
[constrains = forces, compels]
THESEUS: My
soul knows no fear!
OEDIPUS: You
know not what threats—
THESEUS: I
know that none
Shall drag you away against my wishes. Such threats
Vented in anger oft, are blusters,
An idle breath, forgot when sense
returns.
And
for thy foemen, though their words were brave,
[foemen
= enemies]
Boasting to bring thee back, they are like to find
The seas between us
wide and hard to sail.
Such is my firm purpose, but in any case
Take heart, since
Phoebus sent thee here. My name,
[Phoebus
= Apollo (thru oracle)]
Though I be distant, protects thee from harm.
CHORUS:
strophe 1 [Chorus moves left to right]
Thou hast come to a steed-famed land
for rest,
[Athens
famous for its horses]
O stranger worn with toil,
To a land of all lands the goodliest
Colonus's
glistening soil.
'Tis the haunt of the clear-voiced nightingale,
Who hid in her bower,
among
The
wine-dark ivy that wreathes the vale,
Trilleth her ceaseless song;
[trilleth
= warbles, sings]
And she loves, where the clustering berries nod
O'er a sunless,
windless glade,
The spot by no mortal footstep trod,
The pleasance kept for the Bacchic
god,
[pleasance
= pleasant place; Bacchic god =
Where he holds each night his
revels wild
[Dionysus, god of wine & revelry]
With the nymphs who fostered the lusty child.
[fostered
= cared for; lusty
child = Dionysus]
antistrophe
1
[Chorus moves right
to left]
And
fed each morn by the pearly dew
The starred narcissi shine,
[starred
narcissi = sweet white flowers]
And a wreath with the crocus's golden hue
For the Mother and
Daughter twine.
[Mother & Daughter = goddesses]
And never the sleepless fountains cease
That feed Cephisus's
stream,
[Cephisus
= river in
But they swell earth's bosom with quick increase,
And their wave hath a
crystal gleam.
And the Muses' quire will never disdain
[Muses
= goddesses of the arts; quire = choir]
To visit this heaven-favored plain,
Nor the Cyprian queen of the golden
rein. [Cyprian
queen = Aphrodite, Venus, goddess of love]
strophe
2 [Chorus moves left to right]
And here there grows, unpruned, untamed,
Terror to
enemy's spear,
A tree in Asian soil unnamed,
By Pelops' Dorian isle unclaimed,
[Pelops=god of Pelopponesus region; Dorian= tribe of Greece]
Self-nurtured year
by year;
'Tis
the grey-leaved olive that feeds our boys;
Nor youth nor withering age destroys
The plant that
the Olive Planter tends
[Olive
Planter = Zeus]
And the Grey-eyed Goddess herself defends.
[Grey-eyed
Goddess = Athena]
antistrophe
2
[Chorus moves right
to left]
Yet
another gift, of all gifts the most
Prized by our fatherland, we boast —
The might of
the horse, the might of the sea;
Our fame, Poseidon, we owe to thee,
Son of Kronos, our king divine,
[Kronos=primeval god, father of sea-god
Poseidon, a Titan]
Who in these highways
first didst fit
For the mouth of horses the iron bit;
Thou too hast taught
us to fashion meet
For the arm of the rower the oar-blade fleet,
[oar-blade fleet = sea galleys]
Swift as the Nereids' hundred feet
[Nereids
= sea nymphs]
As they dance along the brine.
[SCENE 6]
ANTIGONE:
Oh land extolled above all lands,
'tis now
For
thee to make these glorious titles good.
[Antigone sees Creon offstage]
OEDIPUS: Why
this appeal, my daughter?
ANTIGONE:
Father, lo! Creon approaches with his company.
OEDIPUS:
Fear not, it shall be so; if we are old,
This country's vigor has no touch of
age.
CREON:
Citizens, noble friends, ye take alarm
At my approach (I read it in your eyes),
Fear nothing and
refrain from angry words.
I come with no ill purpose; I am old,
And know the city
to which I have come,
Without a peer amongst the powers of Greece.
It was by
reason of my years that I
Was chosen to persuade your guest and bring
[your guest = Oedipus]
Him back to Thebes; not the delegate
Of one man, but commissioned by the
State,
Since
of all Thebans I have most bewailed,
Being his kinsman, his most grievous
woes. [Creon claims to have been
on Oedipus's side all along]
O listen to
me, luckless Oedipus,
Come home! The whole Cadmeian people claim
[Cadmeian
= Theban]
With right to have thee back, I most of all,
For most of all (else
were I vile indeed)
I mourn for thy misfortunes, seeing thee
An aged outcast,
wandering on and on,
A beggar with one handmaid for thy support.
Ah! who ever
imagined she could fall
[she
= Antigone]
To such a depth of misery as this,
To tend in penury thy stricken
frame,
[penury
= poverty]
A virgin ripe for wedlock, but unwed,
A prey for any wanton
ravisher?
[ravisher
= sexual predator]
Does it seem
cruel, this reproach I cast
On thee and on myself and all the race?
Aye, but an open
shame cannot be hid.
[shame/honor]
Hide it, O hide it, Oedipus, thou canst.
O, by our fathers'
gods, consent I pray;
Come back to Thebes, come to thy father's home,
Bid Athens, as is
meet, a fond farewell;
Thebes thy old foster-mother claims thee first.
OEDIPUS: O
front of brass, thy subtle tongue would
twist
[front of brass=hypocritical
face]
To thy advantage every plea of
right.
Why try
thy arts on me, why spread again
[arts = rhetoric]
Traps where it would wound me worst to be snared?
[toils = traps; gall = wound]
In old days
when by self-wrought woes distraught,
[by
self-wrought woes distraught = by
self-inflicted problems distracted]
I yearned for
exile as a glad release,
[Oedipus
the King ended with Oedipus being
taken back into palace]
Thy will refused the favor then I craved.
But when my frenzied
grief had spent its force,
And I was fain to taste the sweets of home,
[fain
to = inclined to]
Then you would thrust me from my country, then
These ties of kindred
were by thee ignored;
And now again when you behold this State
And all its kindly
people welcome me,
You seek to part us, wrapping in soft words
Hard thoughts.
And yet what pleasure can you
find
In forcing friendship on unwilling foes?
Suppose a man refused
to grant some boon
When you importuned him, and afterwards
[importune = press urgently]
When you had got your heart's desire, consented,
Granting a grace from
which all grace had fled,
Would not such favor seem an empty boon?
[a
late favor seems like no favor]
Yet such the
boon you proffer now to me,
[boon
= gift; proffer = offer, extend]
Fair in appearance, but when tested false.
Yea, I will prove
thee false, that these may hear;
[these
= Chorus]
You have come to take me, not to take me home,
But plant me on thy
borders, that thy State
May so escape disturbance from this land.
