Oedipus the King (13 page)

Read Oedipus the King Online

Authors: Sophocles,Evangelinus Apostolides Sophocles

Tags: #Drama, #Ancient & Classical, #Literary Collections, #Poetry, #test

page_49<br/>
Page 49
JOCASTA Old man, are you saying that Polybos has died?
MESSENGER Kill me if that's not the truth.
(Jocasta turns to a servant girl, who runs inside.)
JOCASTA Girl, run to your master with this news.
1100 You oracles of the gods! Where are you now?
The man Oedipus feared he would kill,
the man he ran from, that man's dead.
Chance killed him, not Oedipus. Chance!
(Oedipus enters quickly from the palace.)
OEDIPUS Darling Jocasta, my loving wife,
why did you ask me to come out?
JOCASTA Listen to what this man has to say.
See what it does to god's proud oracle.
OEDIPUS Where is he from? What is the news he has?
JOCASTA From Corinth. He says Polybos your father is dead.
1110 OEDIPUS Say it, old man. I want to hear it from your mouth.
MESSENGER If the plain tact is what you want first,
have no doubt he is dead and gone.
OEDIPUS Was it treason, or did disease bring him down?
MESSENGER A slight push tips an old man into stillness.
OEDIPUS Then it was some sickness that killed him?
MESSENGER That, and the long years he had lived.
OEDIPUS Oh yes, wife, why should we search Pythian smoke
or be terrorized by birds screaming up there?
If signs like these had been telling the truth
1120 I would have killed my father. But he's dead.
He's safely in the ground, and I'm here,
who never raised a spear. Unless
he died of longing for me, and that
is what my killing him means. No more than that.
This time, Polybos' death has swept
those worthless oracles with him to Hades.
JOCASTA Didn't I promise you before they were worthless?
OEDIPUS You did. But I was too worried to believe you.
JOCASTA It's time to stop caring about all this.

 

page_50<br/>
Page 50
1130 OEDIPUS I must care. I must not touch my mother's bed.
JOCASTA What should a human being fear?
Chance is what shapes our lives.
There's no such thing as real foreknowledge.
The best life is one taken as it comes.
This marriage with your motherdon't fear it.
In their very dreams, too, many men
have slept with their own mothers.
A man who shrugs off such things
as meaningless will bear his life best.
1140 OEDIPUS A brave speech which I would like to believe.
But how can I if my mother is still living?
While she lives, I will live in fear,
though you do your best to reason with me.
JOCASTA Your father's tomb is a great flood of light.
OEDIPUS Great, yes! But she's aliveshe is my fear.
MESSENGER What woman do you fear?
OEDIPUS I dread that oracle from the god, stranger.
MESSENGER Would it be wrong for someone else to know it?
OEDIPUS No, you may hear it. Apollo told me
1150 I would become my mother's lover, that I
would have my father's blood on these hands.
I haven't gone near Corinth since I heard that.
Ever since, I have been luckyyet,
what happiness to see
our parents with our own eyes!
MESSENGER Did this oracle force you into exile?
OEDIPUS To keep me from being my father's killer, old man.
MESSENGER Then let me free you from your fear, King.
I came here only with helping you in mind.
1160 OEDIPUS I would give anything to be free of fear.
MESSENGER I confess I came partly for that reason
to be favored by you when you've come home.
OEDIPUS I'll never live where my parents live.
MESSENGER My son, you can't possibly know what you're doing.
OEDIPUS Why is that, old man? In god's name, tell me.
MESSENGER Is it because of them you won't go home?

