Plays of Sophocles: Oedipus the King; Oedipus at Colonus; Antigone

Killed him and so _I_ slew him in a sense. But, as they stand, the oracles are dead— Dust, ashes, nothing, dead as Polybus. JOCASTA. Say, did not I foretell this long ago? OEDIPUS. Thou didst: but I was misled by my fear. JOCASTA. Then let I no more weigh upon thy soul. OEDIPUS. Must I not fear my mother’s marriage bed. JOCASTA. Why should a mortal man, the sport of chance, With no assured foreknowledge, be afraid? Best live a careless life from hand to mouth. This wedlock with thy mother fear not thou. How oft it chances that in dreams a man Has wed his mother! He who least regards Such brainsick phantasies lives most at ease. OEDIPUS. I should have shared in full thy confidence, Were not my mother living; since she lives Though half convinced I still must live in dread. JOCASTA. And yet thy sire’s death lights out darkness much. OEDIPUS. Much, but my fear is touching her who lives. MESSENGER. Who may this woman be whom thus you fear? OEDIPUS. Merope, stranger, wife of Polybus. MESSENGER. And what of her can cause you any fear? OEDIPUS. A heaven-sent oracle of dread import. MESSENGER. A mystery, or may a stranger hear it? OEDIPUS. Aye, ’tis no secret. Loxias once foretold That I should mate with mine own mother, and shed With my own hands the blood of my own sire. Hence Corinth was for many a year to me A home distant; and I trove abroad, But missed the sweetest sight, my parents’ face. MESSENGER. Was this the fear that exiled thee from home? OEDIPUS. Yea, and the dread of slaying my own sire. MESSENGER. Why, since I came to give thee pleasure, King, Have I not rid thee of this second fear? OEDIPUS. Well, thou shalt have due guerdon for thy pains. MESSENGER. Well, I confess what chiefly made me come Was hope to profit by thy coming home. OEDIPUS. Nay, I will ne’er go near my parents more. MESSENGER. My son, ’tis plain, thou know’st not what thou doest. OEDIPUS. How so, old man? For heaven’s sake tell me all. MESSENGER. If this is why thou dreadest to return. OEDIPUS. Yea, lest the god’s word be fulfilled in me. MESSENGER. Lest through thy parents thou shouldst be accursed? OEDIPUS. This and none other is my constant dread. MESSENGER. Dost thou not know thy fears are baseless all? OEDIPUS. How baseless, if I am their very son? MESSENGER. Since Polybus was naught to thee in blood. OEDIPUS. What say’st thou? was not Polybus my sire? MESSENGER. As much thy sire as I am, and no more. OEDIPUS. My sire no more to me than one who is naught? MESSENGER. Since I begat thee not, no more did he. OEDIPUS. What reason had he then to call me son? MESSENGER. Know that he took thee from my hands, a gift. OEDIPUS. Yet, if no child of his, he loved me well. MESSENGER. A childless man till then, he warmed to thee. OEDIPUS. A foundling or a purchased slave, this child? MESSENGER. I found thee in Cithaeron’s wooded glens. OEDIPUS. What led thee to explore those upland glades? MESSENGER. My business was to tend the mountain flocks. OEDIPUS. A vagrant shepherd journeying for hire? MESSENGER. True, but thy savior in that hour, my son. OEDIPUS. My savior? from what harm? what ailed me then? MESSENGER. Those ankle joints are evidence enow. OEDIPUS. Ah, why remind me of that ancient sore? MESSENGER. I loosed the pin that riveted thy feet. OEDIPUS. Yes, from my cradle that dread brand I bore. MESSENGER. Whence thou deriv’st the name that still is thine. OEDIPUS. Who did it? I adjure thee, tell me who Say, was it father, mother? MESSENGER. I know not. The man from whom I had thee may know more. OEDIPUS. What, did another find me, not thyself? MESSENGER. Not I; another shepherd gave thee me. OEDIPUS. Who was he? Would’st thou know again the man? MESSENGER. He passed indeed for one of Laius’ house. OEDIPUS. The king who ruled the country long ago? MESSENGER. The same: he was a herdsman of the king. OEDIPUS. And is he living still for me to see him? MESSENGER. His fellow-countrymen should best know that. OEDIPUS. Doth any bystander among you know The herd he speaks of, or by seeing him Afield or in the city? answer straight! The hour hath come to clear this business up. CHORUS. Methinks he means none other than the hind Whom thou anon wert fain to see; but that Our queen Jocasta best of all could tell. OEDIPUS. Madam, dost know the man we sent to fetch? Is the same of whom the stranger speaks? JOCASTA. Who is the man? What matter? Let it be. ’Twere waste of thought to weigh such idle words. OEDIPUS. No, with such guiding clues I cannot fail To bring to light the secret of my birth. JOCASTA. Oh, as thou carest for thy life, give o’er This quest. Enough the anguish _I_ endure. OEDIPUS. Be of good cheer; though I be proved the son Of a bondwoman, aye, through three descents Triply a slave, thy honor is unsmirched. JOCASTA. Yet humor me, I pray thee; do not this. OEDIPUS. I cannot; I must probe this matter home. JOCASTA. ’Tis for thy sake I advise thee for the best. OEDIPUS. I grow impatient of this best advice. JOCASTA. Ah mayst thou ne’er discover who thou art! OEDIPUS. Go, fetch me here the herd, and leave yon woman To glory in her pride of ancestry. JOCASTA. O woe is thee, poor wretch! With that last word I leave thee, henceforth silent evermore. [Exit JOCASTA] CHORUS. Why, Oedipus, why stung with passionate grief Hath the queen thus departed? Much I fear From this dead calm will burst a storm of