[
That you shall never attain, but this instead—
My ghost to haunt
your country without end;
And for my sons, this heritage—no more—
Just room to die in.
Have not I more skill
Than you to see
the future of
Are not my teachers surer guides than thine—
Great Phoebus and the sire of Phoebus, Zeus?
You are a corrupt messenger, thy tongue
[suborned
= corrupted]
Is sharper than a sword's edge, yet thy speech
Will bring thee more
defeats than victories.
However, I know I waste my words—begone,
And leave me here;
whatever may be my lot,
He lives not ill who lives withal content. [not
ill = not badly; withal content = resigned to fate]
CREON: Who
loses in this parley, I overthrown
[parley
= exchange]
By you, or you who overthrow yourself?
OEDIPUS: I
shall be well contented if thy suit
[suit
= petition, request]
Fails with these strangers, as it has with me.
CREON:
Unhappy man, will years never make thee
wise?
Must you live on to cast a slur on age?
OEDIPUS: You
have a glib tongue, but no honest man,
[glib
= smooth, facile]
Methinks, can argue well on every side.
CREON: It’s
one thing to speak much, another to speak well.
OEDIPUS: Thy
words, in truth, are few and all well aimed!
CREON: Not
for a man indeed with wits like thine.
OEDIPUS:
Depart! I bid thee in these citizens’ name,
And prowl no longer round me to blockade
My destined harbor.
CREON: I
protest to these,
[these
= chorus of citizens]
Not thee, and for thine answer to thy kin,
If ever I take thee—
[take thee = get my
hands on you]
OEDIPUS: Who
against their will could take me?
CREON:
Though untaken you shall feel pain.
OEDIPUS:
What power do you have to execute this threat?
CREON:
One
of thy daughters is already seized,
The other I will carry off
soon.
CREON: This
is but prelude to thy woes.
[a
foretaste of your pain]
OEDIPUS:
Have you my child?
[Ismene]
CREON: And
soon shall have the other.
[Antigone]
OEDIPUS: Ho,
friends! surely ye will not play me
false?
[friends
= Chorus]
Chase this ungodly villain from your land.
CHORUS:
Hence, stranger, hence get out! Thou doest
wrong
In this, and wrong in all that thou hast done.
CREON (to his guards)
:
If she refuses of her
free will to go.
ANTIGONE:
Ah, woe is me! where shall I fly, where
find
Succor from gods or men?
[succor
= relief]
CHORUS: What
do you intend, stranger?
[stranger
= Creon]
CREON: I
meddle not with him, but her who is mine.
OEDIPUS: O
princes of the land!
CREON:
I
take but what is mine.
CHORUS:
What means this, sir? unhand her immediately,
or
We must fight.
CHORUS: Not till you forbear.
[forbear
= desist, back off]
CREON:
It’s
war with
CHORUS: Quick, unhand the maid!
CREON:
Command
your minions; I am not your slave.
[minions
= troops]
CREON (to the guard) : I command you to march!
CHORUS: To
the rescue, one and all!
Rally, neighbors to my call!
See, the foe is at the gate!
Rally to defend the
State.
ANTIGONE:
Ah, woe is me, they drag me hence, O friends.
[hence
= away]
OEDIPUS:
Where are you, daughter?
ANTIGONE:
Pulled along by force.
ANTIGONE:
They will not let me, father.
OEDIPUS: Ah,
woe is me, ah woe!
CREON: So
those two crutches shall no longer serve
you
[crutches=Oedipus’s
daughters]
For further roaming. Since it
pleases you
To
triumph over thy country and thy friends
Whose mandate, though a prince, I here
discharge,
[mandate
= popular will]
Enjoy your triumph; sooner or later you’ll find
You are an enemy to
yourself, both now
And in time past, when in despite of friends
You gave
yourself to
passion, still thy curse.
CHORUS: Hold there, sir
stranger!
CREON: Hands
off, take it easy.
CHORUS: Restore the maidens, or
else you may not leave.
CREON:
Then
I will lay hands on
more than these two maids.
CHORUS: What canst thou
further?
CREON: And
deeds forthwith shall make them good.
CHORUS: Unless perchance our
sovereign intervene. [our
sovereign = Theseus]
OEDIPUS: O
shameless voice! Dare you lay a hand on me?
OEDIPUS:
Goddesses, allow
[Goddesses
= Furies of the sacred grove]
Thy suppliant to utter yet one curse!
[suppliant = petitioner]
Wretch, now my eyes are gone thou hast torn away
The helpless maiden
who was eyes to me;
For these to thee and all thy cursed race
May the great Sun,
whose eye is everywhere,
Grant length of days and old age like to mine.
[curse predicts Creon’s fate in
Antigone]
CREON:
Listen, O men of
OEDIPUS:
They hear us both and understand that I,
Wronged by your deeds, defend myself
with words.
CREON:
Nothing shall curb my will; though I be
old
And single-handed, I will have this man.
CHORUS: Thou art a bold man,
stranger, if thou think'st
To execute thy purpose.
CHORUS:
Then
shall
CREON: With
a just quarrel weakness conquers might.
OEDIPUS: Do
you hear his words?
CHORUS: Aye words, but not yet
deeds,
Zeus
knoweth!
CREON:
Zeus
may chance to know, not thou.
CREON:
Insolence you must bear.
[SCENE 7]
CHORUS:
Haste ye princes, sound the alarm!
Men of
Quickly to the rescue come
Ere the robbers get them home.
THESEUS: Why
this outcry? What is happening? Why was I called
away
[wherefore? = why?]
From the altar of Poseidon, lord of your Colonus?
Say!
On what errand have I hurried here
without stop or delay?
OEDIPUS:
Dear friend—your accents tell me who you
are—
That man has just now done me a foul wrong.
THESEUS:
What is this wrong and who hath wrought it? Speak.
OEDIPUS:
Creon, who stands before thee. He it is
Who robbed me of my all, my two daughters.
OEDIPUS: You
have heard my tale of wrongs.
THESEUS: Ho!
hasten to the altars, one of you.
Command my soldiers to leave the sacrifice
[sacrifice: i.e., at nearby altar of Poseidon]
And hurry, foot and horse, with rein unchecked,
[foot & horse = infantry & cavalry]
To where the paths
that porters use diverge,
[porters =
cargo-carriers]
Lest the two maidens slip away, and I
Become a mockery to
this my guest,
As one deprived by force.
Quick, as I bid.
As for this stranger, had I let my rage,
[this stranger = Creon]
Justly
provoked, have play, he would not escape
Unharmed and uncorrected at my hands.
But now the
laws to which himself appealed,
[himself
= Creon]
These and none others shall apply.
[these
= laws]
Thou shalt not quit this land, till thou hast fetched
[thou
= Creon]
The maidens and produced them in my
sight.
