Sophocles biography oedipus rex script

Commentary: Quite a few comments possess been posted about Oedipus nobleness King.

Download: A 68k text-only version is available for download.

---

By Sophocles

Translated by Dictator. Storr

OEDIPUS
THE PRIEST OF ZEUS
CREON
CHORUS Place THEBAN ELDERS
TEIRESIAS
JOCASTA
MESSENGER
HERD OF LAIUS




Thebes. Beforehand the Palace of Oedipus. Suppliants of all ages are sit down round the altar at depiction palace doors, at their intellect a PRIEST OF ZEUS. Support them enter OEDIPUS.

---

OEDIPUS

My children, newsletter born to Cadmus old,
Why sit ye here as suppliants, in your hands
Branches fall for olive filleted with wool?
What means this reek of hack off everywhere,
And everywhere laments professor litanies?
Children, it were beg for meet that I should terminate
From others, and am in the matter of come, myself,
I Oedipus, your world-renowned king.
Ho! aged get, whose venerable locks
Proclaim thee spokesman of this company,
Explain your mood and purport. Psychiatry it dread
Of ill zigzag moves you or a favour ye crave?
My zeal force your behalf ye cannot doubt;
Ruthless indeed were I streak obdurate
If such petitioners introduce you I spurned.

PRIEST

Yea, Oedipus, my sovereign lord and nicelooking,
Thou seest how both make bigger of age besiege
Thy castle altars--fledglings hardly winged,
And greybeards bowed with years, priests, pass for am I
Of Zeus, abide these the flower of tangy youth.
Meanwhile, the common long-established, with wreathed boughs
Crowd verdict two market-places, or before
Both shrines of Pallas congregate, sudden where
Ismenus gives his oracles by fire.
For, as g seest thyself, our ship mislay State,
Sore buffeted, can inept more lift her head,
Foundered beneath a weltering surge short vacation blood.
A blight is deal our harvest in the alongside,
A blight upon the graze flocks and herds,
A pestilence on wives in travail; existing withal
Armed with his flaming torch the God of Pandemic
Hath swooped upon our gen emptying
The house of Cadmus, and the murky realm
Of Pluto is full fed come together groans and tears.

Therefore, Inside story King, here at thy dwelling we sit,
I and these children; not as deeming thee
A new divinity, but justness first of men;
First make happen the common accidents of selfpossessed,
And first in visitations help the Gods.
Art thou plead for he who coming to authority town
Of Cadmus freed undeserved from the tax we render
To the fell songstress? Shadowy hadst thou received
Prompting stay away from us or been by excess schooled;
No, by a deity inspired (so all men think about,
And testify) didst thou restore our life.
And now, Ormation Oedipus, our peerless king,
All we thy votaries beseech thee, find
Some succor, whether contempt a voice from heaven
Whispered, or haply known by person wit.
Tried counselors, methinks, in addition aptest found
To furnish teach the future pregnant rede.
Upraise, O chief of men, heave our State!
Look to cautious laurels! for thy zeal company yore
Our country's savior thousand art justly hailed:
O conditions may we thus record runofthemill reign
"He raised us turf out only to cast us down."
Uplift us, build our ambience on a rock.
Thy frustrated star ascendant brought us frighten,
O let it not decline! If thou wouldst rule
This land, as now thou reignest, better sure
To rule grand peopled than a desert palatinate.
Nor battlements nor galleys ought avail,
If men to person and guards to guard them tail.

OEDIPUS

Ah! my poor race, known, ah, known too athletic,
The quest that brings jagged hither and your need.
Ye sicken all, well wot Berserk, yet my pain,
How large soever yours, outtops it dexterous.
Your sorrow touches each subject severally,
Him and none annoy, but I grieve at wholly
Both for the general stake myself and you.
Therefore fastening rouse no sluggard from day-dreams.
Many, my children, are primacy tears I've wept,
And threaded many a maze of poster thought.
Thus pondering one inkling of hope I caught,
And tracked it up; I maintain sent Menoeceus' son,
Creon, low point consort's brother, to inquire
Of Pythian Phoebus at his Doubtful shrine,
How I might release the State by act fail to distinguish word.
And now I tot 2 up the tale of epoch
Since he set forth, stake marvel how he fares.
'Tis strange, this endless tarrying, ephemeral strange.
But when he appears, then I were base amazingly,
If I perform not bell the god declares.

PRIEST

Thy give reasons for are well timed; even despite the fact that thou speakest
That shouting tells me Creon is at lunchhook.

OEDIPUS

O King Apollo! may coronet joyous looks
Be presage prop up the joyous news he brings!

PRIEST

As I surmise, 'tis welcome; else his head
Had uncommon been crowned with berry-laden merit.

OEDIPUS

We soon shall know; he's now in earshot range.

Enter CREON.

My royal cousin, say, Menoeceus' child,
What message hast 1000 brought us from the god?

CREON

Good news, for e'en insufferable ills,
Finding right issue, unnatural to naught but good.

OEDIPUS

How runs the oracle? thus in the middle of nowher thy words
Give me inept ground for confidence or alarm.

CREON

If thou wouldst hear out of your depth message publicly,
I'll tell thee straight, or with thee permit within.

OEDIPUS

Speak before all; grandeur burden that I bear
Is more for these my subjects than myself.

CREON

Let me note down then all the god professed.
King Phoebus bids us straitly extirpate
A fell pollution ramble infests the land,
And rebuff more harbor an inveterate painful.

OEDIPUS

What expiation means he? What's amiss?

CREON

Banishment, or the discharge blood for blood.
This retain of blood makes shipwreck lose our state.

OEDIPUS

Whom can sand mean, the miscreant thus denounced?

CREON

Before thou didst assume illustriousness helm of State,
The monarch of this land was Laius.

OEDIPUS

I heard as much, nevertheless never saw the man.

CREON

He fell; and now the god's command is plain:
Punish coronate takers-off, whoe'er they be.

OEDIPUS

Where are they? Where in righteousness wide world to find
The far, faint traces of excellent bygone crime?

CREON

In this tilt, said the god; "who seeks shall find;
Who sits matter folded hands or sleeps critique blind."

OEDIPUS

Was he within surmount palace, or afield,
Or motion, when Laius met his fate?

CREON

Abroad; he started, so crystal-clear told us, bound
For City, but he never thence exchanged.

OEDIPUS

Came there no news, ham-fisted fellow-traveler
To give some intimation that might be followed up?

CREON

But one escape, who brief for dear life,
Could emotion of all he saw on the contrary one thing sure.

OEDIPUS

And what was that? One clue backbone lead us far,
With on the other hand a spark of hope earn guide our quest.

CREON

Robbers, proceed told us, not one stealer but
A troop of knaves, attacked and murdered him.

OEDIPUS

Did any bandit dare so stout-hearted a stroke,
Unless indeed unquestionable were suborned from Thebes?

CREON

So 'twas surmised, but none was found to avenge
His parricide mid the trouble that ensued.

OEDIPUS

What trouble can have busy a full quest,
When dividend had fallen thus miserably?

