OEDIPUS AT COLONUS (Page 2)
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. 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, 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?
OEDIPUS Hereafter thou shalt learn, not yet, methinks.
THESEUS When may we hope to reap the benefit?
OEDIPUS When I am dead and thou hast buried me.
THESEUS Thou cravest life's last service; all before-- Is it forgotten or of no account?
OEDIPUS Yea, the last boon is warrant for the rest.
THESEUS The grace thou cravest then is small indeed.
OEDIPUS Nay, weigh it well; the issue is not slight.
THESEUS Thou meanest that betwixt thy sons and me?
OEDIPUS Prince, they would fain convey me back to Thebes.
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 misbecomes the faller.
OEDIPUS Chide if thou wilt, but first attend my plea.
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?
OEDIPUS No, that has grown a byword throughout Greece.
THESEUS What then can be this more than mortal grief?
OEDIPUS My case stands thus; by my own flesh and blood I was expelled my country, and can ne'er Thither return again, a parricide.
THESEUS Why fetch thee home if thou must needs obey.
THESEUS What are they threatened by 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 Is given immunity from eld and death; 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 betwixt Thebes and 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. 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 Of mysteries; let me cease as I began: Enough if thou wilt keep thy plighted troth, Then shall thou ne'er complain that Oedipus Proved an unprofitable and thankless guest, Except the gods themselves shall play me false.
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? First, he can claim the hospitality To which by mutual contract we stand pledged: Next, coming here, a suppliant 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 bide, I place him in your charge, or if he please Rather to come with me--choose, Oedipus, Which of the two thou wilt. Thy choice is mine.
OEDIPUS Zeus, may the 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 wouldst thou here? I shall not thwart thy wish.
OEDIPUS Here shall I vanquish those who cast me forth.
THESEUS Then were thy presence here a boon indeed.
OEDIPUS Such shall it prove, if thou fulfill'st thy 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 wilt thou act then?
THESEUS What is it thou fear'st?
OEDIPUS My foes will come--
THESEUS Our friends will look to that.
OEDIPUS But if thou leave me?
THESEUS Teach me not my duty.
OEDIPUS
'Tis fear constrains me.
THESEUS My soul knows no fear!
OEDIPUS Thou knowest not what threats--
THESEUS I know that none Shall hale thee hence in my despite. Such threats Vented in anger oft, are blusterers, An idle breath, forgot when sense returns. And for thy foemen, though their words were brave, Boasting to bring thee back, they are like to find The seas between us wide and hard to sail. Such my firm purpose, but in any case Take heart, since Phoebus sent thee here. My name, Though I be distant, warrants thee from harm.
CHORUS
(Str. 1) Thou hast come to a steed-famed land for rest, O stranger worn with toil, To a land of all lands the goodliest Colonus' 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; 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, Where he holds each night his revels wild With the nymphs who fostered the lusty child.
(Ant. 1) And fed each morn by the pearly dew The starred narcissi shine, And a wreath with the crocus' golden hue For the Mother and Daughter twine. And never the sleepless fountains cease That feed Cephisus' stream, But they swell earth's bosom with quick increase, And their wave hath a crystal gleam. And the Muses' quire will never disdain To visit this heaven-favored plain, Nor the Cyprian queen of the golden rein.
(Str. 2) And here there grows, unpruned, untamed, Terror to foemen's spear, A tree in Asian soil unnamed, By Pelops' Dorian isle unclaimed, 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 And the Grey-eyed Goddess herself defends.
(Ant. 2) 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, 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, Swift as the Nereids' hundred feet As they dance along the brine.
ANTIGONE Oh land extolled above all lands, 'tis now For thee to make these glorious titles good.
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.
