7plays of Sophocles Copy (1)

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Seven Tragedies of Sophocles

Translated by R.P.Bond

(Copyright in the name of Associate Professor R.P.Bond, Department of

Classics, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand)



Antigone

(Dramatis Personae)

Antigone

Ismene

Chorus of Theban Elders

Creon

Guard

Haimon

Teiresias

Messenger

Eurydice

Second Messenger

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Antigone

Dear sister, Ismene, my love and my life,

do you know of any ill that Zeus has notinflicted on us in our brief lives, because of Oedipus?

For I have witnessed pain and madness, indeed,

and shame and dishonour - yes, all of these 5

have been a part of our fate and disaster.

And even now men speak of a new decree

the general has pronounced to all the city folk.

Have you heard of this, or you unaware of still

more hostile cruelty urged upon the ones we love? 10

IsmeneNo word has come to me, Antigone, about

our loved ones, neither fair nor foul, since we

were robbed of our dear brothers both,

in mutual slaughter on that dread and single day.

And since the Argive army left in the night 15

just past, I have had no further news

to bring me either grief or happiness.

An. Just as I thought and so I have called you here,

alone outside the gates to hear he news from me.

Is. What then? You would uncover some dark threat? 20

An. Lord Creon has honoured only one of our

two brothers with a grave, dishonouring his twin.

Men say he has interred Eteocles beneath

the earth with all due rites and ceremony,

to rest in honour with the dead below, 25

while poor dead Polyneices' corpse, men say,

he has decreed to all the citizens that they

must neither give it burial, nor cries of grief,

but leave the corpse unburied and unwept,

to give a welcome larder to sharp-eyed birds. 30

Such orders, men say, the noble Creon has also

enjoined on you and me, on me, I say, on me...

and now he is coming even here to announce

his news to those as yet in ignorance, a thing

of some importance too, since he will condemn 35

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all such as disobey to public stoning in the streets.

That is the situation, and you will soon reveal

if you are noble born, or will betray your line.Is. You always were impetuous... but if things are

as you say, what can I do to hinder him, or help? 40

An. Perhaps you can share an enterprise with me.

Is. What enterprise? Just what is in your mind?

An. Will you join hands with me to bury him.

Is. You think to bury him, a thing forbidden to all?

An. Yes! Bury my brother - and yours, like it or not! 45

For I shall not be blamed for betraying him!

Is. Rash fool you are, when the king forbids!An. It is not his right to keep me from my own.

Is. Oh, no! Consider our father, sister, how

he died, an object of hatred, all honour gone, 50

a man who took it on himself, with his

own hands, to gouge, destroy his eyes;

and then his wife and mother, ours as well,

she throttled out her life in the woven noose;

and third and last, our brothers, on the self- 55

same day, in rashness, both fulfilled their fate,

and brought about their deaths with mutual hands.

Consider again how we, the sole surviving kin,

how we shall both be ruined, yes, in misery, if we

run counter to the vote and power of a king. 60

We must remember this - we are mere women both,

and so we cannot hope to combat men. And so,

since we are ruled by those who are more powerful,

we must obey them, and suffer even worse, if needs

must be. And so I shall beg of those beneath the earth 65

to pardon me for what I am compelled to do,

and I shall obey the men who walk in power.

It makes no sense to flout due moderation here.

An. I would not pressure you to work with me, not even if

you wanted to, and gladly changed your mind… 70

Be just what you choose yourself to be, while I myself

shall bury him – and if I die, then well and good.

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For I shall lie in love beside my best beloved, when I

have done this crime of piety: the time to please the dead

below is longer far than that required to satisfy the world above. 75For I shall rest there evermore… but you, so be your will,

be guilty of dishonouring the practice honoured by the gods!

Is. I shall not be guilty of dishonouring the laws of god,

but I am not empowered to flout by force the people’s will.

An. Excuses are easy to make – but I shall make my way 80

and heap the earth on my dear brother’s tomb.

Is. My dear misguided darling, how I fear for you…

An. Fear not for me, guide rather your own course aright.

Is. At least you must not advertise your plan to anybody else, but keep it closely hid and I will also keep it so… 85

An. Proclaim it rather! Your silence will win my hatred more,

unless you broadcast, shout my crime aloud to all.

Is. Your blood runs hot in the face of chilling threats.

An. I know I shall find most favour where most I ought.

Is. If you succeed perhaps, but what you strive for is impossible.90

An. So then I’ll fail, but only when my strength fails me…

Is. It is not right to hunt in vain in a hopeless quest…

An. To say such things will earn my hate, and you

will be hated too, and justly, by our brother dead.

Allow me, please, to suffer the dread results 95

of foolishness… for at least I shall not suffer then

the thing I hate the most, a shameful death.

Is. If that is your decision, go, but be assured of this, despite

the folly of your quest, your loved ones love you still.

Chorus

Sunlight, fairer yet than all str.

the former days to shine 101

on seven-gated Thebes,

you have shone at last, bright eye

of this golden day, have come

across the streams of Dirke, 105

have put to flight the men

who came from Argos, white

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their shields, in total panoply,

and fled far swifter than they came.

This host it came against our land, 110

the reason - Polyneices’ fretful claim,

and screaming shrill it stooped

upon our land, an eagle plumed

on wings of snow, all white,

allied with full array of arms 115

and horse-haired helmet crests.

He stood outside our walls, ant.

his a ring of spears agape

with bloodied teeth, a threat

to the sevenfold mouths 120

of Thebes… but he was gone

before his jaws were glutted on

our blood, or pine fed flame

engulfed our crown of towers.

The clatter of war rose thick about him, 125

indomitable the dragon born battle cry.

For Zeus he loathes boasts made

by an arrogant tongue, and so when he saw

them, a river in spate, and filled

with the clangour of gold-clad disdain, 130

that man he hurled down with thunder and fire,

as he strove at the peak

of endeavour, advancing victory's cry.

And he fell, hurled, twisting down to the earth, str.

his torch clasped still in his hand, who had then

in his madness breathed 135

hatred most bitter against us.

Dashed, disappointed

his hopes, and mighty Ares, god

of war, allotted each their different fate,

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rude help and harnessed strength. 140

Seven captains, each marshalled to matchmatching champions, each at the sevenfold gates,

abandoned their gear, all of bronze, a trophy

for Zeus, save for two, ill fated this pair, twins born

of one mother, one sire, spear shafts set against

each the other's they stood, to the fate 145

of a mutual death both condemned.

And victory has come, fair of fame, to Thebes, ant.

a city that loves its wealth of chariots, and the warsare all done and behind us now, 150

so let us forget, and dance

through the night to the homes

of the gods in our dance, Dionysus

our guide, as his feet beat the earth.

But here is the king of this land, lord Creon, 155

the son of Menoeceus, new come to the throne,

the most recent chance brought by the gods:

what fresh plan does he urge that he comes,

and has summoned this council of elders 160

to meet in assembly,

brought by a common command.

Creon

My friends, our ship of state, storm-tossed by the gods,

has been set once more by them upon a safe and even keel;

and I have summoned you by messenger, from all the citizens

especially, to come, because I know, and well, that you 165

did ever honour loyally the rule of Laius in the house –

and so too after him, when Oedipus was ruler of the state…

and when he… died… why still you remained a bastion

of common and supportive sense for their successive heirs.

When those two men did perish on the self same day, 170

struck down by a mutual fate and by each other’s hand,

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and they did share the guilt and shame of fratricide,

I then assumed the throne and all the cares of royal power

by dint of my closest kinship with the brothers dead.It is impossible to know and understand the heart 175

and soul and intellect of any man, until he is revealed,

submitting to the daily test of government and rule.

For if a man, entrusted with the total guidance of the state,

will take no heed of counsel from the best of men,

but keeps a lock upon his tongue through some anxiety, 180

why him I judge, have always judged the worst of men;

and if any man considers that a friend weighs more in his

affections than the state, why him I count as nothing worth.For I - Zeus be my witness, who forever sees all things –

would never hold my peace were I to see disaster speed 185

against the citizens so as to ruin our security, nor yet

could I befriend a man, at any time, who posed a threat

to the state, because I know and know it well that she,

our city, is our bulwark and our strength, in whose

safe care we sail and prosper and find proper friends. 190

With principles like these I shall enhance our city’s fame.

Accordingly I have publicly pronounced my policy

regarding these two brothers, the sons of Oedipus:

Eteocles, who died a hero’s death, his spear in hand,

in defence of this city, a hero, I say he shall be buried 195

in a tomb, with all the offerings that are sent below

to accompany the very best and noblest of the dead;

but that man’s brother, yes, Polyneices I mean,

who, though he was an exile, descended on

his native land and gods, intent on sack and fire 200

and pillage, intent on drinking kindred blood,

on leading others of his kin in slavery, of him

it is decreed that none shall gratify his corpse

with proper burial rites, nor yet lament for him,

but men must leave his body all exposed, a feast 205

for carrion birds and dogs, gross spectacle of shame.

My mind is thus made up, and never shall the men

of shame outstrip the just, so long as I hold sway;

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whoever, though, has served this city well, alive

or dead, that man I shall both honour and respect. 210

Ch. It is your pleasure then, Menoeceus’ son, to dealin contrary fashion with the traitor and the patriot.

Employ the law’s full force upon the dead, therefore,

and on as many of us as yet do live. This is your right.

Cr. You will, of course, ensure my will is done… 215

Ch. That task were better entrusted to a younger man.

Cr. I have posted eager guards to oversee the corpse.

Ch. What else then would you still enjoin on us?

Cr. You must not sympathise with those who may transgress.

Ch. No man is quite so foolish that he wants to die. 220Cr. That would be the penalty, be sure… but oftentimes

a man has been corrupted by the hope of gain.

Guard

My lord, I shall not speak as one who has come,

quite out of breath from haste, nor as one fleet of foot,

since many times my anxious and whirling thoughts 225

delayed my progress here, and brought me to a stop.

For my inner voice would speak, and that at length,

“You fool! You know what pay awaits you there!”

“You clown, yet more delay?” “If Creon learns of this

from someone else…then yours will be the sorry ass!” 230

Such consternation checked my tardy progress here,

and so a meagre path becomes a marathon…

At last, however, my resolve to come to you, it won

the day…and I will tell my tale, such as it is, mere bagatelle…

and anyway I guess one thing alone is certain sure, 235

I cannot suffer anything outside my share of destiny.

Cr. What is this tale that causes such distress?

Gu. I want to tell you first my role in this – I didn’t have

one, actually, nor did I see the man who did… do

this thing – and so by rights I shouldn’t pay the penalty… 240

Cr. You shrewdly aim to fence this thing around, blockade

yourself from blame… You clearly have a novel tale to tell.

Gu. Yes, dangerous news will urge long-windedness upon a man…

Cr. Then spit it out and then be off with you!

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Gu. I’m telling you… Someone just now has gone 245

and done a burial, has sprinkled thirsty dust

upon the flesh, performed the necessary rites…Cr. What’s that? What man would dare that crime?

Gu. I do not know. For there was no mark of shovel there,

no clods dug up by a hoe. The earth was packed 250

and barren dry, unbroken even by the ruts

of wagon wheels – the perpetrator left no trace.

And when the early morning watchman showed

us this, all felt a dreadful clutch of fear.

For the corpse had vanished, not buried fully yet - 255

a scanty covering of dust sufficient to placate the dead.No hint at all there was that predator or dogs

had come, no sign of any rending of the flesh.

Recriminations then flew thick and fast, with guard

accusing guard, until it would have come at last 260

to blows - and no one there to check the brawl.

For each and every one of us could have done this thing…

and yet there was no proof, and all denied their guilt.

Prepared we were to grasp hot iron in our hands, to walk

on fire and call the gods to witness we were innocent, 265

were not involved, knew nothing of the crime,

were not complicit in the planning or the act.

At length, when nothing further came from our

enquiries, a comment was made which had us all

in fear survey our boots. For we could think of no 270

reply nor plan of action that was not fraught

with peril. For it was said the crime should be

referred to you, that there should be no cover up.

This counsel won the day and the lot selected me,

poor foolish wretch that I am, to win this privilege. 275

So I am come against my will and yours, I know.

For no man likes to be the bearer of bad news.

Ch. My lord, I have long been nurturing the thought

that this act may have been driven by the gods.

Cr. Enough, before your words fill me with rage, and you 280

are found to be as senile as your age suggests,

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since what you say cannot be borne, declaring that

the gods have any care about that wretched corpse.

Would they have buried him and honoured himas if he were a gallant hero when he came in fact 285

to torch their colonnades and temples, overthrow

their images, lay waste their land, destroy their laws?

Can you conceive of the gods respecting evil men?

Not so! For from the first some citizens begrudged

my will and muttered secretly against me, shook 290

their heads, refused to bear in cheerfulness my yoke

and my dominion, as right and justice demand.

These are the men, I am convinced, that have bribedthe guards, and have suborned them into wickedness.

For nothing ever took root so evil among men 295

as pieces of silver. Cash brings destruction on the state,

drives men to betray their homes and their native land,

perverts the consciousness and turns the noble minds

of men so they can countenance all acts of shame.

Corruption teaches men the varied kinds of villainy, 300

highlights the potential sleaze in every enterprise.

But as many as have profited by this crime have but

ensured that they in time will pay due recompense.

And so – as still I hold lord Zeus in high regard –

be well assured – and hear my solemn oath on this, - 305

unless you find the guilty man who did this burial,

and then deliver him to me before my very eyes,

then death alone will not suffice for you, until,

hung out in torment, you inform upon this violation,

so you may learn in future whence to snatch your gain, 310

and also learn the lesson that you should not be blind

in your love affair with each and every source of coin.

For you will see that more men are destroyed

by ill-gotten gains than are made secure by them.

Gu. You grant me leave to speak, or should I turn and go? 315

Cr. You do not understand how tiresome your talk?

Gu. Do I tire your ears alone, or your thoughts as well?

Cr. But why define the seat of irritation?

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Gu. The criminal pains your heart, I but your ears…

Cr. Good gods, what a natural clown you are! 320

Gu. Not such a clown as to have done this thing.Cr. On the contrary, and you sold your soul for cash!

Gu. Ye gods!

It is terrible when the judge can get it so wrong.

Cr. Philosophise, so be your wish – but if you do not

produce for me the men who did this thing, you shall 325

aver that criminal gain brings sorrows in its wake.

Gu. Why, I wish then he be found… but whether he

be caught or not – and fortune be the judge of that –

be sure you will not see me coming here again.And now, beyond all hope and expectation safe, 330

I owe the gods a monster debt of gratitude.

Chorus

Many things dread and wonderful, str.

none though more dread than mankind -

voyaging across the white sea’s waste,

he makes his way, storm tossed from the south, 335

closed in by overarching, tumbling waves

he sails the valleys between, and of the gods,

oldest born, Mother Earth,

everlasting, unwearied he constantly turns,

year in and out criss-crossing the plough, 340

working the mule and the land.

Light-hearted tribes of the birds, ant.

he ensnares, taking joy in the hunt,

and the clans of wild beasts,

salt sea fish scoured from the deep, 345

trapped in the coils of the well woven nets,

masterful man…conquering too

with his traps high country beasts,

their delight the wild and the space,

breaks in the wild mane of the horse 350

that submits to the yoke,

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and the unflagging bull from the hills.

Speech too and thought swift str.as the wind he devised and the impulse

creative of statecraft he learned, 356

houses to ward off the frost’s inhospitable

sharpness of sky, rain’s lancing shafts,

an answer for every demand

that exists or may threaten him, 360

yet to come. Only grave death

admits no escape… Deadly diseases

yield now to cure.

Wisdom he has beyond dreams ant.

in invention, now bringing him ill 366

and now yet again to salvation,

should he follow the law,

and honour sworn justice of gods:

the city stands proud but provides 370

no safe home for the rash,

fixed on a life of crime.

Let no such man share in my hearth,

nor in my sentiments,

the man who acts so! 375

An omen sent by the gods!

How can it be? - but how deny the certainty

this is indeed the child Antigone?

Poor wretched child

of wretched Oedipus, 380

whatever does this mean? It cannot be

they lead you as a criminal, transgressing Creon's law,

caught in an act of foolishness?

Gu. Here is the girl that committed the crime -we caught

her in the act of burial. But Creon, where is he? 385

Ch. He returns from the house to answer our need.

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Cr. What is it here that makes my entrance opportune?

Gu. My lord, a man should never swear that he won't do

a thing in case hindsight should make him out a liar, sinceI swore I wouldn't come back here in a hurry again, 390

by reason of the threats with which you pelted me;

but unexpected joys which come quite unforeseen

are likely to outstrip by far all other happiness,

and so I come, although I swore I never would,

and bring this girl who was found in the act 395

of tidying the tomb. No need this time to cast

the lots, but I seized this opportunity for myself.

And now, my lord, take her yourself and testher, put her to the question, as you like - while I

shall rightly gain complete acquittal in this case. 400

Cr. Just how and where did you apprehend this girl?

Gu. She was in the act of burial, no more, no less!

Cr. You are aware then of the import of your words?

Gu. I saw her in the act of burying the corpse the which

you had forbidden - I assume that's plain and clear enough? 405

Cr. How is it she was seen and captured in the act?

Gu. Well, it was like this, you see… we went back

to our post, all mindful of your dreadful threats,

and swept away the shroud of dust which cloaked

the body, laying the clammy corpse completely bare. 410

We sat ourselves down upon a ridge, upwind,

to escape the stench that might assail us there,

and each kept the others alert with floods of abuse,

ensuring none grew careless in their task.

And that was how it was for quite a while until 415

the sun's bright disk was at its zenith overhead

and the heat grew stifling and all at once a blast

of wind kicked up a dust storm from the ground,

a nuisance of a thing which filled the plain, tore leaves

and branches from the trees, and all the sky's great dome 420

was choked with it, while we, eyes shut, endured

god's plague, but when this storm at last abated,

the child was spotted there, who cried aloud a cry

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as sharp in bitterness as that of any bird as when

it sees the empty nest stripped bare of fledgling young; 425

and just so she on seeing the body there exposedscreamed cries of grief and imprecations dire

upon the men who had undone her work. At once

she lifted up the dust dry earth in her cupped hands

and lifted too a well shaped urn of bronze and crowned 430

the corpse three times with threefold offerings of drink.

And when we saw her there, we rushed her then

to hunt her down, but she did not seem at all upset.

We questioned her about her past and present crimes,

and there she stood, did not deny a single thing. 435And so I am at once both happy and distressed…

To escape from danger oneself is very sweet indeed,

but to do so at the cost of driving a friend into harm

brings pain. All things, though, pale into insignificance,

I think, and naturally so, compared with one's own reprieve. 440

Cr. You there, yes you, with your head cast down to the ground,

do you confess, or deny that you have done these things.

An. I do declare I did these things, do not deny the fact.

Cr. Then you can take yourself off where you will,

absolved of any grievous charge or guilt. 445

You, though, answer me… and keep it brief.