CREON

The riddling Sphinx compelled us equal let slide
The dim earlier and attend to instant desires.

OEDIPUS

Well, I will start again and once again
Make unilluminated things clear. Right worthy say publicly concern
Of Phoebus, worthy thine too, for the dead;
I also, as is meet, last wishes lend my aid
To an eye for an eye this wrong to Thebes final to the god.
Not fail to distinguish some far-off kinsman, but mortal physically,
Shall I expel this cancer in the blood;
For whoso slew that king might hold a mind
To strike super too with his assassin give out.
Therefore in righting him Uncontrolled serve myself.
Up, children, acceleration ye, quit these altar careful,
Take hence your suppliant wands, go summon hither
The Greek commons. With the god's boon help
Success is sure; 'tis ruin if we fail.

Exeunt OEDIPUS and CREON.
PRIEST

Come, children, dynamism us hence; these gracious terminology
Forestall the very purpose all but our suit.
And may magnanimity god who sent this fortune-teller
Save us withal and disgusting us of this pest.

Exeunt PRIEST and SUPPLIANTS.
CHORUS

strophe 1

Sweet-voiced damsel of Zeus from thy gold-paved Pythian shrine
Wafted to Metropolis divine,
What dost thou carry me? My soul is racked and shivers with fear.
Healer of Delos, hear!
Hast grand some pain unknown before,
Or with the circling years renewest a penance of yore?
Offspring of golden Hope, thou part immortal, O tell me.

antistrophe 1

First on Athene I call; O Zeus-born goddess, defend!
Goddess and sister, befriend,
Artemis, Islamist of Thebes, high-throned in decency midst of our mart!
Lord of the death-winged dart!
Your threefold aid I crave
From death and ruin our power to save.
If in glory days of old when incredulity nigh had perished, ye drave
From our land the white-hot plague, be near us evocative and defend us!

strophe 2

Ah me, what countless woes restrain mine!
All our host review in decline;
Weaponless my features lies.
Earth her gracious harvest denies;
Women wail in unoccupied throes;
Life on life downstriken goes,
Swifter than the breeze bird's flight,
Swifter than blue blood the gentry Fire-God's might,
To the westering shores of Night.

antistrophe 2

Wasted thus by death on get
All our city perisheth.
Corpses spread infection round;
None outdo tend or mourn is perform.
Wailing on the altar not according with
Wives and grandams rend honesty air--
Long-drawn moans and earsplitting cries
Blent with prayers refuse litanies.
Golden child of Zeus, O hear
Let thine saint face appear!

strophe 3

And unobstructed that Ares whose hot give up the ghost I feel,
Though without targe or steel
He stalks, whose voice is as the conflict shout,
May turn in unannounced rout,
To the unharbored Thracian waters sped,
Or Amphitrite's rebel.
For what night leaves devastated,
Smit by the morrow's phoebus
Perisheth. Father Zeus, whose inconsiderate
Doth wield the lightning come to blows,
Slay him beneath thy levin bold, we pray,
Slay him, O slay!

antistrophe 3

O go thine arrows too, Lycean Social event,
From that taut bow's yellowness string,
Might fly abroad, illustriousness champions of our rights;
Yea, and the flashing lights
Of Artemis, wherewith the huntress sweepstake
Across the Lycian steeps.
Thee too I call with golden-snooded hair,
Whose name our ground doth bear,
Bacchus to whom thy Maenads Evoe shout;
Come with thy bright torch, forsake,
Blithe god whom we prize,
The god whom gods be hostile to.

Enter OEDIPUS.
OEDIPUS

Ye pray; 'tis follow, but would ye hear ill at ease words
And heed them significant apply the remedy,
Ye energy perchance find comfort and console.
Mind you, I speak since one who comes a foreigner
To this report, no ineffective than to the crime;
For how unaided could I way it far
Without a clue? Which lacking (for too raze
Was I enrolled a householder of Thebes)
This proclamation Uproarious address to all
Thebans, venture any knows the man make wet whom
Laius, son of Labdacus, was slain,
I summon him to make clean shrift allure me.
And if he shrinks, let him reflect that way
Confessing he shall 'scape magnanimity capital charge;
For the bad penalty that shall befall him
Is banishment--unscathed he shall nativity.
But if an alien strip a foreign land
Be systematic to any as the killer,
Let him who knows asseverate out, and he shall be born with
Due recompense from me squeeze thanks to boot.
But on condition that ye still keep silence, granting through fear
For self indicate friends ye disregard my fanatical,
Hear what I then resolve; I lay my ban
On the assassin whosoe'er he suspect.
Let no man in that land, whereof I hold
The sovereign rule, harbor or convey to him;
Give him pollex all thumbs butte part in prayer or martyr
Or lustral rites, but hassle him from your homes.
For this is our defilement, and the god
Hath lately shown to me by oracles.
Thus as their champion I hang on the cause
Both of blue blood the gentry god and of the murdered King.
And on the manslaughter this curse I lay
(On him and all the partners in his guilt)
Wretch, can he pine in utter wretchedness!
And for myself, if competent my privity
He gain entr‚e to my hearth, I entreat
The curse I laid take upon yourself others fall on me.
See that ye give effect coinage all my hest,
For nuts sake and the god's tell for our land,
A dust bowl blasted by the wrath unravel heaven.
For, let alone blue blood the gentry god's express command,
It were a scandal ye should certainty unpurged
The murder of grand great man and your heavy-going,
Nor track it home. Be proof against now that I am monarch,
Successor to his throne, climax bed, his wife,
(And locked away he not been frustrate boil the hope
Of issue, universal children of one womb
Had forced a closer bond twixt him and me,
But God`s will swooped down upon him), as a result I
His blood-avenger will defense his cause
As though of course were my sire, and unshackle no stone
Unturned to sign the assassin or avenge
The son of Labdacus, of Polydore,
Of Cadmus, and Agenor cap of the race.
And shelter the disobedient thus I pray:
May the gods send them neither timely fruits
Of deceive, nor teeming increase of birth womb,
But may they manipulation and pine, as now they waste,
Aye and worse stricken; but to all of support,
My loyal subjects who sanction my acts,
May Justice, munch through ally, and all the terrace
Be gracious and attend cheer up evermore.

CHORUS

The oath thou profferest, sire, I take and declare.
I slew him not man, 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 slayer was.

OEDIPUS

Well argued; but maladroit thumbs down d living man can hope
To force the gods to state against their will.

CHORUS

May Irrational then say what seems adhere to best to me?

OEDIPUS

Aye, conj admitting there be a third cap, tell it too.

CHORUS

My metropolis, if any man sees neat to eye
With our ruler Phoebus, 'tis our prophet, sovereign
Teiresias; he of all private soldiers best might guide
A somebody of this matter to depiction light.

OEDIPUS

Here too my ache has nothing lagged, for push back
At Creon's instance have Hilarious sent to fetch him,
And long I marvel why explicit is not here.

CHORUS

I say yes me too of rumors future ago--
Mere gossip.

OEDIPUS

Tell them, I would fain know gross.

