Oedipus Trilogy (1 of 53)

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THE OEDIPUS TRILOGY


OEDIPUS THE KING

By SOPHOCLES


Translation by F. Storr, BA
Formerly Scholar of Trinity College, Cambridge
From the Loeb Library Edition
Originally published by
Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA
and
William Heinemann Ltd, London

First published in 1912


ARGUMENT

To Laius, King of Thebes, an oracle foretold that the child born to him
by his queen Jocasta would slay his father and wed his mother. So when
in time a son was born the infant's feet were riveted together and he
was left to die on Mount Cithaeron. But a shepherd found the babe and
tended him, and delivered him to another shepherd who took him to his
master, the King of Corinth. Polybus being childless adopted the boy,
who grew up believing that he was indeed the King's son. Afterwards
doubting his parentage he inquired of the Delphic god and heard himself
the word declared before to Laius. Wherefore he fled from what he
deemed his father's house and in his flight he encountered and
unwillingly slew his father Laius. Arriving at Thebes he answered the
riddle of the Sphinx and the grateful Thebans made their deliverer king.
So he reigned in the room of Laius, and espoused the widowed queen.
Children were born to them and Thebes prospered under his rule, but
again a grievous plague fell upon the city. Again the oracle was
consulted and it bade them purge themselves of blood-guiltiness. Oedipus
denounces the crime of which he is unaware, and undertakes to track out
the criminal. Step by step it is brought home to him that he is the man.
The closing scene reveals Jocasta slain by her own hand and Oedipus
blinded by his own act and praying for death or exile.

*****

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

Oedipus.

The Priest of Zeus.

Creon.

Chorus of Theban Elders.

Teiresias.

Jocasta.

Messenger.

Herd of Laius.

Second Messenger.

Scene: Thebes. Before the Palace of Oedipus.

*****

OEDIPUS THE KING



Suppliants of all ages are seated round the altar at the palace doors,
at their head a PRIEST OF ZEUS. To them enter OEDIPUS.

OEDIPUS
My children, latest born to Cadmus old,
Why sit ye here as suppliants, in your hands
Branches of olive filleted with wool?
What means this reek of incense everywhere,
And everywhere laments and litanies?
Children, it were not meet that I should learn
From others, and am hither come, myself,
I Oedipus, your world-renowned king.
Ho! aged sire, whose venerable locks
Proclaim thee spokesman of this company,
Explain your mood and purport. Is it dread
Of ill that moves you or a boon ye crave?
My zeal in your behalf ye cannot doubt;
Ruthless indeed were I and obdurate
If such petitioners as you I spurned.

PRIEST
Yea, Oedipus, my sovereign lord and king,
Thou seest how both extremes of age besiege
Thy palace altars--fledglings hardly winged,
and greybeards bowed with years; priests, as am I
of Zeus, and these the flower of our youth.
Meanwhile, the common folk, with wreathed boughs
Crowd our two market-places, or before
Both shrines of Pallas congregate, or where
Ismenus gives his oracles by fire.
For, as thou seest thyself, our ship of State,
Sore buffeted, can no more lift her head,
Foundered beneath a weltering surge of blood.
A blight is on our harvest in the ear,
A blight upon the grazing flocks and herds,
A blight on wives in travail; and withal
Armed with his blazing torch the God of Plague
Hath swooped upon our city emptying
The house of Cadmus, and the murky realm
Of Pluto is full fed with groans and tears.
Therefore, O King, here at thy hearth we sit,
I and these children; not as deeming thee
A new divinity, but the first of men;
First in the common accidents of life,
And first in visitations of the Gods.
Art thou not he who coming to the town
of Cadmus freed us from the tax we paid
To the fell songstress? Nor hadst thou received
Prompting from us or been by others schooled;
No, by a god inspired (so all men deem,
And testify) didst thou renew our life.
And now, O Oedipus, our peerless king,
All we thy votaries beseech thee, find
Some succor, whether by a voice from heaven
Whispered, or haply known by human wit.
Tried counselors, methinks, are aptest found [1]
To furnish for the future pregnant rede.
Upraise, O chief of men, upraise our State!
Look to thy laurels! for thy zeal of yore
Our country's savior thou art justly hailed:
O never may we thus record thy reign:--
"He raised us up only to cast us down."
Uplift us, build our city on a rock.
Thy happy star ascendant brought us luck,
O let it not decline! If thou wouldst rule
This land, as now thou reignest, better sure
To rule a peopled than a desert realm.
Nor battlements nor galleys aught avail,
If men to man and guards to guard them tail.

[Footnote 1: Dr. Kennedy and others render "Since to men of experience
I see that also comparisons of their counsels are in most lively use."]

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