Were you aware that I had publicly forbidden such an act?

An. I was aware of it, of course I was… You made it crystal clear.

Cr. And still you dared to contravene these laws?

An. I did, since Zeus had not pronounced these laws, 450

nor yet does Justice, dweller with the gods below,

prescribe such laws among the ranks of mortal men.

I did not think that your decrees were of such weight

that they could countermand the laws unfailing and

unwritten of the gods, and you a mortal only and a man. 455

The laws divine are not for the now, nor yet for yesterday,

but live forever and their origins are mysteries to men.

There was no way that I would wish to pay a penalty

to gods for contraveningthem, and all because I feared

a tyrant's temper. I know that I must die - of course - 460

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quite irrespective of your will… and if, then, I must die

before my time, I reckon that to my advantage - since who

would choose to live, all set about with troubles such as mine,would not consider that to die would bring advantages?

And so the pain that might accrue for me in death 465

is but a trifle, although I would be hurt indeed were dogs

to savage and shame my dead sibling's naked corpse,

my mother's child… but as it is I feel no pain nor hurt.

And if by chance I seem to you to act in foolishness, it may

just be it is a fool himself condemns my foolishness. 470

Ch. The child reveals her savage heart, itself a legacy

from Oedipus… and quite incapable of compromise.Cr. Know well that the most stubborn souls most often take

the hardest fall, and that you will most often see

the iron that is tempered hard and rigid in the flames, 475

will see that metal fragment and shatter and snap.

I also know that the highest spirited horse can be controlled

with the merest curb… nor is it ever possible for a man

to think proud thoughts when he is his neighbour's slave.

This woman, though, has always known the way 480

of arrogance, just now did contravene established law

and still compounds, a second time, her crime of pride,

indulging herself in laughter and boasting her guilt.

And so I am myself no man, but rather she the man,

should she retain this seeming victory unchecked. 485

It matters not she is my sister's child, closer to me by blood

than any of the folk who worship Zeus within my house,

since neither she nor yet her sister shall escape the worst

of fates - for I charge that woman too with a share,

an equal share in this conspiracy to bring about the burial! 490

So call her here! For I saw her just now in a passionate fit

of madness within, quite out of control of her wits.

The minds of those who contrive treason and plots

in the dark are like to betray themselves and so be caught.

I hate the man who when apprehended as a criminal 495

will choose to glorify and make a virtue of his crime.

An. Do you wish to do more than merely kill your prisoner?

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Cr. No more than that, since that is all I need to do.

An. Why then delay? This conversation brings me no

enjoyment, nor would ever any talk with you, 500while talk with me brings no delight to you, I trust.

And yet what greater acclamation could I win,

but from the burial of my own brother's corpse.

And all the people here would say thiscrime did please

them too, if only terror did not lock their silent lips. 505

But the king is blessed with many fine advantages, not least

of which is his capacity to speak and act just as he likes.

Cr. Alone of Cadmus' folk you see the situation so…

An. They see it alsoso, but fawn and cower down to you.Cr. Have you no shame to think to be apart from them? 510

An. There is no shame in honouring one's brothers so.

Cr. Your other brother too both fought against him and died?

An. All siblings from the self-same sire and mother both…

Cr. How honour then the one to slight the other man?

An. Eteocles would not bear witness thus against dead kin. 515

Cr. He would were you to give the traitor equal rights.

An. This is not his slave's but a brother's corpse and death…

Cr. Who wished to rape this land, while he defended it.

An. But nonetheless lord Death desires these burial rites.

Cr. The patriot demands a better share than the renegade… 520

An. Who knows if things are quite so clear in Hades' house?

Cr. The enemy, the friend are separate, alive or dead.

An. I am disposed to love by nature not to hate…

Cr. Then go beneath the earth to love your dead if love

you must! So long as I live, no woman shall rule me. 525

Ch. But see, before the gates, Ismene here,

your sister comes, shedding sisterly tears…

and clouds of grief upon her fevered brow

do shade her face

to drown her loveliness. 530

Cr. You there, you, secret serpent, lurking in my house,

you too have fed on me, all unawares, nor did I know

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I nurtured a twofold curse to rise rebellious against

my throne - come, speak to me, confess! Did you share

this burial with her, or do you deny complicity - on oath? 535Is. I have done this thing, if only she accepts my claim,

and I would share the guilt and in the punishment.

An. I might, but right and justice never shall allow you this,

since you refused to help, nor yet did I accept your help.

Is. But in your present storms of strife I feel no shame 540

myself to sail with you to share your suffering.

An. The dead and Hades too can witness whose deed this is!

I have no love myself for those who love in word alone.

Is. I beg you, sister, don't dishonour me, forbidding me to shareyour death, but rather let me share in honouring the dead. 545

An. You shall not share my death, nor claim a share in deeds

that were not yours - my willing death shall satisfy the day.

Is. What life or love remains for me despoiled of you?

An. Ask Creon that! Since all your care is all for him!

Is. What good does it do to hurt, to wound me so? 550

An. The hurt was mine when forced to sneer at you.

Is. What can I do to remedy that hurt?

An. Preserve your life - I don't begrudge you life.

Is. And shall I have no share at all in what is yours?

An. You chose to live, I chose to die. 555

Is. At least I had my say on that…

An. Some will approve your choice, still others mine.

Is. And yet our folly now is shared…

An. Have courage now… you are alive, my soul was long

since dead, which fitted me to serve the dead. 560

Cr. It seems that of these girls the one has gone stark mad

just now, the other though has been quite mad from birth.

Is. Our native common sense, my lord, cannot remain

untouched by situations dire, must take its leave.

Cr. So much is sure for you, who chose to share her crime. 565

Is. What life is left for me to live alone bereft of her.

Cr. Speak not of her - she is no more.

Is. And shall you kill your own son's bride to be?

Cr. There are plenty other fields for him to plough.

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Is. But none to offer such a loving union… 570

Cr. I do not desire my sons to marry wicked wives.

An. My Haimon, best beloved, your father does you wrong!Cr. You and your precious marriage, how they irk…

Ch. You shall deny your son his bride?

Cr. Death rather is the one to stop their union. 575

Ch. You have, it seems, decreed her death.

Cr. Both I and you… Waste no more time, you there,

but take them both inside. Our women must

no more be left to wander out of doors…

Brave men will even try to flee when close 580

upon their lives they see the march of death.

Ch. Happy are they whose time has not tasted disaster. str. a

For a house that is shaken by gods, there the curse

fails not at all, but floods each generation in turn: 585

just so the swell and the surge, pushed hard by grim

blasts of storm winds from Thrace, scouring the crests

of the deep, darkling sea, stirs up the black silted sands, 590

beneath where the wracked and abutting cliffs resound.

I have seen the longstanding ills of the house of Labdacus ant. a

fall, blow on blow, in serried ranks on each successive age, 595

with no relief for any generation, rather some one of the gods

stalks, harries them implacable. For now the last hope of the clan,

these girls, whose light illuminates with future hope the house 600

of Oedipus, in turn is dimmed with blood and dust by the gods

below, bestirred by foolishness and obsessive self-destructive talk.

What wild lawlessness of human kind can limit your strength, str. b

lord Zeus? 605

Nor sleep, which entraps all things can master your power,

nor the sequence of months, unwearied, of gods can contain it,

but deathless and timeless your rule over gleaming Olympus. 610

Both the next to now and future time,

time also past conforms

to this law: no thing of excess

19



can enter our lives divorced from disaster. 615

And hope that wanders far and wide is a comfort to some ant. b in their hearts,

to many another a source of deceptive, false dreams.

The ignorant man remains oblivious, until he treads 620

upon the flame: wisdom revealed the truth long ago

that a man can reason the bad

into good, when a god

seduces his wit.

But for only the shortest of spans does he live free of grief. 625

But see, young Haimon, approaches,

your youngest son…does he come full of grief,

lamenting the fate of his bride to be,

Antigone, whose bed he has lost? 630

Cr. We shall know soon enough and swifter than seers might tell.

My son, it cannot be you come enraged against your sire,

I trust, on hearing of my ruling as regards your bride to be?

Or are we still your father, honoured and loved regardless of her?

Haimon

My father, I am yours… and you it is that guides my life 635

with rules set down for me, the which I trust and keep.

No marriage shall I deem ever to be worth more

to me than your example and sound leadership.

Cr. Indeed, my son, your duty demands your heart

remains disposed precisely so - to hear me and obey. 640

For this is the reason why men pray, to get

and keep compliant sons within their house,

that they might repay its enemies with evils due,

and honour their father's friends on equal terms.

However, any man that begets a thankless child, how else 645

describe him but as one who breeds himself a store of pain,

a source of much amusement for his enemies?

And so do not for the sake of pleasuring a woman

throw away good sense, and always bear in mind

20



that such embraces give but comfort cold, when she 650

who shares your house is proven vile. For what

could be a more dreadful plague than an evil mate?No, shrink from her as from some enemy, and send

the child to make her marriage bed in Hades’ halls.

For her alone of all the citizens have I caught 655

in blatant disobedience to my will, and so I shall

not betray myself as false before my people, no, for I

shall kill her. Let her then pray to Zeus familial!

For if I am to nurture kin that is unnatural, I must,

show any foreigner at least as deep or deeper love. 660

A man who shows himself as sound in things domesticand in the home that man will also prove himself to be

a worthy citizen, but the criminal who disparages the law

by force, who even thinks it right to rule the men who rule,

that man will never win a word of praise from me. 665

The man who is established by the state to lead must have

obedience in matters constitutional, both small and great –

and I am confident that such a man, who can obey

with grace, would also make a splendid king,

would, marshalled in the battle’s hail of javelins, 670

stay staunch in his appointed place beside his friends.

There is no crime more heinous than disloyalty!

It is the death of cities, makes desolate our homes…

this is the thing that breaks apart the allied ranks,

imposing a fate of desertion and flight. The rule of law 675

preserves to best effect the lives of honest men.

The constitution and the rule of law must be preserved,

must never be compromised by a woman’s crime.

Far better to fall, if fall one must, to a warrior’s hand.

No shame of being mocked as weaker than a woman then. 680

Ch. Unless we are deceived by our advancing years,

the things you say are sensible, articulated well.

Ha. My father, the gods have sown in men the gift

of wisdom, which is the very best of all our gifts,

but I lack both the skill and experience to judge 685

if you are right or wrong in what you say,

21



and yet another man may make good sense…

and I am by nature one to watch on your behalf,

to hear what men may say and do, what faults impute.The common herd are afraid to provoke your rage 690

and eye with the kind of talk you hate to hear, while I

can listen to these shady murmurings, with which

the citizens express their grief for her, this child,

”Of womankind,” they say,” the least deserving she

to die such a dreadful death, because of a deed after all 695

most noble, who would not suffer her brother’s corpse

to lie unburied in the bloody aftermath of strife, to be

consumed by ravening dogs and carrion birds… and sodeserves, does she not, to win, rather, prizes of gold?”

Dark rumours such as these spread secretly abroad. 700

There is nothing I hold more precious, father, no prize

is more dear to me than your safety, your success.

What greater prize could children win beyond

a parent’s fair fame, or a parent win beyond a son’s?

And so, do not forever keep a single, stubborn mood, 705

do not believe that you alone monopolise the truth.

If any man believes that he alone of all mankind

is wise, his tongue and heart alone of all are true,

then under test that man will prove to be a hollow man.

There is no shame in a man learning more, 710

be he ever so wise, nor in remaining flexible.

You see yourself how next to the winter floods

some trees yield to survive and save their limbs,

while those resisting are uprooted and destroyed.

Just so the mariner who sails close hauled, no reefs 715

in place, turns turtle and completes his trip capsized,

the rowing benches all awash, keel uppermost.

So check your rage, allow yourself a change of heart.

For if it is right for a younger man, like me, to give

advice, I say that though it is the best by far always 720

by nature to be judicious and indeed omniscient,

why, failing that, and chance and fate will have it so -

one should then learn from any man of good advice.

22



Ch. My lord, it is right to be advised by him, if his words

ring true, and you by him, my son - you both speak well… 725

Cr. Are we at our age then to take our lessons on howto think and feel from such a callow youth as this?

Ha. But what I teach is just… I may be but a youth, but you

should look not at my age, but at my character.

Cr. And is it in your character to honour criminals? 730

Ha. I would not recommend that any honour criminals.

Cr. And is not she herself assailed by such a malady?

Ha. The men of Thebes, her city, think not so…

Cr. The city then dictates my policies to me?

Ha. Your answer smacks of youth and inexperience. 735Cr. Whose judgement other than my own should guide my hand?

Ha. A city does not belong to any single man to rule…

Cr. Is not the state the business of the ruler’s guiding hand?

Ha. Oh, better you to be sole ruler of a wilderness.

Cr. This youth, it seems, supports the female’s cause! 740

Ha. If you are female, yes!! My care is all for you…

Cr. An utter traitor you to cross your father’s just decree.

Ha. I rather see your view of justice is mistaken and awry.

Cr. I am mistaken then to honour what I legislate?

Ha. No law of man is just that tramples down the law of god. 745

Cr. A coward’s nature yours to fawn on womanhood!

Ha. No coward’s nature mine despite your charge…

Cr. But everything you say is said on her behalf…

Ha. And for me and you and for the gods below.

Cr. There is no way you’ll marry her while yet she lives. 750

Ha. Then if she dies her death condemns another too…

Cr. You make so bold as to come and threaten me?

Ha. Where lies the threat in countering stupidity?

Cr. You will regret your empty wisdom when it causes tears.

Ha. If you were not my father I would say that you were mad. 755

Cr. A woman’s plaything you, do not attempt to sweet-talk me…

Ha. You wish to have your say but then refuse to hear me speak.

Cr. Quite so! But know this well, by all that’s holy, you

will win no pleasure from your foul abuse of me…

Go, bring her out, the loathsome thing that she might die 760

23



at once in front of him, before her lover’s very eyes.

Ha. No, not before my eyes, do not think that,

she shall not die in front of me, and norshall you lay eyes again upon my face.

Be mad and keep instead the company of sycophants. 765

Ch. My lord, the man has gone in rage and haste…

a young man’s pain is deep and sharp.

Cr. Oh, let him dream immortal, adolescent dreams!

Yet still he will not save these women from their fate.

Ch. You have it in your mind to kill them both? 770

Cr. No, not the innocent… for your advice is sound.

Ch. What is the fate you have decreed to be Antigone’s?Cr. I shall take her somewhere off the beaten track

and hide her there, alive, within a rocky cave,

providing food enough to satisfy the rite, 775

so that the state might not incur blood guilt.

And in that place she then may pray to Death, the god

she cherishes the most, to win from him the prize of life,

or learn at last what a waste of effort and time

it is to dedicate oneself to what is dead and gone. 780

Ch. Desire, in battle unconquered, Desire besetting the fortunes str.

of men ,

keeping sweet vigil on youth's downy cheek, sweeping over

the sea

and the dwellings of men in the wild, not one of the gods

nor any of men, ephemeral things, can elude you,

a passion to drive a man mad. 790

Perverting the minds of even right-minded men to corruption, ant.

confusion and strife you rouse here between men who are kin.

Desire springing clear from the eyes of the beautiful bride 795

is victorious, a power enthroned beside natural law,

while Aphrodite always wins and works her arbitrary will. 799

But now when I see these things I am myself

transported past the bonds of blind obedience,

24



no longer can restrain well springs of tears,

when I see Antigone, embarked on her path

to the universal bridal suite of death. 805

An. Observe me, fellow citizens of this my native land, how I embark str. a

on this my final journey, look one last time upon the light of day,

and nevermore… Death leads me, living still, to universal sleep,

the shores of Acheron. 812

No share for me in marriage songs, no bridal hymn

has ever honoured me, but I shall be the bride of Death.

Ch. Fair fame and praise are your companions, syst. a

departing to the depths of those now dead,

and no disease has wasted you,

no fatal sword thrust earned, 820

but you shall, all willing and unique

of mortals, go down alive to Hell.

An. I heard of Niobe, once stranger guest and child, of Tantalus ant. a

in Thebes, how on Mount Sipylus she die most dreadfully, 825

overwhelmed by ivy tight tendrils of stone, eroded by rain,

as men say,

and unfailing snow, while she drenches with tears everlasting 830

the hills and the vales of her breasts. The god has set

just such a fate for me.

Ch. But she was immortal and born of the gods,

while we are but mortals and men born of men. 835

Yet for a woman to share as she dies a fate

that was won by a god, why that is renown,

both in life and ever after in death!

An. I am mocked! Why mock me now before my face, by all str. b

the gods paternal, when you could mock me dead and gone?840

Ah, city mine - and wealthy gentlemen, her citizens!

You springs of Dircè,

sacred ground of Thebes, so rich in chariots, you are

25





Get rid of her, and quickly now! And when you have enclosed 885

her inside her hollow and vaulted tomb, according to my word,

then leave her there alone and desolate, should it be her wish to dieor be concealed and buried there alive in such a resting place;

For we shall keep ourselves unsullied by her blood, this girl…

however, she shall be deprived of life in the world above. 890

An. My tomb and bridal chamber both, my shaded dwelling place

and prison evermore, in which I start my journey now

to meet my kin, the many of my numbered dead among

the many dead Persephone has welcomed as her guests;

And I go down to death before my span of life is spent, 895

the last of all my line I am, and am by far most pitiful.And yet as I depart I nurture still the powerful hope

my coming will well please my father, and my mother too,

and that my dear, dear brother too will welcome me.

For did I not with my own two hands take care to lay 900

you out and wash your bodies properly, and pour

the pious offerings? And now, dear Polyneices, I

have earned a harsh reward for burying your corpse.

And yet right thinking men approve the rites I gave…

although I never would have taken on this task to spite 905

the state, had I been mother to a brood of children, or if

it had been some man of mine that lay corrupt in death.

You ask that I should justify that paradox?

One husband dead I might have won another man,

or even further children by some other sire… 910

but with both my parents dead in Hades' halls,

there is no chance another brother can be born.

This is the reason why I honoured you so much,

and why King Creon thinks that I am mad to dare

such a dreadful thing, my dearest Polyneices… 915

And now he has laid hands on me to drive me as

his prisoner, unwed, no marriage song for me, no share

in a family of my own, nor in the joy of rearing sons,

but alone and desolate of friends, poor wretch, alive

27



I go, deep down amidst the hollow regions of the dead. .1 920

What privilege, or law of gods have I infringed?

But why should I look any more to gods for help?Have I indeed one mortal friend to bring me aid,

now that my piety has earned this impious prize?

But if these things find favour with the gods, 925

I will in death find out the nature of my crime;

but if the fatal fault belongs to these, then let them too

achieve the self same fate they have prescribed for me.

Ch. Her souls is still beset

by the same emotional storm. 930Cr. And so her guards will pay a price

of tears for tardiness.

An. That sentence brings my death

as close as it can be.

Cr. I have no words of spurious comfort 935

to bring false hope of delay.