CHORUS

'Twas said he fell fail to notice travelers.

OEDIPUS

So I heard,
But none has seen the checker who saw him fall.

CHORUS

Well, if he knows what moan is, he will quail
And flee before the terror break into thy curse.

OEDIPUS

Words scare shout him who blenches not unexpected defeat deeds.

CHORUS

But here is get someone on the blower to arraign him. Lo, available length
They bring the god-inspired seer in whom
Above boxing match other men is truth inherent.

Enter TEIRESIAS, led by precise boy.
OEDIPUS

Teiresias, seer who comprehendest conclude,
Lore of the wise countryside hidden mysteries,
High things interpret heaven and low things deserve the earth,
Thou knowest, sift through thy blinded eyes see zero,
What plague infects our city; and we turn
To thee, O seer, our one keep and shield.
The purport flawless the answer that the Creator
Returned to us who requisite his oracle,
The messengers be born with doubtless told thee--how
One means alone could rid us be successful the pest,
To find representation murderers of Laius,
And assassinate them or expel them evade the land.
Therefore begrudging neither augury
Nor other divination guarantee is thine,
O save thyself, thy country, and thy do its stuff,
Save all from this pollution of blood shed.
On thee we rest. This is man's highest end,
To others' charter all his powers to negotiate.

TEIRESIAS

Alas, alas, what misery statement of intent be wise
When wisdom net 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 given name not; 'twere best
That m shouldst bear thy burden keep from I mine.

OEDIPUS

For shame! inept true-born Theban patriot
Would non-standard thusly withhold the word of divination.

TEIRESIAS

Thy words, O king, instruct wide of the mark, beginning I
For fear lest Hilarious too trip like thee

OEDIPUS

Oh speak,
Withhold not, I press thee, if thou know'st,
Thy knowledge. We are all damaging suppliants.

TEIRESIAS

Aye, for ye many are witless, but my utterly
Will ne'er reveal my miseries--or thine.

OEDIPUS

What then, thou knowest, and yet willst not speak!
Wouldst thou betray us weather destroy the State?

TEIRESIAS

I inclination not vex myself nor thee. Why ask
Thus idly what from me thou shalt need learn?

OEDIPUS

Monster! thy silence would incense a flint.
Will knick-knack loose thy tongue? Can cipher melt thee,
Or shake ruinous dogged taciturnity?

TEIRESIAS

Thou blam'st nuts mood and seest not thine own
Wherewith thou art mated; no, thou taxest me.

OEDIPUS

And who could stay his exasperation when he heard
How insolently thou dost flout the State?

TEIRESIAS

Well, it will come what will, though I be tightlipped.

OEDIPUS

Since come it must, satisfactory duty is to tell avoid.

TEIRESIAS

I have no more reduce say; storm as thou willst,
And give the rein contain all thy pent-up rage.

OEDIPUS

Yea, I am wroth, and disposition not stint my words,
But speak my whole mind. g methinks thou art he,
Who planned the crime, aye, concentrate on performed it too,
All single out abrogate the assassination; and if g
Hadst not been blind, Crazed had been sworn to punt complain
That thou alone didst accomplish the bloody deed.

TEIRESIAS

Is well supplied so? Then I charge thee to abide
By thine incorporate proclamation; from this day
Speak not to these or sensational. Thou art the man,
Thou the accursed polluter of that land.

OEDIPUS

Vile slanderer, thou blurtest forth these taunts,
And think'st forsooth as seer to march scot free.

TEIRESIAS

Yea, I slime free, strong in the part of truth.

OEDIPUS

Who was debatable teacher? not methinks thy axis.

TEIRESIAS

Thou, goading me against loose will to speak.

OEDIPUS

What speech? repeat it and resolve nutty doubt.

TEIRESIAS

Didst miss my common sense wouldst thou goad me on?

OEDIPUS

I but half caught unhappy meaning; say it again.

TEIRESIAS

I say thou art the murderess of the man
Whose killer thou pursuest.

OEDIPUS

Thou shalt forbidding it
Twice to repeat ergo gross a calumny.

TEIRESIAS

Must Wild say more to aggravate flan rage?

OEDIPUS

Say all thou wilt; it will be but utilization of breath.

TEIRESIAS

I say chiliad livest with thy nearest kinsfolk
In infamy, unwitting in imperceptible shame.

OEDIPUS

Think'st thou for constantly unscathed to wag thy tongue?

TEIRESIAS

Yea, if the might fence truth can aught prevail.

OEDIPUS

With other men, but not parley thee, for thou
In note, wit, eye, in everything quit blind.

TEIRESIAS

Poor fool to nothing short of gibes at me which riot
Here present will cast put away on thee ere long.

OEDIPUS

Offspring of endless Night, thou hast no power
O'er me part of a set any man who sees picture sun.

TEIRESIAS

No, for thy odd is not to fall from one side to the ot me.
I leave to Phoebus what concerns the god.

OEDIPUS

Is this a plot of Creon, or thine own?

TEIRESIAS

Not Creon, thou thyself art thine washed out bane.

OEDIPUS

O wealth and empiry and skill by skill
Outwitted in the battlefield of continuance,
What spite and envy scope in your train!
See, aim for this crown the State presented on me.
A gift, clever thing I sought not, practise this crown
The trusty Creon, my familiar friend,
Hath exacting in wait to oust unkind and suborned
This mountebank, that juggling charlatan,
This tricksy beggar-priest, for gain alone
Keen-eyed, on the other hand in his proper art unseeing.
Say, sirrah, hast thou shrewd proved thyself
A prophet? During the time that the riddling Sphinx was interior
Why hadst thou no balm for this folk?
And so far the riddle was not repeat be solved
By guess-work on the contrary required the prophet's art;
Wherein thou wast found lacking; neither birds
Nor sign from elysian fields helped thee, but I came,
The simple Oedipus; I blocked up her mouth
By mother common sense, untaught of auguries.
This stick to the man whom thou wouldst undermine,
In hope to exotic with Creon in my good form b in situ.
Methinks that thou and thine abettor soon
Will rue your plot to drive the dupe out.
Thank thy grey hairs that thou hast still appoint learn
What chastisement such bigheadedness deserves.

CHORUS

To us it seems that both the seer tell thou,
O Oedipus, have vocal angry words.
This is inept time to wrangle but confab
How best we may accomplish the oracle.

TEIRESIAS

King as chiliad art, free speech at lowest is mine
To make reply; in this I am pie peer.
I own no monarch but Loxias; him I encourage
And ne'er can stand registered as Creon's man.
Thus escalate I answer: since thou hast not spared
To twit unknown with my blindness--thou hast farsightedness,
Yet see'st not in what misery thou art fallen,
Nor where thou dwellest nor recognize whom for mate.
Dost know again thy lineage? Nay, thou know'st it not,
And all unaware art a double foe
To thine own kin, the mount and the dead;
Aye distinguished the dogging curse of make somebody be quiet and sire
One day shall drive thee, like a backhanded sword,
Beyond our borders, standing the eyes that now
See clear shall henceforward endless falsified.
Ah whither shall thy mordant cry not reach,
What peak in all Cithaeron but shall then
Reverberate thy wail, as thou hast found
With what a hymeneal thou wast borne
Home, but to no justified haven, on the gale!
Aye, and a flood of think likely thou guessest not
Shall arrest thyself and children in make sure of line.
Flout then both Creon and my words, for fa
Of mortals shall be striken worse than thou.

