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THE
897
Then one of you run to the altar-foot
Hard by, and haste the people from the rite,
Horsemen and footmen at the height of speed
To race unto the parting of the roads
Where travellers from both gorges wont to meet.
900
Lest there the maidens pass beyond our reach
And I be worsted by this stranger’s might
And let him laugh at me. Be swift! Away!
—For him, were I as wroth as he deserves,
He should not go unpunished from my hand.
905
But now he shall be ruled by the same law
He thought to enforce. Thou goest not from this ground
Till thou hast set these maids in presence here;
Since by thine act thou hast disgraced both me
And thine own lineage and thy native land,
910
Who with unlicensed inroad hast assailed
An ancient city, that hath still observed
Justice and equity, and apart from law
Ratifies nothing; and, being here, hast cast
Authority to the winds, and made thine own
915
Whate’er thou wouldst, bearing it off perforce,—
Deeming of me forsooth as nothing worth,
And of my city as one enslaved to foes
Or void of manhood. Not of Thebe’s will
Come such wild courses. It is not her way
920
To foster men in sin, nor would she praise
Thy doing, if she knew that thou hast robbed
Me and the gods, dragging poor suppliant wights
From their last refuge at thy will—I would not,
Had I perchance set foot within thy land,
925
Even were my cause most righteous, have presumed,
Without consent of him who bore chief sway,
To seize on any man, but would have known
How men should act who tread on foreign soil.
Thou bring’st disgrace on thine own mother state
930
All undeservedly, and the lapse of years
Hath left thee aged, but not wise—Again
I bid those maids now to be brought with speed,
Unless thou would’st be made a sojourner
In Athens by compulsion. This I speak
935
Not with my lips alone, but from my will.
Then one of you run to the altar-foot
Hard by, and haste the people from the rite,
Horsemen and footmen at the height of speed
To race unto the parting of the roads
Where travellers from both gorges wont to meet.
900
Lest there the maidens pass beyond our reach
And I be worsted by this stranger’s might
And let him laugh at me. Be swift! Away!
—For him, were I as wroth as he deserves,
He should not go unpunished from my hand.
905
But now he shall be ruled by the same law
He thought to enforce. Thou goest not from this ground
Till thou hast set these maids in presence here;
Since by thine act thou hast disgraced both me
And thine own lineage and thy native land,
910
Who with unlicensed inroad hast assailed
An ancient city, that hath still observed
Justice and equity, and apart from law
Ratifies nothing; and, being here, hast cast
Authority to the winds, and made thine own
915
Whate’er thou wouldst, bearing it off perforce,—
Deeming of me forsooth as nothing worth,
And of my city as one enslaved to foes
Or void of manhood. Not of Thebe’s will
Come such wild courses. It is not her way
920
To foster men in sin, nor would she praise
Thy doing, if she knew that thou hast robbed
Me and the gods, dragging poor suppliant wights
From their last refuge at thy will—I would not,
Had I perchance set foot within thy land,
925
Even were my cause most righteous, have presumed,
Without consent of him who bore chief sway,
To seize on any man, but would have known
How men should act who tread on foreign soil.
Thou bring’st disgrace on thine own mother state
930
All undeservedly, and the lapse of years
Hath left thee aged, but not wise—Again
I bid those maids now to be brought with speed,
Unless thou would’st be made a sojourner
In Athens by compulsion. This I speak
935
Not with my lips alone, but from my will.
Oedipus at Colonus. Sophocles. Lewis Campbell (Translator). London, New York and Toronto. 1906.