An. Ancestral city and home that is Thebes,

ancestral gods,

I am their immediate victim now.

Observe me, lords of Thebes, 940

your last and lone princess,

and this my fate at the hands of such as these,

because I honoured what was right.

Ch. Danaë too was constrained to hide her form str. a

from heaven’s light in a tomb of bronze - 945

concealed she bore the secret yoke of prisoner –

and yet she too was noble of birth, my child, my child -

entrusted then with the golden seed of Zeus. 950

The rule of fate is mystical indeed.

For there is no escape from fate, however rich or warlike

1 There is considerable debate about the authenticity of vv. 903-920: if they are an interpolation, they

were inserted before Aristotle's time, since he quotes vv. 911f inRhetoric3.16.9 and seems to have had

the whole passage in his copy. The reservations of scholars about the authenticity of the lines may be

due in part to their lack of sensitivity to Sophocles' presentation of Antigone's confusion and fear.

28



a man might be, possessed of black ships and a citadel.

Hasty tempered too, Lycurgus, son of Dyas, ant. a was constrained, Edonian king – his mockery 956

the cause – by the god, enclosed in a prison of stone.

And in that place the joyous dread bloom of his madness 960

faded and died. He came to know the god he had

abjured in madness with his mockery.

For he had tried to check the Bacchants and the sacred flame

of Dionysus, had angered the Muses whose love is the pipe. 965

Close by the Black Rock currents and twin sea str. b lay the shores of Bosporus and Thracian Salmydessus’

hostile coast, where neighbouring Ares saw 970

the sockets of Phineus’ twin

sons blinded, cruelly gouged

by the barbarous wife –

sightless the two and demanding revenge –

ensanguined the hands that plied and ploughed 975

the shuttle, needle sharp.

Wasting away in wretched misery they wept for their fate, ant. b

wretched itself, like their birth from a mother unhappily wed, 980

who claimed for her line the race

of Erechtheus, as ancient as days,

nursed herself in a far flung cave

as guest of her father’s winds,

Boreas, swift himself as the wind that sweeps the steep hills, 985

a daughter of gods – but even on her

did the Fates, the immortals, bear down, my child.

Teiresias

My lords of Thebes, we two are come a common road,

and share one pair of eyes. A blind man’s lot it is

to journey thus dependent on a guide. 990

Cr. What is it brings you here, Teiresias?

Te. I shall tell you all and you must heed my prophecy.

29



Cr. I never yet have been a man to doubt your word.

Te. And so your guidance of the state was ever sound.

Cr. I can bear witness to the benefits you brought. 995Te. Believe that you are on fate’s razor edge once more.

Cr. Your meaning? For I shudder at your words.

Te. Then hear the evidence my art supplies and learn:

for I was sitting at an ancient vantage point where I

observe the birds, a gathering place for each and every one 1000

of them and there I heard a harsh cacophony of cries,

unknown to me before, that drowned their song.

I understood at last that with their bloody talons each

was tearing at the others, as the whirl of wings betrayed.At once in dread I sought to test the omen in an altar’s flame 1005

ignited for the task, but then Hephaestus’ fire refused

to kindle on the offerings, and from the victim’s thigh

there oozed and spat and sputtered on the embers there

a noisome liquor, and then the bladder and its gall

was dissipated in the air, while the thighs themselves 1010

lay bare, denuded of the fat which once had covered them.

Such were the signs of an experiment that had failed,

revealing nothing - and these I learned from my slave;

for he guides me just as I am a guide for other men.

Our city is sick with a sickness that your policy has brought. 1015

Our altars and our hearths are all alike polluted by the dogs

and birds with the flesh that they have garnered from

the corpse of the fallen and ill-fated son of Oedipus.

And so the gods no longer can accept our prayers

nor sacrifice nor yet our offerings of roasted meats, 1020

and nor can the cries of any bird give portents clear -

for they have glutted on a corpse’s fat and blood.

Reflect, then, on these things, my son. For to err -

it is the common lot of all of humankind…

and yet, when a man has erred, that man need not 1025

remain mistaken and unfortunate, so long as he

redeems himself, does not remain intransigent.

Intransigence brings a reputation for stupidity.

Be easy with the dead, do not abuse the corpse:

30



what prowess is required to kill a victim twice? 1030

My son, my words are best designed to suit your case

the best, and best it is to profit from the best advice.Cr. Old man, observe how each and every other man,

like an archer, makes of me his target, nor yet am I

without sure knowledge also of the art of prophecy, 1035

since its clannish masters long have traded in my life.

Make profits, drive your bargains in the silvered gold

of Sardis and, should you so desire, then trade as well

in Indian gold - but you shall not conceal him in a grave,

not even if the sacred eagle birds of Zeus himself desire 1040

to snatch and bring the carrion feast to Zeus's throne -not even dread of that pollution would convince

me of the need to bury him. For I know well no man

can have the strength to bring pollution on the gods.

The very cleverest of men, Teiresias, my aged friend, 1045

fall fatally themselves into folly most foul, when they

for profit's sake dress up foul thoughts in fancy rhetoric!

Te. Agh!!

Does any member of this human race quite comprehend…

Cr. What? What is your present pearl of commonplace wit?

Te. that the pearl of greatest price is sound advice. 1050

Cr. As much, I trust, as folly is by far the greatest plague.

Te. Well, you should know, filled as you are with it…

Cr. I do not wish to answer back a prophet with a curse.

Te. And yet you do by claiming that my words ring false!

Cr. Love of profit ever drove your prophet tribe. 1055

Te. The spawn of tyrants always hankers for ill-gotten gains.

Cr. Have you forgotten you are speaking to your king?

Te. No, nor that you hold that throne secure because of me.

Cr. You are skilled in prophecy, but attracted to crime…

Te. You will provoke my heart to betray its secret dread! 1060

Cr. Then spit it out, but do not hope to gain by what you say…

Te. There is no gain, I think, in what I say for you, or me.

Cr. Be sure you cannot trade upon my will to gain your ends.

Te. Be sure yourself of this: that you shall complete no more

than a minimum of days, as the racing chariot of the sun 1065

31



completes its daily course, before a son, begotten of

your loins, repays in death the living death of one

you thrust beneath the earth, while still alive, and housedher in a tomb in shame, while yet again, you kept

above the earth a corpse, unburied and dishonoured, 1070

unholy, the lawful property of the gods below.

In bodies that belong to them you have no share,

nor do the gods above - a rule that you have flouted now.

And so the Furies, vengeful emissaries of Death

himself, that soon or late destroy, shall lay in wait 1075

to ambush you, and grasp you for these crimes.

Take note if I announce these things as one who has been paid: for the brief erosion of time will soon reveal

the lamentations of the men and women of your house.

And all the towns of Greece are stirred with hostile rage, 1080

whose mutilated sons receive their burial rites from dogs

or beasts, or from some winged bird that takes the stench

of blasphemous corruption home to every city's hearth.

Such are the shafts I, archer like, have loosed at you,

because of provocation and the anger in my heart, 1085

shafts accurate enough you'll not outrun their sting.

Boy, guide me homeward now, so he may vent

his spleen on younger men than me, and also learn

to cultivate a tongue which is more temperate

and a milder temper too than that he nurtures now. 1090

Ch. My lord, the man has gone, dread omens on his lips,

and I am very well aware that from the time my hair,

once dark, grew white with the advance of years -

I know his prophecies to us have never proven false

Cr. I know, I know, and so am deeply troubled in my mind… 1095

it is a dreadful thing to yield, but not to yield, and so

to bring disaster crashing on my pride is dreadful too.

Ch. It is your duty, Creon, to take due note of good advice.

Cr. What would you have me do? Advise, and I shall… yield.

Ch. Go now, release the maiden from her rocky tomb, 1100

and rather give the corpse a proper burial.

Cr. And this is your advice - you think that I should bend?

32



Ch. And as quickly as you can, my lord… swift footed nemesis

advances from the gods to cut our folly quickly short.

Cr. I goes against the grain and yet in my heart of hearts 1105I know that my resolve must yield to harsh necessity.

Ch. Go then and act, do not entrust these tasks to other men.

Cr. I shall, and quickly, even as I am - do you go also too,

my friends, yes, all of you make haste, take axes in

your hands and hurry on to that far vantage point! 1110

While I myself, since this is our decision made, shall be

the one to set her free in person who imprisoned her.

For now I apprehend it is the best to live one's whole

life through adhering strictly both to precedent and law.

Ch. Lord Dionysus, known by many names, the pride str. a

of Theban Semele, and son of Zeus, deep thunderer, 1116

far Italy is in your watchful care, so too

the sheltering and hospitable vale

of Demeter's Eleusis… 1120

Bacchus, Bacchus,

lord of Thebes, the maenads' and your mother's city,

beside the gentle stream of Ismenus your home,

seeding ground of the savage dragon's teeth. 1124

In flickering light the Bacchic torch has spied you out beyondant. a

the double peak, up where the Corycian nymphs

are eager in the Bacchic dance,

beside Castalia's plunging stream. 1130

The hilly heights of Nysa, ivy-clad

bestow you on your way from vine green

coastal plains,

while Bacchanalian songs divine

extol your glory on the road to Thebes. 1135

Yes, Thebes, honoured most by you of all the cities, str. b

your mother's home, the lightning's bride!

And now this city and all its folk is in the grip 1140

of pollution and plague,

33



so stir your tread to heal, traversing high Parnassus' peak

and the sounding straits of Euripus. 1145

Leading the dance of lambent stars, conducting ant. b

songs nocturnal,

son sprung from Zeus,

appear, reveal yourself our lord, attended by your 1150

company of Nymphs, whose nightlong fervent dancing

does your bounty honour, Iacchus!

Messenger

You, neighbours of the house of Cadmus and of Amphion, 1155,there is no shape or condition of human life that I would praise

as being stable, nor ever yet condemn for its monotony.

For luck may stabilise or in its turn destabilise the fates

of men who may be fortunate, or not, as the case may be;

no man can prophecy for men about the permanence of things. 1160

For Creon was once a man to envy, or so I thought,

when he had saved the land of Cadmus from its enemies,

had received as his reward the total rule and guidance of

the land, and was blessed as well with a noble crop of sons.

And now all of that is gone: for when a man himself betrays 1165

his joy and pleasures, I cannot count his life worthwhile,

but rather think of him as mere animate flesh, a corpse.

For a man may be as vastly rich at home as you like,

and live the life and style of a king - but if a man's capacity

for joy in these is lost, well, as for ceremony, I would 1170

not give the king a shadow of a price for all of that.

Ch. What fresh burden of grief do you bring our royal house?

Me. A burden of death, and the living are responsible.

Ch. Who is the murderer and who the victim, speak!

Me. Haimon is dead, and slaughtered by no stranger's hand. 1175

Ch. His father's hand… or did he kill himself?

Me. He killed himself, enraged at his father's death decree.

Ch. Teiresias, how true your prophecy has proved!

Me. Such are the facts. Yours the need ponder them.

Ch. And now I also see Eurydice, poor thing, the wife 1180

34



of Creon. Perhaps her coming shows awareness

of her son's demise, unless it is coincidence…

Eurydice

Citizens of Thebes, I heard your words as I made

my way to the gates, so that I could go and try

propitiate the goddess Pallas with my prayers. 1185

And as I prepared to free the bolt and open up

the gate, my ears were struck by the news of some

disaster newly come upon the house… I staggered back

in dread, and fainted in the arms of my attendants.

I beg you, tell me once again the nature of this news: 1190for I shall pay you heed as one well versed in woe.

Me. Dear lady, I was there and I shall tell you all I saw,

shall not hold back one item of the truth of it.

For why should I seek to comfort you with words

that must in time prove false? The truth is ever best. 1195

I accompanied your husband, walking as his guide

across to the furthest reaches of the plain where still,

harassed by dogs, there lay unpitied, Polyneices' corpse;

and first we prayed to Hecate and to Pluto, both to check

their rage and smile on us, and then with waters pure 1200

we washed the body, what was left of it, and burned

the scant remains with fresh cut boughs, and raised

up high a burial mound compounded of his native soil,

and then we began to make our way to the stony bed

and hollow nuptial chamber of Antigone, bride of Death. 1205

Then from afar one of our number had heard shrill cries

of grief, their source - Antigone’s unhallowed vault,

and so he came to tell this news to his master Creon;

then as the king crept ever nearer he too was met by cries,

quite inarticulate of grief, and so he moaned within, 1210

and gasped aloud his dread, “What a fool I am, if my

presentiments are true! For this shall surely be

by far the most unlucky journey I have ever made.

My son’s lament, it welcomes me… come, friends,

make haste, and when you reach the fissure in the tomb, 1215

35



near where the rocks were stripped away, observe

as you near the cave, if it is indeed the voice of Haimon I

have recognised, or if the gods have made a fool of me.”So we obeyed the master’s bidding, desperate as he was,

and made the search: inside the farthest reaches of the tomb 1220

we saw that she was hanging there, suspended, her neck

enclosed in a delicate noose of muslin of the finest kind,

while he was holding her, his arms about her waist,

as he grieved for the loss of his bride beneath the earth,

and for his father’s crimes and his own unhappy love. 1225

Then when the father saw his son he groaned within,

approached the boy and now, in tears, he spoke to him,“My poor, poor child, what have you done? What were

you thinking of? Are you mad to have broken in here?

Come out, my son, I beg of you with all my heart.” 1230

Then Haimon rounded on his father with his eyes ablaze,

made no reply, but spat in his face , wrenched out

his double-hilted sword and, as father ducked away

in flight, he missed his stroke, so, disappointed then,

and enraged at his failure, at once he flexed himself 1235

against the sword and plunged the half of it within

his side and, as he breathed his last, he clutched

her in his moist embrace, and the swift red flood

poured down to stain her pale white cheek.

He lies there, his, corpse entwined with corpse, 1240

has won his marriage rites in side the hall of Death,

to prove to mortal men that of all the ills that plague

our kind the worst by far is plain stupidity.

Ch. What would you think to make of that? For Creon’s wife

has gone inside without a word to say of good or ill. 1245

Me. Her silence shocked me too… but I am nurtured by

the hope she does not think it right to show in public view

the pain she feels on hearing of her son’s sad fate,

but has rather gone inside to vent a private grief.

Ch. I do not know… although it seems to me that pain 1250

repressed in silence may threaten worse than loud lament.

Me. Then I will hurry now inside the house… in case

36



she harbours in the torment of her secret heart

some dark design, since your advice is sound and good:

that danger also lurks wherever earnest silence reigns. 1255Ch. See where the king approaches now

and carries in his hands the proof,

if I may say, of his infatuation, since

no other made the tragic error here.

Cr. I grieve str.

for the tragic errors of an unsound mind,

that have ended in death –

behold the slayer and the slain,

the father and the son.I grieve for my bankrupt and immoral soul! 1265

My son, my son, so young and dead,

I grieve for you,

your life has fled away…

and all because of my stupidity.

Ch. I see you realise the truth too late. 1270

Cr. I grieve

for the bitter lesson I have learned .

I see some mighty god has crushed my head

beneath his feet and thrust me onto cruel paths,

has trampled all my love of life. 1275

I grieve the tragedy of humankind!

Messenger

Lord king, your hands contain the cost of past

and present grief, but soon inside the house

it seems that you will see fresh cause of pain. 1280

Cr. Can any pain be worse than this?

Me. Your wife is dead, the loving mother of your dead son,

poor woman, and she herself struck down just now.

Cr. I grieve,

Hell, your harbour is insatiate! ant.

But why am I your constant victim? 1285

And you, you messenger of doom

and news ineffable, what now?

For I was dead and now you kill me twice!

37



What say you, slave, what news?

I grieve, I grieve… 1290

Another death, you say, on top of death,and that my wife’s?

Ch. See for yourself. She is no longer hid within.

Cr. I grieve

to look upon this other second death, poor wretch. 1295

What further doom awaits me still?

Just now I held my son within my arms.

And now another corpse confronting me…

I grieve for both the mother and the son. 1300

Me. She sat beside the altar in the house and with a sharp-edged blade allowed her eyes to close in peace, but not

before that she had wept for the fates of Megareus and her son,

the boy before you here, and, last of all had called

down all the curses due infanticide upon your head. 1305

Cr. I grieve, I grieve str.

and my heart takes wing on fear. Will no one dare

to strike me down with a double edge of sword?

Poor wretch that I am, I grieve, 1310

am drenched in wretched grief.

Me. Indeed, you were found guilty by the woman dead

of the death both of your son and of Antigone…

Cr. And by what means was she released by bloody death?

Me. With her own hand she stabbed herself beneath the heart, 1315

when she had learned about her son’s departure, keenly wept.

Cr. The guilt for this cannot be fixed on any other man but me. str.

For I it was that killed you, I

and no man else, poor wretch, yes, I

confess the guilt. My servants, lead me off, 1320

as quickly as you can, remove this block,

which is as good as dead. 1325

Ch. If any words befit the time such words are they.

For briefest is best when tragedy strikes.

Cr. Let it come, let it come, ant.

yes, let it appear, the best of fates for me,

that brings for me the last of days, 1330

38



let it come, let it come,

that I may never look again upon the light of day.

Ch. Such things are not for now. For we must do what the nowdemands. For what will be must be for others to decide. 1335

Cr. My prayers are all contained in that desire...

Ch. Then pray no more… for mortal men have no escape

from predetermined tragedy.

Cr. Then take this man quite out of sight, ant.

who, all unwilling, caused your death, my son, 1340

and also yours, Eurydice, my wife, poor fool that I am,

nor do I know where I should look, where walk…

For all my handiwork is awkward, ruined even, and 1345upon my head there leaps intolerable fate…

Ch. By far the greatest part of happiness

is wisdom. We must not ever act impiously

toward the gods. Proud words 1350

of arrogant men receive harsh punishments…

old age at the last learns to be wise…

39



Ajax

(Dramatis Personae)

Athena

Odysseus

Ajax

Chorus of Salaminian Sailors

Tecmessa

Messenger

Teucer

Menelaus

Agamemnon

40



Athena

Odysseus, Laertes' son, I have always seen

in you a man that hunts his enemies down to seekhis opportunity. Now too I see you by the tents

and ships of Ajax where he keeps his station at the margin

of the camp, playing the hound and measuring his new

made spoor to see if he is in the tent or not.

Keen scented as some Laconian hound you make

your way successfully to him. For the man has but

just now gone in, his head and both sword deadly hands

all drenched with sweat. So now there is no further need 10

for you to peep around the opening to see within, but tell to me the cause of your keen spirit here

that you might learn the truth from one who knows.

Odysseus

Athena, you are the dearest of the immortals to me,

and though I cannot see you, still I hear and recognise

your voice and clasp it joyous to my heart,

bronze voiced it's Etruscan trumpet call. You are

quite right in seeing that I cast around upon the trail

of my warrior foe, yes, Ajax of the mighty shield.