Thou hast
offended both against myself
[Thou = Creon]
And thine own race and country. Having come
Unto a State that
champions right and asks
[a
State that champions right = Athens]
For every action warranty of law,
Thou hast set aside the custom of
the land,
And
like some freebooter you carry off
[freebooter
= pirate]
What plunder pleases thee, as if forsooth
You thought this a
city without men,
Or manned by slaves, and their king a nobody.
But you didn’t learn this villainy from Thebes;
Thebes is not wont to breed unrighteous
sons,
Nor
would she praise you, if she learned that you
Were robbing me—aye, and the gods to
boot,
Taking
by force their suppliants, poor maids.
[suppliants = Antigone & Ismene as persons seeking
protection]
Were I on
Theban soil*, to prosecute
The justest claim imaginable, I
Would never wrest by violence my own
Without
sanction of your State or King;
I should behave as fits an outsider
Living amongst a foreign folk, but you
Shame a city that
deserves it not,
[shame/honor]
Even your own, and plentitude of years
[plentitude
= plenitude, fullness]
Have made of you an
old man and a fool.
[*Instructor's note:
Theseus rebukes Creon by saying that if Theseus were visiting Creon's Theban
territories, he would never take military action without consulting with the
leaders of Thebes. Beginning at line 982 below, Creon tries to turn the argument
by saying he couldn't imagine that Theseus would object to actions taken against
a moral outcast like Oedipus.]
Therefore
again I charge you as before,
See that the maidens are restored at once,
Unless you would
continue here by force
And not by choice a sojourner; so much
[sojourner
= a visitor who may leave at will]
I tell you straight, and what I say I mean.
CHORUS: Thy case is perilous;
though by birth and
race
Thou should be just,
plainly thou doest wrong.
CREON: Not
deeming this city void of men
Or counsel, son of Aegeus, as you say
[son of Aegeus =
Theseus]
I did what I have done; rather I thought
Your people were not
like to set such store
by kin of
mine and keep them against my
will.
Nor would
they harbor, so I stood assured,
A godless parricide, a reprobate
[parricide
= parent-murderer; reprobate = troublemaker—i.e.,
Oedipus]
Convicted of incestuous marriage ties.
For on her native
hill of Ares here
[hill
of Ares=Mars Hill, where Paul later preached;
Acts 17.16-34]
(I knew your far-famed
Areopagus)
[Areopagus = chief
homicide court of Athens; setting of conclusion of The Eumenides]
Sits Justice, and permits not vagrant folk
To stay within your
borders.
In that faith
I hunted down my quarry; and even then
I had refrained but for the
curses dire
With which he scourged my kinsfolk and myself:
[he = Oedipus]
Such wrong,
methought, justified my act.
Anger has no
old age but only death;
The dead alone can feel no touch of spite.
So thou must work thy
will; my cause is just
But weak without allies; yet will I try,
Old as I am, to
answer deeds with deeds.
OEDIPUS:
O
shameless big-mouth, do you think this abuse
Defames my grey hairs—rather than your
own?
Murder
and incest, deeds of horror, all
You blurt forth against me, all I have borne,
No willing sinner; so
it pleased the gods,
Since you
could find no sin in me myself
For which in retribution I was doomed
To trespass thus
against myself and mine.
Answer me
now, if by some oracle
My sire was destined to a bloody end
By a son's hand, can this reflect on
me,
Me then
unborn, begotten by no sire,
Conceived in no mother's womb?
And if
When born to misery, as born I was,
I met my sire, not knowing whom I
met or what I did,
and slew
him,
how can you
With justice blame my
all-unconscious hand?
And for my
mother, wretch, be ashamed,
As she was your sister, to extort
[true
to tragedy's moral complexity, Oedipus here shares guilt with Creon]
From me the story of her marriage,
such
A
marriage as I straightway will proclaim.
For I will speak. Thy lewd and impious
speech
Has
broken all the bonds of reticence.
She was, ah
woe is me! she was my mother;
I knew it not, nor she; and she my mother
Bare children to the
son whom she had borne,
A birth of shame. But this at least I know:
[shame/honor]
Knowingly you vilify
her and me;
But I unknowingly wed, and unwilling speak.
Nay, neither
in this marriage or this deed
That you are ever throwing in my face—
A murdered father—shall I be held to blame.
Come, answer me one
question, if thou canst:
If one should presently attempt to kill you,
Would you, O man of
justice, first inquire
If the assassin was by chance thy father,
Or turn on him? If
you love your life,
On your aggressor you would turn, nor stand
Debating if the law
would justify.
Such was my
case, and such the pass whereto
[pass
= situation]
The gods reduced me; and I think my father,
Could he come back to
life, would not dissent.
But you who are not just, but a man
Who stops at nothing if it serve
your case,
Reproach me with this before these men.
It serves
your purpose to praise great Theseus's name,
And Athens as a wisely governed State;
Yet in thy
flatteries one thing is missing:
If any land knows how to pay the gods
Their proper rites,
it is
This is the land where you wanted to steal
Their aged suppliant and carried off
My daughters.
Therefore to yon goddesses,
[yon goddesses
= the Furies]
I turn, adjure them and invoke their aid
[adjure
= entreat]
To champion my cause, that you may learn
What is the breed of
men who guard this State.
CHORUS:
An honest man, my liege, one sorely tested
[man
= Oedipus; liege
= lord; i.e., Theseus]
By fortune, and so worthy our support.
THESEUS:
Enough of words; the captors journey amain, [captors;
i.e. of Antigone & Ismene; amain
= at full speed]
While we the victims stand debating here.
CREON: What
do you want? What can I ever do?
THESEUS:
Show us the trail, and I'll attend thee
too,
That, if thou hast the maidens hereabouts,
Thou mayest thyself
discover them to me;
But if thy guards outrun us with their captives,
We may slow down; for others speed, from whom
They will not escape to thank the gods at home.
[they
= captors]
Lead on, I
say, the captor's caught, and fate
Hath taken the hunter in the traps he set;
So soon lost are gains gotten by deceit.
And look not for
allies; I know indeed
Such height of insolence was never reached
Without abettors or
accomplices;
Thou hast some backer in thy bold attempt,
But I will search this matter home and see
One man doth not
prevail against the State.
[i.e., Greece as democracy governed by laws]
Dost take my drift, or seem these words as vain
As seemed our
warnings when the plot was hatched?
CREON:
Nothing thou sayest can I here dispute,
But once at home I too shall act my
part.
THESEUS:
Threaten us and—begone! Thou, Oedipus,
Stay here assured that nothing save my
death
Will
deter my purpose to restore the maids.
OEDIPUS:
Heaven bless thee, Theseus, for thy nobleness
And all thy loving care in my behalf.