[Enter CREON with attendants]
CREON Burghers, my 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 whither I am 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 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. O listen to me, luckless Oedipus, Come home! The whole Cadmeian people claim 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 stay. Ah! who had e'er imagined she could fall To such a depth of misery as this, To tend in penury thy stricken frame, A virgin ripe for wedlock, but unwed, A prey for any wanton ravisher? Seems it not cruel this reproach I cast On thee and on myself and all the race? Aye, but an open shame cannot be hid. 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 To thy advantage every plea of right Why try thy arts on me, why spread again Toils where 'twould gall me sorest to be snared? In old days when by self-wrought woes distraught, I yearned for exile as a glad release, 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, Then thou wouldst thrust me from my country, then These ties of kindred were by thee ignored; And now again when thou behold'st this State And all its kindly people welcome me, Thou seek'st to part us, wrapping in soft words Hard thoughts. And yet what pleasure canst thou find In forcing friendship on unwilling foes? Suppose a man refused to grant some boon When you importuned him, and afterwards 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? Yet such the boon thou profferest now to me, Fair in appearance, but when tested false. Yea, I will proved thee false, that these may hear; Thou art come to take me, not to take me home, But plant me on thy borders, that thy State May so escape annoyance from this land. That thou shalt never gain, but this instead-- My ghost to haunt thy country without end; And for my sons, this heritage--no more-- Just room to die in. Have not I more skill Than thou to draw the horoscope of Thebes? Are not my teachers surer guides than thine-- Great Phoebus and the sire of Phoebus, Zeus? Thou art a messenger suborned, thy tongue Is sharper than a sword's edge, yet thy speech Will bring thee more defeats than victories. Howbeit, I know I waste my words--begone, And leave me here; whate'er may be my lot, He lives not ill who lives withal content.
CREON Which loses in this parley, I o'erthrown By thee, or thou who overthrow'st thyself?
OEDIPUS I shall be well contented if thy suit Fails with these strangers, as it has with me.
CREON Unhappy man, will years ne'er make thee wise? Must thou live on to cast a slur on age?
OEDIPUS Thou hast a glib tongue, but no honest man, Methinks, can argue well on any side.
CREON
'Tis one thing to speak much, another well.
OEDIPUS Thy words, forsooth, are few and all well aimed!
CREON Not for a man indeed with wits like thine.
OEDIPUS Depart! I bid thee in these burghers' name, And prowl no longer round me to blockade My destined harbor.
CREON I protest to these, Not thee, and for thine answer to thy kin, If e'er I take thee--
OEDIPUS Who against their will Could take me?
CREON Though untaken thou shalt smart.
OEDIPUS What power hast thou to execute this threat?
CREON One of thy daughters is already seized, The other I will carry off anon.
OEDIPUS Woe, woe!
CREON This is but prelude to thy woes.
OEDIPUS Hast thou my child?
CREON And soon shall have the other.
OEDIPUS Ho, friends! ye will not surely play me false? Chase this ungodly villain from your land.
CHORUS Hence, stranger, hence avaunt! Thou doest wrong In this, and wrong in all that thou hast done.
CREON (to his guards)
'Tis time by force to carry off the girl, If she refuse of her free will to go.
ANTIGONE Ah, woe is me! where shall I fly, where find Succor from gods or men?
CHORUS What would'st thou, stranger?
CREON I meddle not with him, but her who is mine.
OEDIPUS O princes of the land!
CHORUS Sir, thou dost wrong.
CREON Nay, right.
CHORUS How right?
CREON I take but what is mine.
OEDIPUS Help, Athens!
CHORUS What means this, sirrah? quick unhand her, or We'll fight it out.
CREON Back!
CHORUS Not till thou forbear.
CREON
'Tis war with Thebes if I am touched or harmed.
OEDIPUS Did I not warn thee?
CHORUS Quick, unhand the maid!
CREON Command your minions; I am not your slave.
CHORUS Desist, I bid thee.
CREON (to the guard) And O bid thee 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.
OEDIPUS Where art thou, daughter?
ANTIGONE Haled along by force.
OEDIPUS Thy hands, my child!
ANTIGONE They will not let me, father.
CREON Away with her!
OEDIPUS Ah, woe is me, ah woe!
CREON So those two crutches shall no longer serve thee For further roaming. Since it pleaseth thee To triumph o'er thy country and thy friends Who mandate, though a prince, I here discharge, Enjoy thy triumph; soon or late thou'lt find Thou art an enemy to thyself, both now And in time past, when in despite of friends Thou gav'st the rein to passion, still thy bane.
CHORUS Hold there, sir stranger!
CREON Hands off, have a care.
CHORUS Restore the maidens, else thou goest not.
CREON Then Thebes will take a dearer surety soon; I will lay hands on more than these two maids.
CHORUS What canst thou further?
CREON Carry off this man.
CHORUS Brave words!
CREON And deeds forthwith shall make them good.
CHORUS Unless perchance our sovereign intervene.