For I am tracking him and no man else, long since. 20

For in this night he has done us a deed of wrong

that cannot be conceived, if indeed the deed is his;

for we know nothing certain yet, are all at sea;

So I have volunteered to yoke this search

upon myself. For we have just now found

all the cattle beasts we captured slain, by human hand,

and with them their herdsmen dead.

All men lay the guilt for this upon this very man.

What's more one of our scouts did see him all alone

and loping across the plain, his sword awash with blood, 30

and revealed this news to me; at once I hurried to track

him down - and at times I read the traces clear enough,

but am confused at other times, cannot identify the spoor.

Your coming here is opportune; for I would be guided by you

in all things in what is to come, as I was in days gone by.

41





I summon Ajax. Hurry out from the tent!

Od. What are you doing, Athena? Don't call him out!

Ath. Be silent, do not play the coward here.Od. By the gods no, but let him be content to stay within.

Ath. What do you fear? He has only ever been a man.

Od. Yes, but my deadly enemy both then and now.

Ath. Is not though sweetest laughter laughed at enemies?

Od. I still would rather that he stayed inside. 80

Ath. You shrink from witnessing madness at first hand?

Od. If he were sane I would not fear confronting him.

Ath. But he cannot see you now, however close.

Od. How can that be if he is not blind?Ath. I will veil his eyes and darken his sight.

Od. All things are possible for a cunning god.

Ath. Stand here in silence then and wait where you are.

Od. I'll stay if I must, but would rather be far from here.

Ath. Hey, Ajax there! I summon you again!

Why such little regard for a friend? 90

Ajax

Athena, greetings, greetings Zeus born child!

Your company has profited me well, and I shall crown

you with golden gifts of booty for this trophy won.

Ath. I approve your words, but tell me this;

have you dipped your sword deep in Argive blood?

Aj. That boast is mine and I shall deny it not.

Ath. You turned your armoured fist against the sons of Atreus ?

Aj. To such effect they never shall dishonour Ajax more.

Ath. The men are dead then, if I understand you well.

Aj. Yes, they are dead and let them take my weapons now. 100

Ath. So be it, but what then of Laertes's son, Odysseus?

What fate have you worked for him? Did he escape?

Aj. You ask where I've put that accursed fox?

Ath. I do. The man who always blocks your way, Odysseus.

Aj. My most welcome guest and prisoner, Athena,

squats inside. I would not have him die just yet.

Ath. Before you accomplish what? Some further gain?

Aj. First I'll bind him to the roof pole of the tent.

43



Ath. What harm do you plan for the poor wretch then.

Aj. He will not die until I've whipped his back to blood. 110

Ath. You should not torture the poor wretch so.Aj. All else I grant to you, Athena, and that happily,

but he will pay no other price but this to me.

Ath. If you have pleasure in doing this thing, then take

it in hand and do not neglect your ingenuity.

Aj. I go to my work. And this is what I say to you:

prove always such an ally as you have to me today.

Ath. Do you see, Odysseus, how great is the power of gods?

What man could once you have found more full

of forethought, more adept at appropriate deeds? 120Od. I know of none other, but now I feel an all

embracing pity for him, although my enemy,

because he has been yoked to infatuation dire,

and I think of my own case no less than his.

For I see that we are nothing real, but mere

illusions and insubstantial shades.

Ath. Then contemplate his fate such as it is and speak

no proud word against the gods, nor adopt

for yourself an arrogant style, should you

outstrip another in main force or in wealth. 130

A single day may overturn and bring to naught

all human gains. Gods love men temperate

and wise and loathe their opposites.

Chorus

Telamon's son, whose island home of Salamis

confronts the surrounding salt waves of the sea,

when your fortunes are high I salute you,

but when you are struck by the anger of Zeus,

or the fierce clacking of tongues from the Greeks,

I harbour great dread in my heart, am afraid,

like some winged dove wearing fear in its eyes. 140

Even so of the night just now past

loud shameful rumours perturb us,

that you did descend to the plain

44



of wild horse, and did slaughter

the cattle, Greek spoils ,

booty won by the spear and as yet undivided,a butcher with glittering sword.

Constructing such slanderous tales

Odysseus feeds each eager ear,

and convinces too many. For plausible lies

150

he repeats about your present condition

and every man hears and rejoices at what

he has said, exulting in this your disaster.

For the shafts never miss the greathearted men, while none would believe

one who told such a tale about me.

For envy will ambush the man who has might.

And yet we humble folk, divorced from the strong,

cannot provide a sound defence upon the wall;

the weak act best when allied with the strong, 160

but strong men still succeed supported by the lesser sort.

But it is impossible for stupid men to learn

and understand ideas such as these.

Such are the men who raise this din

and we have not the strength

to rebut their charges, lord, without your help.

For when they escape the notice of your eye

they prattle on like flocks of winged birds,

but, should you perchance appear,

they in fear of the mighty vulture would be

170

of a sudden struck quite dumb.

str. Did the bull ruling daughter of Zeus,

all powerful Rumour, that mothers

our shame, did Artemis

drive him against that whole population of bulls,

perhaps in rage at unrewarded victory,

45



or cheated of spoils that

bring fame, or by unlicensed shootings of deer?

Or did the armour plated Lord of War exacta vengeance with this night-time ploy,

180

for his despite and rejection of the helping spear?

ant. Your own sound mind would never have

urged such a march to destruction, Lord Ajax,

as when you fell on the flocks. Such madness

is sent by the gods, but still let Lord Zeus, Apollo, both

ward off the evil slanders of the Greeks.And if with suppositious tales

the great kings manufacture secret lies,

or Odysseus, son of Sisyphus' dissolute line,

do not hide your face in these huts by the sea, 190

to win us ill fame and repute.

ep. Up, rouse yourself from

your seat, or wheresoever

you linger away from the fight, inflaming

the goddess of mischief...

The pride of your enemies thus has license

to roam, unchecked, enjoying the woodland air,

while men crow giving tongue

to deep insult and the load

of my grief is maintained. 200

Tecmessa

Men that work the ship of Ajax,

earth born, of the race of Erechtheus,

we have reason for grief, whose care

is Telamon's house far away.

For Ajax, the dread, mighty Ajax,

him of savage strength, is laid low

by a storm of darkling disease.

Ch. What new change to deep grief

46



is brought by the night that is past?

Speak, Phrygian daughter of Teleutas, 210

since warrior Ajax who took you to wife,a wife won by the spear, he still loves you,

and so you might speak well informed.

Tec. How might I speak the unspeakable?

You will hear of a fate to match death.

For seized with madness in the night

our famous Ajax is subjected to scorn.

Of such are the sights you may see

in the tent, victims bloodstained

and slain by this man's fell hand. 220

Ch. I can neither endure nor escape

the tale you reveal of our fiery lord,

the tale spread abroad by those of the Greeks who are kings,

which their large propaganda increases.

I stand in dread of what

may come; for clearly the man

will die if with the hand

of madness on his blood black sword 230

he killed the cattle and the men

that kept the horses safe.

Tec. I tell you he came back home to us from the fields,

from the fields, his captive flock in tow.

Some here he slaughtered on the ground, while some

he disembowelled with blows to the flank.

He then seized twin white footed rams,

decapitated one of them, ravaged one's tongue tip

and flung it from him, while a third upright

he bound to a post, 240

snatched up a heavy duty horsewhip

and flogged it with the whistling double toothed goad,

hurling such abuse the while as no mortal man

did ever learn from god.

47



Ch. This the time for each man-jack of us to shroud ant.

our heads, to steal our feet away and take our place

at the swift yoked oars to set forth our shipand voyage the open sea. 250

So dire are the threats launched

by the two, empowered sons of Atreus

against us. I am afraid to share

the pain with him of death

by stoning, struck down

in the clench of unknowable fate.

Tec. The storm and lightning flash have left him calm,sharp squalls subside like wind from the south.

Returning consciousness entails new pain;

To witness self inflicted grief, 260

with no man else to blame,

submits the mind to bitter pangs.

Ch. If sanity returns, I hope all may be well;

the payment is less when the threat is gone.

Tec. If given the choice, which option would

you take: betray your friends for private gain,

or share with them and so ease a common grief?

Ch. The twofold evil, lady, is the worse to bear.

Tec. Although his attack is gone, we still are lost.

Ch. I do not understand the meaning of your words. 270

Tec. This man when still in the grip of lunacy,

himself delighted in his crimes, while we

who lived with him had our sanity shocked;

but now he has some respite from disease,

he is completely overwhelmed with shock,

as we are too, no less than we were before.

So is not this therefore a double share of ills?

Ch. You are right and I fear this visitation came

from god. How else otherwise can his heart

be no lighter now he's well than when he was sick. 280

Tec. Be well assured that his case is exactly so.

48



Ch. What and when was the start of this attack?

We share your pain so tell us what befell.

Tec. You share our fate and so I'll tell you all.Deep night it was and the evening lamps by now

were dimmed. Then Ajax seized his sword, two edged,

and sought to steal out, onto the deserted track.

I reproached him then and asked his purposes,

"Why, Ajax, are you setting out, unbidden, on

this enterprise, although no summons came, 290

no trumpet was heard? The army now is all asleep."

His answer was a short and characteristic reproof,

"Silence, woman, is womankind's best ornament!"I took heed and was silent while he rushed out alone.

What happened away from here I cannot tell,

but back he came driving a milling mass of bulls

and sheep dogs, bound up with a flock of woolly sheep.

Decapitating some he slit the upstretched throats

of others, or chopped through their spines and abused

them, fettered like human prisoners, though victim beasts. 300

At last he rushed out through the doors, boasting to some

figment of his brain, much mocking now the sons

of Atreus and now Odysseus, exulting in the scale

of harm he had inflicted on them by his raid;

and then he rushed inside again and by degrees

and over time regained somehow his proper mind,

and when he saw the tent filled with his carnage, then

he beat his head and howled and devastated sat

amidst the death and devastation of the slaughtered sheep,

and raked, jaws clenched, his hair with nailed fist. 310

Long grew the time he sat there speechless till at last

he hurled dread threats of what he'd do to me,

if I did not reveal to him the disaster's full extent,

and he asked me what his current situation was.

I was terrified, my friends, and, in my fear,

I told him all I knew of what was done.

At once he gave vent to shrill cries of lament,

such as I had never heard from him before.

49



For always before he had laid down such cries

to be the mark of cowards and mean spirited men; 320

he never had been one to weep and keen, but morelike the bellowing bull his roars of grief.

but overtaken now by such an evil fate,

he takes no food nor drink this man, but silent sits

where he fell among the beastly victims of his sword.

It is clear that he is pondering some dreadful deed;

for some such plan his words and groans betray.

But, friends, I came out here to ask you in,

to see if you might help as best you can.

Warriors are only swayed by a comrade's argument. 330Ch. Tecmessa, Teleutas' child, you fill me with fear

reporting our Ajax runs mad in the midst of disaster.

Aj. Oh, oh, oh...(inarticulate groans of pain and grief).

Tec. He threatens more perhaps. Or did you not catch

the feelings of pain in the cry that he raised?

Aj. Oh, oh, oh...(etc).

Ch. The man is either ill again, or feels again

the present pain of sickness past.

Aj. My child, my child...

Tec. Oh no, poor wretched me...Eurysaces, he call for you. 340

What is it that he wants? Where are you? Oh no, no, no!

Aj. Teucer? Teucer, where are you? Your mission,

will it last for evermore, and I destroyed?

Ch. The man seems sane enough. Come, open up.

Perhaps on seeing me he will gain more self control.

Tec. See there, I open the door that you may see

first hand what he has done and what his state.

Aj. Ah, friends, str.

my friends and fellow sailors, alone of my friends

you remain, alone you keep faith to your pledge; 350

do you see the great wave

that breaks round and surrounds me

with envious storms of disaster?

Ch. Your words of witness, it seems, were only too true.

50



The evidence proclaims insanity was present here.

Aj. Ah, friends, ant.my friends and mates that manned my ship,

who sped its oars across the broad salt sea,

to you alone can I look, to you alone

to bring me relief in disaster. 360

So all of you kill me at once!

Ch. Pray, silence, my lord! Do not by piling evil up

on evil seek to mound an even greater peak of pain.

Aj. Do you see the warrior bold and staunch of heart, str.

him fearless when joined in battle with the foe,

but now his hand an awesome threat to trusting beasts?

I am made a mockery, so great the indignity I have been dealt.

Tec. Do not, lord Ajax, please, I beg of you, do not dare this!

Aj. Get out! Go, take yourself off and come not back!

Agh! Agh! 370

Ch. No, by the gods, be swayed by her and learn to be wise!

Aj. Fortune's fool I am who lost

the villains from my grasp

and fell instead on horned beasts,

on goats to bring me fame indeed

and spilled their dark life's blood.

Ch. Why still grieve at events that are past and done?

These things could not by fate be other than they are.

Aj. Oh, Odysseus, Laertes' son, you stoop ant.

to anything, you constant instrument of evil, 380

the army's scheming, loathsome scum.

What gales of laughter you'll enjoy at my expense!

Ch. Men laugh, men cry and all at the gods' behest.

Aj. I would my eyes were on him now in spite of my dishonour.

Agh! Agh!

Ch. Make no proud boast! Can you not see the peril you are in?

Aj. O Zeus, ancestral father and lord,

pray tell me how I might destroy

51



my enemies, that scheming blight,

with both twin-sceptred kings alike, 390

then die likewise at last myself.Tec. If pray you must for this, then also pray for me

to die! What need have I to live when you are dead?

Aj. Agh! str.

My life is merely darkness now,

so come to me, most friendly dark, and take

me, take me down, yes take me down

to live with death; for it is not right that I

should look to the raceof gods for help, nor to the race of mere mortal, ephemeral man.400

The all powerful

daughter of Zeus

racks me to torture and death.

Where then can one flee?

Once fled where stay?

For all I had is gone,

friends, in payment for this,

crazed prize of obsession, I would

that the host might lift up its sword

in its hand to destroy me.

Tec. For a worthwhile man to say such things is tragic indeed, 410

the like of which would never before have dared pass his lips.

Aj. Agh! ant.

Salt-beaten paths of the sea,

caves marine and sea-girt pastures green,

long, long and weary the time you

have held me at Troy;

no more, though, no more

alive, as any sane man in his senses might guess.

And neighbouring

steams of Scamander,

that are so friendly to Greeks, 420

no more will you look

52



on this man again, the like

of which, I'll boast,

the land of Troy had never beforeseen come in arms from the lands

of Greece, but now I lay

me down, all honour lost and gone.

Ch. I cannot stop your words, nor yet can invite speech

in one that has fallen so deeply into disaster.

Aj. Such grief! Who could have thought my name would match 430

so well in meaning with my fate, yes, Ajax, meaning grief -

and I may use my name to give repeat expression to my grief...

Yes, Ajax, Ajax, Ajax, Ajax, Ajax, Ajax.....

whose father once came home from this land

of Ida and brought fair fame with him, who of all

the host had nobly won the first and fairest prize of all;

and I am that man's son, who came to this same land

of Troy with a strength to match my father's strength,

and my hands' work was strong enough and more, but yet

I am dishonoured and am as good as dead among 440

the Greeks, but still I am convinced, am sure as I

could ever be, that had Achilles lived to be the one

to grant his prize of arms, rewarding strength

and valour, no other man but I would have laid hold

of them. But now the sons of Atreus have procured

them for a cheat, and have renounced the claim

of Ajax's worth. And if these eyes of mine, and if

my twisted mind had not deserted my intent,

they could not have lived to vote for any other man.

Now, though, the fierce eyed daughter divine 450

of Zeus has foiled my hand as I aimed it against

them, seeding my mind with sick insanity,

so that I bloodied my hands on these beasts;

and they escaped and laugh out loud at me,

in spite of me, but if a god would do one harm,

53



a villain might escape the better, stronger man.

And now what must I do? For I am patently

anathema to gods, the army of the Greeksabhors me, as do the plains and town of Troy.

Should I set sail, desert this anchorage, abandon 460

Atreus's sons and make my Aegean voyage home?

And turning up at home what kind of face

could I present to Telamon? And could he bear

to look on me, denuded of the prizes valour brings,

when he had won before fame's mighty crown.

No, that I could not stand! Well, shall I hurl

myself in single combat on the Trojan linesto do some useful work, and so then die at last?

But that might do the Atreids some good...

That must not be! I must seek out some kind 470

of enterprise to show my aged father that his son

was not entirely gutless in his character.

It is the coward's way to hanker after length of life,

when life itself brings nothing else but grief.

What joy can we have in a succession of days,

when those days are but a variable prelude to death?

I would not rate at any price the kind of man

who would warm himself with empty hopes.

The noble man must either live in a noble way

or nobly die. You have heard all I have to say. 480

Ch. No one would ever deny that what you have said

rings true, lord Ajax, and comes direct from the heart,

but yet, my lord, be patient, put aside these thoughts

and allow your friends to overrule your present will.

Tec. I beg you, lord Ajax, remember, mankind has no

heavier burden to bear than the luck necessity grants.

I myself was born of a father freeborn himself,

and as strong and as rich as any Phrygian was;

but now I am a slave. This was the will of the gods,

of your warrior's hand as well. Since this is so, 490

since also I have come to share your bed, I wish you well

and beg of you by Zeus, who cares for the hearth,

54



and by your bed in which we have joined as one, do not

neglect me so I win the harsh taunts hurled by your

antagonists, nor make me subject to another's hand.For if you were to die and by your death abandon me,

on that same day, be well assured, I would be seized

as spoil by force by the Greeks, and along with me

your son for both of us to live a life of abject slavery.

Then one of the chieftains will speak bitter words 500

of abuse, "See here is his spear-bride and concubine,

yes, Ajax's whore, the whore of the man who was strong

in our ranks, and see the sad state of one fallen so far."

Just so will one of them speak, when I am a victim of fate, but these words will be a shame to you and your kin.

Spare a thought for your father that you leave

to a dismal old age, and for your mother too,

who also is possessed of many years, whose pleas

to the gods so often demand safe return home for you;

pity too, my lord, your son who, if stripped in his youth 510

of your care and bereft of your presence here, a prey

to hateful guardians, and think on the mass of grief

you set in place both for him and for me when you die.

I have no one else to whom I might look but to you.

For my native land you laid waste with your spear,

while, as for my mother and father, still another fate

removed them both to dwell in Hades' deadly home.

What place should I have to live except with you?

On you alone depends my total welfare and my wealth.

So spare also a thought for me; a man should keep 520

in mind the pleasures that he's had, such as they were.

For kindness ever breeds kindness itself, but should

a man be careless of the pleasures he's received,

he could no longer keep his reputation for nobility.

Ch. I would that you could find pity in your heart for her,

as I do, Ajax, - for then you would approve her words.

Aj. She will win praise enough and more from me,

if only she dares to accomplish well the task I set.

Tec. Beloved Ajax, I will obey your will in everything.

55



Aj. Then bring me here my son that I may look on him. 530

Tec. I was afraid and sent him out of my care.

