Sophocles Oedipus at Colonus 697

Antigone

Land that is praised above all lands, now it is your task to make those bright praises seen in deeds!

720

Oedipus

What strange new thing has happened, my daughter?

Antigone

Creon there draws near us, and not without followers, father.

Oedipus

Ah, dearest old men, now give me

the final proof of my salvation!

725

Chorus

Courage! It will be yours. For even if I am aged, this country’s strength has not grown old.

Creon

Gentlemen, noble dwellers in this land, I see from your eyes that a sudden fear has troubled you at my coming;

but do not shrink back from me, and let no evil word escape you.
  I am here with no thought of force; I am old, and I know that the city to which I have come is mighty, if any in Hellas has might.

730

No, I have been sent, aged as I am, to plead with this man to return with me to the land of Cadmus. I am not one man’s envoy, but have a mandate from all our people; since it belonged to me, by family, beyond all other Thebans to mourn his woes.

735

 

Unhappy Oedipus, hear us, and come home! Justly are you summoned by all the Cadmeans, and most of all by me, since I—unless I am the worst of all men born—feel most sorrow for your woes, old man,

740

when I see you, unhappy as you are, a stranger and a wanderer evermore, roaming in beggary, with one handmaid for your support. Ah, me, I had not thought that she could fall to such a depth of misery as that to which she has fallen—

745

this poor girl!—as she tends forever your dark life amid poverty; in ripe youth, but unwed: a prize for the first passerby to seize.
  Is it not a cruel reproach—alas!—that I have cast at you, and me, and all our race?

750

But indeed an open shame cannot be hidden. Oedipus, in the name of your ancestral gods, listen to me! Hide it, and consent to return to the city and the house of your ancestors, after bidding a kind farewell to this city. Athens is worthy; yet your own city has the first claim on your reverence,

755

since it was Thebes that nurtured you long ago.

760

Oedipus

You who will dare anything, who from any just plea would derive a crafty trick, why do you make this attempt on me, and seek once more to snare me in your trap where I would feel most grief?

Long ago, when I labored under the sickness of my self-made evils, and I yearned to be cast out of the land, you refused to grant the favor. But when my fierce anger had spent its force, and seclusion in the house was sweet to me,

765

it was then that you thrust me from the house and cast me from the land. And this common race that you mention—that was not at all dear to you then. Now, in turn, when you see that I have a kindly welcome from this city and all its race, you try to pluck me away, wrapping your cruel thoughts in soft words.

770

And yet what pleasure do you find in this, in treating me as dear against my will? As if a man should refuse you a gift, bring you no aid, when you continually begged for it; but after your heart was sated with your desires, he should grant it then, when the favor could bring no joy

775

—would you not find your delight in this empty? Yet such is the nature of your own offers to me: noble in appearance, but in substance base. And I will declare it to these men too, to show you up as base. You have come to get me,

780

not to bring me home, but to plant me near your borders, so that your city might escape uninjured by evils from this land. That fate is not for you, but this one: the brooding of my vengeful spirit on your land forever; and for my sons, this heirloom:

785

just so much soil in my realm in which to die.
  Am I not wiser than you in the fortunes of Thebes ? Yes, far wiser, by as much as the sources of my knowledge are truer: Phoebus I mean, and his father, Zeus himself. But you have come here with fraud on your lips, yes,

790

and with a tongue keener than the edge of a sword; yet by their use you may well reap more sorrow than salvation. Still, since I know that I cannot persuade you of this, go! Allow us to live on here; for even in this plight our life would not be bad, if we should be content with it.

795

Creon

Which of us, do you think, suffers more in this exchange—I by your action, or you by your own?

800

Oedipus

For me, it is enough if your pleading fails both with me and with these men nearby.

Creon

Unhappy man, will you let everyone see that even in your years you have gained no sense?

Must you live on to disgrace your old age?

805

Oedipus

You have a clever tongue, but I know no just man who can produce from every side a pretty speech.

Creon

Words may be many, and yet not to the point.

Oedipus

As if yours, indeed, were few, but on the mark.

Creon

They cannot be, not for one whose mind is such as yours.

810

Oedipus

Begone! I will say it for these men too. And do not besiege me with a jealous watch where I am destined to remain.

Creon

I call these men, and not you, to witness the tenor of your words to your friends. And if I ever catch you—

Oedipus

And who could catch me against the will of these allies?

815

Creon

I promise you, soon you will be pained even without that.

Oedipus

Where is the deed which backs that threatening word?

Creon

One of your two daughters I have myself just seized and sent away. The other I will drag off immediately.

Oedipus

Oh, no!

820

Creon

You will soon find more to weep about.

Oedipus

You have my child?

Creon

And I will have this one in no long time.

Oedipus

Oh! Strangers, what will you do? Will you betray me? Will you not drive the godless man from this land?

Chorus

Depart, stranger! Quick!

Your present deed is not just, nor the deed which you have done.

825

Creon

To his attendants.

It is time for you to drag this girl off against her will, if she will not go freely.