[Exeunt Theseus
and
Creon]
CHORUS:
strophe 1 [Chorus moves left to right]
O when the flying foe,
Turning at last to
bay,
Will soon
give blow for blow,
I would like to see that fight;
[sorry, no spectacle,
please]
To hear the roar of battle
Swell on the
Pythian shore
[Pythian
= at Delphi]
Or by the torch-lit bay,
Where the dread Queen and Maid*
Cherish the mystic rites*,
[rites
= Eleusinian Mysteries]
Rites they to none betray,
[they = Queen and Maid, leaders of
Eleusinian Mysteries]
Ere on his lips is laid
[ere
= before; his = the initiate’s]
Secrecy's golden key
By their own acolytes,
[acolytes
= assistants]
Priestly Eumolpidae.
[Eumolpidae
= family of priests for
Eleusinian Mysteries]
[*Queen
and Maid, leaders of Eleusinian Mysteries, rituals preparing initiates
for afterlife]
There I might chance behold
Theseus, our captain
bold,
Confront
the robber band,
Ere they have fled the land,
Rescue by might and main
[might & main = greatest possible strength]
Maidens, the captives
twain.
antistrophe
1
[Chorus moves right
to left]
Perhaps on swiftest steed,
Or in the flying
chariot,
Now they approach the glen . . .
[they=Theseus’s
soldiers; glen = secluded narrow valley]
They will be vanquished:
Fearsome are our warriors,
dangerous
[dread
= fear-inspiring]
Theseus our chieftain's men.
Flashes each bridle bright,
Charges each gallant
knight,
All
that our Queen adore,
Pallas their patron, or
[Pallas
= Athena,
Him whose wide floods enring
Earth, the great Ocean-king
[Ocean-king
= Poseidon]
Whom Rhea bore. [Rhea
= Titan, mother of Poseidon (sired by Cronos)]
strophe 2 [Chorus moves left to right]
Fight they or now prepare
To fight? a vision rare
Tells me that soon again
I shall behold the
twain
[twain
= two]
Maidens so ill bestead,
[bestead
= treated]
By their kin buffeted.
[their
kin = Creon; buffeted
= battered]
Today, today Zeus grants us some great thing
This day shall
victory bring.
O for the wings, the wings of a dove,
To be borne with the
speed of the gale,
[gale = storm-wind]
Up and still upwards to sail
And gaze on the fray from the clouds
above.
[fray = battle]
antistrophe
2
[Chorus moves right
to left]
All-seeing Zeus, O lord of heaven,
To our
guardian host be given
[our
guardian host = Theseus’s troops]
Might triumphant to surprise
Flying foes and win their prize.
Hear us, Zeus, and
hear us, child
Of Zeus, Athena undefiled,
Hear, Apollo, hunter, hear,
Huntress, sister of
Apollo,
[huntress
sister = Artemis]
Who the dappled swift-foot deer
Through the wooded glade dost follow;
Help with your
two-fold power
O wayfarer, thou wilt not have to tax
The friends who watch
for thee with false presage,
[presage
= vision]
For lo, an escort with the maids draws near.
Enter Antigone and Ismene with Theseus
OEDIPUS:
Where, where? what are you telling me?
ANTIGONE: O
father, father,
Would that some god might grant thee eyes to see
This best of men who
brings us back again.
OEDIPUS: My
child! and are ye back indeed!
ANTIGONE:
Yes, saved By Theseus and his gallant followers.
OEDIPUS:
Come to your father's arms, O let me feel
A child's embrace I never hoped for
more.
ANTIGONE:
Thou askest what is doubly sweet to give.
ANTIGONE: We
come together both.
OEDIPUS: My
precious nurslings!
ANTIGONE: Fathers are always silly.
ANTIGONE: So
sorrow sorrow props.
[misery loves
company]
OEDIPUS: I
have my darlings, and if death should
come,
Death were not wholly bitter with you near.
Cling to me, press me
close on either side,
There rest ye from your dreary wayfaring.
Now tell me of your
adventures, but in brief;
Brief speech suffices for young maids like you.
ANTIGONE:
Here is our savior; you should hear the
tale [our savior =
Theseus; compare romance protagonist;
e.g. knight, superhero]
From his own lips; so shall my part be brief.
OEDIPUS:
I pray thee do
not wonder if the sight [wonder =
marvel]
Of
children, given up for lost, has made
My speech somewhat long and tedious.
Full well I know the joy I have of them
You were their
sole deliverer, none else.
The
gods deal with you after my desire,
With you and with this land! for fear of heaven
[this land: Oedipus implies further blessings on Athens]
I found above all peoples most with you,
And righteousness and lips that cannot lie.
I speak in gratitude of what I know,
For all I have I owe to thee alone.
Give me your hand, O Prince, that I may touch it,
[Prince = Theseus]
And if thou wilt permit me, kiss your cheek.
What say I? Can I wish that you should touch
One fallen like me to utter wretchedness,
Corrupt and tainted with a thousand ills?
Oh no, I would not let you if you would.
Only those who have known calamity
Can share it.
Let me greet you where you are,
And still befriend me as thou hast till now.
THESEUS:
I marvel not
if thou hast dallied long
In
converse with thy children and preferred [converse =
conversation]
Their speech to mine; I feel no jealousy,
I would be famous more by deeds than words.
Of this, old friend, thou hast had proof; my oath
I have fulfilled and brought thee back the maids
Alive and nothing harmed for all those threats.
And how the fight was won, it would waste words
To boast—thy daughters here will tell thee all.
But of a matter that has just occurred
On my way back, I would like to have
Thy counsel—trivial it might seem, yet worthy of thought.
A wise man heeds all matters great or small.
OEDIPUS:
What is it,
son of Aegeus? Let
me hear.
Of what you’re asking I
know nothing.
THESEUS:
It is said
a
man, no countryman of thine, [a
man =
Polynices, Oed's son]
But
of thy kin, hath taken sanctuary
Beside the altar of Poseidon, where
I was at sacrifice when called away.
OEDIPUS:
What is his country?
what the suitor's prayer?
THESEUS:
I know but one
thing; he implores, I am told,
A
word with thee—he will not trouble thee.
OEDIPUS:
What does he
seek?
If he is a suppliant, his
need is grave.
[suppliant = grave=serious]
THESEUS:
He only waits,
they say, to speak with thee,
And
then unharmed to go upon his way.
OEDIPUS:
I wonder who this
petitioner can be.
THESEUS:
Think if there
be not any of thy kin
At
OEDIPUS:
Dear friend,
forbear, I pray.
[forbear = hold off]
THESEUS:
What ails thee now?
OEDIPUS:
Ask it not of me.
THESEUS:
Ask
not what? explain.
OEDIPUS:
Thy words have told
me who the suppliant is.
THESEUS:
Who can he be that I
should frown on him?
OEDIPUS:
My son, O
king, my hateful son, whose words
[My son
= Polynices]
Of all men's most would jar upon my ears.
[jar upon =
irritate]
THESEUS:
Surely you
might listen.
If his suit offend,
No need to grant it.