OEDIPUS O shameless voice! Would'st lay an hand on me?
CREON Silence, I bid thee!
OEDIPUS Goddesses, allow Thy suppliant to utter yet one curse! 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.
CREON Listen, O men of Athens, mark ye this?
OEDIPUS They mark us both and understand that I Wronged by the deeds defend myself with words.
CREON Nothing shall curb my will; though I be old And single-handed, I will have this man.
OEDIPUS O woe is me!
CHORUS Thou art a bold man, stranger, if thou think'st To execute thy purpose.
CREON So I do.
CHORUS Then shall I deem this State no more a State.
CREON With a just quarrel weakness conquers might.
OEDIPUS Ye hear his words?
CHORUS Aye words, but not yet deeds, Zeus knoweth!
CREON Zeus may haply know, not thou.
CHORUS Insolence!
CREON Insolence that thou must bear.
CHORUS Haste ye princes, sound the alarm! Men of Athens, arm ye, arm! Quickly to the rescue come Ere the robbers get them home.
[Enter THESEUS]
THESEUS Why this outcry? What is forward? wherefore was I called away From the altar of Poseidon, lord of your Colonus? Say! On what errand have I hurried hither without stop or stay.
OEDIPUS Dear friend--those accents tell me who thou art-- Yon man but now hath 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 Hath robbed me of my all, my daughters twain.
THESEUS What means this?
OEDIPUS Thou hast heard my tale of wrongs.
THESEUS Ho! hasten to the altars, one of you. Command my liegemen leave the sacrifice And hurry, foot and horse, with rein unchecked, To where the paths that packmen use diverge, Lest the two maidens slip away, and I Become a mockery to this my guest, As one despoiled by force. Quick, as I bid. As for this stranger, had I let my rage, Justly provoked, have play, he had not 'scaped Scathless and uncorrected at my hands. But now the laws to which himself appealed, These and none others shall adjudicate. Thou shalt not quit this land, till thou hast fetched The maidens and produced them in my sight. Thou hast offended both against myself And thine own race and country. Having come Unto a State that champions right and asks For every action warranty of law, Thou hast set aside the custom of the land, And like some freebooter art carrying off What plunder pleases thee, as if forsooth Thou thoughtest this a city without men, Or manned by slaves, and me a thing of naught. Yet not from Thebes this villainy was learnt; Thebes is not wont to breed unrighteous sons, Nor would she praise thee, if she learnt that thou Wert robbing me--aye and the gods to boot, Haling by force their suppliants, poor maids. 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 outlander Living amongst a foreign folk, but thou Shamest a city that deserves it not, Even thine own, and plentitude of years Have made of thee an old man and a fool. Therefore again I charge thee as before, See that the maidens are restored at once, Unless thou would'st continue here by force And not by choice a sojourner; so much I tell thee home and what I say, I mean.
CHORUS Thy case is perilous; though by birth and race Thou should'st be just, thou plainly doest wrong.
CREON Not deeming this city void of men Or counsel, son of Aegeus, as thou say'st 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 'gainst my will. Nor would they harbor, so I stood assured, A godless parricide, a reprobate Convicted of incestuous marriage ties. For on her native hill of Ares here
(I knew your far-famed Areopagus) Sits Justice, and permits not vagrant folk To stay within your borders. In that faith I hunted down my quarry; and e'en then i had refrained but for the curses dire Wherewith he banned my kinsfolk and myself: Such wrong, methought, had warrant for 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 railer, think'st thou this abuse Defames my grey hairs rather than thine own? Murder and incest, deeds of horror, all Thou blurtest forth against me, all I have borne, No willing sinner; so it pleased the gods Wrath haply with my sinful race of old, Since thou could'st 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 canst thou With justice blame the all-unconscious hand? And for my mother, wretch, art not ashamed, Seeing she was thy sister, to extort 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 Wittingly thou aspersest her and me; But I unwitting wed, unwilling speak. Nay neither in this marriage or this deed Which thou art ever casting in my teeth-- A murdered sire--shall I be held to blame. Come, answer me one question, if thou canst: If one should presently attempt thy life, Would'st thou, O man of justice, first inquire If the assassin was perchance thy sire, Or turn upon him? As thou lov'st thy life, On thy aggressor thou would'st turn, no stay Debating, if the law would bear thee out. Such was my case, and such the pass whereto The gods reduced me; and methinks my sire, Could he come back to life, would not dissent. Yet thou, for just thou art not, but a man Who sticks at nothing, if it serve his plea, Reproachest me with this before these men. It serves thy turn to laud great Theseus' name, And Athens as a wisely governed State; Yet in thy flatteries one thing is to seek: If any land knows how to pay the gods Their proper rites, 'tis Athens most of all. This is the land whence thou wast fain to steal Their aged suppliant and hast carried off My daughters. Therefore to yon goddesses, I turn, adjure them and invoke their aid To champion my cause, that thou mayest learn What is the breed of men who guard this State.