Aj. Because of these disasters do you mean, or why?Tec. In case the poor boy confront your madness and die.

Aj. That would have been consistent with my present luck.

Tec. And so I took care to spare him such a fate.

Aj. I approve your care and the forethought shown.

Tec. And what can I do to help you now?

Aj. Give me the chance to see and speak to him.

Tec. The servants have him in safekeeping close to hand.

Aj. Then why delay his presence here? 540

Tec. My son, your father is calling you! Servants, bringhim in, whichever of you is acting as guide.

Aj. Does he come to your call, or can he not hear?

Tec. One of the servants is bringing him near.

Aj. Up with him, then, up! He'll not be afraid

to look upon this spectacle of recent death,

if he is in any proper sense his father's son.

He must be broken right away to his father's

pitiless ways, and his nature moulded to mine.

May you be but luckier than I, my son. In all else 550

I would wish you the same - and so you will do well;

but as for now, I find I envy you for this at least,

that you are unaware of what has happened here.

For life is best before the dawn of consciousness,

before you learn the meaning of either grief or joy,

but when awareness comes, you then must show

your father's enemies the man you were born to be.

Till then sustain yourself on gentle breezes, enjoy

your childhood, bringing joy to your mother here.

I know that none of the Greeks would think to taunt 560

you hatefully, despite your lack of my presence here.

For I shall leave my brother Teucer to watch and be

unsparing in his care for your young life, although

he wanders far away in his present hunt for enemies.

So, comrades of the shield, my crew of salts, I put

this joint responsibility on each and every one

56



of you, to announce to him my wish in this: I bid

him carry my son back home with him to Salamis,

presenting him there to Telamon and my mother, Eriboea,that he might be a perpetual comfort to their age, 570

until they gain the caverns of the god of death himself -

and let not Teucer, nor any other chairman of the games,

nor yet my bane Odysseus, gift my arms to any Greek.

But you accept from me this shield of careful work,

my son, from which you take your name, Eurysaces,

and weave its seven layered bulk to keep the spears away;

my other arms will all be buried by my side.

But, quickly now, take back this child from me,secure the house, and don't give way to tears and grief

outside. Great gods, why does a woman so love to weep? 580

Secure the house, and quickly! Chanting spells is not

the doctor's task when what the cancer needs is knife!

Ch. You make me afraid when I hear this urgency.

I do not like the bitterness of your tongue.

Tec. Lord Ajax, what is it you intend to do?

Aj. Do not judge me, do not ask. Restraint is good.

Tec. But I fear for us - and I beg you, on your son's life

and by the gods, do not betray and leave us now.

Aj. You are becoming tedious! Why can't you see

that I am no longer obliged to please the gods? 590

Tec. Hush, lord!Aj.Speak only to those who wish to hear.

Tec. I cannot persuade you?Aj.Noise, too much noise!

Tec. I fear for you, my lord.Aj.Shut tight the doors at once!

Tec. Be gentle, I beg of you.Aj.I think you are quite mad

if you think at this late stage to school my heart.

Ch. Famed Salamis, happy wave str.

washed homeland in the midst of the sea,

and ever renowned among men,

while long time I, poor wretch that I am, 600

the countless months detain, ever beside

the grassy slopes of Ida's mount

encamped, time wasted,

57



fearful and expectant always

of taking Hell's unseen path one cannot refuse.

And Ajax's incurable illness ant.

has lain in wait to ambush me, poor wretch, 610

and a madness divine shares the house.

The wild warrior once you despatched, Salamis,

almighty in war is made now a source of distress

to his friends, obsessed and alone

in his mind, while the virtuous works

of his hands from before are fallen as naught,

thankless, unloved with the thankless dour sons of Atreus. 620

His mother, aged in days with the whiteness of age str.

now upon her, when she hears of the sickness

assailing his heart,

will give tongue

in her grief,

repeated, repeated her cries, harsh and shrill, 630

not hers the sweet nightingale call,

but piercing her hymn of lament,

as her hands on her breast beat out

their percussion of pain and tear the white hair on her head.

Better off to bed down with Death this man, ant.

mind sick and deluded, born the best of his clan,

who came to be best of the Greeks

in the trials of war,

no more, though, at home with his self, 640

but alien now to his heart. And his father,

to learn at the end of this rage

that brought doom to his son!

No living man of this house

has before ever met with a life so ill fated as this.

Aj. All things times creates in its numberless span, births things

unseen to the light and conceals them again at the end;

58



no one thing now should be unexpected, but oaths that once

were dread are overthrown, and wills that were strong.

And even I, who once was a man dread, strong and firm, 650like iron drop-forged, am become like a woman when I hear

what this wife has to say. I am sorry to leave her a prey,

as a widow with my orphaned son, to those hostile to me.

But I shall go to the washing place and the meadows down

by the sea to clean this foulness from my skin, and try

to escape from the goddess Athena's grievous rage;

I'll go somewhere removed from the beaten track

and hide this my most deadly weapon to me, this sword,

establishing it upright firm in the dirt where none may seeLet Night and Death both keep it under the ground! 660

For from the time I took it in my hand as a gift

from Hector, the man who was my deadliest foe,

I never have been held in esteem by the Greeks.

For mankind's traditional wisdom holds true:

what an enemy gifts is no gift, but bring only harm.

In time to come we will know to leave all in the lap

of the gods, and shall learn to respect the Atreids' will.

They are in command and we must obey - yes, indeed.

For both the dread and the strong must yield

to ceremony. Snowy storms retreat in the face 670

of this law and of the summer's fruitful heat;

night's dismal course gives way to day's

pale horse, inviting the sun to shine in turn;

wind blasts of horrid squall grow calm and ease

the sounding sea to slumber; all conquering sleep

first binds, then sets its victims free, is not perpetual.

Then how shall I not also learn to moderate myself?

I understand at last that one should only hate

an enemy so much as suits a potential friend, 680

and I shall in future only aim to serve a friend

as suits a future enemy. For friendship is itself

a treacherous haven amongst the most of men.

But as to that, it will be well... so go you then

inside and, woman, pray to the gods that they

59



fulfil entire the wishes of my heart's desire,

and you, my friends, respect my wishes too

like her, and signal Teucer, if he comes to carefor me and mine and also show good will to you;

for I must go to the place where I must go; 690

do you then what I say, and perhaps you soon

will learn that even in my pain I am safe.

Ch. I thrill with desire, am flown with delight. str.

Hail, all hail the great god Pan,

lord Pan, yes, Pan reveal

yourself from rock-ridged,sea-battered Cyllene, snow blitzed, my lord

and master of the dance

divine, hasten the choric steps

Dionysiac, Cretan measures, self taught. 700

For now am I minded to dance.

And lord Apollo come step

with me, clearing the sea of Icarus,

Apollo, famed Delian King,

a constant and kindly companion through time.

Dread Ares has lifted the dark cloud from our eyes. ant.

Be glad and rejoice! Once more,

lord Zeus, you may bring

the bright cheer of the day

to the swift, sharp prowed ships, since Ajax, free 710

now from his pain, accomplishes

all that is due to the gods,

is most pious now in his dealings with them.

All things are brought down by long passage of time;

There is nothing unheard of its truth

I'd deny, since Ajax has changed

in his heart when I'd abandoned

all hope that his peace could be made with Atreus's sons.

Messenger

60



My friends, firstly I would tell you this, that Teucer

has just returned from the Mysian heights, and when 720

he reached the leaders' tent in the midst of the camphe became the object of general abuse from the Greeks.

For recognising him from afar as he made his way near,

they formed a circle around him and then with taunts

they harassed him on all sides, each and every one

of them, calling him brother of the insane plotter against

their force, adding threats he would scarce escape death,

being ground to a pulp with their stones. And as a result

they reached such a pitch of excitement drawn swords

sprang from their sheaths and appeared in their hands. 730Strife's rush to its inevitable conclusion was stopped

only by the older men's words of appeasement.

Where, though, is Ajax your lord, so that I can tell him?

As lord and a party to this I must needs tell him all.

Ch. He is gone from within but recently, to yoke

new plans to match his latest disposition.

Me. Oh no, no!

The man who sent me on this mission was too late

in sending me, or I myself am shown to be too slow.

Ch. What is this emergency you have failed? 740

Me. Teucer declared that Ajax should stay out of sight,

and not venture outside until he himself arrived.

Ch. Well, he has gone, intent on doing what will be of benefit

to him, seeking absolution from the anger of the gods.

Me. Your words are quite misguided, full of foolishness,

if Calchas' prophecies were accurate.

Ch. What prophecies? What does Chalcas know of this?

Me. I'll tell you what I know for I was present there:

when Calchas left the council and the ring of chiefs

and was alone, had separated from the Atreids, 750

he placed his kind right hand in Teucer's hand

and spoke and urged him by all possible means

to keep Ajax confined inside his quarters, and never

to let him out for the bright duration of this one day,

if Teucer wanted ever to see him alive again.

61



For Ajax is the slave of the goddess Athena's rage,

he said, for this one day and this one day alone.

For the prophet declared that mortal menwho harboured boastful and foolish thoughts

fell humbled by the gods' malevolence. Men born 760

of mortal stock should think but mortal thoughts.

When Ajax left his home, why even then he was

found out in a foolishness, despite his father's good advice.

For his father said to him, "Seek power in arms,

my son, but seek to sustain that power with help

from the gods!" But Ajax replied in a boastful

and foolish manner, "Father, a nothing manmight obtain power with the help of gods.

For my part I will win my fame without their aid."

Big boastful words! And then a second time, 770

when the goddess Athena was urging him on

to turn his bloodied hand against the enemy,

unprecedented in pride he answered her back,

"Mistress, take your stance beside the other Greeks.

The fighting enemy will never overwhelm my post!"

And by such vaunting words he earned Athena's harsh

rage, his ambitions outstripping by far his mortal state.

But if he survives this day, perhaps with the help

of the god's we might prove to be his saviours.

So much did the prophet speak and Teucer rose 780

from his place and sent me straight away to bring

these messages into your care. If though my task

has failed and Calchas is wise, then Ajax dies.

Ch. Tecmessa, unlucky child of an ill starred race,

come, listen to the meaning of this man's words.

Our lives and fortunes rest on the razor's edge.

Tec. What makes you rouse me from my rest, when I

had just now won some freedom from my pain?

Ch. You must listen to this man who bring us news

of Ajax's fate, such news as stirs my sympathy. 790

Tec. Well friend, what news? Our fate is sealed?

Me. I do not know your fate, but as for Ajax, if he

62



is gone outside why then I surely fear for him.

Tec. He is outside and so your words are a torture to me.

Me. Teucer's orders were to keep him in restraintinside the tent and not to let him out alone.

Tec. Where is Teucer? What his grounds for saying this?

Me. He has but just come back. His expectation is

that Ajax's going out will bring about his death.

Tec. From whom did he learn this dreadful news? 800

Me. From Thestor's son, the prophet Calchas who said

this present day would find him safe or dead.

Tec. My friends, stand by me now in this necessity,

and send for Teucer to come and quickly now,while others go to the western and the eastern bays

to search for trace of Ajax's ill-omened path.

For I realise now that I was misled by the man,

am exiled from the love we used to share.

Oh, my son, what shall I do? For I must act!

Yes, I will go to the limits of my strength. 810

So, let us make haste and move - no time to rest,

if we would save this man so bent on death.

Ch. I am ready to leave, and will prove the fact.

Swift feet will swiftly accomplish the deed.

63



Aj. My slayer is set in place to do its cutting work

to best effect, if time there is to work it properly,

sword gift of Hector, the man I hate the most of allguest friends, and loathe the most to look upon.

It is firmly fixed in the hostile soil of Troy,

new whetted on the iron eating stone; 820

and I have taken care to fix it well myself,

that it may bring to me a swift and easy death.

So, all is well prepared... and now, lord Zeus,

be you my helper, first and foremost, as is right.

What I shall ask of you shall be no big request.

Be sure to send someone to bring the evil newsto Teucer that he may be the first to lift me up

from where I fall upon this fresh to be anointed sword,

and do not let some enemy spy me out before him,

to throw me out as fodder for the dogs and birds. 830

Such is my meagre prayer to you, lord Zeus, and I call

on chthonian Hermes too to lay me carefully to rest,

with a speedy, unconvulsive lurch upon the sword,

when I rip it through my ribs and lungs.

I summon those eternal virgins too to help, who keep

an everlasting watch on all the sufferings of men,

the holy Furies that stride long, to learn of me how I

am done to wretched death by the sons of Atreus.

And let them clamp their teeth in company upon

those double dyed destructive scum, when they see 840

me throw myself upon the sword- and then

destroy them too, as I myself have been destroyed*...

Yes, come, select swift flock of Furies, come,

feed, spare none of the people of the host!

And you, lord Helios, high heaven's charioteer,

when you behold my native land of Salamis,

rein in and check your golden glancing reins

and tell of my fate, and my destruction's tale

to father, aged Telamon and to my poor mother too.

* The text is extremely problematic here; see e.g. Jebb's note ad loc. What is printed here is simply a

piece of English, which does not clash too harshly with the required sense.

64



Poor creature! When she hears your words, 850

she will vent great cries of grief throughout the town...

but there is no point in idle grief on this account.The business must be begun and with all speed.

Death, Death, come, supervise me now...

although I'll speak you face to face in hell.

But to you, bright visage of this present day,

and to you, swift chariot of the Sun, this is

my last and final, nevermore again, farewell.

Light of the sun and holy earth of Salamis, my home

the sound foundation of my father's hearth, 860

and famous Athens with your kindred race...you present springs and rivers, plain of Troy,

I bid you too farewell, for you have nourished me...

this is the last word Ajax speaks to you...

the rest I'll tell to those below in Hades' house.

Semi-chorus 1

Toil brings toil on top of toil.

Where, where,

oh, where have I not been?

No place betrays its hidden mystery to me.

There... there... 870

I hear the sound again.

Semi. 2 Our fellow mariners they are that share our ship...

Semi. 1 What news, what news?

Semi. 2 All the westward harbours have been traced.

Semi. 1 No luck at all, then?

Semi. 2 Despite our best efforts there's nothing to see.

Semi. 1 And neither has the man been seen along

the path which fronts the rays of the rising sun.

Ch. I would some working fisherman, str.

intent on his vigilant task, 880

or some Olympian goddess,

sea nymph divine,

from Bosphorus' flowing streams

65





to set his fallen brother's limbs in order here.

Unhappy Ajax, from what heights to this!

A fate to earn compassion even from an enemy.

Ch. In the course of time, poor wretch, it ever was ant.

your fate in stubbornness to fulfil at the last

a dreadful fate of griefs

unspeakable. For night

and day alike in savage rage

you cursed the sons of Atreus 930

with hateful words,

with hate implacable.That time was the lavish start

of grief, when the noble contest

for Achilles' arms was set.

Tec. Ah, no, no, no!

Ch. I know the loyal grief that bites close to the heart.

Tec. Ah, no, no, no!

Ch. I have no doubt, my lady, that your grief will twice 940

give tongue to mourn the loved one lost.

Tec. You may have no doubts, but I know full too well.

Ch. Yes, that is so.

Tec. Oh, child, what fresh bonds of slavery are ours

to find, what kind of masters will look over us?

Ch. Your cry of grief

finds inspiration in the work

of Atreus' twin sons so hard of heart.

May the god prevent it!

Tec. Our fate stands as it stands because of the work of gods. 950

Ch. And they have laid on us a burden far too hard to bear.

Tec. The terrible goddess Athena, child of Zeus,

gave birth to this curse for Odysseus's sake.

Ch. No doubt in the dark of his heart he exults

the patient Odysseus

and laughs out loud at mad Ajax's pain, laughs out

long and loud. 960

67



Tec. Then let them laugh and rejoice in our man's ill luck.

Alive perhaps they felt no need of him, but now that heis dead, they will grieve their lack in the demands of war.

For foolish men do not appreciate the noble prize

they have, until it is discarded from their hands.

His death pains me and falsely pleasures them,

for him it is a pure delight. For he has gained all that

he wanted for himself, and that was simply death.

Why then should they exult in overbearing mockery?

He died at the hands of god. They had no part in it. 970

And let Odysseus gloat at this along with them.For Ajax is no more for them - for me his loss

bequeaths a legacy of pain and lament.

Teucer Oh no, no, no!

Ch. Be silent now, for I do believe I hear the voice

of Teucer, raised in grief because of this disaster.

Teu. Oh, dearest Ajax, brother, my brother, no...

Your fate has matched the potent words of prophecy?

Ch. Know, Teucer, that the man is dead.

Teu. The weight of my fate then is heavy indeed. 980

Ch. It is as it is. Teu.I too then I am destroyed.

Ch. Distress is natural. Teu.This death was rash and premature.

Ch. Yes, Teucer, and by far. Teu.And so I grieve for him.

But what of his child? Tell me where he is in this land of Troy.

Ch. By the tents alone. Teu.Then bring him here

as quickly as you can, in case some enemy shall seize

him like some lion cub whose mother is alone.

Come, hurry and work together now.

For all men like to mock the fallen dead.

Ch. Your present care for his son reflects the dead 990

man's wishes, Teucer, while yet he lived.

Teu. Of all the horrors I have witnessed

this is the sorriest sight of all by far;

of all the journeys I have ever made,

this journey most of all does grieve

68



my soul, sweet Ajax, now that in my course

I have seen and traced your fate.

For news of you, how you had died spread,god sent and swiftly through the Greeks.

And when I heard this on my way I cried 1000

aloud and now this sight unmans me.

Ah!

Come, lay him bare that I might see it all.

The fatal daring of this face is hard to look upon -

such sorrows you sowed for me by your death!

For where now can I go midst the races of man,

since I am proven useless in your time of toil?And Telamon, of course, the father that we share,

would welcome me with kindly smiles upon his face,

if I returned alone! Of course he would... his smile 1010

is not so very sweet when fortune is his friend.

He will be blunt. What curse will not be his to lay

on me, the bastard offspring of his spear won bride,

a craven who betrayed you, Ajax, his best loved son,

through cowardice, or, worse, through jealous craft

to win by default your share of strength in Salamis?

Weighed down with age and evil temper, he will say

such things, a man who unprovoked is prone to strife.

And finally, disowned I will be exiled from the land,

pronounced by his curse as slave and free no more. 1020

So much then for home... In Troy I have made

many enemies; few the things to advantage me here!

Your death has revealed all this to me... Oh!

What then shall I do? And how to ease your corpse

up from this sharp gleaming fatal blade, poor man,

on which your life expired? So you see how he,

Hector, intended in time and in death to destroy you?

Observe, by the gods, the fate of these two men.

For Hector was tied fast to the chariot rail

with the belt he'd had from Ajax and dragged 1030

and mangled endlessly, until he finally died,

while Ajax received this gift from Hector,

69



on which he, Ajax, fatally fell and also died.

