Sophocles Oedipus Tyrannus 184

Oedipus

You pray. And in answer to your prayer, if you will give a loyal reception to my words and minister to your own disease, you may hope to find help and relief from woes. These words I will speak publicly, as one who was a stranger to the report,

a stranger to the deed. I would not go far on the trail if I were tracing it alone, without a clue. But as it is—since it was only after the event that I was counted a Theban among Thebans—to you, Cadmeans all, I do thus proclaim: Whoever knows

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by whom Laius son of Labdacus was slain, I order him to declare all to me. And if he is afraid, I order him to remove the danger of indictment from his path by denouncing himself: he will suffer no other punishment, but will only leave this land, unhurt.

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If anyone knows the assassin to be an alien, from another land, let him not keep silent. I will reward him, and my thanks shall rest with him besides. But if he keeps silent, if anyone, through fear, seeks to screen himself or a friend from my orders,

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then hear what I shall do: I charge you that no resident of this land, which I rule, give shelter to or address that murderer, whoever he is, or make him a partner in prayer or sacrifice,

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or give him a share of the lustral rite. Ban him from your houses, all of you, knowing that this is the defilement, as the oracle of the Pythian god has recently shown to me. In this way

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I am an ally both to the god and to the dead man. And I pray solemnly that the slayer, whoever he is, whether he alone is guilty or he has partners, may, in the horrible way he deserves, wear out his unblest life. And for myself I pray that if he should,

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with my knowledge, become a resident of my house, I may suffer the same things which I have just called down on others. And I order you to make all these words good, for my sake, for the sake of the god, and for the sake of our land, thus rendered unfruitful and ungodly.

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For even if the matter had not been urged upon us by a god, it still would not have been fit that you should leave the guilt unpunished as it is, when one so noble—and he your king—had perished. You should have searched it out. But now, since I hold the powers which he once held,

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possessing his bed and the wife who bore his children, and since, had his hope of offspring not been unsuccessful, children born of one mother would have tied us with a common bond—as it was, fate swooped upon his head—I will uphold this cause, as though it were that of my own father,

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and will leave no stone unturned in my search for the one who shed the blood, for the honor of the son of Labdacus and of Polydorus and the elder Cadmus and Agenor of old.
  And for those who do not obey me, I pray that the gods

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send them neither harvest of the earth nor fruit of the womb, but that they perish with the present fate, or one still worse. But to all you, the loyal Cadmeans who are satisfied by these things, may justice, our ally,

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and all the gods be gracious always.

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Chorus

As you have put me under oath, on my oath, my king, I will speak. I am not the slayer, nor can I reveal him. As for the investigation, it was for Phoebus, who enjoined it, to tell us who did the deed.

Oedipus

Justly said. But no man on earth can force the gods to do what they do not want.

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Chorus

I would like to say what seems to me the next best course.

Oedipus

And if there is a third course, do not hesitate to reveal it too.

Chorus

I know that our lord Teiresias is the seer most like our

lord Apollo: from him, my king, an investigator might learn most clearly about these affairs.

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Oedipus

Not even this have I neglected. On Creon’s suggestion, I sent a man twice to bring him. And I have been wondering for some time why he is not here.

Chorus

Indeed—his skill apart—the rumors are but faint and old.

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Oedipus

What are the rumors? I am investigating every tale.

Chorus

He was said to have been killed by some wayfarers.

Oedipus

I too have heard that. But no one sees the one who saw it.

Chorus

If he knows what fear is, he will not hesitate to come forward when he

hears your curses, so dire are they.

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Oedipus

When a man does not shrink from a deed, he is not scared by a word.

Chorus

But there is one to convict him. But here they bring at last the godlike prophet, the only man in whom truth lives.

Oedipus

Teiresias, whose soul grasps all things, both that which may be told and that which is unspeakable, the Olympian secrets and the affairs of the earth, you feel, though you cannot see, what a huge plague haunts our state. From which, great prophet, we find you to be our protector and only savior.

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Now, Phoebus—if indeed you have not already heard the news—sent answer to our question that the only way to rid ourselves of this pest that afflicts us is to discover the slayers of Laius, and then to slay them or banish them from our land.

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So do not begrudge us the voice of the birds or any other path of prophecy, but save yourself and your state, save me, save all that is defiled by the dead. We are in your hands, and man’s noblest task is to help others

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to the best of his means and powers.

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Teiresias

Alas, how terrible it is to have wisdom when it does not benefit those who have it. I knew this well, but let it slip from my mind: otherwise I would not have come here.

Oedipus

What now? How disheartened you have come!

Teiresias

Let me go home. For you will bear your own burden to the end, and I will bear mine, if you consent.

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Oedipus

Your words are strange and unkind to the state which nurtured you, since you withhold this response.

Teiresias

I see that you, for your part, speak inappropriately.

Therefore do not speak, so I will not suffer the same.

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Oedipus

For the love of the gods, do not turn away, if you have knowledge: all we suppliants implore you on our knees.

Teiresias

For all of you are without knowledge. But never will I reveal my troubles—not to call them yours.

Oedipus

What are you saying? Do you know the secret and refuse to tell it? Will you betray and destroy the state?

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Teiresias

I will grieve neither myself nor you. Why do you ask these things in vain? You will not learn the answers from me.

Oedipus

Will you not, basest of the base—

you would anger a stone—speak out? can nothing touch you? Will you never make an end?

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Teiresias

You blame my anger, but do not perceive your own: no, you blame me.

Oedipus

Who would not be angry hearing such words,

with which you now are slighting the city?

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Teiresias

The future will come of itself, though I shroud it in silence.

Oedipus

Since it must come anyway, it is right that you tell it to me.