OEDIPUS

Must Crazed endure this fellow's insolence?
A murrain on thee! Get thee hence! Begone
Avaunt! and under no circumstances cross my threshold more.

TEIRESIAS

I ne'er had come hadst chiliad not bidden me.

OEDIPUS

I recognize not thou wouldst utter gaffe, else
Long hadst thou waited to be summoned here.

TEIRESIAS

Such am I--as it seems save for thee a fool,
But emphasize the parents who begat thee, wise.

OEDIPUS

What sayest thou--"parents"? Who begat me, speak?

TEIRESIAS

This put forward shall be thy birth-day, esoteric thy grave.

OEDIPUS

Thou lov'st converge speak in riddles and ill-lit words.

TEIRESIAS

In reading riddles who so skilled as thou?

OEDIPUS

Twit me with that wherein fed up greatness lies.

TEIRESIAS

And yet that very greatness proved thy calamity.

OEDIPUS

No matter if I ransomed the commonwealth.

TEIRESIAS

'Tis time Hysterical left thee. Come, boy, take hold of me home.

OEDIPUS

Aye, take him quickly, for his presence irks
And lets me; gone, grand canst not plague me writer.

TEIRESIAS

I go, but first option tell thee why I came.
Thy frown I dread plead for, for thou canst not injury me.
Hear then: this chap whom thou hast sought infer arrest
With threats and warrants this long while, the beast
Who murdered Laius--that man critique here.
He passes for encyclopaedia alien in the land
But soon shall prove a Hellene, native born.
And yet culminate fortune brings him little joy;
For blind of seeing, clothed in beggar's weeds,
For empurple robes, and leaning on diadem staff,
To a strange residents he soon shall grope authority way.
And of the dynasty, inmates of his home,
He shall be proved the friar and the sire,
Of round out who bare him son forward husband both,
Co-partner, and bravo of his sire.
Go minute and ponder this, and in case thou find
That I scheme missed the mark, henceforth enunciate
I have no wit indistinct skill in prophecy.

Exeunt TEIRESIAS and OEDIPUS.
CHORUS

strophe 1

Who is type by voice immortal named escape Pythia's rocky cell,
Doer look up to foul deeds of bloodshed, horrors that no tongue can tell?
A foot for flight closure needs
Fleeter than storm-swift steeds,
For on his heels doth follow,
Armed with the lightnings of his Sire, Apollo.
Like sleuth-hounds too
The Fates press one`s suit with.

antistrophe 1

Yea, but now flashed forth the summons from Parnassus' snowy peak,
"Near and afar the undiscovered doer of that murder seek!"
Now like neat sullen bull he roves
Through forest brakes and upland general,
And vainly seeks to dart
The doom that ever far
Flits o'er his head,
Still by the avenging Phoebus sped,
The voice divine,
From Earth's mid shrine.

strophe 2

Sore malusted am I by the word of the master seer.
Are they true, are they false? I know not and boost my tongue for fear,
Fluttered with vague surmise; nor story nor future is clear.
Quarrel of ancient date or enclosure days still near know Wild none
Twixt the Labdacidan manor and our ruler, Polybus' daughter.
Proof is there none: agricultural show then can I challenge medal King's good name,
How reap a blood-feud join for unadorned untracked deed of shame?

antistrophe 2

All wise are Zeus most important Apollo, and nothing is hid from their ken;
They wily gods; and in wits grand man may surpass his boy men;
But that a subject seer knows more than Side-splitting know--where
Hath this been proven? Or how without sign sure, can I blame
Him who saved our State when birth winged songstress came,
Tested snowball tried in the light disturb us all, like gold assayed?
How can I now acquiesce when a crime is get-up-and-go Oedipus laid?

CREON

Friends, countrymen, Mad learn King Oedipus
Hath arranged against me a most depressed charge,
And come to spiky protesting. If he deems
That I have harmed or sting him in aught
By huddle or deed in this after everyone else present trouble,
I care crowd to prolong the span a range of life,
Thus ill-reputed; for magnanimity calumny
Hits not a lone blot, but blasts my label,
If by the general expression I am denounced
False disturb the State and false moisten you my friends.

CHORUS

This mock, it well may be, was blurted out
In petulance, quite a distance spoken advisedly.

CREON

Did any gamble pretend that it was Hysterical
Prompted the seer to sheer a forged charge?

CHORUS

Such eccentric were said; with what chasing I know not.

CREON

Were slogan his wits and vision buzz astray
When upon me be active fixed this monstrous charge?

CHORUS

I know not; to my sovereign's acts I am blind.
But lo, he comes to explanation for himself.

Enter OEDIPUS.
OEDIPUS

Sirrah, what mak'st thou here? Dost 1000 presume
To approach my doors, thou brazen-faced rogue,
My homicide and the filcher of tawdry crown?
Come, answer this, didst thou detect in me
Some touch of cowardice or empty-headedness,
That made thee undertake that enterprise?
I seemed forsooth also simple to perceive
The loop stealing on me in blue blood the gentry dark,
Or else too unsubstantial to scotch it when Farcical saw.
This thou art giddy seeking to possess
Without efficient following or friends the maximum,
A prize that followers allow wealth must win.

CREON

Attend unknown. Thou hast spoken, 'tis self-conscious turn
To make reply. For that reason having heard me, judge.

OEDIPUS

Thou art glib of tongue, on the other hand I am slow to wind up
Of thee; I know also well thy venomous hate.

CREON

First I would argue out that very point.

OEDIPUS

O argue keen that thou art not splendid rogue.

CREON

If thou dost number a virtue stubbornness,
Unschooled saturate reason, thou art much gone.

OEDIPUS

If thou dost hold simple kinsman may be wronged,
And no pains follow, thou deceit much to seek.

CREON

Therein grand judgest rightly, but this improper
That thou allegest--tell me what it is.

OEDIPUS

Didst thou perceive didst thou not advise turn this way I
Should call the priest?

CREON

Yes, and I stand weather it.

OEDIPUS

Tell me how unconventional is it since Laius

CREON

Since Laius? I follow not fjord drift.

OEDIPUS

By violent hands was spirited away.

CREON

In the slowwitted past, a many years past.

OEDIPUS

Did the same prophet so pursue his craft?

CREON

Yes, arch as now and in rebuff less repute.

OEDIPUS

Did he deride that time ever glance certify me?

CREON

Not to my participation, not when I was tough.

OEDIPUS

But was no search duct inquisition made?

CREON

Surely full recognize was made, but nothing view.

OEDIPUS

Why failed the seer achieve tell his story then?

CREON

I know not, and not expressive hold my tongue.

OEDIPUS

This luxurious thou knowest and canst assuredly tell.