Why so loath to hear him?
[loath = reluctant]
OEDIPUS:
That voice, O
king, grates on a father's ears;
I
have come to hate it.
Force me not to yield.
THESEUS:
But he hath
found asylum.
O beware,
And
fail not in due reverence to the god.
ANTIGONE:
O heed me,
father, though I am young in years.
Let the prince have his will; you should pay
What in his eyes is service to the god;
For our sake also let our brother come.
If what he urges tend not to the good
He surely cannot make you obey him.
To hear him then, what harm?
By open words
A scheme of villainy is soon betrayed.
Thou art his father—you cannot repay
In kind a son's most impious outrages.
O listen to him; other men like thee
Have thankless children and are angry,
But yielding to persuasion's gentle spell
They let their savage mood be exorcised.
Look thou to the past, forget the present, think
On all the woe thy sire and mother brought thee;
There you will draw this lesson without fail:
Of evil passion, evil is the end.
Thou hast, alas, to prick thy memory,
Stern monitors, your ever-sightless eyes.
O yield to us; just suitors should not need [suitors =
claimants, petitioners]
To be importunate, nor he that takes
[importunate =
nagging]
A favor lack the grace to make return.
OEDIPUS:
Grievous to
me, my child, the gift you win
By
pleading.
Let it be, then; have your way
Only if come he must, I beg thee, friend,
Let none have power to dispose of me.
THESEUS:
No need, Sir,
to appeal a second time.
I do not
like to boast, but be assured
Thy
life is safe while any god saves mine.
[Exit
Theseus]
CHORUS: (Strophe)
Who craves excess of days,
Scorning the common span
Of life, I judge that man
A foolish man who walks in folly's ways.
For the long years heap up a grievous load,
Scant pleasures, heavier pains,
Till not one joy remains
For him who lingers on life's weary road
And come it slow or fast,
One doom of fate
Doth all await,
For dance and marriage bell,
The dirge and funeral knell.
Death the deliverer frees all at last.
(Antistrophe)
Not to be born at all
Is best, far best that can befall,
Next best, when born, with least delay
To trace the backward way.
For when youth
passes with its giddy train,
Troubles on troubles follow, toils on toils,
Pain, pain forever pain;
And none escapes life's coils.
[coils = hard turns, painful twists]
Envy, sedition, strife,
Carnage and war, make up the tale of life.
Last comes the worst and most
abhorred stage
Of unregarded age,
Joyless, companionless and slow,
Of woes the crowning woe.
(Epode)
Such ills not I
alone,
He too our guest hath known,
[he = Oedipus]
Just like some headland on an iron-bound shore,
Lashed by the wintry blasts
and surge's roar,
So is he buffeted on every side
By drear misfortune's
whelming tide,
By every wind of heaven overcome
Some from the sunset, some from eastern morn,
Some from the noonday glow.
Some from the northern gloom of everlasting snow.
[Instructor's note: The following scene of Oedipus's repudiation of Polynices might be compared / contrasted to Christ's Parable of the Prodigal Son, Luke 15: 11-32]
ANTIGONE:
Father, methinks
I see the stranger coming, [stranger =
Polynices]
Alone he comes and weeping plenteous tears.
OEDIPUS:
Who may he be?
ANTIGONE:
The
same we surmised.
From the outset—Polynices.
He is here.
[Enter
Polynices]
POLYNICES:
Ah me, my
sisters, shall I first lament
My own afflictions, or my aged sire's,
Whom
here I find a castaway, with you,
In a strange land, an ancient beggar clad
In tattered rags, disfiguring all his frame,
While over his sightless eyes his unkempt hair
Floats in the breeze; and, as it were to match,
He carries a bag of food-scraps against hunger's pinch.
All this too late I
learn, wretch that I am,
Alas!
I own it, and am proved most vile
In my neglect of you: I scorn myself.
But as almighty Zeus in all he doth
Hath Mercy for co-partner of this throne,
[Zeus as god of justice + mercy]
Let Mercy, father, also sit
enthroned
In thy heart likewise.
For transgressions past
May be amended, cannot be made worse.
Why silent? Father, speak. Don’t turn away,
Have you no word? Will you dismiss me then
In mute disdain, nor tell me why you are wroth?
[wroth = angry]
O ye his daughters, sisters mine, will you try
To change his sullen,
obstinate silence?
Let him not spurn, without a single word
Of answer, me
the petitioner of the god.
ANTIGONE:
Tell him
yourself, unhappy one, your purpose;
For large discourse may send a thrill of
joy,
Or stir a chord of wrath or tenderness,
And to the tongue-tied
somehow give a tongue.
POLYNICES:
You counsel me
well, and I will speak out.
First will I call in aid the god himself,
Poseidon, from whose altar I was called,
With warrant from the monarch of
this land, [monarch =
Theseus]
To speak with you, and depart
unharmed.
These pledges,
strangers, I would see observed
By you and by my sisters and my sire.
Now, father, let me
tell you why I came.
I have been banished from my native land
Because by right of primogeniture
[primogeniture =
first-born son inherits all]
I claimed possession of thy sovereign throne
From which Eteocles, my younger
brother,
Ousted me, not by weight of precedent,
Nor by the last
arbitrament of war,
But by his
popular acts; and the prime cause
[popular
= populist; mob-pleasing]
Of this I
deem the curse that rests on thee.
So likewise hold the
soothsayers, for when [soothsayers =
oracles, augurers like Tiresias]
I came to
And took the king Adrastus's child to wife,
Under my standard I enlisted all
The foremost captains of that land,
To levy with their aid that sevenfold host
Of spearmen against
To oust my foes or die in a just cause.
Why then, you ask,
am I here today?
Father, I come a
petitioner to thee
Both for myself and my
allies who now
With seven squadrons beneath their seven spears
Occupy all the plain that circles
[Instructor's
note: In passages omitted here, Polynices names and praises
each of the other six captains]
Last I thy son, or
thine at least in name, [Last =
i.e., last of the Seven Against Thebes]
If but the bastard of an evil fate,
Lead against
Thus by thy children
and thy life, my sire,
We all implore thee to remit thy wrath
[remit = give up]
And
favor one who seeks a just revenge
Against a brother who has banned and
robbed him.
For victory, if
oracles speak true,
Will fall to those who have you for their ally.
So, by
our fountains and familiar gods
I pray thee, yield and hear; a beggar I
And exile, thou an exile likewise; both
Involved in one misfortune find a
home
As pensioners, while he, the lord of
O agony! makes a mock of thee and me.
I'll scatter with a breath the upstart's might,
[upstart = Eteocles]
And bring thee home again and establish thee, [establish thee = put
Oedipus on throne]
And establish, having cast him out, myself.
[him = Eteocles]
This with thy goodwill I will undertake,
Without it I can scarce return
alive.