Did not some Fury forge this brazen sword,

and Death, a deadly craftsman, make that belt?I would ever express the view that the gods

contrived both these and all such incidents.

However, if some man in his heart disagrees,

he is as welcome to his view as I to mine.

Ch. No more now, rather tell us how you plan 1040

to bury him, and what excuses you will make.

For I see his enemy, coming perhaps to laugh

at our griefs with taunts to match his evil kind.

Teu. Which of the warriors is it that you see?Ch. Lord Menelaus for whom we made the voyage here.

Teu. I see him. Close he is not hard to recognise.

Menelaus

You there, I tell you, do not attempt to lift

that corpse, but leave it precisely as it is!

Teu. What is it prompts such a waste of words?

Men.My pleasure, and also that of Agamemnon. 1050

Teu. Perhaps you would care to justify yourself?

Men.Of course - we had hoped to bring him here

from Salamis as an ally and a friend to us,

but have found him more an enemy than Troy;

this man was plotting death to all the host,

set out at night against us with his deadly spear;

and had not some god subverted his plan,

we would have suffered the fate he now enjoys

in death, would have won an ignoble end,

while yet lived. But as it is, the god did turn 1060

his injured pride against the cattle and the sheep.

Therefore, there is no man of strength enough

that he might entomb this body in a grave,

but rather, tossed out on the yellow sand,

it will provide a feast and fodder for the gulls.

Let none lift up his heart in rage at this decision!

We could not rule him while he lived, but now

70



he's dead, we surely shall. Our hands will shape

his fate, in spite of you. For never while he lived

was he willing to pay attention to my words. 1070It is the mark of a worthless man if one from the ranks

disdains to give heed to his betters' commands.

For neither could the city's laws be ever safe

and sound, without the added sanction of fear,

nor could an army ever be run on disciplined lines,

without the constant spectres of fear and shame.

For any man, however big his physical strength,

must learn he can fall from the smallest mishap,

While the man who is prone to both fearand shame, be well assured that man is safe. 1080

But wherever a man may do as he likes in pride,

know well his city someday is destined to fall

headlong, though it ran with a favourable breeze.

Yes, I approve the principle of calculated threat,

and let us not believe we can act to indulge

our whims without due penalty and pain.

Change creeps by turns. Time past this man

was hotly arrogant, while now I wax proud.

And so I say you shall not bury him, in case

in doing so you fall yourself into the grave. 1090

Ch. The wisdom you enunciate is sound, my lord,

be not then so arrogant yourself toward the dead.

Teu. I could never again be surprised, my friends, to find

a man ignoble in birth, of no real worth, in error,

when those with pretensions to nobility and birth

make such errors of judgement in what they say.

Come, once more from the start, are you saying you

took Ajax up, and brought him here as ally to the Greeks?

And I thought he set sail himself, as master of his ship!

In what was he yours to command? What right have you 1100

to rule the men whom he led here from home?

You came as a Spartan king, no power over us;

There was no set agreement made for you to lord

it over him, no more than for him to lord it over you.

71



You sailed here as just another under chief, and not

supreme commander. You have no power over him.

Rule those that are rightly yours to rule, scourge themwith high and mighty words, while as for him,

I'll lay him in a proper grave, whatever you may say,

or the other general too... I do not fear your threats. 1110

He did not come campaigning here for you to get

your wife back like your labouring rank and file,

but because of the oaths with which he was bound.

Least of all for you! He took no account of nobodies!

Bring Agamemnon with you and a crowd of heralds

next time you come! I would not turn my headat the din you make, while you are as you are.

Ch. I have no fondness for such talk at crisis time;

harsh words, however just they are, will bite.

Men.This archer fellow seems quite flushed with pride. 1120

Teu. Do not underestimate the skill I have acquired.

Men.Your boasts would deafen, if you possessed a shield.

Teu. Unarmed I'd more than a match your weaponry.

Men.That tongue of yours feeds a terrible pride.

Teu. With justice on his side a man may well be proud.

Men.And is it just my slayer here should prosper then?

Teu. Your slayer? You talk in riddles... both dead and alive?

Men.The goddess kept me safe. He thought me dead.

Teu. Do not dishonour the gods that kept you safe.

Men.And how could I demean the laws of the gods? 1130

Teu. If your presence here forbids the burial of our dead.

Men.He was my mortal enemy. It is not right to bury him.

Teu. Did Ajax ever show himself your public enemy?

Men.We hated each other. You knew this too.

Teu. You showed yourself a thief and corrupter of votes.

Men.The decision was clearly the judges', not mine

Teu. You worked your manifold dirty deals in secrecy.

Men.These taunts will end in pain for you.

Teu. No greater pain than the pain that I shall work.

Men.One word I have. You must not be bury this man! 1140

Teu. And but one reply - he will have his burial.

72



Men.I once saw a man as bold of tongue as you, who urged

his crew to sail in the season of storms, but upon whose lips

you could not find a sound, when he was caught in a gale, but, cowering beneath his cloak, he would let

whichever of his crew tread all over him at will.

As for you and your boisterous tongue, should some

great storm spring even from some tiny cloud,

it will put a welcome stop, I believe, to your clamour.

Teu. And I have seen a man full of stupidity, 1150

who laughed out loud at his neighbours' grief.

Some other body saw him next, as it might be me,

or like in mood to me, who spoke like this to him,"You, fellow, pray, do not abuse the dead.

For if you do, know well that you will suffer too."

Such were his words of warning to this foolish man.

And now I see the very man, who is, it seems,

why, no one else but you - perhaps I puzzle you?

Men.I shall go. I do not wish to earn the disgrace

of bandying words with mere underlings. 1160

Teu. So, creep away. I would not earn the disgrace

of heeding the ramblings of some demented fool.

Ch. This grave issue will be brought to trial.

As quickly, Teucer, as you can, make haste

to look out a hollow tomb for Ajax where

he will keep to his mouldering grave, a place

that will live for ever in the minds of men.

Teu. And see, both the widow of this man and his child

are drawing nearer, just as the time is ripe for them

to prepare the wretched corpse of Ajax for the grave. 1170

My child, come here, and stand close by and place

your hand upon your father's corpse as suppliant.

Seat yourself, as one who has a prayer to make, with locks

of hair in hand, mine, yours and your mother's third,

the suppliant's stock in trade. And if any of the force

should try to drag you from the corpse's side, then may

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that villain die wretched far from home, no burial

for him, cut off both root and branch from all his race,

as even now I cut this lock of hair from off my head.Accept it, boy, and keep it safe and do not let yourself 1180

be moved, but set you down and hold him tight.

And you, stand by his side like the men you are,

stand by in his defence, until I shall return

from organising this man's tomb, in spite of all.

Ch. What end is set for me, what term str.

to years unnumbered of toil,

inflicting the wreck and ruin of war and spearacross the broad plains

of Troy, a curse and cause 1190

of shame and disgrace to the Greeks?

I would that man had hid ant.

himself among the clouds, or in death's house

that welcomes all, that man who taught Greeks

open war with instruments of death.

Sufferings breeds suffering.

That man has devastated humankind.

He granted me no share str.

in pleasure of garlands, 1200

of wine deep cups in sympotic company,

nor in sweet music of the pipes,

this man of doom, nor let me pass

the night in sweet

repose.* He has robbed

me too of love's delights...

Neglected now I lie me down,

hair always wet with chilling dew,

in constant awareness

of gloomy Troy. 1210

* I have borrowed the phrase, "pass the night in sweet repose" from Jebb's note ad loc; as so often Jebb

has precisely the right feel, and here there is no overt archaising.

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In times gone by brave Ajax ant.

was my constant guardianagainst the terrors of the night time raid;

but he is now the victim

of an evil fate. What pleasures, then,

will wait on me?

I would I were where

the wooded cape stands guard, sea washed

above the sea, beneath the flat

acropolis of Sunium, that I 1220

might hail and greetAthens' sacred town.

Teu. I have hurried back because I saw the general,

lord Agamemnon, coming here in haste himself;

No doubt he will unleash his tongue to our despite.

Agamemnon

Men tell me you have dared pour deadly imprecations

on my head - and do you think to get away with that?

Yes, you're the one I mean, the spear-bride's bastard son:

Had you been born and nurtured as a noble mother's son,

your arrogance would surely show itself in word and walk, 1230

since though you now are nothing and do speak for this,

this as nothing now, you still have sworn that we did come

without a right to rule the Greeks by land or sea, but he

yes, Ajax sailed, according to your claim, as master of himself.

Are these not overweening gibes to hear from slaves?

What kind of man was this whose praise you bark

in arrogance, where did he go or stand that I did not?

Do not we Greeks have warriors apart from him alone?

We likely shall regret indeed the competition

for Achilles' arms, proclaimed to all the Greeks, 1240

if we are proven criminal by Teucer on all counts,

and if you reject the judgement reached by a fair

majority of judges, reject defeat and still assail

75



us constantly with slanders, trying to subvert

our rule by guile, though beaten in the race.

Behaviour such as this would never grantdesired stability to any law, were we to throw

aside the men who won according to the law,

and then promote the laggards to the front.

We must be on our guard in this! For the big, 1250

broad shouldered bully boys are not 'responsible',

whereas, as rulers, men of wisdom are the best.

Big bodied bulls are kept to the straight

and narrow path with just a tiny whip.

I see this medicine soon overtaking you,unless you take yourself in hand, since though

this man is dead, a ghost by now, inspired by him

you let your mouth run freely on in arrogance.

Control yourself! Remember what you are,

and bring another here, a free born man, 1260

to plead your case to us instead of you.

For I no longer care to hear you speak;

I cannot understand your barbarous tongue.

Ch. Both of you should show some self control;

that is the best advice that I can give.

Teu. It is a sorry thing, the speed with which a dead

man's credit disappears and is betrayed,

if a man like this lacks words so soon to show

his gratitude to you, for whom repeatedly

you, Ajax, risked your life in labour with the spear; 1270

but all of that is gone, forgotten, flung aside.

You have had a lot to say and none of it

makes sense: perhaps you don't remember

any more the time when you were trapped

behind your lines, as good as dead as the tide

of battle turned, and he came alone to save

you, the flames already licking round

the after castles of the fleet, with Hector

hurdling the trench, attacking the ships.

Who kept him at bay? Did not this man do that, 1280

76



whom you deny set foot where you did not?

Did he not do very well by you that day?

There was still another time when he metHector, man on man, as a volunteer who won

the right by lot, no piece of mouldering clay for him,

some lump of moistened earth, but such as would

leap lightly from the crested helmet first.

This was the man who acted so, with me at his side,

the slave, the one whose mother was barbarian.

What twist of memory provokes your taunts? 1290

Did you forget that the man who got your sire

was himself barbarian, Phrygian Pelops of old?And Atreus, who in turn fathered you, did serve

his brother an impious feast of his children's flesh?

Your own mother too was born of Cretan stock.

Her father found her with a man, and so decreed

that she should be consigned as food for the silent fish.

Being such how dare you reproach my lineage?

I was born the son of Telamon. He fathered me,

this man who took my mother to his bed, first prize 1300

of valour won in war, a woman born herself

of royal blood, child of Laomedon - and Herakles

himself gave her to Telamon as choicest gift of all.

As a noble from two most noble parents sprung,

how should I disgrace my own blood kin, whom you

would order thrust outside, no grave, because of this

his present fate - have you no shame, to order that?

Know this, that if you throw his corpse away,

you will throw three more away to lie with him.

For I declare it is clearly more appropriate 1300

for me to die, contesting hard on his behalf,

than for your wife, or yet for your brother's wife!

Consider here your interests, not mine.

For if you do me harm, you then will wish yourself

a coward born before your boldness damaged me.

Ch. My lord Odysseus, your coming is timely indeed,

if you are here not to join the battle but to call a halt.

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Od. What is the matter, my friends? Far off I heard

the outcry of the Atreids about this noble corpse.

Ag. It was because we were just subjected to the most 1310insulting talk, Odysseus, from this fellow here.

Od. What insults? For I could forgive any man

who responds in kind to vulgar insult.

Ag. Yes, I insulted him, but he had showed me no respect.

Od. What had he done, that caused you such offence?

Ag. He said that he would not allow that corpse to stay

unburied, but would cover it in spite of me.

Od. May I frankly speak the truth to you as to a friend,

just as before we always pulled our oars in time?Ag. Speak. Otherwise I would be mad, since I 1320

count you my greatest friend among the Greeks.

Od. Then hear me. Do not risk the anger of the gods

by harshly tossing out this man's unburied corpse;

And, most of all, do not allow your violence of hate

for him so to act as to make you trample justice down.

For once this man was also my most bitter enemy

among the army, when I won Achilles' arms,

but still I would not choose in any way to heap

dishonour on his present state, nor yet deny

that in him alone I saw the very best of the Greeks 1340

as did arrive at Troy, save for Achilles himself.

Neither is it right he be dishonoured at your hands;

You would cause him no harm, only abuse the laws

of the gods. For it is not right to hurt a noble man

when he is dead, not even if you nurse a hate for him.

Ag. You fight for him, Odysseus, in this against me?

Od. I do. I hated him when to hate him was right.

Ag. And is it not right to trample him in death?

Od. Do not indulge yourself in gains that are illusory.

Ag. It is no easy task for a king to read the will of gods. 1350

Od. But it is to respect a friend's good advice.

Ag. A noble man should heed those in command.

Od. Be still - concede to friends and be victorious!

Ag. Think of the kind of man he was you now defend.

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Od. He was my enemy and yet he was a noble man.

Ag. What will you do? Respect an enemy once he's dead?

Od. His virtue far outweighs the enmity I felt.Ag. Such men as these show no stability.

Od. But many men blow hot and cold.

Ag. And you approve of friends like these? 1360

Od. I am not a one to praise rigidity.

Ag. You will show us up as cowardly today.

Od. Rather as men of justice in the eyes of Greece.

Ag. So you are urging me to give this body burial?

Od. I am. I too shall come to this.

Ag. It is always the same - each man looks after himself.Od. Whose best interests should I serve if not my own?

Ag. The task is yours. I want no credit here.

Od. Whatever you do, your credit is high.

Ag. Then know this very well, for you I would 1370

grant any favour such as this and even more,

but that man whether in the world below or here

shall be my bitter enemy - so do then what you must.

Ch. If any man denies the wisdom in your soul,

Odysseus, as shown in this, he is a fool.

Od. Then let me make it plain to Teucer that I am now

as much a friend to Ajax as once I was his enemy.

And I wish to take a part in burying him,

to share the work and not to leave undone any one

of the duties mortals owe to the best of men. 1380

Teu. Most noble Odysseus, your words deserve

my total praise. For you have foiled my expectation.

Although you were of all the Greeks the one

most hostile, you alone came to his aid, forbore

from heaping living insults on the dead man's head,

unlike our thundering general who came to do so,

both him and his brother, at one in their desire

to mock and throw the corpse away without a burial.

And so may the reverend father at home on Olympus,

and the mindful Fury and Justice that governs all 1390

to the end, destroy those evil men in that they wished

79



to mock and throw outside the body of this man.

And as for you, son of your aged father Laertes,

I shall keep you from his grave, nor let you placea hand on it, in case I cause displeasure to the dead;

in all else work with us, and if you wish to bring

some people from the army, we shall not object.

I shall prepare all that I have to do - and know

you are deemed by us to be a man true nobility.

Od. I would have liked to help, but if that is not congenial 1400

to you, so be it, and I shall go away content.

Teu. Enough - already too much timehas wasted. Some of you quickly dig

a hollow grave, some set in place

the cauldron in the fire, to heat

the sacred, cleansing waters;

and let another group bring out

his armour from the tent.

Child, take hold of him with me

and lovingly, beneath his ribs, 1410

as best you can, uplift his form...

for still the warm blood flows

black from his mouth. Come all who say

they loved him, come, hurry to do

some service for this most perfect man.

Of mortals none was better,

while he lived, than Ajax.

Ch. Many the things men learn from sight.

Before sight comes no man foretells

his future or his fate. 1420

80



The Women of Trachis

(Dramatis Personae)

Deianeira

Nurse

Hyllus

Chorus of Trachinian Women

Messenger

Lichas

Herakles

Old Man

81



82



Deianeira

There is an ancient saying current among mankind

that it is impossible to understand a person's life,to judge it good or bad, before that person dies;

my own life, though, I know, even before I depart

this world, has been unlucky and burdensome;

when still I lived in my father Oeneus' house

in Pleuron, I conceived the bitterest dread

of marriage of any Aetolian woman there.

My suitor was a river god, one Achelous I mean,

who would wear three shapes to ask for me 10

from father, now appearing as a bull, now coiledand swift, a snake, and now in human form,

bull fronted, while from his bearded cheeks

gushed springs of water from his river's stream.

Anticipating such a one as husband, I prayed

always in my misery for death to come

before I myself should come to such a union.

There came at the last, however, to my delight

he famous son of Alkmene and of Zeus;

and Herakles did close in battle with this thing 20

to free me for himself. The way the contest went

I cannot clearly tell. I do not know. If any watched

that spectacle untouched by fear then he might tell.

For I was struck insensible with dread, in case

my beauty won me nothing but a prize of grief.

But Zeus of battles disposed the outcome well,

if well indeed it was. For ever since I've lived

the chosen bride of Herakles I nourish constantly

an anxious fear for him; successive nights induce

and then dispel successive and imaginary threats. 30

We have made children, whom he has only seen

infrequently, as might some cropping farmer see

his farthest field, at most at sowing and at harvest time.

This style of life was ever sending him away from home,

and then returning him, as he served the man he served.

And precisely now when he has risen clear of trials such

83



as these, I am afflicted with the sharpest of anxieties.

For from the time he killed lord Iphitus the strong,

we have lived as exiles here in Trachis, a stranger's guests, 40 but no one knows where he is gone, though I am well

aware of how his loss brings bitter pangs of grief to me.

I am almost certain some disaster has befallen him;

For he has been away so long and not a word of news,

no not for fifteen long and anxious months.

There is some terrible disaster - witness the plaque

he left inscribed for me on his departure, and how

often pray the gods this gift proves free of grief.

Nurse

My Lady, Deianeira, I have often seen

your tears and grief, as you lament the loss 50

and departure of lord Herakles; now though,

if it is right for a slave to give advice to free

born folk, and for me to tell you what to do -

how is it that, endowed as you are with such

a wealthy crop of sons, you do not send one to seek

your husband? Hyllus, especially, seems fit to take

this task upon himself of finding out his father's fate.

And see, he himself comes rushing to the house on cue;

so that if my advice seems opportune to you, you now

may utilise both that advice and the man himself. 60

Dei.My child, my son, dependable advice can even fall

with luck from humble mouths; this woman is

a slave and yet her words are worthy of the free.

Hyllus

Then tell me, mother, what she said, if I may hear.

Dei.That you should be ashamed not to have sought

your father's whereabouts and him so long away.

Hyl.But I do know, if one can trust the latest news.

Dei.Then where on earth have you heard he is?