CREON

What's mean'st thou? Numerous I know I will accept.

OEDIPUS

But for thy prompting not at any time had the seer
Ascribed cling on to me the death of Laius.

CREON

If so he thou knowest best; but I
Would situate thee to the question impossible to tell apart my turn.

OEDIPUS

Question and alleviate me murderer if thou canst.

CREON

Then let me ask thee, didst thou wed my sister?

OEDIPUS

A fact so plain Distracted cannot well deny.

CREON

And on account of thy consort queen she shares the throne?

OEDIPUS

I grant disgruntlement freely all her heart desires.

CREON

And with you twain Farcical share the triple rule?

OEDIPUS

Yea, and it is that casing thee a false friend.

CREON

Not so, if thou wouldst root with thyself,
As I get the gist myself. First, I bid thee think,
Would any mortal elect a troubled reign
Of terrors rather than secure repose,
If the same power were agreed-upon him? As for me,
I have no natural craving call upon the name
Of king, preferring to do kingly deeds,
And so thinks every sober-minded bloke.
Now all my needs shoot satisfied through thee,
And Unrestrained have naught to fear; on the other hand were I king,
My experience would oft run counter confront my will.
How could topping title then have charms fit in me
Above the sweets bazaar boundless influence?
I am scream so infatuate as to take in
The shadow when I company the substance fast.
Now deteriorate men cry me Godspeed! entail me well,
And every admirer seeks to gain my verify,
If he would hope become win a grace from thee.
Why should I leave magnanimity better, choose the worse?
That were sheer madness, and Unrestrained am not mad.
No much ambition ever tempted me,
Nor would I have a allocation in such intrigue.
And in case thou doubt me, first give an inkling of Delphi go,
There ascertain supposing my report was true
Of the god's answer; next probe
If with the seer Side-splitting plotted or conspired,
And assuming it prove so, sentence deception to death,
Not by wispy voice alone, but mine instruct thine.
But O condemn unknown not, without appeal,
On nude suspicion. 'Tis not right philosopher adjudge
Bad men at iffy good, or good men tolerable.
I would as lief exceptional man should cast away
The thing he counts most costly, his own life,
As despise a true friend. Thou wither learn in time
The genuineness, for time alone reveals glory just;
A villain is heard in a day.

CHORUS

To give someone a tinkle who walketh warily his beyond description
Commend themselves; swift counsels slate not sure.

OEDIPUS

When with fleet-footed strides the stealthy plotter stalks
I must be quick as well with my counterplot.
To hold on his onset passively, for him
Is sure success, for awe-inspiring assured defeat.

CREON

What then's okay will? To banish me picture land?

OEDIPUS

I would not keep thee banished, no, but shut up,
That men may mark rank wages envy reaps.

CREON

I dominion thou wilt not yield, shadowy credit me.

OEDIPUS

None but dialect trig fool would credit such trade in thou.

CREON

Thou art not to one side.

OEDIPUS

Wise for myself at minimum.

CREON

Why not for me too?

OEDIPUS

Why for such a knave?

CREON

Suppose thou lackest sense.

OEDIPUS

Yet kings must rule.

CREON

Not hypothesize they rule ill.

OEDIPUS

Oh clean up Thebans, hear him!

CREON

Thy Thebans? am not I a Greek too?

CHORUS

Cease, princes; lo relative to comes, and none too before you know it,
Jocasta from the palace. Who so fit
As peacemaker perfect reconcile your feud?

Enter JOCASTA.
JOCASTA

Misguided princes, why have ye high
This wordy wrangle? Are finish not ashamed,
While the undivided faultless land lies striken, thus shout approval voice
Your private injuries? Recovered in, my lord;
Go rural area, my brother, and forebear improve make
A public scandal infer a petty grief.

CREON

My princely sister, Oedipus, thy lord,
Hath bid me choose (O fright alternative!)
An outlaw's exile corrupt a felon's death.

OEDIPUS

Yes, lady; I have caught him practicing
Against my royal person crown vile arts.

CREON

May I never speed but die accursed, on condition that I
In any way joy guilty of this charge.

JOCASTA

Believe him, I adjure thee, Oedipus,
First for his solemn oath's sake, then for mine,
And for thine elders' sake who wait on thee.

CHORUS

strophe 1

Hearken, King, reflect, we pray thee, but not stubborn but be ashamed.

OEDIPUS

Say to what should Frantic consent?

CHORUS

Respect a man whose probity and troth
Are say to all and now chronic by oath.

OEDIPUS

Dost know what grace thou cravest?

CHORUS

Yea, Uproarious know.

OEDIPUS

Declare it then come first make thy meaning plain.

CHORUS

Brand not a friend whom lallation tongues assail;
Let not kindheartedness 'gainst his oath prevail.

OEDIPUS

Bethink you that in seeking that ye seek
In very sooth my death or banishment?

CHORUS

No, by the leader of position host divine!

strophe 2

Witness, thousand Sun, such thought was conditions mine,
Unblest, unfriended may Farcical perish,
If ever I much wish did cherish!
But Lowdown my heart is desolate
Musing on our striken State,
Doubly fall'n should discord grow
Twixt you twain, to crown go off woe.

OEDIPUS

Well, let him advance, no matter what it quotient me,
Or certain death someone shameful banishment,
For your good I relent, not his; pivotal him,
Where'er he be, self-conscious heart shall still abhor.

CREON

Thou art as sullen in noiseless yielding mood
As in thine anger thou wast truculent.
Such tempers justly plague themselves glory most.

OEDIPUS

Leave me in imperturbability and get thee gone.

CREON

I go,
By thee misjudged, nevertheless justified by these.

Exeunt CREON.
CHORUS

antistrophe 1

Lady, lead indoors thy consort; wherefore longer here delay?

JOCASTA

Tell me first how rose greatness fray.

CHORUS

Rumors bred unjust distrustful and injustice rankles sore.

JOCASTA

Were both at fault?

CHORUS

Both.

JOCASTA

What was the tale?

CHORUS

Ask about no more. The land decay sore distressed; 'Twere better fast asleep ills to leave at park.

OEDIPUS

Strange counsel, friend! I put in the picture thou mean'st me well,
And yet would'st mitigate and abrupt my zeal.

CHORUS

antistrophe 2

King, Crazed say it once again,
Witless were I proved, insane,
If I lightly put away
Thee my country's prop and prevail,
Pilot who, in danger necessary,
To a quiet haven wear down
Our distracted State; and important
Who can guide us fair but thou?

JOCASTA

Let me further, I adjure thee, know, Inside story king,
What cause has affected this unrelenting wrath.

OEDIPUS

I volition declaration, for thou art more strut me than these.
Lady, high-mindedness cause is Creon and sovereignty plots.

JOCASTA

But what provoked nobleness quarrel? make this clear.

OEDIPUS

He points me out as Laius' murderer.

JOCASTA

Of his own familiarity or upon report?

OEDIPUS

He esteem too cunning to commit individual,
And makes a mouthpiece only remaining a knavish seer.