CHORUS:
For the king's sake
who sent him, Oedipus, [king =
Theseus]
Dismiss him not without an appropriate reply.
OEDIPUS:
Nay, worthy elders,
except for Theseus's sake
Who sent him here to have word with me.
Never
again would he have heard my voice;
But now he shall obtain this parting
grace, [irony]
An answer that will bring him little joy.
[him = Polynices]
O villain, when you had the sovereignty
[villain =
Polynices]
That now your brother holds in thy stead,
Did you not drive me, your own
father, out,
An exile, cityless, and make we wear
This beggar's garb you
now weep to behold,
Now you are come to pity my sad plight?
Nothing is here for
tears; it must be borne
By
me till death, and I
shall think of you
As of my murderer; you did thrust me out;
It was you who made me conversant
with woe,
Through you I beg my bread in a strange land;
And had not these
my daughters tended me
I had been dead for aught of aid from thee.
They tend me, they
preserve me, they are men
Not women in true service to their father;
But
you are bastards, no sons of mine.
Therefore the justice of Heaven watches
thee;
Though not yet with aspect so severe
As you shall soon experience,
if indeed
These banded hosts are moving against
That city you can
never storm, but first
You and your brother shall fall, blood-imbrued.
[imbrued = stained] [Oedipus's curse is
mentioned and fulfilled in Seven Against Thebes,
720ff.]
Such curse I lately launched against you twain,
Such curse I now invoke to
fight for me,
That you might learn to honor those who bear thee
Nor flout
a sightless father who begat
Degenerate sons—these maidens did not so.
Therefore my curse
is stronger than thy "throne,"
Thy "suppliance," if by right of laws eternal
[justice over mercy]
Primeval Justice sits enthroned with Zeus.
Begone, abhorred, disowned, no son
of mine,
Thou vilest of the vile! and take with thee
This curse I leave
thee as my last bequest:—
Never to win by arms thy native land,
No, nor return to
But by a kinsman's hand to die and slay
Him who expelled thee.
So I pray and call
On the ancestral gloom of
Tartarus
[Tartarus = Hell]
To snatch thee hence, on these dread goddesses [dread goddesses =
Furies]
I call, and Ares who incensed you both
[Ares = god of war;
cf. Mars]
To mortal enmity.
Go now proclaim
What thou hast heard to the
Cadmeians all,
[Cadmeians =
Thebans]
Thy staunch confederates—this the heritage
that Oedipus divideth to his sons.
Oedipus's cursing of Polynices
(For style-comparison of these two paintings, see Expressionism)
 |
 |
| Oedipus (with Ismene
and Antigone) condemns Polynices by Andre-Marcel Baschet, 1883 |
Oedipus Cursing
his Son, Polynices By Henry Fuseli, 1741-1825 |
CHORUS:
Thy mission,
Polynices, failed to impress us
From the start; now leave us with haste.
Polynices:
Woe worth
my journey and my baffled hopes!
Woe worth my comrades!
What a desperate end
To that glad march from
I dare not whisper this curse to my allies
Or turn them back, but mute must meet my doom.
My sisters, his daughters, you have heard
The prayers of our stern father. If his curse
Should come to pass and someday you return
To
But grant me burial
and due funeral rites*.
So shall
the praise your filial care now wins
[filial care
= daughter Antigone's care for father Oedipus]
Be doubled for the service wrought for me.
[*Polynices’s request previews
Antigone,
the play whose action concludes Sophocles’s Theban Trilogy.]
ANTIGONE:
One boon, O
Polynices, let me crave.
Polynices:
What is it, dear
Antigone? Do speak.
ANTIGONE:
Turn back
thy host to
And ruin not thyself and Thebes as well.
Polynices:
That
cannot be.
How could I lead again
An army that had seen their leader quail?
ANTIGONE:
But,
brother, why should you be wish to fight again?
What profit comes from thy country's ruin?
Polynices:
To live in
exile is shameful, and shalI
[shame/honor]
an
elder brother bear a younger brother's insults?
ANTIGONE:
Will you
then bring to pass his prophecies
Who threatens mutual slaughter to you both?
Polynices:
Aye, so he
wishes:—but I cannot yield.
ANTIGONE:
O woe is
me! but wait. Will any who
Hear
his prophecy dare to follow thee?
Polynices:
I shall
not tell it; a good general
Reports successes and conceals mishaps.
ANTIGONE:
Misguided youth,
your purpose then stands fast!
Polynices:
'Tis so.
Don’t stop me. The road I choose,
Haunted by my father and his avenging spirit,
Leads me to ruin; but for you may Zeus
Make your path bright if ye fulfill my request
When dead; in life ye cannot serve me more.
Now let me go, farewell, a long farewell!
You shall never see my living face again.
ANTIGONE:
Ah me!
Polynices:
Bewail me not.
ANTIGONE:
Who would
not mourn
Thee, brother, hurrying
to an open pit!
Polynices:
If I must die, I
must.
ANTIGONE:
Nay, hear me
plead.
Polynices:
It may not
be; forbear.
[forbear = keep silence]
ANTIGONE:
Then woe
is me,
If I must lose thee.
Polynices:
Nay, that
rests with fate,
[irony: Polynices
blames fate even after explaining his own choice]
Whether I live or
die; but for you both
I pray to
heaven you may escape all ill;
For
you are blameless in the eyes of all.
[Exit
Polynices]
CHORUS:
(Strophe 1)
Ills on ills! no pause or rest!
Come they from our sightless guest?
Or may we now see fulfilled
What fate long time hath willed?
For never proves vain
What the heavenly powers ordain.
Time with never-sleeping eye
Watches what is writ on high,
Overthrowing now the great,
Raising now from low estate.
Hark! How the thunder rumbles! Zeus defend us!
[thunder =
sublime +
spectacle]
OEDIPUS:
Children, my
children! will no messenger
Go
summon here Theseus my best friend?
ANTIGONE:
And wherefore,
father, dost thou summon him?
OEDIPUS:
This winged
thunder of the god must bear me
Soon to Hades.
Send and delay not.
[Hades = underworld of dead]
CHORUS:
(Antistrophe 1)
Hark! with louder, nearer roar
The bolt of Zeus descends once more.
[Zeus =
god of lightning and thunder]
My spirit quails and cowers: my hair
Bristles for fear.
Again that flare!
[spectacle?]
What doth the lightning-flash portend?
Ever it points to issues grave.
Dread powers of air!
Save, Zeus, O save!
OEDIPUS:
Daughters, for
me the predestined end
Has come;
no turning from it any more.
ANTIGONE:
How
knowest thou?
What sign convinces thee?
OEDIPUS:
I know full
well.
Let some one with all speed
Go summon hither the Athenian prince.