Antigone

Wretched that I am! Where can I flee? Where find help from gods or men?

Chorus

What are you doing, stranger?

Creon

I will not touch this man, but her who is mine.

830

Oedipus

Lords of the land!

Chorus

Stranger, you are acting unjustly.

Creon

Justly.

Chorus

How?

Creon

I take my own.

He lays his hand on Antigone.

Oedipus

Oh, city !

Chorus

What are you doing, stranger? Release her!

Your strength and ours will soon come to the test.

835

Creon

Stand back!

Chorus

Not while this is your purpose.

Creon

There will be war with Thebes for you, if you harm me.

Oedipus

Did I not say so?

Chorus

Unhand the girl at once!

Creon

Do not make commands where you are not the master.

Chorus

Let go, I tell you!

840

Creon

To his guards, who seize Antigone.

And I tell you: be off!

Chorus

Help, men of Colonus , bring help! The city, our city, is attacked by force! Come to our aid!

Antigone

I am being dragged away in misery. Strangers, strangers!

Oedipus

My child, where are you?

845

Antigone

I am led off by force.

Oedipus

Give me your hand, my child!

Antigone

I am helpless.

Creon

Away with you!

Oedipus

I am wretched, wretched! The guards exit with Antigone.

Creon

So those two staffs will never again support your path.

But since you wish to overcome your country and your friends, whose will I, though tyrant as well, am here discharging, then I wish you victory. For in time, I am sure, you will come to recognize all this, that now too as in time past, it is you who have done yourself no good, by indulging your anger despite your friends.

850

This has always been your ruin.

855

Chorus

Stop there, stranger!

Creon

Hands off, I say!

Chorus

I will not let go, unless you give back the maidens.

Creon

Then you will soon give the city a more valuable prize, for I will lay hands on more than those two girls.

Chorus

What! What do you intend?

860

Creon

This man here will be my captive.

Chorus

A valiant threat!

Creon

Straightaway it will be done.

Chorus

Indeed, unless the ruler of this realm prevents you.

Oedipus

Voice of shamelessness! Will you really lay hands on me?

Creon

Shut up, I say!

Oedipus

No! May the powers of this place grant me to utter this further curse! Most evil of men, when these eyes were dark, you wrenched from me the helpless one who was my eyesight and made off with her by force. Therefore to you and to your race may the Sun, the god who sees all things,

grant in time an old age such as mine!

870

Creon

Do you see this, people of the land?

Oedipus

They see both you and me. They know that I have suffered in deeds, and my defense is mere words.

Creon

I will not check my anger. Though I am alone

and slow with age, I will take this man by force.

875

Oedipus

Ah, my wretchedness!

Chorus

What arrogance you have come with, stranger, if you think you will achieve this!

Creon

I will.

Chorus

Then I think this city no longer exists.

Creon

For men who are just, you see, the weak vanquishes the strong.

880

Oedipus

Do you hear his words?

Chorus

Yes, but he will not achieve them.

Creon

Zeus knows perhaps, but you do not.

Chorus

This is an outrage!

Creon

An outrage which you must bear.

Chorus

Hear people, hear rulers of the land! Come quickly, come!

These men are on their way to cross our borders!

885

Theseus

What is this shout? What is the trouble? What fear has moved you to stop my sacrifice at the altar to the sea-god, the lord of your Colonus ? Speak, so that I may know the situation; for that is why I have sped

here more swiftly than was pleasant.

890

Oedipus

Dearest of men! I know your voice. Terrible are the things I have just suffered at the hands of this man here.

Theseus

What things are these? And who has pained you? Speak!

Oedipus

Creon, whom you see here,

has torn from me my children—my only two.

895

Theseus

What is that you say?

Oedipus

You have heard my wrongs.

Theseus

Hurry, one of you attendants, to the altars there, and order the people to leave the sacrifice

and race on foot and by horse full speed, to the region where the two highways meet, so that the maidens may not pass, and I not become a mockery to this stranger as one worsted by force. Quick, I say, away with you!

900

Turning towards Creon.

As for this man, if my

anger went as far as he deserves, I would not let him go uninjured from my hand. But now, just such law as he himself has brought will be the rule for his correction.

905

Addressing Creon.

You will never leave this land

until you bring those maidens and produce them in my sight. For your action is a disgrace to me, and to your own ancestors, and to your country. You have come to a city that practices justice and sanctions nothing without law,

910

yet you have spurned her lawful authorities and made this violent assault. You are taking captives at will and subjugating them by force, as if you believed that my city was void of men, or manned by slaves, and that I counted for nothing.
  Yet it was not Thebes that trained you to be evil. Thebes is not accustomed to rearing unjust men;—

915

nor would she praise you, if she learned that you are despoiling me, and despoiling the gods, when by force you drive off their unfortunate suppliants. If my foot were upon your land, never would I drag off or lead away someone

920

without permission from the ruler of the land, whoever he might be—no, even if my claim were the most just of all. I would know how a stranger ought to live among citizens. But you are disgracing a city that does not deserve it: your own,

925

and your years, despite their fullness, bring you an old age barren of sense.
  Now, I have said before, and I say it once again: let the maidens be brought here speedily, unless you wish to be an unwilling immigrant to this country by force.