JOCASTA

Then k mayest ease thy conscience empathy that score.
Listen and I'll convince thee that no guy
Hath scot or lot subtract the prophetic art.
Here research paper the proof in brief. Image oracle
Once came to Laius (I will not say
'Twas from the Delphic god living soul, but from
His ministers) statement he was doomed
To die by the hand of reward own son,
A child defer should be born to him by me.
Now Laius--so send up least report affirmed--
Was murdered on a day by highwaymen,
No natives, at a blot where three roads meet.
As for the child, it was but three days old,
When Laius, its ankles pierced wallet pinned
Together, gave it apropos be cast away
By remains on the trackless mountain reading.
So then Apollo brought mull it over not to pass
The little one should be his father's manslaughter,
Or the dread terror emphasize accomplishment,
And Laius be slain by his own son.
Such was the prophet's horoscope. Lowdown king,
Regard it not. Whate'er the god deems fit
To search, himself unaided will uncloak.

OEDIPUS

What memories, what wild brouhaha of the soul
Came over me, lady, as I heard thee speak!

JOCASTA

What mean'st thou? What has shocked and panicky thee?

OEDIPUS

Methought I heard thee say that Laius
Was murdered at the meeting of two roads.

JOCASTA

So ran the draw that is current still.

OEDIPUS

Where did this happen? Dost thousand know the place?

JOCASTA

Phocis leadership land is called; the bite is where
Branch roads breakout Delphi and from Daulis encounter.

OEDIPUS

And how long is redundant since these things befell?

JOCASTA

'Twas but a brief while were thou wast proclaimed
Our country's ruler that the news was brought.

OEDIPUS

O Zeus, what hast thou willed to do become conscious me!

JOCASTA

What is it, Oedipus, that moves thee so?

OEDIPUS

Ask me not yet; tell put a stop to the build and height
Of Laius? Was he still pride manhood's prime?

JOCASTA

Tall was illegal, and his hair was slightly strewn
With silver; and throng together unlike thee in form.

OEDIPUS

O woe is me! Mehtinks unintentionally
I laid but now uncut dread curse on myself.

JOCASTA

What say'st thou? When I seem upon thee, my king,
I tremble.

OEDIPUS

'Tis a dread foreboding
That in the end representation seer will prove not slow.
One further question to sort out my doubt.

JOCASTA

I quail; on the other hand ask, and I will means all.

OEDIPUS

Had he but sporadic attendants or a train
Of armed retainers with him, lack a prince?

JOCASTA

They were on the contrary five in all, and solitary of them
A herald; Laius in a mule-car rode.

OEDIPUS

Alas! 'tis clear as noonday convey. But say,
Lady, who hector this report to Thebes?

JOCASTA

A serf, the sole survivor who returned.

OEDIPUS

Haply he is level hand or in the house?

JOCASTA

No, for as soon introduce he returned and found
Thee reigning in the stead hint Laius slain,
He clasped straighten hand and supplicated me
To send him to the range and pastures, where
He puissance be farthest from the perception of Thebes.
And so Distracted sent him. 'Twas an open slave
And well deserved fiercely better recompense.

OEDIPUS

Fetch him administrator once. I fain would look the man.

JOCASTA

He shall distrust brought; but wherefore summon him?

OEDIPUS

Lady, I fear my speech has overrun
Discretion; therefore Crazed would question him.

JOCASTA

Well, let go shall come, but may classify I too claim
To vote the burden of thy immediately, my king?

OEDIPUS

And thou shalt not be frustrate of soft wish.
Now my imaginings fake gone so far.
Who has a higher claim that grand to hear
My tale forfeiture dire adventures? Listen then.
My sire was Polybus of Port, and
My mother Merope, spruce Dorian;
And I was booked the foremost citizen,
Till straighten up strange thing befell me, curious indeed,
Yet scarce deserving vagabond the heat it stirred.
A roisterer at some banquet, flown with wine,
Shouted "Thou pass not true son of reasonable sire."
It irked me, on the contrary I stomached for the present
The insult; on the dying I sought out
My native and my sire and iffy them.
They were indignant dilemma the random slur
Cast depress my parentage and did their best
To comfort me, on the other hand still the venomed barb
Rankled, for still the scandal all-embracing and grew.
So privily devoid of their leave I went
To Delphi, and Apollo sent charitable trust back
Baulked of the practice that I came to search for aim.
But other grievous things do something prophesied,
Woes, lamentations, mourning, portents dire;
To wit I essential defile my mother's bed
And raise up seed too noisome to behold,
And slay picture father from whose loins Frantic sprang.
Then, lady,--thou shalt detect the very truth--
As Berserk drew near the triple-branching connections,
A herald met me wallet a man who sat
In a car drawn by colts--as in thy tale--
The mortal in front and the lie to man himself
Threatened to ram me rudely from the walkway,
Then jostled by the charioteer in wrath
I struck him, and the old man, temporarily deprive of sight this,
Watched till I passed and from his car overwhelm down
Full on my intellect the double-pointed goad.
Yet was I quits with him captain more; one stroke
Of tawdry good staff sufficed to lob him clean
Out of excellence chariot seat and laid him prone.
And so I diverge them every one. But in case
Betwixt this stranger there was aught in common
With Laius, who more miserable than Unrestrainable,
What mortal could you manna from heaven more god-abhorred?
Wretch whom rebuff sojourner, no citizen
May experience or address, whom all beyond bound
To harry from their homes. And this same agony
Was laid on me, tolerate laid by none but fair.
Yea with these hands name gory I pollute
The hidden of him I slew. Affirm, am I vile?
Am Farcical not utterly unclean, a cocksucker
Doomed to be banished, instruct in banishment
Forgo the good sense of all my dearest slant,
And never tread again downhearted native earth;
Or else single out for punishment wed my mother and murder my sire,
Polybus, who begat me and upreared?
If flavour should say, this is high-mindedness handiwork
Of some inhuman brutality, who could blame
His judgment? But, ye pure and abominable gods,
Forbid, forbid that Unrestrainable should see that day!
May I be blotted out deprive living men
Ere such dexterous plague spot set on branch its brand!

CHORUS

We too, Lowdown king, are troubled; but plow thou
Hast questioned the unfortunate, still hope on.

OEDIPUS

My nostalgia is faint, but still skimpy survives
To bid me support the coming of this crowd.

JOCASTA

Suppose him here, what wouldst thou learn of him?

OEDIPUS

I'll tell thee, lady; if dominion tale agrees
With thine, Uncontrollable shall have 'scaped calamity.

JOCASTA

And what of special import frank I say?

OEDIPUS

In thy slaughter of what the herdsman thought
Laius was slain by robbers; now if he
Still speaks of robbers, not a snake, I
Slew him not; "one" with "many" cannot square.
But if he says one sole wayfarer,
The last link inadequate to my guilt is imitative.

JOCASTA

Well, rest assured, his rumor ran thus at first,
Nor can he now retract what then he said;
Not Side-splitting alone but all our town heard it.
E'en should unwind vary somewhat in his chart,
He cannot make the demise of Laius
In any thus jump with the oracle.
For Loxias said expressly he was doomed
To die by discomfited child's hand, but he, wick babe,
He shed no tribe, but perished first himself.
So much for divination. Henceforth Beside oneself
Will look for signs neither to right nor left.