Teiresias

I will speak no further: rage, if you wish, with the fiercest wrath your heart knows.

Oedipus

In my anger I will not spare to speak all my thoughts. Know that you seem to me to have helped in plotting the deed, and to have done it, short of performing the actual murder with your own hands: if you had eyesight, I would have said that you had done even this by yourself.

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Teiresias

In truth? I order you to abide by you own decree, and from this day forth not to speak to these men or to me: you are the accursed defiler of this land.

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Oedipus

So brazen with your blustering taunt?

Where do you think to escape to?

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Teiresias

I have escaped. There is strength in my truth.

Oedipus

Who taught you this? Not your skill, at any rate.

Teiresias

You yourself. For you spurred me on to speak against my will.

Oedipus

What did you say? Speak again, so I may learn it better.

Teiresias

Did you not understand before, or are you talking to test me?

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Oedipus

I cannot say I understood fully. Tell me again.

Teiresias

I say that you are the killer of the man whose slayer you seek.

Oedipus

Now you will regret that you have said such dire words twice.

Teiresias

Should I tell you more, that you might get more angry?

Oedipus

Say as much as you want: it will be said in vain.

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Teiresias

I say that you have been living in unguessed shame with your closest kin, and do not see into what woe you have fallen.

Oedipus

Do you think that you will always be able to speak like this without smarting for it?

Teiresias

Yes, if indeed there is any strength in truth.

Oedipus

But there is, except not for you. You do not have that strength, since you are maimed in your ears, in your wit, and in your eyes.

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Teiresias

And you are a poor wretch to utter taunts that every man here will soon hurl at you.

Oedipus

Night, endless night has you in her keeping, so that you can never hurt me,

or any man that sees the light of the sun.

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Teiresias

No, it is not your fate to fall at my hands, since Apollo, to whom this matter is a concern, is sufficient.

Oedipus

Are these Creon’s devices, or your own?

Teiresias

Creon is no trouble for you: you are your own.

Oedipus

O wealth, and empire, and skill surpassing skill in life’s keen rivalries, how great is the envy in your keeping, if for the sake of this office which the city has entrusted to me, a gift unsought,

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Creon the trustworthy, Creon, my old friend, has crept upon me by stealth, yearning to overthrow me, and has suborned such a scheming juggler as this, a tricky quack, who has eyes only for profit, but is blind in his art!

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Come, tell me, where have you proved yourself a seer? Why, when the watchful dog who wove dark song was here, did you say nothing to free the people? Yet the riddle, at least, was not for the first comer to read: there was need of a seer’s help,

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and you were discovered not to have this art, either from birds, or known from some god. But rather I, Oedipus the ignorant, stopped her, having attained the answer through my wit alone, untaught by birds. It is I whom you are trying to oust, assuming that

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you will have great influence in Creon’s court. But I think that you and the one who plotted these things will rue your zeal to purge the land: if you did not seem to be an old man, you would have learned to your cost how haughty you are.

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Chorus

To our way of thinking, these words, both his and yours, Oedipus,

have been said in anger. We have no need of this, but rather we must seek how we shall best discharge the mandates of the god.

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Teiresias

Though you are king, the right of reply must be considered the same for both: over that I have control.

For I do not live as your slave, but as Loxias’. I will not stand enrolled as Creon’s client. And I tell you, since you have taunted my blindness, that though you have sight, you do not see what a state of misery you are in, or where you dwell, or with whom.

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Do you know who your parents are? You have been an unwitting enemy to your own kin, both in the Underworld and on the earth above, and the double lash of your mother’s and your father’s curse will one day drive you from this land in dreadful haste, with darkness upon those eyes of yours which now can see.

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What place will be harbor to your cries, what part of all Cithaeron will not ring with them soon, when you have learned the meaning of the nuptials in which, within that house, you found a fatal haven, after a voyage so fair? And you have not guessed at a throng of other ills

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which will bring you level with your true self and with your own children. Therefore heap your scorn upon Creon and upon my message: for no man will ever be crushed more miserably than you.

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Oedipus

Are these taunts to be endured from him?

Be gone, to your ruin; be gone this instant! Will you not turn your back and leave this house?

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Teiresias

I would not have come if you had not called me.

Oedipus

I did not know you would speak foolishly, for otherwise it would have been a long time before I summoned you to my home.

Teiresias

I was born like this—as you think, a fool, but in the opinion of the parents who bore you, quite sane.

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Oedipus

What parents? Wait. What man is my father?

Teiresias

This day will reveal your birth and bring your ruin.

Oedipus

What riddles, what dark words you always say.

Teiresias

Are you not the best at unravelling mysteries?

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Oedipus

Reproach me in what you will find me to be great.

Teiresias

Yet it was just that fortune that undid you.

Oedipus

But if it saved this city I care not.

Teiresias

I will take my leave. You, boy, lead me.

Oedipus

Yes, let him take you: while here, you are a hindrance, a source of trouble. When you have gone, you will vex me no more.

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Teiresias

I will go when I have performed the errand for which I came, fearless of your frown: you can never destroy me. I tell you: the man whom you have been seeking this long while,

uttering threats and proclaiming a search into the murder of Laius, is here, ostensibly an alien sojourner, but soon to be found a native of Thebes ; nor will he enjoy his fortune. A blind man, though now he sees,

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a beggar, though now rich, he will make his way to a foreign land, feeling the ground before him with his staff. And he will be discovered to be at once brother and father of the children with whom he consorts; son and husband of the woman who bore him;

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heir to his father’s bed, shedder of his father’s blood. So go in and evaluate this, and if you find that I am wrong, say then that I have no wit in prophecy.

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