930

These are the words of my lips; my mind is in accord.

935

Chorus

Do you see your plight, stranger? You are judged to be just by where you are from, but your deeds are found to be evil.

Creon

It is not because I thought this city void of men, son of Aegeus, or of counsel, as you say,

that I have done this deed; but because I judged that its people could never be so zealous for my relatives as to support them against my will. And I knew that this people would not receive a parricide and a polluted man,

940

a man whose unholy marriage—a marriage with children—had been found out. Such wisdom, I knew, was immemorial on the Areopagus, which does not allow such wanderers to dwell within this city. Trusting in that, I sought to take this prize.

945

And I would not have done so, had he not been calling down bitter curses on me and on my race. As I was wronged in this way, I judged that I had a right to this requital. For anger knows no old age, until death comes;

950

the dead alone feel no galling pain.
  In response to this, you will do what pleases you; for, though my case is just, the lack of aid makes me weak. Yet in the face of your actions, despite my age, I will endeavor to pay you back.

955

Oedipus

Shameless arrogance, where do you think this outrage falls—on my old age, or on your own? Bloodshed, incest, misery—all this your tongue has launched against me, and all this I have borne in my wretchedness by no choice of mine.

960

For this was dear to the gods, who were angry, perhaps, with my race from of old. Taking me alone, you could not find a reproach for any crime, in retribution for which I was driven to commit these sins against myself and against my kin. Tell me now: if, by the voice of an oracle, some divine doom was coming on my father,

965

that he should die by a son’s hand, how could you justly reproach me with this, when I was then unborn, when no father had yet begotten me, no mother’s womb conceived me? But if, having been born to misery—as I was born—I came to blows with my father and slew him, ignorant of what

970

I was doing and to whom, how could you reasonably blame the unwitting deed?
  And my mother—wretch, do you feel no shame in forcing me to speak of her marriage, when she was your sister, and when it was such as I will now tell?

975

For I will not be silent, when you have gone so far in impious speech. Yes, she was my mother, yes—alas, for my miseries! I did not know it, nor did she, and to her shame she bore children to the son whom she had borne.

980

But one thing, at least, I know: that you willingly revile her and me, but I did not willingly marry her, and I do not willingly speak now.
  No, I will not be called evil on account of this marriage, nor in the slaying of my father, which you charge me with again and again in bitter insult.

985

Answer just one thing of those I ask. If, here and now, someone should come up and try to murder you—you, the just one—would you ask if the murderer was your father, or would you revenge yourself on him straightaway?

990

I think that if your life is dear to you, you would requite the criminal, and not look around for a justification. Such then were the evils into which I came, led by the gods; and in this, I think, my father’s soul, could it come back to life, would not contradict me.

995

 

But you are not just; you are one who considers it a fine thing to utter every sort of word, both those which are sanctioned and those which are forbidden—such are your taunts against me in the presence of these men. And to you it seems a fine thing to flatter the renowned Theseus, and Athens , saying how well it is governed.

1000

Yet while giving such generous praise, you forget that if any land knows how to worship the gods with honors, this land excels in that. It is from her that you had planned to steal me, a suppliant and an old man, and tried to seize me, having already carried off my daughters.

1005

Therefore I now call on the goddesses here, I supplicate them, I beseech them with prayers, to bring me help and to fight on my behalf, that you may learn well what kind of men this city is guarded by.

1010

Chorus

The stranger is a good man, lord.

His fate has been accursed, but it is worthy of our aid.

1015

Theseus

Enough of words. The doers of the deed are in flight, while we, the sufferers, stand still.

Creon

What order, then, do you have for a powerless man?

Theseus

Guide the way on the path to them while I escort you,

in order that if you are keeping the maidens whom we seek in these lands, you yourself may reveal them to me. But if your men are fleeing with the spoils in their grasp, we may spare our trouble; the chase is for others, from whom they will never escape out of this land to thank their gods.

1020

 

Come, lead the way! And know that the captor has been captured; fate has seized you as you hunted. Gains unjustly got by guile are soon lost. And you will have no ally in your purpose; for I well know that it is not without accomplice or resource that you have come to such

1025

outrage, from the daring mood which has inspired you here. There was someone you were trusting in when you did these deeds. This I must consider, and I must not make this city weaker than one man. Do you take my drift?

1030

Or do these words seem as empty as the warnings given when you were laying your plans?

1035

Creon

Say what you wish while you are here; I will not object. But at home I too will know how to act.

Theseus

Make your threats, then, but go forward. As for you, Oedipus, stay here in peace with my pledge that, unless I die beforehand,

I will not cease until I put you in possession of your children.

1040

Oedipus

Thanks to you, Theseus, for your nobleness and your righteous care for me! Theseus exits with attendants and Creon.