Sophocles Oedipus Trilogy | Page 5

quest.
CREON?Robbers, he told us, not one bandit but?A troop of knaves, attacked and murdered him.
OEDIPUS?Did any bandit dare so bold a stroke,?Unless indeed he were suborned from Thebes?
CREON?So 'twas surmised, but none was found to avenge?His murder mid the trouble that ensued.
OEDIPUS?What trouble can have hindered a full quest,?When royalty had fallen thus miserably?
CREON?The riddling Sphinx compelled us to let slide?The dim past and attend to instant needs.
OEDIPUS?Well, _I_ will start afresh and once again?Make dark things clear. Right worthy the concern?Of Phoebus, worthy thine too, for the dead;?I also, as is meet, will lend my aid?To avenge this wrong to Thebes and to the god.?Not for some far-off kinsman, but myself,?Shall I expel this poison in the blood;?For whoso slew that king might have a mind?To strike me too with his assassin hand.?Therefore in righting him I serve myself.?Up, children, haste ye, quit these altar stairs,?Take hence your suppliant wands, go summon hither?The Theban commons. With the god's good help?Success is sure; 'tis ruin if we fail.?[Exeunt OEDIPUS and CREON]
PRIEST?Come, children, let us hence; these gracious words?Forestall the very purpose of our suit.?And may the god who sent this oracle?Save us withal and rid us of this pest.?[Exeunt PRIEST and SUPPLIANTS]
CHORUS?(Str. 1)?Sweet-voiced daughter of Zeus from thy gold-paved Pythian shrine
Wafted to Thebes divine,?What dost thou bring me? My soul is racked and shivers with fear.
(Healer of Delos, hear!)?Hast thou some pain unknown before,?Or with the circling years renewest a penance of yore??Offspring of golden Hope, thou voice immortal, O tell me.
(Ant. 1)?First on Athene I call; O Zeus-born goddess, defend!
Goddess and sister, befriend,?Artemis, Lady of Thebes, high-throned in the midst of our mart!
Lord of the death-winged dart!?Your threefold aid I crave?From death and ruin our city to save.?If in the days of old when we nigh had perished, ye drave?From our land the fiery plague, be near us now and defend us!
(Str. 2)
Ah me, what countless woes are mine!?All our host is in decline;?Weaponless my spirit lies.?Earth her gracious fruits denies;?Women wail in barren throes;?Life on life downstriken goes,?Swifter than the wind bird's flight,?Swifter than the Fire-God's might,?To the westering shores of Night.
(Ant. 2)
Wasted thus by death on death?All our city perisheth.?Corpses spread infection round;?None to tend or mourn is found.?Wailing on the altar stair?Wives and grandams rend the air--?Long-drawn moans and piercing cries?Blent with prayers and litanies.?Golden child of Zeus, O hear?Let thine angel face appear!
(Str. 3)?And grant that Ares whose hot breath I feel,
Though without targe or steel?He stalks, whose voice is as the battle shout,?May turn in sudden rout,?To the unharbored Thracian waters sped,
Or Amphitrite's bed.?For what night leaves undone,?Smit by the morrow's sun?Perisheth. Father Zeus, whose hand?Doth wield the lightning brand,?Slay him beneath thy levin bold, we pray,
Slay him, O slay!
(Ant. 3)?O that thine arrows too, Lycean King,
From that taut bow's gold string,?Might fly abroad, the champions of our rights;
Yea, and the flashing lights?Of Artemis, wherewith the huntress sweeps
Across the Lycian steeps.?Thee too I call with golden-snooded hair,
Whose name our land doth bear,?Bacchus to whom thy Maenads Evoe shout;
Come with thy bright torch, rout,
Blithe god whom we adore,
The god whom gods abhor.
[Enter OEDIPUS.]?OEDIPUS?Ye pray; 'tis well, but would ye hear my words?And heed them and apply the remedy,?Ye might perchance find comfort and relief.?Mind you, I speak as one who comes a stranger?To this report, no less than to the crime;?For how unaided could I track it far?Without a clue? Which lacking (for too late?Was I enrolled a citizen of Thebes)?This proclamation I address to all:--?Thebans, if any knows the man by whom?Laius, son of Labdacus, was slain,?I summon him to make clean shrift to me.?And if he shrinks, let him reflect that thus?Confessing he shall 'scape the capital 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