[prince = Theseus]
CHORUS:
(Strophe 2)
Ha! once more the deafening sound
Peals yet louder all around [peals =
bursts of thunder]
If thou darken our land,
Lightly, lightly lay thy hand;
Grace, not anger, let me win,
If upon a man of sin
I have looked with pitying eye,
Zeus, our king, to thee we cry!
OEDIPUS:
Is the prince
coming?
Will he when he comes
[prince = Theseus]
Find me yet living and my senses clear!
ANTIGONE:
What solemn duty
would you impress on him?
OEDIPUS:
For all his
benefits I would perform
The
promise made when I received them first.
CHORUS:
(Antistrophe
2)
Hither haste, my son, arise,
[my son = Theseus]
Altar leave and sacrifice,
If to Poseidon now
In the far glade thou payest thy vow.
For our guest to thee would bring
And thy folk and offering,
Thy due reward. Hurry, O King!
[Enter
Theseus]
THESEUS:
Why all this
noise
again? At once
[din = clamor,
noise]
My people call me and the stranger calls.
Is it a thunderbolt of Zeus or sleet
Of arrowy hail? a storm so fierce as this
[storm = sublime +
spectacle]
Would warrant all suspicions of misfortune.
OEDIPUS:
You arrive
much wished for, Prince, and sure some god
Hath bid good luck attend thee on thy way.
THESEUS:
What, son of
Laius, hath chanced of new?
OEDIPUS:
Our fate hangs
in the balance. I would do all
I
promised thee and thine before I die.
THESEUS:
What sign assures
thee that thine end is near?
OEDIPUS:
The gods
themselves are heralds of my fate;
Of their appointed warnings nothing fails.
THESEUS:
How sayest thou they
signify their will?
OEDIPUS:
This thunder,
peal on peal, this lightning hurled
Flash upon flash, from the unconquered hand.
[unconquered =
almighty]
THESEUS:
I must believe
thee, having found thee oft
A
prophet true; then speak what must be done.
OEDIPUS:
O son of
Aegeus, for this state will I
[son of Aegeus=Theseus; this state=Attica,
region around Athens]
Bequeath a treasure age cannot corrupt.
[transcendence >
romance?]
I myself without a guiding hand
Will take thee soon to the place where I must end.
This secret never reveal to mortal man,
Neither the spot nor whereabouts it lies,
So shall it ever serve thee for defense
Better than native shields and strong allies.
But those dread mysteries speech may not profane
[sublime
as what cannot be defined or expressed?]
You must gather by accompanying me alone;
Since not to any of thy subjects, nor
To my own children, though I love them dearly,
Can I reveal what you must guard yourself,
And whisper to thy chosen heir alone,
So to be handed down from king to king.
Thus shall you hold this land inviolate
From the dread Dragon's brood. The justest State
[Dragon’s brood =
Thebans]
By countless wanton neighbors may be wronged,
For the gods, though they tarry, mark for doom
The godless sinner in his mad career.
Far from thee, son of Aegeus, be such fate!
But to the spot—the god within me impels—
Let us set forth; no longer hesitate.
Follow me, daughters, this way. Strange that I
Whom you have led so long should lead you now.
Oh, touch me not, but let me all alone
[Jn 20.17 Christ to
Mary Magdalene: “Noli me tangere”]
To find the sepulcher that destiny
[sepulcher = tomb]
Appoints me in this land.
Here, this way,
For this way Hermes leads, the spirit guide,
[Hermes = messenger
god]
And Persephassa, empress of the dead.
[Persephassa =
Persephone as queen of underworld]
O light, no light to me, but mine a while,
Now the last time I feel thee palpable,
For I am drawing near the final gloom
Of Hades.
Blessing on thee, dearest friend,
On thee and on thy land and followers!
Live prosperous and in your happy state
Still for your welfare think on me, the dead.
[Exit
Oedipus and Theseus followed by Antigone and Ismene ]
CHORUS:
(Strophe)
If mortal prayers are heard in hell, [hell =
Hades,Greek underworld of dead]
Hear, Goddess dread, invisible!
Monarch of the regions drear,
Aidoneus, hear, O hear!
[Aidoneus = the god
Hades]
By a gentle, tearless doom [doom =
destiny]
Speed this stranger to the gloom,
Let him enter without pain
The all-shrouding Stygian plain.
[Stygian < River
Styx of underworld]
Wrongfully in life oppressed,
Be he now by Justice blessed.
(Antistrophe)
Queen infernal, and thou fell
[fell = fearful]
Watch-dog of the gates of hell,
[watch-dog=Cerberus, 3-headed dog
guarding entrance to Hades]
Who, as legends tell, dost glare,
Snarling in thy cavernous lair
At all comers, let him go [him =
Oedipus]
Unharmed to the fields below.
For thy master orders thus,
The son of earth and Tartarus;
[Death was the son
of Tartarus and Gaia]
In his den the monster keep,
Giver of eternal sleep.
[Enter
Messenger]
MESSENGER:
Friends, countrymen, my message is in sum
That Oedipus is gone, but the event
Was not so brief, nor can the tale be brief.
CHORUS:
What, has he
gone, the unhappy man?
MESSENGER:
Know well / That he has passed away from life to death.
CHORUS:
How?
By a god-sent, painless doom, poor soul?
MESSENGER:
Thy question touches the wonder of the tale.
How he moved hence, you saw him and must know; [moved
hence = walked away from here]
Without a friend to lead the way, himself
Guiding us all.
So having reached the abrupt
Earth-rooted Threshold with its brazen stairs,
[threshold: into the sacred grove; brazen = brass]
He paused at one of the converging paths,
Hard by the rocky basin which records
The pact of Theseus and Peirithous.
[hero partners in
many adventures]
Between that rift and the Thorician rock,
[Thorician < Thoricus, Attican city of
silver and lead mines?]
The hollow pear-tree and the marble tomb,
Midway he sat and loosed his beggar's robe; ["loosed
his . . . robe": as though to wash in preparation]
Then calling to his daughters bade them fetch
Of running water, both to wash withal
And make libation; so they
climbed the path;
[libation=offering]
And in brief
space brought what their father bade,
Then washed and dressed him with observance due.
But when he had his will in everything,
And no desire was left unsatisfied,
It thundered from the underworld;
the maids
Shivered, and crouching at their father's knees
[sublime as fear]
Wept, beat their breast and uttered a long wail.
He, as he heard their sudden bitter cry,
Folded his arms about them both and said,
"My children, you will lose your father today,
For all of me has perished, and no more
Have ye to bear your long, long ministry;
A heavy load, I know, and yet one word
Wipes out all score of tribulations—love.
And love from me you had—from no man more;
But now must live without me all your days."
So clinging to each other sobbed and wept
Father and daughters both, but when at last
Their mourning had an end and no wail rose,
A moment there was silence; suddenly
A voice summoned him; with sudden dread
The hair of all stood up and all were amazed;
For the call came, now loud, now low, and oft.