woes. OEDIPUS. Let the storm burst, my fixed resolve still holds, To learn my lineage, be it ne’er so low. It may be she with all a woman’s pride Thinks scorn of my base parentage. But I Who rank myself as Fortune’s favorite child, The giver of good gifts, shall not be shamed. She is my mother and the changing moons My brethren, and with them I wax and wane. Thus sprung why should I fear to trace my birth? Nothing can make me other than I am. CHORUS. (Str.) If my soul prophetic err not, if my wisdom aught avail, Thee, Cithaeron, I shall hail, As the nurse and foster-mother of our Oedipus shall greet Ere tomorrow’s full moon rises, and exalt thee as is meet. Dance and song shall hymn thy praises, lover of our royal race. Phoebus, may my words find grace! (Ant.) Child, who bare thee, nymph or goddess? sure thy sure was more than man, Haply the hill-roamer Pan. Of did Loxias beget thee, for he haunts the upland wold; Or Cyllene’s lord, or Bacchus, dweller on the hilltops cold? Did some Heliconian Oread give him thee, a new-born joy? Nymphs with whom he love to toy? OEDIPUS. Elders, if I, who never yet before Have met the man, may make a guess, methinks I see the herdsman who we long have sought; His time-worn aspect matches with the years Of yonder aged messenger; besides I seem to recognize the men who bring him As servants of my own. But you, perchance, Having in past days known or seen the herd, May better by sure knowledge my surmise. CHORUS. I recognize him; one of Laius’ house; A simple hind, but true as any man. [Enter HERDSMAN.] OEDIPUS. Corinthian, stranger, I address thee first, Is this the man thou meanest! MESSENGER. This is he. OEDIPUS. And now old man, look up and answer all I ask thee. Wast thou once of Laius’ house? HERDSMAN. I was, a thrall, not purchased but home-bred. OEDIPUS. What was thy business? how wast thou employed? HERDSMAN. The best part of my life I tended sheep. OEDIPUS. What were the pastures thou didst most frequent? HERDSMAN. Cithaeron and the neighboring alps. OEDIPUS. Then there Thou must have known yon man, at least by fame? HERDSMAN. Yon man? in what way? what man dost thou mean? OEDIPUS. The man here, having met him in past times... HERDSMAN. Off-hand I cannot call him well to mind. MESSENGER. No wonder, master. But I will revive His blunted memories. Sure he can recall What time together both we drove our flocks, He two, I one, on the Cithaeron range, For three long summers; I his mate from spring Till rose Arcturus; then in winter time I led mine home, he his to Laius’ folds. Did these things happen as I say, or no? HERDSMAN. ’Tis long ago, but all thou say’st is true. MESSENGER. Well, thou mast then remember giving me A child to rear as my own foster-son? HERDSMAN. Why dost thou ask this question? What of that? MESSENGER. Friend, he that stands before thee was that child. HERDSMAN. A plague upon thee! Hold thy wanton tongue! OEDIPUS. Softly, old man, rebuke him not; thy words Are more deserving chastisement than his. HERDSMAN. O best of masters, what is my offense? OEDIPUS. Not answering what he asks about the child. HERDSMAN. He speaks at random, babbles like a fool. OEDIPUS. If thou lack’st grace to speak, I’ll loose thy tongue. HERDSMAN. For mercy’s sake abuse not an old man. OEDIPUS. Arrest the villain, seize and pinion him! HERDSMAN. Alack, alack! What have I done? what wouldst thou further learn? OEDIPUS. Didst give this man the child of whom he asks? HERDSMAN. I did; and would that I had died that day! OEDIPUS. And die thou shalt unless thou tell the truth. HERDSMAN. But, if I tell it, I am doubly lost. OEDIPUS. The knave methinks will still prevaricate. HERDSMAN. Nay, I confessed I gave it long ago. OEDIPUS. Whence came it? was it thine, or given to thee? HERDSMAN. I had it from another, ’twas not mine. OEDIPUS. From whom of these our townsmen, and what house? HERDSMAN. Forbear for God’s sake, master, ask no more. OEDIPUS. If I must question thee again, thou’rt lost. HERDSMAN. Well then—it was a child of Laius’ house. OEDIPUS. Slave-born or one of Laius’ own race? HERDSMAN. Ah me! I stand upon the perilous edge of speech. OEDIPUS. And I of hearing, but I still must hear. HERDSMAN. Know then the child was by repute his own, But she within, thy consort best could tell. OEDIPUS. What! she, she gave it thee? HERDSMAN. ’Tis so, my king. OEDIPUS. With what intent? HERDSMAN. To make away with it. OEDIPUS. What, she its mother. HERDSMAN. Fearing a dread weird. OEDIPUS. What weird? HERDSMAN. ’Twas told that he should slay his sire. OEDIPUS. What didst thou give it then to this old man? HERDSMAN. Through pity, master, for the babe. I thought He’d take it to the country whence he came; But he preserved it for the worst of woes. For if thou art in sooth what this man saith, God pity thee! thou wast to misery born. OEDIPUS. Ah me! ah me! all brought to pass, all true! O light, may I behold thee nevermore! I stand a wretch, in birth, in wedlock cursed, A parricide, incestuously, triply cursed! [Exit OEDIPUS] CHORUS. (Str. 1) Races of mortal man Whose life is but a span, I count ye but the shadow of a shade! For he who most doth know Of bliss, hath but the show; A moment, and the visions pale and fade. Thy fall, O Oedipus, thy piteous fall Warns me none born of women blest to call. (Ant. 1) For he of marksmen best, O Zeus, outshot the rest, And won the prize supreme of wealth and power. By him the vulture maid