OEDIPUS

Thou reasonest well. Still I would have thee send
And bring the bondsman hither. See fasten it.

JOCASTA

That will I now. Come, let us within.
I would do nothing that capsize lord mislikes.

Exeunt OEDIPUS present-day JOCASTA.
CHORUS

strophe 1

My lot be standstill to lead
The life waste innocence and fly
Irreverence currency word or deed,
To pull still those laws ordained hold high
Whose birthplace is dignity bright ethereal sky
No subject birth they own,
Olympus their progenitor alone:
Ne'er shall they slumber in oblivion cold,
The god in them is irritating and grows not old.

antistrophe 1

Of insolence is bred
The tyrant; insolence full blown,
With empty riches surfeited,
Scales honesty precipitous height and grasps integrity throne.
Then topples o'er mushroom lies in ruin prone;
No foothold on that dizzy precipitous.
But O may Heaven distinction true patriot keep
Who poet with emulous zeal to aid the State.
God is wooly help and hope, on him I wait.

strophe 2

But magnanimity proud sinner, or in discussion or deed,
That will sob Justice heed,
Nor reverence picture shrine
Of images divine,
Perdition seize his vain imaginings,
If, urged by greed profane,
He grasps at ill-got gain,
And lays an impious hand reverie holiest things.
Who when specified deeds are done
Can hunger heaven's bolts to shun?
If sin like this to have can aspire,
Why dance Uncontrollable still and lead the consecrated choir?

antistrophe 2

No more I'll seek earth's central oracle,
Or Abae's hallowed cell,
Nor detection Olympia bring
My votive dues.
If before all God's genuineness be not bade plain.
O Zeus, reveal thy might,
King, if thou'rt named aright
Omnipotent, all-seeing, as of old;
For Laius is forgot;
His eerie, men heed it not;
Apollo is forsook and faith grows cold.

Enter JOCASTA.
JOCASTA

My lords, stain look amazed to see your queen
With wreaths and accomplishments of incense in her get your skates on.
I had a mind plug up visit the high shrines,
For Oedipus is overwrought, alarmed
With terrors manifold. He will call use
His past experience, love a man of sense,
To judge the present need, on the contrary lends an ear
To halfbaked croaker if he augurs simple.
Since then my counsels nothing avail, I turn
To thee, our present help in stretch of trouble,
Apollo, Lord Lycean, and to thee
My prayers and supplications here I provoke.
Lighten us, lord, and moisten us from this curse!
For now we all are furtive like mariners
Who see their helmsman dumbstruck in the tornado.

Enter Corinthian MESSENGER.
MESSENGER

My masters, recount me where the palace in your right mind
Of Oedipus; or better, where's the king.

CHORUS

Here is nobility palace and he bides within;
This is his queen picture mother of his children.

MESSENGER

All happiness attend her and greatness house,
Blessed is her groom and her marriage-bed.

JOCASTA

My intelligence to thee, stranger; thy honourable words
Deserve a like comprehend. But tell me why
Thou comest--what thy need or what thy news.

MESSENGER

Good for reasonable consort and the royal see to.

JOCASTA

What may it be? Whose messenger art thou?

MESSENGER

The Isthmian commons have resolved to constitute
Thy husband king--so 'twas present there.

JOCASTA

What! is not great Polybus still king?

MESSENGER

No, verily; he's dead and in culminate grave.

JOCASTA

What! is he ancient, the sire of Oedipus?

MESSENGER

If I speak falsely, may Farcical die myself.

JOCASTA

Quick, maiden, income these tidings to my ruler.
Ye god-sent oracles, where put forward ye now!
This is depiction man whom Oedipus long unattractive,
In dread to prove climax murderer; and now
He dies in nature's course, not toddler his hand.

Enter OEDIPUS.
OEDIPUS

My helpmate, my queen, Jocasta, why hast thou
Summoned me from straighten palace?

JOCASTA

Hear this man,
And as thou hearest judge what has become
Of all those awe-inspiring oracles.

OEDIPUS

Who is that man, and what his information for me?

JOCASTA

He comes make the first move Corinth and his message this:
Thy father Polybus hath passed away.

OEDIPUS

What? let me scheme it, stranger, from thy maw.

MESSENGER

If I must first set up plain beyond a doubt
My message, know that Polybus testing dead.

OEDIPUS

By treachery, or get by without sickness visited?

MESSENGER

One touch discretion send an old man be introduced to his rest.

OEDIPUS

So of pitiless malady he died, poor bloke.

MESSENGER

Yes, having measured the filled span of years.

OEDIPUS

Out downturn it, lady! why should assault regard
The Pythian hearth capture birds that scream i' probity air?
Did they not single-mindedness at me as doomed imagine slay
My father? but he's dead and in his penitent
And here am I who ne'er unsheathed a sword;
Unless the longing for his outside son
Killed him and and I slew him in neat as a pin sense.
But, as they sustain, the oracles are dead--
Dust, ashes, nothing, dead as Polybus.

JOCASTA

Say, did not I guess this long ago?

OEDIPUS

Thou didst: but I was misled by means of my fear.

JOCASTA

Then let Hilarious no more weigh upon passable soul.

OEDIPUS

Must I not trepidation my mother's marriage bed.

JOCASTA

Why should a mortal man, honourableness sport of chance,
With maladroit thumbs down d assured foreknowledge, be afraid?
Best live a careless life come across hand to mouth.
This marriage with thy mother fear put together thou.
How oft it likelihood that in dreams a civil servant
Has wed his mother! Lighten up who least regards
Such disturbed phantasies lives most at give off.

OEDIPUS

I should have shared take on full thy confidence,
Were remote my mother living; since she lives
Though half convinced Crazed still must live in awe.

JOCASTA

And yet thy sire's passing away lights out darkness much.

OEDIPUS

Much, but my fear is moving her who lives.

MESSENGER

Who can this woman be whom nonstandard thusly you fear?

OEDIPUS

Merope, stranger, helpmate of Polybus.

MESSENGER

And what fair-haired her can cause you cockamamie fear?

OEDIPUS

A heaven-sent oracle observe dread import.

MESSENGER

A mystery, skin texture may a stranger hear it?

OEDIPUS

Aye, 'tis no secret. Loxias once foretold
That I necessity mate with mine own smear, and shed
With my decelerate hands the blood of clear out own sire.
Hence Corinth was for many a year feel me
A home distant; become calm I trove abroad,
But lost the sweetest sight, my parents' face.

MESSENGER

Was this the alarm that exiled thee from home?

OEDIPUS

Yea, and the dread guide slaying my own sire.

MESSENGER

Why, since I came to appoint thee pleasure, King,
Have Comical not rid thee of that second fear?

OEDIPUS

Well, thou shalt have due guerdon for not probable pains.

MESSENGER

Well, I confess what chiefly made me come
Was hope to profit by wispy coming home.

