We too, O king, are troubled; but till thou
Hast questioned the survivor, still hope on.

My hope is faint, but still enough survives
To bid me bide the coming of this herd.

Suppose him here, what wouldst thou learn of him?

I’ll tell thee, lady; if his tale agrees
With thine, I shall have ‘scaped calamity.

And what of special import did I say?

In thy report of what the herdsman said
Laius was slain by robbers; now if he
Still speaks of robbers, not a robber, I
Slew him not; “one” with “many” cannot square.
But if he says one lonely wayfarer,
The last link wanting to my guilt is forged.

Well, rest assured, his tale ran thus at first,
Nor can he now retract what then he said;
Not I alone but all our townsfolk heard it.
E’en should he vary somewhat in his story,
He cannot make the death of Laius
In any wise jump with the oracle.
For Loxias said expressly he was doomed
To die by my child’s hand, but he, poor babe,
He shed no blood, but perished first himself.
So much for divination. Henceforth I
Will look for signs neither to right nor left.

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

That will I straightway. Come, let us within.
I would do nothing that my lord mislikes.

Exeunt OEDIPUS and JOCASTA.
CHORUS

strophe 1

My lot be still to lead
The life of innocence and fly
Irreverence in word or deed,
To follow still those laws ordained on high
Whose birthplace is the bright ethereal sky
No mortal birth they own,
Olympus their progenitor alone:
Ne’er shall they slumber in oblivion cold,
The god in them is strong and grows not old.

antistrophe 1

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

strophe 2

But the proud sinner, or in word or deed,
That will not Justice heed,
Nor reverence the 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 on holiest things.
Who when such deeds are done
Can hope heaven’s bolts to shun?
If sin like this to honor can aspire,
Why dance I still and lead the sacred choir?

antistrophe 2

No more I’ll seek earth’s central oracle,
Or Abae’s hallowed cell,
Nor to Olympia bring
My votive offering.
If before all God’s truth 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 weird, men heed it not;
Apollo is forsook and faith grows cold.

Enter JOCASTA.
JOCASTA

My lords, ye look amazed to see your queen
With wreaths and gifts of incense in her hands.
I had a mind to visit the high shrines,
For Oedipus is overwrought, alarmed
With terrors manifold. He will not use
His past experience, like a man of sense,
To judge the present need, but lends an ear
To any croaker if he augurs ill.
Since then my counsels naught avail, I turn
To thee, our present help in time of trouble,
Apollo, Lord Lycean, and to thee
My prayers and supplications here I bring.
Lighten us, lord, and cleanse us from this curse!
For now we all are cowed like mariners
Who see their helmsman dumbstruck in the storm.

Enter Corinthian MESSENGER.
MESSENGER

My masters, tell me where the palace is
Of Oedipus; or better, where’s the king.

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

All happiness attend her and the house,
Blessed is her husband and her marriage-bed.

My greetings to thee, stranger; thy fair words
Deserve a like response. But tell me why
Thou comest–what thy need or what thy news.

Good for thy consort and the royal house.

What may it be? Whose messenger art thou?

The Isthmian commons have resolved to make
Thy husband king–so ’twas reported there.

What! is not aged Polybus still king?

No, verily; he’s dead and in his grave.

What! is he dead, the sire of Oedipus?

If I speak falsely, may I die myself.

Quick, maiden, bear these tidings to my lord.
Ye god-sent oracles, where stand ye now!
This is the man whom Oedipus long shunned,
In dread to prove his murderer; and now
He dies in nature’s course, not by his hand.

Enter OEDIPUS.
OEDIPUS

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

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

Who is this man, and what his news for me?

He comes from Corinth and his message this:
Thy father Polybus hath passed away.

What? let me have it, stranger, from thy mouth.

If I must first make plain beyond a doubt
My message, know that Polybus is dead.

By treachery, or by sickness visited?

One touch will send an old man to his rest.

So of some malady he died, poor man.

Yes, having measured the full span of years.

Out on it, lady! why should one regard
The Pythian hearth or birds that scream i’ the air?
Did they not point at me as doomed to slay
My father? but he’s dead and in his grave
And here am I who ne’er unsheathed a sword;
Unless the longing for his absent son
Killed him and so I slew him in a sense.
But, as they stand, the oracles are dead–
Dust, ashes, nothing, dead as Polybus.

Say, did not I foretell this long ago?

Thou didst: but I was misled by my fear.

Then let I no more weigh upon thy soul.

Must I not fear my mother’s marriage bed.

Why should a mortal man, the sport of chance,
With no assured foreknowledge, be afraid?
Best live a careless life from hand to mouth.
This wedlock with thy mother fear not thou.
How oft it chances that in dreams a man
Has wed his mother! He who least regards
Such brainsick phantasies lives most at ease.

I should have shared in full thy confidence,
Were not my mother living; since she lives
Though half convinced I still must live in dread.

And yet thy sire’s death lights out darkness much.

Much, but my fear is touching her who lives.

Who may this woman be whom thus you fear?

Merope, stranger, wife of Polybus.

And what of her can cause you any fear?

A heaven-sent oracle of dread import.

A mystery, or may a stranger hear it?

Aye, ’tis no secret. Loxias once foretold
That I should mate with mine own mother, and shed
With my own hands the blood of my own sire.
Hence Corinth was for many a year to me
A home distant; and I trove abroad,
But missed the sweetest sight, my parents’ face.

Was this the fear that exiled thee from home?

Yea, and the dread of slaying my own sire.

Why, since I came to give thee pleasure, King,
Have I not rid thee of this second fear?

Well, thou shalt have due guerdon for thy pains.

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

Nay, I will ne’er go near my parents more.

My son, ’tis plain, thou know’st not what thou doest.

How so, old man? For heaven’s sake tell me all.

If this is why thou dreadest to return.

Yea, lest the god’s word be fulfilled in me.

Lest through thy parents thou shouldst be accursed?

This and none other is my constant dread.

Dost thou not know thy fears are baseless all?

How baseless, if I am their very son?

Since Polybus was naught to thee in blood.

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