Oedipus at Colonos by Sophocles

Author:Sophocles
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-03-27T16:00:00+00:00

Enter Theseus.

The. Wherefore that shouting? Daunted by what fear

Stayed ye me sacrificing to the God

Who guards this deme Colonos? Let me know

What cause so hastened my reluctant foot.

Oed. Dear friend (I know thy voice addressing us),

One here hath lately done me cruel wrong.

The. Who is the wrong-doer, say, and what the deed?

Oed. This Creon, whom thou seest, hath torn away

Two children that were all in all to me.

The. Can this be possible?

Oed. Thou hear’st the truth.

The. 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.

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.

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,

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

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

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,

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

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

Not with my lips alone, but from my will.

Ch. Stranger, dost thou perceive? Thy parentage

Is owned as noble, but thine evil deeds

Are blazoned visibly.

Cr. Great Aegeus’ son!

Not as misprising this thy city’s strength

In arms, or wisdom in debate, I dared

This capture, but in simple confidence

Thy citizens would not so envy me

My blood relations, as to harbour them

Against my will,—nor welcome to their hearths

A man incestuous and a parricide,

The proved defiler of his mother’s bed

Such was the mount of Ares that I knew,

Seat of high wisdom, planted in their soil,

That suffers no such lawless runaways

To haunt within the borders of your realm.

Relying on that I laid my hands upon

This quarry, nor had done so, were it not

That bitterly he cursed myself and mine.

That moved me to requital, since even Age

Still bears resentment, till the power of death

Frees men from anger, as from all annoy.

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