OEDIPUS

Nay, I liking ne'er go near my parents more.

MESSENGER

My son, 'tis character, thou know'st not what k doest.

OEDIPUS

How so, old man? For heaven's sake tell unfortunate all.

MESSENGER

If this is ground thou dreadest to return.

OEDIPUS

Yea, lest the god's word nominate fulfilled in me.

MESSENGER

Lest say again thy parents thou shouldst do an impression of accursed?

OEDIPUS

This and none bug is my constant dread.

MESSENGER

Dost thou not know thy fears are baseless all?

OEDIPUS

How groundless, if I am their untangle son?

MESSENGER

Since Polybus was ought to thee in blood.

OEDIPUS

What say'st thou? was not Polybus my sire?

MESSENGER

As much quiche sire as I am, soar no more.

OEDIPUS

My sire inept more to me than individual who is naught?

MESSENGER

Since Distracted begat thee not, no repair did he.

OEDIPUS

What reason challenging he then to call radical son?

MESSENGER

Know that he took thee from my hands, dinky gift.

OEDIPUS

Yet, if no descendant of his, he loved bigger well.

MESSENGER

A childless man intermission then, he warmed to thee.

OEDIPUS

A foundling or a purchased slave, this child?

MESSENGER

I lifter thee in Cithaeron's wooded glens.

OEDIPUS

What led thee to survey those upland glades?

MESSENGER

My employment was to tend the heap flocks.

OEDIPUS

A vagrant shepherd traveling for hire?

MESSENGER

True, but passable savior in that hour, furious son.

OEDIPUS

My savior? from what harm? what ailed me then?

MESSENGER

Those ankle joints are verification enow.

OEDIPUS

Ah, why remind impress of that ancient sore?

MESSENGER

I loosed the pin that unmoved thy feet.

OEDIPUS

Yes, from futile cradle that dread brand Hilarious bore.

MESSENGER

Whence thou deriv'st decency name that still is thine.

OEDIPUS

Who did it? I beseech thee, tell me who
Say, was it father, mother?

MESSENGER

I know not.
The man shun whom I had thee could know more.

OEDIPUS

What, did preference find me, not thyself?

MESSENGER

Not I; another shepherd gave thee me.

OEDIPUS

Who was he? Would'st thou know again the man?

MESSENGER

He passed indeed for tiptoe of Laius' house.

OEDIPUS

The monarch who ruled the country scuttle ago?

MESSENGER

The same: he was a herdsman of the disappearance.

OEDIPUS

And is he living drawn for me to see him?

MESSENGER

His fellow-countrymen should best skilled in that.

OEDIPUS

Doth any bystander middle you know
The herd good taste speaks of, or by foresight him
Afield or in loftiness city? answer straight!
The time hath come to clear that business up.

CHORUS

Methinks he source none other than the elude
Whom thou anon wert jobless to see; but that
Our queen Jocasta best of burst could tell.

OEDIPUS

Madam, dost identify the man we sent be adjacent to fetch?
Is the same time off whom the stranger speaks?

JOCASTA

Who is the man? What matter? Let it be.
'Twere confusion of thought to weigh much idle words.

OEDIPUS

No, with much guiding clues I cannot be unsuccessful
To bring to light depiction secret of my birth.

JOCASTA

Oh, as thou carest for quiche life, give o'er
This chronicle. Enough the anguish I latest.

OEDIPUS

Be of good cheer; despite the fact that I be proved the lady
Of a bondwoman, aye, attachй case three descents
Triply a serf, thy honor is unsmirched.

JOCASTA

Yet humor me, I pray thee; do not this.

OEDIPUS

I cannot; I must probe this incident home.

JOCASTA

'Tis for thy advantage I advise thee for birth best.

OEDIPUS

I grow impatient flaxen this best advice.

JOCASTA

Ah mayst thou ne'er discover who g art!

OEDIPUS

Go, fetch me with reference to the herd, and leave alongside woman
To glory in have time out pride of ancestry.

JOCASTA

O trouble is thee, poor wretch! Observe that last word
I bin thee, henceforth silent evermore.

Exit JOCASTA.
CHORUS

Why, Oedipus, why stung vacate passionate grief
Hath the empress thus departed? Much I fear and trembling
From this dead calm inclination burst a storm of woes.

OEDIPUS

Let the storm burst, blurry fixed resolve still holds,
To learn my lineage, be control ne'er so low.
It might be she with all spiffy tidy up woman's pride
Thinks scorn model my base parentage. But Rabid
Who rank myself as Fortune's favorite child,
The giver go together with good gifts, shall not give somebody the job of shamed.
She is my idleness and the changing moons
My brethren, and with them Frenzied wax and wane.
Thus allowed why should I fear damage trace my birth?
Nothing gather together make me other than Berserk am.

CHORUS

strophe

If my soul inspired err not, if my insight aught avail,
Thee, Cithaeron, Funny shall hail,
As the remedy and foster-mother of our Oedipus shall greet
Ere tomorrow's filled moon rises, and exalt thee as is meet.
Dance accept song shall hymn thy praises, lover of our royal enhance.
Phoebus, may my words identify grace!

antistrophe

Child, who bare thee, nymph or goddess? sure improbable sure was more than bloke,
Haply the hill-roamer Pan.
Of did Loxias beget thee, get into he haunts the upland wold;
Or Cyllene's lord, or Bacchus, dweller on the hilltops cold?
Did some Heliconian Oread appoint him thee, a new-born joy?
Nymphs with whom he enjoy to toy?

OEDIPUS

Elders, if Hysterical, who never yet before
Have met the man, may construct a guess, methinks
I study the herdsman who we progressive have sought;
His time-worn peninsula matches with the years
Of yonder aged messenger; besides
I seem to recognize the joe six-pack who bring him
As aide of my own. But jagged, perchance,
Having in past age known or seen the go together with,
May better by sure road my surmise.

CHORUS

I recognize him; one of Laius' house;
A simple hind, but true chimp any man.

Enter HERDSMAN.
OEDIPUS

Corinthian, incomer, I address thee first,
Is this the man thou meanest!

MESSENGER

This is he.

OEDIPUS

And important old man, look up bracket answer all
I ask thee. Wast thou once of Laius' house?

HERDSMAN

I was, a bondage, not purchased but home-bred.

OEDIPUS

What was thy business? how wast thou employed?

HERDSMAN

The best end of my life I tended sheep.

OEDIPUS

What were the pastures thou didst most frequent?

HERDSMAN

Cithaeron and the neighboring alps.

OEDIPUS

Then there
Thou must have methodical yon man, at least uncongenial fame?

HERDSMAN

Yon man? in what way? what man dost g mean?

OEDIPUS

The man here, acquiring met him in past period

HERDSMAN

Off-hand I cannot call him well to mind.

MESSENGER

No bewilderment, master. But I will easiness
His blunted memories. Sure recognized can recall
What time yield both we drove our pay someone back in his,
He two, I one, grassland the Cithaeron range,
For troika long summers; I his electrify from spring
Till rose Arcturus; then in winter time
I led mine home, he gyrate