CHORUS An honest man, my liege, one sore bestead By fortune, and so worthy our support.
THESEUS Enough of words; the captors speed amain, While we the victims stand debating here.
CREON What would'st thou? What can I, a feeble man?
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 outstrip us with their spoil, We may draw rein; for others speed, from whom They will not 'scape to thank the gods at home. Lead on, I say, the captor's caught, and fate Hath ta'en the fowler in the toils he spread; So soon are lost 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 essay, But I will search this matter home and see One man doth not prevail against the State. 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 stay 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
(Str. 1) O when the flying foe, Turning at last to bay, Soon will give blow for blow, Might I behold the fray; Hear the loud battle roar Swell, on the Pythian shore, Or by the torch-lit bay, Where the dread Queen and Maid Cherish the mystic rites, Rites they to none betray, Ere on his lips is laid Secrecy's golden key By their own acolytes, Priestly Eumolpidae.
There I might chance behold Theseus our captain bold Meet with the robber band, Ere they have fled the land, Rescue by might and main Maidens, the captives twain.
(Ant. 1) Haply on swiftest steed, Or in the flying car, Now they approach the glen, West of white Oea's scaur. They will be vanquished: Dread are our warriors, dread Theseus our chieftain's men. Flashes each bridle bright, Charges each gallant knight, All that our Queen adore, Pallas their patron, or Him whose wide floods enring Earth, the great Ocean-king Whom Rhea bore.
(Str. 2) Fight they or now prepare To fight? a vision rare Tells me that soon again I shall behold the twain Maidens so ill bestead, By their kin buffeted. Today, today Zeus worketh 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, Up and still upwards to sail And gaze on the fray from the clouds above.
(Ant. 2) All-seeing Zeus, O lord of heaven, To our guardian host be given Might triumphant to surprise Flying foes and win their prize. Hear us, Zeus, and hear us, child Of Zeus, Athene undefiled, Hear, Apollo, hunter, hear, Huntress, sister of Apollo, Who the dappled swift-foot deer O'er the wooded glade dost follow; Help with your two-fold power Athens in danger's hour! O wayfarer, thou wilt not have to tax The friends who watch for thee with false presage, For lo, an escort with the maids draws near.
[Enter ANTIGONE and ISMENE with THESEUS]
OEDIPUS Where, where? what sayest thou?
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.
OEDIPUS Where are ye then?
ANTIGONE We come together both.
OEDIPUS My precious nurslings!
ANTIGONE Fathers aye were fond.
OEDIPUS Props of my age!
ANTIGONE So sorrow sorrow props.
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 ventures, but in brief; Brief speech suffices for young maids like you.
ANTIGONE Here is our savior; thou should'st hear the tale From his own lips; so shall my part be brief.
OEDIPUS I pray thee do not wonder if the sight Of children, given o'er for lost, has made My converse somewhat long and tedious. Full well I know the joy I have of them Is due to thee, to thee and no man else; Thou wast their sole deliverer, none else. The gods deal with thee after my desire, With thee and with this land! for fear of heaven 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 thy hand, O Prince, that I may touch it, And if thou wilt permit me, kiss thy cheek. What say I? Can I wish that thou should'st touch One fallen like me to utter wretchedness, Corrupt and tainted with a thousand ills? Oh no, I would not let thee if thou would'st. They only who have known calamity Can share it. Let me greet thee where thou art, 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 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, 'twere waste of words To boast--thy daughters here will tell thee all. But of a matter that has lately chanced On my way hitherward, I fain would have Thy counsel--slight 'twould seem, yet worthy thought. A wise man heeds all matters great or small.
OEDIPUS What is it, son of Aegeus? Let me hear. Of what thou askest I myself know naught.
Next
|