Since he set forth, and marvel how he fares.'Tis strange, this endless tarrying, passing strange. But when he comes, then I were base indeed,
If I perform not all the god declares.
PRIEST
Thy words are well timed; even as thou speakest
That shouting tells me Creon is at hand.
OEDIPUS
O King Apollo! may his joyous looks
Be presage of the joyous news he brings!
PRIEST
As I surmise, 'tis welcome; else his head
Had scarce been crowned with berry-laden bays.
OEDIPUS
We soon shall know; he's now in earshot range. [Enter CREON]
My royal cousin, say, Menoeceus' child,
What message hast thou brought us from the god?
CREON
Good news, for e'en intolerable ills,
Finding right issue, tend to naught but good.
OEDIPUS
How runs the oracle? thus far thy words
Give me no ground for confidence or fear.
CREON
4
If thou wouldst hear my message publicly,
I'll tell thee straight, or with thee pass within.
OEDIPUS
Speak before all; the burden that I bear
Is more for these my subjects than myself.
CREON
Let me report then all the god declared. King Phoebus bids us straitly extirpate A fell pollution that infests the land, And no more harbor an inveterate sore.
OEDIPUS
What expiation means he? What's amiss?
CREON
Banishment, or the shedding blood for blood. This stain of blood makes shipwreck of our state.
OEDIPUS
Whom can he mean, the miscreant thus denounced?
CREON
Before thou didst assume the helm of State, The sovereign of this land was Laius.
OEDIPUS
I heard as much, but never saw the man.
CREON
He fell; and now the god's command is plain: Punish his takers-off, whoe'er they be.
OEDIPUS
Where are they? Where in the wide world to find
The far, faint traces of a bygone crime?
CREON
In this land, said the god; "who seeks shall find;
Who sits with folded hands or sleeps is blind."
OEDIPUS
Was he within his palace, or afield,
Or traveling, when Laius met his fate?
5
CREON
Abroad; he started, so he told us, bound
For Delphi, but he never thence returned.
OEDIPUS
Came there no news, no fellow-traveler
To give some clue that might be followed up?
CREON
But one escape, who flying for dear life,
Could tell of all he saw but one thing sure.
OEDIPUS
And what was that? One clue might lead us far,
With but a spark of hope to guide our quest.
CREON
Robbers, he told us, not one bandit but
A troop of knaves, attacked and murdered him.
OEDIPUS
Did any bandit dare so bold a stroke,
Unless indeed he were suborned from Thebes?
CREON
So 'twas surmised, but none was found to avenge
His murder mid the trouble that ensued.
OEDIPUS
What trouble can have hindered a full quest,
When royalty had fallen thus miserably?
CREON
The riddling Sphinx compelled us to let slide
The dim past and attend to instant needs.
OEDIPUS
Well, I will start afresh and once again
Make dark things clear. Right worthy the concern
Of Phoebus, worthy thine too, for the dead; I also, as is meet, will lend my aid
To avenge this wrong to Thebes and to the god. Not for some far-off kinsman, but myself,
Shall I expel this poison in the blood;
For whoso slew that king might have a mind To strike me too with his assassin hand. Therefore in righting him I serve myself.
Up, children, haste ye, quit these altar stairs,
Take hence your suppliant wands, go summon hither
6
The Theban commons. With the god's good help
Success is sure; 'tis ruin if we fail. [Exeunt OEDIPUS and CREON]
PRIEST
Come, children, let us hence; these gracious words
Forestall the very purpose of our suit. And may the god who sent this oracle Save us withal and rid us of this pest. [Exeunt PRIEST and SUPPLIANTS]
CHORUS (Str. 1)
