| Sophocles Index |
OEDIPUS
Methought I heard thee say that Laius
Was murdered at the meeting of three roads.
JOCASTA
So ran the story that is current still.
OEDIPUS
Where did this happen? Dost thou know the place?
JOCASTA
Phocis the land is called; the spot is where
Branch roads from Delphi and from Daulis meet.
OEDIPUS
And how long is it 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 with me!
JOCASTA
What is it, Oedipus, that moves thee so?
OEDIPUS
Ask me not yet; tell me the build and height
Of Laius? Was he still in manhood's prime?
JOCASTA
Tall was he, and his hair was lightly strewn
With silver; and not unlike thee in form.
OEDIPUS
O woe is me! Mehtinks unwittingly
I laid but now a dread curse on myself.
JOCASTA
What say'st thou? When I look upon thee, my king,
I tremble.
OEDIPUS
'Tis a dread presentiment
That in the end the seer will prove not blind.
One further question to resolve my doubt.
JOCASTA
I quail; but ask, and I will answer all.
OEDIPUS
Had he but few attendants or a train
Of armed retainers with him, like a prince?
JOCASTA
They were but five in all, and one of them
A herald; Laius in a mule-car rode.
OEDIPUS
Alas! 'tis clear as noonday now. But say,
Lady, who carried this report to Thebes?
JOCASTA
A serf, the sole survivor who returned.
OEDIPUS
Haply he is at hand or in the house?
JOCASTA
No, for as soon as he returned and found
Thee reigning in the stead of Laius slain,
He clasped my hand and supplicated me
To send him to the alps and pastures, where
He might be farthest from the sight of Thebes.
And so I sent him. 'Twas an honest slave
And well deserved some better recompense.
OEDIPUS
Fetch him at once. I fain would see the man.
JOCASTA
He shall be brought; but wherefore summon him?
OEDIPUS
Lady, I fear my tongue has overrun
Discretion; therefore I would question him.
JOCASTA
Well, he shall come, but may not I too claim
To share the burden of thy heart, my king?
OEDIPUS
And thou shalt not be frustrate of thy wish.
Now my imaginings have gone so far.
Who has a higher claim that thou to hear
My tale of dire adventures? Listen then.
My sire was Polybus of Corinth, and
My mother Merope, a Dorian;
And I was held the foremost citizen,
Till a strange thing befell me, strange indeed,
Yet scarce deserving all the heat it stirred.
A roisterer at some banquet, flown with wine,
Shouted "Thou art not true son of thy sire."
It irked me, but I stomached for the nonce
The insult; on the morrow I sought out
My mother and my sire and questioned them.
They were indignant at the random slur
Cast on my parentage and did their best
To comfort me, but still the venomed barb
Rankled, for still the scandal spread and grew.
So privily without their leave I went
To Delphi, and Apollo sent me back
Baulked of the knowledge that I came to seek.
But other grievous things he prophesied,
Woes, lamentations, mourning, portents dire;
To wit I should defile my mother's bed
And raise up seed too loathsome to behold,
And slay the father from whose loins I sprang.
Then, lady,--thou shalt hear the very truth--
As I drew near the triple-branching roads,
A herald met me and a man who sat
In a car drawn by colts--as in thy tale--
The man in front and the old man himself
Threatened to thrust me rudely from the path,
Then jostled by the charioteer in wrath
I struck him, and the old man, seeing this,
Watched till I passed and from his car brought down
Full on my head the double-pointed goad.
Yet was I quits with him and more; one stroke
Of my good staff sufficed to fling him clean
Out of the chariot seat and laid him prone.
And so I slew them every one. But if
Betwixt this stranger there was aught in common
With Laius, who more miserable than I,
What mortal could you find more god-abhorred?
Wretch whom no sojourner, no citizen
May harbor or address, whom all are bound
To harry from their homes. And this same curse
Was laid on me, and laid by none but me.
Yea with these hands all gory I pollute
The bed of him I slew. Say, am I vile?
Am I not utterly unclean, a wretch
Doomed to be banished, and in banishment
Forgo the sight of all my dearest ones,
And never tread again my native earth;
Or else to wed my mother and slay my sire,
Polybus, who begat me and upreared?
If one should say, this is the handiwork
Of some inhuman power, who could blame
His judgment? But, ye pure and awful gods,
Forbid, forbid that I should see that day!
May I be blotted out from living men
Ere such a plague spot set on me its brand!
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