Sophocles Oedipus Trilogy | Page 6

charge;
For the worst penalty that shall befall him
Is
banishment--unscathed he shall depart.
But if an alien from a foreign
land
Be known to any as the murderer,
Let him who knows speak
out, and he shall have
Due recompense from me and thanks to boot.

But if ye still keep silence, if through fear
For self or friends ye
disregard my hest,
Hear what I then resolve; I lay my ban
On the
assassin whosoe'er he be.
Let no man in this land, whereof I hold

The sovereign rule, harbor or speak to him;
Give him no part in
prayer or sacrifice
Or lustral rites, but hound him from your homes.

For this is our defilement, so the god
Hath lately shown to me by
oracles.
Thus as their champion I maintain the cause
Both of the
god and of the murdered King.
And on the murderer this curse I lay

(On him and all the partners in his guilt):--
Wretch, may he pine in
utter wretchedness!
And for myself, if with my privity
He gain
admittance to my hearth, I pray
The curse I laid on others fall on me.

See that ye give effect to all my hest,
For my sake and the god's
and for our land,
A desert blasted by the wrath of heaven.
For, let
alone the god's express command,
It were a scandal ye should leave
unpurged
The murder of a great man and your king,

Nor track it
home. And now that I am lord,
Successor to his throne, his bed, his
wife,
(And had he not been frustrate in the hope
Of issue, common
children of one womb
Had forced a closer bond twixt him and me,

But Fate swooped down upon him), therefore I
His blood-avenger
will maintain his cause
As though he were my sire, and leave no
stone
Unturned to track the assassin or avenge
The son of Labdacus,
of Polydore,
Of Cadmus, and Agenor first of the race.
And for the
disobedient thus I pray:
May the gods send them neither timely fruits


Of earth, nor teeming increase of the womb,
But may they waste
and pine, as now they waste,
Aye and worse stricken; but to all of
you,
My loyal subjects who approve my acts,
May Justice, our ally,
and all the gods
Be gracious and attend you evermore.
CHORUS
The oath thou profferest, sire, I take and swear.
I slew
him not myself, nor can I name
The slayer. For the quest, 'twere well,
methinks
That Phoebus, who proposed the riddle, himself
Should
give the answer--who the murderer was.
OEDIPUS
Well argued; but no living man can hope
To force the
gods to speak against their will.
CHORUS
May I then say what seems next best to me?
OEDIPUS
Aye, if there be a third best, tell it too.
CHORUS
My liege, if any man sees eye to eye
With our lord
Phoebus, 'tis our prophet, lord
Teiresias; he of all men best might
guide
A searcher of this matter to the light.
OEDIPUS
Here too my zeal has nothing lagged, for twice
At
Creon's instance have I sent to fetch him,
And long I marvel why he
is not here.
CHORUS
I mind me too of rumors long ago--
Mere gossip.
OEDIPUS
Tell them, I would fain know all.
CHORUS
'Twas said he fell by travelers.
OEDIPUS
So I heard,
But none has seen the man who saw him fall.

CHORUS
Well, if he knows what fear is, he will quail
And flee
before the terror of thy curse.
OEDIPUS
Words scare not him who blenches not at deeds.
CHORUS
But here is one to arraign him. Lo, at length
They bring
the god-inspired seer in whom
Above all other men is truth inborn.

[Enter TEIRESIAS, led by a boy.]
OEDIPUS
Teiresias, seer who comprehendest all,
Lore of the wise
and hidden mysteries,
High things of heaven and low things of the
earth,
Thou knowest, though thy blinded eyes see naught,
What
plague infects our city; and we turn
To thee, O seer, our one defense
and shield.
The purport of the answer that the God
Returned to us
who sought his oracle,
The messengers have doubtless told thee--how

One course alone could rid us of the pest,
To find the murderers of
Laius,
And slay them or expel them from the land.
Therefore
begrudging neither augury
Nor other divination that is thine,
O save
thyself, thy country, and thy king,
Save all from this defilement of
blood shed.
On thee we rest. This is man's highest end,
To others'
service all his powers to lend.
TEIRESIAS
Alas, alas, what misery to be wise
When wisdom
profits nothing! This old lore
I had forgotten; else I were not here.
OEDIPUS
What ails thee? Why this melancholy mood?
TEIRESIAS
Let me go home; prevent me not; 'twere best
That
thou shouldst bear thy burden and I mine.
OEDIPUS
For shame! no true-born Theban patriot
Would thus
withhold the word of prophecy.
TEIRESIAS
Thy words, O king, are wide of the mark, and I
For
fear lest I too trip like thee...

OEDIPUS
Oh speak,
Withhold not, I adjure thee, if thou know'st,
Thy
knowledge. We are all thy suppliants.
TEIRESIAS
Aye, for ye all are witless, but my voice
Will ne'er
reveal my miseries--or thine. [2]
OEDIPUS
What then, thou knowest, and yet willst not speak!

Wouldst thou betray us and destroy the State?
TEIRESIAS
I