Hyl.They say for all of last year's length

he served a Lycian woman as her slave. 70

Dei.If he bore that, no news should shock.

84



Hyl.Word is he has escaped that fate at least.

Dei.What story now of where he is? Alive or dead?

Hyl.They say he is waging war, or planning waragainst Euboea, Eurytus' island state.

Dei.Do you know, my son, that he left

trustworthy oracles about that land?

Hyl.What kind of oracles? I did not know.

Dei.That either he shall there meet his death,

or, successful in this enterprise, he shall 80

win for evermore a life of happiness.

And so, my son, go help him since his life

hangs in the balance so. Our safety andour lives depend on his salvation, for if

he perishes we too shall fall and be destroyed.

Hyl.I shall go, my mother, and had I known

the substance of these prophecies, had gone

long since; my father's constant fortune,

though, forbids we fear or dread too much,

but now I have this knowledge, I shall leave 90

no stone unturned to learn the total truth.

Dei.Go, then, my son! However late the seeker finds

good fortune, yet that fortune brings reward.

Chorus

str. aHelios, Helios, bright Night's bright child,

born at the death of stars in her dawning rest,

I beg you tell us where he dwells

Alkmene son, where is he,

Sun, ablaze with pulsing light,

t sea on the straits or on the flanking shores? 100

Speak, most powerful of seeing eyes!

ant. aSpear won bride, Deianeira, I hear,

hankers long in her heart for her man,

85



like some bird that is reft of its mate,

unassuaged her tearful need to see him,

nurturing dread for the man she remembers so well,pining, her marriage bed unmanned a reminder 110

of him, expecting the worst in her grief.

str. bIn endless serried ranks the south wind, north

wind drive unwearied warring waves across the broad

sea's face - just so I see the son of Cadmus, storm

tossed his life like the Cretan sea,

now dashed, now raised aloft, although some god

ever keeps him safe from Hades' halls. 120

ant. bWith all respect I must deplore this outburst, lady.

I do not think it right for you to fret fair hope away.

All powerful Zeus has not disposed a painless life

for mere mortal humankind.

Both joy and pain are seasonal, as are

the turnings of the stars.

130

ep. Star spangled night does not

forever threaten us, nor pain,

nor wealth, but each is suddenly gone

away, so yet to another may come

visitations of joy or of grief.

I bid you, my queen to hold fast

to this truth in your hopes. Has Zeus

been ever careless of his sons? 140

Dei.You have heard of my distress and so are here,

as I might guess, but yet are still in ignorance,

I trust, of how my heart is fractured by my grief.

Young things develop in their own familiar

environments, untroubled by the harsh

bright sun, by rain or the storming wind,

86



but, far removed from pain, live out a life

of joy, until such time as they are titled wives,

not maidens, victims then of nightmare cares,fear filled for their men, their children both. 150

Such a one would understand the weight

of care I bear, a witness to her own experience.

I have suffered many pains in time now past;

now though I shall reveal unprecedented agony.

When Herakles began his recent expedition,

and left his home, he left within the house

an ancient stone inscribed with signs the which

he never before had taken on himself to showto me, describing many of his former wars,

to which he'd gone to win, no fear of death. 160

This time, however, as one condemned, he said

what share of his wealth I might take as settlement,

what portion of their father's land his sons might share,

divided as his legacy, and set a period of time,

one year three months, at the end of which,

he said, when gone a year and more, he would

be dead within that time, or, should he then

outrun this threat, his life remaining he

would live in undiluted joy. Such things,

he said, were fated by the gods to prophecy 170

the end of grief for Herakles, as once before

twin doves had sung beside Dodona's ancient oak.

And now is precisely the time for these things

to come to pass, the requisite interval elapsed.

So from sleep's sweet depths I am roused

in alarm, am filled with anguish and fear,

my friends, that I might stay bereft of him

who is of all mankind the very best of men.

Ch. Keep respectful silence now; for I see a messenger

at speed, and garlanded as one who brings good news.

Messenger

My lady, Deianeira, I shall be the first of messengers 180

87





the flute as master

of my soul.

Witness how alreadythe ivy weaves its spell,

whirling my steps in 220

Bacchic dances.

Praise him, praise him!

See, lady, see, my dear one,

here before your eyes

the news stands clear.

Dei.Yes, I can see them now... my watchfulnesshas been rewarded by the sight of this procession;

I formally welcome the herald who has come

at last - as long as it is good news you bring.

Lichas

Our homecoming is fortunate, my lady and

your words befit the prize achieved. For a man's 230

success should win him noble words of welcome.

Dei.My dearest friend, first tell me what I first would know:

is it a living Herakles that I shall welcome here?

Lic. I left him hale and hearty, in the best of health

and strength and quite unburdened by disease.

Dei.Where was he, home or still in foreign lands?

Lic. There is a headland in Euboea where he defines

a shrine and offerings of fruit for Cenaean Zeus.

Dei.To honour pledges made or through some oracle?

Lic. Yes, pledges made when intent on wasting with his spear 240

the country of these women whom you witness here.

Dei.And they, who are they, by the gods and who their kin?

For they are pitiful, unless my feelings are deceived.

Lic. Our leader chose them as prizes for himself and for

the gods, when he had sacked the town of Eurytus.

Dei.So his designs against this city caused so long

an unexpected absence of so many countless days?

Lic. No, rather he was held in Lydia for the most

part of that time, as he says himself, not free,

89



but bought and paid for - no shame attached to that, 250

my lady, though, when it was clearly Zeus' work.

One year complete he filled as a slave to Omphale, barbarian queen, according to his own account

The shame of this indignity so preyed on him

he laid an oath upon himself and swore he would

enslave the man who was the author of his plight,

and along with him enslave his wife and child.

Nor did he fail that oath, but when blood guilt

was purged, he raised a foreign host to march against

Eurytus' city. For he alone of all mankind, he said, 260

had shared in causing all his troubled times.When Herakles had visited Iphitus' hearth

and home, as an old guest friend, his host

heaped much abuse on him, his heart ill spirited,

declaring that, although he had unerring shafts,

he would lose in any competition with his sons

in archery, was, he said, a free man's ruined slave

and at a feast when his guest was drunk with wine

had thrown him out. Enraged at this lord Herakles,

when once his enemy had come to Tyrins hill, 270

to hunt for wandering horses there, did seize

Iphitus, unawares, his mind and eyes at odds,

and hurled him from a lofty eminence of rock.

Enraged in turn at this crime Olympian Zeus,

the father of all, dispatched his son to slavery,

could not endure the crime, because this man

alone of all mankind he had fashioned to kill

by guile. For if he had retaliated face to face,

lord Zeus would have condoned a justice done;

for even the gods have no love of arrogance. 280

Those men whose speech was harshly insolent

have gone, each one, to live in Hades' halls,

their town enslaved; these women here

are come to you from happiness to a life

unenviable; such was your husband's wish,

which I, his trusted servant, now fulfil.

90



Be sure that he himself will come when he

has finished holy sacrifice to Zeus in thanks

for victory, and this is the sweetest newsto hear to top off long and splendid eulogies. 290

Ch. My lady, now your present joy is manifest:

the proof, these women present, and his news.

Dei.How could I not be filled with joy on hearing of

my husband's splendid deeds, and rightly so?

Delight must run in concert with his victory.

Yet those who are clear of sight can feel anxiety

in case success should some day be deceived.

For a dreadful sense of pity comes upon me,my friends, on seeing these dismal fugitives,

homes, fathers lost to them in this strange land, 300

who once perhaps were daughters, free born,

of gentlemen, but now embrace a life of slavery.

Zeus, arbiter of war, may I never see you come

against the children of my body in this way,

or if you must, let me at least be dead by then.

This is my dread when I see these victims here.

you poor, poor thing, whatever is your name?

A maid or mother? Not a mother, by your looks,

but lacking that experience, and of noble birth.

Speak, Lichas, who in the world is this foreign girl? 310

Who was her mother and who fathered her?

I feel pity most of all for her on seeing her distress,

since alone of all of them she comprehends her fate.

Li. How do I know? Why ask me? It may well be

her line is not among the meanest in that place.

Dei.Is she of the royal line, a child of Eurytus?

Li. I do not know. I have not questioned her at length.

Dei.Have you heard her name from her companions?

Li. No, all I had to do I did in silence.

Dei.Tell me at least your name, poor child, yourself. 320

I feel it deeply to be in ignorance of who you are.

Li. If she should loosen up her tongue for you,

it will not match with what she did before,

91



since she has spoken not at all, nor briefly nor

at length, but always in her misery weeps,

laments the weight of her distress from the timeshe left her wind swept home; her present fate

is harsh for her, and so demands our pity.

Dei.Then let her be and let her go inside to find

some sweet relief, that she might not achieve 330

more than her present suffering because of me.

Enough is enough. But let us all go now inside

the house, so you may hasten where

you will, while I set all to rights within.

Mes.First stand still briefly here, and learnfrom someone else just who it is you lead

inside, of whom you have heard nothing that

you ought as yet. For I know all there is to know.

Dei.What do you mean by checking my departure?

Me. Remain and learn! You profited well from what 340

I had to say before, as, at least, it seemed to me.

Dei.Shall I call them all back here again, or will

you rather speak out only to me and these?

Me. I'm free to tell you people, but leave them be.

Dei.Well they have gone, and so reveal your news.

Me. This man spoke nothing but a pack of lies

just now, all, all untrue, so either he is false

or was not here before a worthy messenger.

Dei.What's that? Explain to me all you know.

For your words have utterly confused me. 350

Me. I heard this fellow when he spoke before,

in front of many witnesses, when he declared

that Herakles had slaughtered Eurytus

and sacked the lofty walls of Oechalia for this

girl's sake, that Love alone of all the gods

induced these acts of war and not the bonded

servitude to Omphale in Lydia, nor yet

the plummeting death of Iphitus. He failed

to persuade the father of the child to give

her up to be his secret concubine, and so 360

92



he readied some trifling pretext, some excuse,

and marched upon her father's land, in which

this Eurytus, he said, did lord it from the throne,and him he killed, the lord her father, and sacked

the town. And now you see that he has come

and sends her to this house with full intent,

my lady, and not to be a slave - do not think that -

nor is that likely, given he is fired with lust.

I thought it right, therefore, my queen, to tell

you all that I by chance had learned from him. 370

And many Trachinian men heard this with me,

together, in the middle of the gathering place,so they can find him out. If my words cause pain,

I am distressed, but still those words are true.

Dei.Where do I stand, poor creature that I am?

What is this hidden plague that I have brought

beneath my roof? Ill starred my fate! And has

she then no name, as her escort swore to me?

Me. Distinguished, rather, both by name and birth,

her father and begetter Eurytus, in days gone by. 380

Her name is Iole, about whose parentage Lichas

said naught, since, supposedly, he'd made no search.

Ch. I censure most of all those villains who perform

foul, secret deeds that do dishonour them.

Dei.What must I do, my friends? For I am now

confounded by this present information.

Ch. Go, now, and put the man to question so that he,

constrained by you, may tell the truth, perhaps.

Dei.Yes, I will go - for your advice is sound.

Me. Shall I await you here? What should I do? 390

Dei.Remain, for he emerges from the house,

on business of his own, not called by me.

Li. What message, then, my queen, for Herakles?

Instruct me, since you see me now upon my way.

Dei.But why the rush to dash away so soon, before

he two of us have had a chance to speak?

Li. I am still here, if you desire to question me.

93



Dei.And will you tell me nothing but the very truth?

Li. Great Zeus be my witness, so long as I know.

Dei.Who is this female whom you brought? 400Li. A woman of Euboea - her line I cannot say.

Me. You there! Look here! Who is it listens here?

Li. And who are you to put the question so?

Me. Just answer what I ask, if you can understand.

Li. My queen, the lady Deianeira, Oeneus' child,

and wife to Herakles - unless my very eyes

deceive me - and my mistress in this place.

Me. Precisely what I wished to hear from you...

She is your queen and lady, then?Li.Of course.Me. Well, what just punishment, therefore, do you 410

deserve, if you were found to do her harm?

Li. What harm? What is this web you weave?

Me. No web at all! You are the villain here!

Li. I go! I was fool to give you heed so long!

Me. No, not until you answer one short thing.

Li. Ask, if you must, since you reject discretion.

Me. This prisoner of war that you brought home...

you know the one I mean?Li.Of course, and so?

Me. Despite your present vacant gaze, did you not say

before you brought Eurytus' child, one Iole? 420

Li. Amongst whom did I say this? What man

can come bear witness he heard this from me?

Me. Why, many citizens! A crowd did hear these things

in Trachis' public place of gathering and speech.

Li. Oh yes,

they claimed they did, but there is a difference

between opinion and firm established fact.

Me. Opinion? Do you deny you swore on oath

you brought this girl as bride for Herakles?

Li. I, bring a bride? By all the gods, my lady, tell

me who on earth this stranger is. 430

Me. A man who heard from you in person how

for love of her a city was destroyed; not Lydia

but an obvious lust for her laid waste the town.

94



Li. My lady, let this idiot remove himself. It does

a man of sense no good to chatter with a fool.

Dei.No, please, by Zeus, whose thunderbolt makes flashabove the steep and wooded slopes of Oeta, don't

hold back the truth. For she to whom you speak

is not mean spirited, nor ignorant of how

the human heart's affections shift and change. 440

Whoever, like some pugilist, would choose,

to bandy blows, yes, toe to toe with Eros,

who, wilful, even rules the gods and, I confess,

rules me - and also other women such as me...

Therefore, I would be mad were I to censure him,my man, struck down by this disease, or her,

this other woman, his accomplice in a thing

which brings no shame, nor does me harm,

no harm at all... but, if you lied, instructed by

my man, the lesson that you learned was base; 450

while if you schooled yourself in this, in order to

be kind, you will, in fact be proven the reverse!

Tell me the truth - a name for telling lies

clings like an incubus upon the free born man.

For your mendacity most certainly will out -

you spoke to many who in turn will speak to me.

And if you are afraid, your fear is vain, since not

to know of this, why that would cause me hurt.

To know, what harm in that? For has not Herakles

had union with many others, more than most? 460

Not one of these thus far has borne one word

of harsh reproach from me; and nor shall she,

however much she moulds herself to love,

since I felt deepest pity when I saw the child,

because her beauty has destroyed her life,

and all unwilling and unhappy she has sacked,

enslaved her native land - but let that flow

as it must flow; and as for you, be false to whom

so else you like, but always speak the truth to me.

Ch. Believe her. She speaks well. In time to come 470

95



you'll find no fault with her and gratitude from me.

Li. Dear Lady, since I see your thoughts to be

humane, and not invested with intolerance,I shall reveal the total truth in its entirety.

The matter stands as this man here declares.

A dread desire to possess this girl did overtake

lord Herakles, and so, through her, Oechalia,

her home, is taken and sacked by the spear.

And Herakles did not require that I conceal

or yet deny these things - for I must respect 480

his words - but I did fear to grieve your heart,

with painful news, my lady, and so the faultwas mine, if you would properly apportion blame.

Since now you have been made aware of all

of this, both for his sake and equally your own,

bear with the girl and choose to keep firm faith

with the words you spoke regarding her before.

His hands have otherwise always won first prize

but he has been quite bested by his love for her.

Dei.My mind is quite made up to do precisely that, 490

and not to add yet further pain on top of pain

by fighting with the gods. But let us go inside

the house that you might take my messages

to him, with gifts to take to match in turn

his gifts. For you should not return without

due gifts, when you came so richly endowed.

Chorus

str. The mighty Cyprian goddess ever wins the prize of victory.

Her power over gods I pass by,

her deception of Zeus mention not, 500

nor of Hades, night dark,

nor of Poseidon, earthquake lord.

But for the bed of this bride,

who were the well matched opponents,

who launched themselves into a welter of dust

and of blows?

96



ant. Achelous, strong river in spate with the quadruped shape

of horned bull,from Oeniadae, while Zeus's son came out of Thebes, 510

Bacchic home, with bow strung taught,

spear brandished aloft and his club

in his hand; together in combat they joined,

intent in their lust for a wife.

And only the Cyprian, bringer of joy to the bed, was there

as the judge.

ep. Then the fist to fist racket and the twang of the bow,random clatter of horns,

as both grappled for holds, 520

destructive the clash of head upon head,

loud both their grunting and groans.

She, delicate fair, watches on

from afar, a hill for her seat,

awaiting the victor who wins her as bride. [And the battle raged on#,

as I said,] while the bride, the cause of this strife,

is piteous and patient and waits;

And then from her mother is gone ,

a calf that is snatched from the cow. 530

Dei.My friends, our meddlesome guest is intent before

he leaves on bidding farewell to the prisoner girls.

I have come out of doors, all unseen, to see you,

to tell what my hands have conceived and devised,

and win some pity for my pain, and sympathy.

I have received, adrift in my house, a maiden or,

should I say, a woman now, a piece of baneful ship

borne baggage, bound to dash my peace of mind.

And now the two of us are waiting underneath

a single sheet for his attentions - such wages has 540

the faithful, noble Herakles sent to me, who kept

his house secure for him for such a length of time.

# This translates Jebb's emendation. Hover, even so the line seems unsatisfactory.

97



I do not know that I can feel enraged at him, despite

the fact he suffers often from this same complaint;

could any woman, though, cohabit with another so,and share with her the business of the marriage bed?

I see her youthful beauty flourishing, while mine

is fading. Male eyes are like to pluck the bloom

of youth, but turn their tread away from age.

I am fearful for myself, should Herakles, my man 550

in name, become a younger woman's prize.

Yet, as I said, it is not right for a woman of sense

to grow angry now, and I will tell you how

that I might win some remedy to ease my pain.I once received now long ago a gift from a beast

of the elder time, concealed it was within an urn

of bronze, which, but a child, I took from the blood

of shaggy breasted Nessus when he died, Nessus who

for money ferried passengers in his arms across

the deeply flowing stream of Evenus, and made 560

no use of oars to carry them, nor use of sail.

Me too he carried on his shoulders when first

my father sent me as a bride to go in company

with Herakles. Then in the river's midst he laid

lewd hands on me and so I screamed out loud.

At once the son of Zeus spun round about, let fly

a feathered shaft which pierced the Centaur's chest,

embedded in his lungs. And as he breathed his last

the Centaur spoke, "Child, daughter of aged Oeneus, 570

attend, because you are my final passenger;

if your hands collect the clotted blood from out

my wounds, where the beast of Lerna's swamp

had tinged the arrow with black, poisonous gall,

this stuff will prove for you a potent charm, to own

the heart and soul of Herakles, so he will never look

upon and love another woman more than you."

I took his words to heart and on his death I hid

the mixture carefully within the house and have

now drenched this gown, applied the charm to it, 580

98



according to his final words; all now is done.

Rash thoughts of wickedness I presently disown

and ever shall, as also daring women earn my hate, but if I can overcome this girl by means of drugs

and potions served to Herakles, the groundwork is

laid, plotted - unless it seems my actions are

in fact too rash... if so I shall desist...