"Oedipus, Oedipus, why tarry we?
[tarry = delay]
Too long, too long thy passing is delayed."
But when he heard the summons of the god,
He prayed that Theseus might be brought, and when
The Prince came nearer: "O my friend," he cried,
"Pledge ye my daughters, giving thy right hand—
And, daughters, give him yours—and promise me
Thou never wilt forsake them, but do all
That time and friendship prompt in their behalf."
And he of his nobility repressed
[he = Theseus]
His tears and swore to be their constant friend.
This promise given, Oedipus put forth
Blind hands and laid them on his children, saying,
"O children, prove your true nobility
And hence depart nor seek to witness sights [hence =
from this place]
Forbidden or to hear forbidden words.
Nay, go with speed; let none but Theseus stay,
Our ruler, to behold what next shall happen."
So we all heard him speak, and weeping sore
We companied the maidens on their way.
After brief space we looked again, and lo
The man was gone, nowhere to be seen;
Only the king we saw with upraised hand
Shading his eyes as from some awful sight,
[awful = awesome,
sublime]
That no man might endure to look upon.
A moment later, we saw him bend
[him = Theseus]
In prayer to Earth and prayer to Heaven at once.
But by what doom the stranger met his end
[doom = fate; the stranger =
Oedipus]
No man save Theseus knoweth.
For there fell
No fiery bolt that reft him in that hour,
[reft = broke]
Nor whirlwind from the sea, but he was taken.
It was a messenger from heaven, or else
Some gentle, painless cleaving of earth's base;
[cleaving = opening]
For without wailing or disease or pain
He passed away—an end most marvelous.
[cf.
transcendence of romance]
And if to some my tale seems foolishness
I am content that such could count me fool.
CHORUS:
Where are the maids
and their attendant friends?
MESSENGER:
They cannot be far off; the approaching sound
Of lamentation tells they come this way.
[Enter
Antigone and Ismene]
ANTIGONE:
(Strophe 1)
Woe, woe! on this sad day
We sisters of one ruined stock
[stock = lineage]
must bow beneath the shock,
Must weep and mourn the curse that lay
On him our sire, for whom
In life, a life-long world of care
Was ours to bear,
In death to face the gloom
That wraps his tomb.
What tongue can tell
That sight ineffable?
CHORUS:
What mean ye,
maidens?
ANTIGONE: All is only speculation.
CHORUS:
Is he then
gone?
ANTIGONE:
Gone as
anyone might wish.
Not in battle
or sea storm,
But taken from sight,
By hands invisible borne
To viewless fields of night.
Ah me! on us too night has come,
The night of mourning.
Where now
Do we go in our distress
Eating the bread of bitterness?
ISMENE:
I know not. O that Death
Might nip my breath,
And let me share my aged father's fate.
I cannot live a life thus desolate.
CHORUS:
Best of
daughters, worthy pair,
What
heaven brings, you have to bear,
Fret no more against Heaven's will;
Fate hath dealt with you not ill.
ANTIGONE:
(Antistrophe 1)
What seemed bitter now is sweet.
Ah me! that happy toil is sweet.
The guidance of those dear blind feet.
Dear father, wrapt forever in nether gloom,
Even in the tomb
You’ll never lack
Her love and mine.
CHORUS:
His
fate—
ANTIGONE:
Is even as he
planned.
CHORUS:
How so?
ANTIGONE:
He died,
so willed he, in a foreign land.
Lapped in kind earth he sleeps his long last sleep,
And over his grave friends weep.
How great our loss these streaming eyes can tell,
This sorrow nothing can quell.
You had your wish amid strangers to die,
But I, alas, did not stand by.
ISMENE:
Alas, my sister, what new fate
Befalls us orphans desolate?
CHORUS:
His end was
blessed; therefore, children, stay
Your sorrow.
Man is born to fate a prey.
ANTIGONE:
(Strophe 2)
Sister, let us go back again.
[back = into the
grove where Oedipus disappeared]
ISMENE:
Why return?
ANTIGONE:
My soul desires—
ISMENE:
Desires what?
ANTIGONE:
To see the
earthy bed.
ISMENE:
Do you mean . . . ?
ANTIGONE:
Where our father
is buried.
ISMENE:
Nay, you cannot, don’t you see?—
ANTIGONE:
Sister,
why are you angry with me?
ISMENE:
Don’t you know . . . besides—
ANTIGONE:
More must
I hear?
ISMENE:
Tombless he died, none near.
ANTIGONE:
Lead me
there; slay me there.
[willingness
to die anticipates tragedy of Antigone]
ISMENE:
How shall I unhappy fare,
[fare = go on]
Friendless, helpless, how drag on
A life of misery alone?
CHORUS:
(Antistrophe 2)
Fear not, maids—
ANTIGONE:
Ah, where shall
we go?
CHORUS:
Refuge hath been
found.
ANTIGONE:
For me?
CHORUS:
Where thou shalt be
safe from harm.
ANTIGONE:
I know.
CHORUS:
Then why this alarm?
ANTIGONE:
How again
to get us home
I know not.
CHORUS:
Why must you roam?
ANTIGONE:
Troubles
overwhelm us—
CHORUS:
As of yore.
[yore = past,
earlier days]
ANTIGONE:
Worse than what
was worse before.
CHORUS:
Sure ye are driven
on the breakers' surge.
ANTIGONE:
Alas! we are.
CHORUS:
Alas! It is so.
ANTIGONE:
Ah where
to
turn, O Zeus?
No ray
Of
hope to cheer the way
Whereon the
fates our desperate voyage urge.
[Enter
Theseus ]
THESEUS:
Dry your
tears; when grace is shed
On the
quick and on the dead
By dark
Powers beneficent,
Too much grief
they would resent.
ANTIGONE:
Aegeus's child,
to thee we pray.
THESEUS:
What do you need, my
children, say.
ANTIGONE:
With our
own eyes we wish to see
Our
father's tomb.
THESEUS:
That may not be.
ANTIGONE:
What do you
mean, O King?
THESEUS:
My children,
he
Charged me straitly that no
mortal [straitly =
directly]
Should approach the sacred
portal,
Or greet with funeral
litanies [litanies =
prayers]
The hidden tomb wherein
he lies;
Saying, "If thou keepest
my request,
Thou shalt keep thy realm at rest."
The God of Oaths this promise heard,
And to Zeus I pledged my word.
ANTIGONE:
Well, if
he would have it so,
We must
yield.
Then let us go
Back to
To heal this mortal feud and stay
[stay = impede, obstruct]
The self-wrought doom
[self-wrought = self-made]
That drives our brothers to their tomb.
THESEUS:
Go in peace;
nor will I spare
Ought of toil and
zealous care,
But on all your
needs attend,
Gladdening in his
grave my friend.
CHORUS:
Wail no more,
let sorrow rest,
All is ordered
for the best.
[END]