 

page_51<br/>
Page 51
OEDIPUS I am afraid Apollo told the truth.
MESSENGER Afraid you'd do your parents unforgivable harm?
OEDIPUS Exactly that, old man. I am in constant fear.
1170 MESSENGER Your fear is groundless. Do you grasp that?
OEDIPUS How can it be groundless if I'm their son?
MESSENGER But Polybos was no relation to you.
OEDIPUS What? Polybos was not my father?
MESSENGER No more than I am. The same.
OEDIPUS How the same? He fathered me and you didn't.
MESSENGER He didn't father you any more than I did.
OEDIPUS Why did he say, then, I was his son?
MESSENGER He took you from my hands as a gift.
OEDIPUS He loved me so muchknowing I came from you?
1180 MESSENGER His lack of children taught him to love you.
OEDIPUS And you? Did you buy me? Or find me somewhere?
MESSENGER I found you. In the wooded hollows of Cithairon.
OEDIPUS Why were you traveling out there?
MESSENGER I had charge of sheep grazing those slopes.
OEDIPUS A migrant hired to work our flocks?
MESSENGER I saved your life that day, my son.
OEDIPUS From what? Was something wrong with me?
MESSENGER Your ankles might answer that question.
OEDIPUS You know that? Why do you name my oldest wound?
1190 MESSENGER I cut the thongs that pierced and laced your feet.
OEDIPUS From birth I've carried the shame of those scars.
MESSENGER That luck named you, Oedipus. That's who you are.
OEDIPUS Did my mother or my father do this?
Speak the truth for god's sake.
MESSENGER I don't know. The man who gave you to me will know that.

 

page_52<br/>
Page 52
OEDIPUS You took me from someone?
You didn't chance on me yourself?
MESSENGER I took you from another shepherd.
1200 OEDIPUS Who was he? Tell me as plainly as you can.
MESSENGER He was known as someone who worked for Laius.
OEDIPUS The same Laius who was once king
here?
MESSENGER The same one. This man worked as his shepherd.
OEDIPUS Is he alive? Can I see him?
MESSENGER A native could answer that better.
OEDIPUS Does anyone here know what's become
of this shepherd? Has someone seen him
in town or in the fields? Speak up now.
The time has come to make all of it known.
1210 LEADER I believe he means that same herdsman
you've already sent for. Jocasta
is the best one to ask.
OEDIPUS Lady, do you recall the man we ordered here?
Is it that man he speaks of?
JOCASTA Why ask about him? Don't pursue it, Oedipus,
don't waste a thought on his words. It's nothing.
OEDIPUS I can't give up with clues like these in my hands.
How can I fail now to solve my birth?
JOCASTA For god's sake, stop searching if you want to live.
1220 Let my sickness be enough for us both.
OEDIPUS Accept it! My mother might be from slaves
for three generations back
would that make you lowborn?
JOCASTA Please listen to me: do nothing more.
OEDIPUS I cannot listen. I must have the truth.
JOCASTA I'm thinking now only of what's best for you.
OEDIPUS ''What's best for me" exasperates me now.
JOCASTA You poor child! Never find out who you are.
OEDIPUS Someone bring me that herdsman. Let her
1230 glory in her precious birth.

 

page_53<br/>
Page 53
JOCASTA Oh you poor doomed child! That is the only name
I can call you now. No other, forever!
(Jocasta runs into the palace.)
LEADER Why has she gone, Oedipus,
driven out by some savage grief?
Evil is going to burst from this silence.
OEDIPUS Let it burst! My seed may be base born,
but I will see at last what it is.
It may well be that my birth
humiliates her female pride.
1240 But I, who have always known I am
the child of Luck, whose gifts are always good,
will never know disgrace.
Luck is my mother, my brothers are the months
who measured out the low times
in my life and the great ones.
If these are my true kinsmen,
how could I betray my nature
by giving up the great search
now
that will find my birth?
1250 CHORUS By the gods of Olympos, if I have
a prophet's reach of eye and mind
tomorrow's moonlight
will shine on you, Cithairon.
Oedipus will honor you
his native mountain,
his nurse, his mother. Nothing
will keep us from dancing
then, mountain joyful to our king!
We call out to Phoebus Apollo:
1260 be the cause of our joy!
(Chorus turns toward Oedipus.)
My son, who was your mother
out there? Which long-lived nymph
loved Pan in his mountain roaming?
Or did Apollo father you
on one of his swift brides
in the pleasing highlands?
Was it Hermes, Lord of Kyllene?
Or did Bakkhos of the mountain peaks
take youa joyful find

 

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