Ch. If your plan of action gives you confidence,

why then I think that you have plotted well.

Dei.My hopes are high and confident enough, 590

although the stratagem is still untried.

Ch. The deed must prove itself. For you can haveno proof at all, unless you test the plan itself.

Dei.We shall find out soon enough. For I see

the herald at the door and he will soon depart.

But keep my secret safe. So long as shameful deeds

are hid, one might oneself remain shame free.

Li. Pray, tell me, child of Oineus, what I must do.

For I have already wasted time enough and more.

Dei.I have been busy, Lichas, on my preparations, 600

while you were speaking to the stranger girls

inside, so you might take this full length robe

as a gift for my husband from my hand.

And when you give it say no other's mortal flesh

before has ever been enfolded in this robe,

nor should the light of the sun behold it, nor

the sacred temple ground, nor light of altar fire,

until he himself displays it manifest to the gods,

as he stands to sacrifice a bull upon the sacred day.

For I had made a vow that, if ever I should see 610

him safe come home, or hear such news, I would

in duty bound equip my man for sacrifice in such

a robe, new dressed before the altar of the gods.

And you will authenticate my message with

a token he will recognise, sealed with this ring.

Now go and take care first that you do not

desire exceed your duties in your herald's task;

99



ensure, therefore, you gain a double rather than

a single benefit, and be rewarded by the both of us.

Li. If I fulfil my role as herald, Hermes' task, I shall 620not ever fail in what you have prescribed for me,

but I shall bring this casket to his notice as it is,

and deliver truly all that you have said to me.

Dei.Make haste, then! For you are well aware

of how things stand inside the house.

Li. I do indeed and I shall tell him all is well.

Dei.And you know I welcomed the stranger girl

with kindness - and received her well.

Li. So much so my heart did shake with joy.Dei.What else to tell? I am afraid to say 630

how much I love the man, until I know

myself if I am loved in turn by him.

Chorus

str. aInhabitants of the land flanked by crags and thermal pools,

a place of safe navel haven,

hard by the heights of Oeta and the Malian Gulf,

land locked, and golden shafted Artemis' cape,

a meeting place for the Greeks

in famous council at the gates -

ant. asoon you will hear the sweet 640

homecoming voice of the pipe as it rises,

resounding a note not unpleasing, like a lyre whose tune

honours the gods.

For the son of Zeus and Alcmena speeds

homeward bound with the prizes

his prowess complete has obtained.

str. bQuite stateless and lost to us,

we thought him at sea, fifteen months

we waited and no news came;

his loving wife was distraught, 650

and ever wept sore at heart,

100



poor piteous, pitiful wretch;

but Ares now, stung to rage,

unravels her days of care.

ant. bLet him come, let him speed

the banked oars of his ship,

so he raises this town, abandons now

the island altar, where,

men say, he makes a sacrifice;

Let him come, all desire, 660

imbued with the robe's

seeming charm of persuasion.

Dei.My friends, I fear all I have just now done

may prove to have been intemperate.

Ch. What is the matter, Deianeira, my child?

Dei.I do not know, but am afraid my good

intentions may cause some heavy crime.

Ch. Because of the gifts you sent to Herakles?

Dei. Just so - and my advice to anyone else:

never be prompted to act by blind zeal. 670

Ch. Reveal, if you can, the reason for your dread.

Dei.A thing has happened, friends, that if I did

reveal it, would cause unprecedented shock.

The flock of white sheep's wool with which

I spread the remedy upon the enfolding robe

just now, has disintegrated in the house,

consumed itself, spontaneously rotted down

on top of a piece of stone. That you may know

how everything befell, I will extend my narrative.

For of those tasks the beastly Centaur formerly 680

did teach to me, the bitter arrow in his side,

not one have I neglected, but have kept them safe

as inscriptions, indelible, on tablets of bronze.

And these were the commands I fulfilled:

that I should keep this drug in a secret spot,

away from any naked flame or the sun's heat

101







according to your precepts, he put on, then slew

an offering of a dozen bulls, immaculate first fruits 760

of victory, but all in all upon that day he broughtone hundred mingled beasts, a hecatomb, for sacrifice.

And first, his heart alight with joy, unhappy man,

delighting in your gifted robe, he made to pray;

but when the flame, by blood and resin fed,

began to blaze and feed upon the sacred offerings,

sweat welled from every pore and the robe,

clung close to his sides, as by a craftsman glued

throughout each joint. Convulsive biting pain attacked

his bones; as of some fatal and envenomed snake 770the poison then began to eat away his flesh.

And now he shouted out for wretched Lichas, a man

quite innocent and unconnected with your crime,

to ask induced by what devices he had brought the robe;

and he, abject, in total ignorance, declared the gift

was yours alone, and was as it had been dispatched.

As soon as Herakles had heard these words, a pain,

that rent and pierced his lungs assailed him -

and grasping the herald by the supple ankle joint

he hurled him down against a jutting sea-washed rock; 780

like gruel his brains were forced through the hair,

as, head smashed, blood too oozed from the wound.

The people all raised voices shrill with grief,

both for the one afflicted and the man now dead;

and not one man did dare approach the warrior.

Wrenched now down to the ground and now aloft,

he howled and shrieked; the crags about resounded,

and all of Locris' mountains and Euboea's capes.

When he grew weary from throwing his wretched self

so often on the ground, he cursed aloud in agony 790

his ill starred and ill mated marriage bed,

his union with you, his treaty made with Oineus,

that brought destruction such as this upon his life,

and then he lifted up his tortured gaze

to pierce the swirling altar smoke and saw

104





adhesive venom, Death spawned, smooth

serpent fed, attacked the lungs - how then can he

survive to set his eyes upon another day than this,clutched close in the monster's dread embrace?

For the deceptive, dark haired and deadly barbs

of the Centaur have found him out to torture every sense. 840

Quite innocent of this, the wretched woman, anticipating great str. b

disasters soon upon the house

from this new match did send this remedy, that stemmed

from an alien mind in conversation dire -

she grieves for these as fatal now,and sheds the soft and welling flow

of packed and eager tears.

Advancing fate reveals the great catastrophe, 850

born of guile.

A spring of tears erupts. A plague invades his body now ant. b

to make us pity him,

unlike and yet more fierce than any hostile curse, past

aimed at famous Herakles.

I grieve the black shaft of the champion spear,

which won and swiftly brought

with martial might that bride

from Oechalia's steeps;

And Aphrodite, Cyprian and silent minister 860

is proven agent of this fate.

Semi-Chorus A

Unless I am mistaken I heard just now

a cry of grief resounding through the house!

But what did I hear?

Semi-Chorus B

The sound is clear, grief stricken and shrill

inside the house which suffers new disaster.

Ch. And see,

how sadly and with knitted brow

106



this aged woman comes with news... 870

NurseMy children, the gift we sent to Herakles

has brought in train no meagre crop of ills.

Ch. What is this news you bring, old woman?

Nu. My lady Deianeira has gone down that last

and final journey with determined tread.

Ch. You mean she's dead? Nu.That is what I said.

Ch. The poor child is dead?Nu.That is what I said.

KommosCh. She is lost and gone, poor thing... Please, tell me how she died.

Nu. Unprecedented, shocking even...Ch.How did she meet her fate?

Speak, woman... 880

Nu .She did it with a sword, herself...Ch.What passion, sicknesses

of mind could snatch her off by the sharp blade's edge?

How force herself alone to summon death on top of death?

Nu. With a stroke of the blade that generates grief.

Ch. You saw this unsexed violation then yourself?

Nu. I did... I stood, as if beside her in the ranks.

Ch. How steel herself to face the steel? 890

Nu. With no hand but her own hand she did this thing.

Ch. Quite unbelievable...Nu.But true.

Ch. This new match has spawned,

has spawned a monstrous Fury

within this house.

Nu. Yes, monstrous... and more... and if you had stood there by

her side, as witness to the act, you would have pitied more.

Ch. What woman's hand could dare accomplish such as this?

Nu. One brave enough, as you will learn and so attest.

When she departed on her own into the house, 900

she saw her son prepare a stretcher in the yard, so he

could go to meet his father on his homeward way,

and then she hid herself from prying eyes, and cried

aloud as she fell prostrate before the altars there,

107



and wept that from now on neglected they would be,

and cried when she laid hands on any of the things

domestic she had used, poor lady, in the past;and if in her distracted wandering in the house

her eye fell on any of the slaves she loved,

she burst into tears again at the sight of them,

invoked herself her own wretched fate, and that 910

of the house so soon to pass to another's rule.

When she had done with this, I saw her all at once

rush headlong to Herakles', the master's, room.

And then I shadowed her to keep a secret watch

on her, and saw this wife spread shroudlike sheets upon the bed of Herakles, and, when

this task was done, she leapt up into the bed

and sat there in the midst of it and shed

warm floods of heart wrenched tears and said,

"My marriage bed and bridal chamber mine, 920

farewell for ever now, since nevermore again will your

embrace receive me here to rest. "Then with these words

she loosed her robe with violent hand, at the point

where the golden brooch was pinned above her breasts,

and so she laid completely bare all her left side

and arm. And then I ran with all my strength to tell

her son just what it was his mother planned,

but in the time it took for me to rush to him,

and for us both to hurry back, I saw that she

had penetrated through her ribs with a double-edged 930

sword, slicing through her liver to the heart.

Her son saw this and cried aloud. He knew

his rage it was had forced this desperate act,

had learned too late from those within, how she

unwillingly had worked the Centaur's will.

And the it was his turn, this wretched son,

to run the gamut of regret and grief,

to weep for her, press kisses on her lips,

distracted hurl himself down by her side,

cry bitterly that he flung accusations at her vile 940

108



and false, complaining that he was an orphan now,

his life bereft of father and his mother both.

That is the situation here. And so, if any manmakes calculation of the day that is to come,

or of the next, he is a fool. Tomorrow is not yet,

until we have survived the hazard of today.

Ch. What shall be first object of my grief,

str. awhich is the greater cause of grief?

In my pain this is hard to tell.

ant. aWe have one case before us in the house,and one to wait upon in dread;

dread and fear of dread are kin. 950

str. bI wish some windswift breeze might rise,

approach this hearth to favour me

and carry me off from this place, my home,

that I might not die of dread at the sight,

first sight, of Zeus' mighty son,

Lord Herakles,

since men say that his homeward path

is racked with ineluctable bouts of pain, 960

a thing of untold wonder.

ant. bClose by that cry of grief, not far...

my sharp nightingale note forestalled.

This approach is made by foreign, alien men.

How do they carry their burden? As men

in grief for one loved they approach,

their progress is soundless and slow.

Our lord is carried home in silence...

What then to think? Is he dead,

or does he merely sleep? 970

Hyl. Oh, how I grieve and grieve for you,

my father! How I grieve in wretchedness!

109



What will become of me? What shall I do?

Old ManBe silent, child, do not awake

the fearsome pain that maddens him;

he is but hanging on to life... so bite your lips,

restrain yourself.Hyl.What say you, sir? He lives?

O.M.Do not arouse him from his bonds of sleep,

or you will rouse, incite again

the dreadful pestilence 980

that plagues him, child...Hyl. but boundless is

my weight of grief! I am heartsick and mad.

Herakles

Lord Zeus,

What is this place? Whose guest am I,

laid low by agonies that grant me no

respite? Oh, I am in such pain!

Again this curse bites deep...

O.M.Did I not well know the greater benefit it was

for you to hold your peace, and not to shake

the balm of sleep from his head 990

and from his eyes?Hyl.I cannot hold myself

in check when I am witness to this pain.

Her.Cenaean crags, on which I built

my altars... a fine reward you won

me, wretched, for my pieties, Lord Zeus!

Such disgrace you have put on me, disgrace!

I would that I, so wretched now, had never laid

my eyes on you, to witness thus myself

this inexorable bloom of madness.

Where is the conjurer or cunning quack, 1000

apart from Zeus, can soothe this plague?

A phenomenon unlikely he!

str. aAh, ah!

Let me be, let me be, poor wretch that I am, to sleep,

110





Ch. I shudder, friends, when I hear of this man's fate,

our lord, such a hero, driven by such ill luck.Her.In time past I have in very truth struggled hard

and harshly with these shoulders and these hands,

but never yet has either Zeus's wife, great Hera,

nor Eurystheus, my mortal enemy inflicted such

a hurt as has this two-faced child of Oineus who tied 1050

a woven hunting net of the Furies, garment like,

upon my back and by this I am myself destroyed.

Adhering to my flanks it has consumed my flesh

within, feeds greedily, symbiotic, on my lungsand breathing tubes, has sucked away my fresh

life blood already, and is wreaking harm on all

my corpse... that is bound in bonds unspeakable.

No warrior spear, no earth born company

of Giants, no strength of beastly Centaur band

nor animal wild, no place in Greece, nor alien 1060

land I came to cleanse has done such work on me;

my wife, a woman soft in soul, no man's strength hers,

has brought me down, and had no use for sword.

My son, be my son indeed and true to your birth

and honour a father's name before a mother's now.

Deliver her from the house and into my hands yourself,

your mother, that I may clearly see what pains

you more, the sight of my disgrace and hurt,

or the sight of her just and savage punishment.

Go, child, be bold! And pity me, so pitiful, and in 1070

so many ways, who has cried aloud and weeps

like any virgin girl - which no single man could say

he ever saw me do before this day, who used always

to follow my ill-starred route without complaint,

but now I am proven a craven woman and no man.

Approach and stand beside your father, boy, that you

may understand the kinds of agonies and torments I

endure - for I shall show you what is hidden here...

See, all of you, behold my body's wretched state,

112



observe me in my misery, how pitiful I am become. 1080

Oh, no, the pain, no, no!

Another bout of this curse scalds yet again,it flashes through my side - nor seems this foul

and all consuming plague prepared to grant

me respite as I wrestle with the pain...

Lord Hades, take me! Thunderbolt

of Zeus, strike, strike!

Heft, lord, your bolt of fire and hurl it down,

my father... for it feasts on me again, again,

flares, kindles into rage... My hands, my hands,

strong back and heart, and arms, dear arms, 1090are you the same as once before subdued

the lion of Nemea, the herdsmen's bane,

by force, a beast no other man could close

with nor confront, and the Hydra too,

and that bi-form host of Centaurs wild,

surpassing in strength and lawless arrogance,

and the Erymanthian boar, and subterranean Cerberus,

three headed hound of hell, unsurpassable,

Echidna's offspring dire, the dragon too

that watched the golden apples of the sun in earth's 1100

remotest parts. These and other countless perils have

I known, but none till now has triumphed over me.

And now, disjoint and shattered in this way,

my wretched self is sacked by madness blind,

yes, I, man born of mother, flawless in repute,

yes, I, man called the son of star-lord Zeus!

But know this very well: although I am no more,

incapable of creeping even, I shall lay heavy hands

on her who did these things. I wish that she

might come that she might learn and tell to all 1110

that even as I died I punished the guilty as I did in life.

Ch. Sad land of Greece, such grief I see shall be yours,

if you are to be deprived of such a man as this.

Hyl.Since, father, you offered me the right of reply,

keep silent now, despite your pain, and listen to me.

113



For I shall ask of you no more than what is just.

Entrust yourself to me, and do not nurse a heart

as angry as your pain... or else you may not learnhow wrong your reasons are for rage and joy alike.

Her.Say what you will and then shut up. For in my pain 1120

I cannot understand the riddle of your words.

Hy. I have come to tell you of my mother's present case,

and how her fatal error was quite without intent.

Her.Complete and utter scoundrel! You dare so much

as name your mother, your father's murderess, to me?

Hyl.Her case is such I cannot properly hold my peace.

Her.At least that is true of her former indiscretions...Hyl.And of what she has undergone on this day too...

Her.Then speak, but take good care... do not betray your sire!

Hyl.I shall tell you then that she is newly dead, cut down. 1130

Her.By whom? Your words astound and disappoint me.

Hyl.She killed herself, no other agent was involved.

Her.She has anticipated then the death she owed to me.

Hyl.Your anger would be turned, should you learn all.

Her.Disturbing words to open with... now speak your mind.

Hyl.Her intent was good. She blundered fatally. That is all.

Her.And what good did she intend, you fool, in killing me?

Hyl.On seeing your new bride within, she thought to win

you back with a charm of love, but was deceived.

Her.In all of Trachis who could deal in such a drug? 1140

Hyl.The Centaur Nessus long ago persuaded her

to kindle with this substance your desire for her.

Her.Then I am gone, as good as dead, poor wretch

I am, gone, gone, no more the light of day for me...

At last I understand the nature of my fate.

Go now, my son... for your father is no more,

call all your brothers to my side, and call as well

my wretched mother, Alcumena, bride in vain

of Zeus, that all of you might learn from my

last breath of the god delivered oracles I know. 1150

Hyl.Your mother is no longer here, but has gone

instead to keep her home in Tiryns on the coast,

114



and, of your children, some she took to live with her,

while others, you will find, now dwell in Thebes;

but as many of us as are here, my father, wewill hear your will and serve your every need.

Her.Hear then your task: your time is come to show

that you are worthy of your father's name.

Long since my father sent to me a prophecy:

I would not die at the hands of one who breathed, 1160

but of one dead, long gone to Hades' halls.

And so this beast, this Centaur that is dead,

has filched my life, according to the prophecy.

And I will show how modern oracles confirmthese other ancient messages, which I wrote down

when visiting Dodona, where the Selli live upon

the mountain slopes and sleep upon the ground,

where I wrote down the words I had from Zeus's oak

of many tongues, which said that at this time,

precisely now, I should survive to find relief 1170

from all my heavy toil - I read prosperity,

although its meaning was that I should die.

For no more harm can come to men once dead.

And since the meaning of these signs is clear,

my son, you must again align yourself with me,

must not await more sharp voiced screams,

must willingly submit to work for me, aware

of that most noble rule, a son's obedience.

Hyl.Why, father, though I dread the end to which

our conversation leads, I shall obey your will. 1180

Her.First place your own right hand in mine.

Hyl.What need have you for such a binding pledge?

Her.Your hand and quickly now, refuse me not!

Hyl.I extend my hand and shall not question you again.

Her.Swear by the head of Zeus who fathered me!

Hyl.Swear what? Will this also be revealed to me?

Her.To complete the task I shall describe to you.

Hyl.I swear and Zeus be witness to my oath!

Her.Beg punishment should you betray your word.

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Hyl.I shall, although I shall obey and need no threat. 1190

Her.You know the peak of Oeta, sacred to Zeus.

Hyl.I do, since often have I stood beside the altar there.Her.You must with your own hand transport

my corpse up there, with whatever help

you wish from friends, then fell much timber

from oaks, deep rooted, with logs cut also from

the sturdy strength of wild olives, and place my corpse

upon this pyre, ignite it with a brightly burning torch

of pine. And let no tear of grief assail you there,

but do your work dry-eyed, ungrieving, if you are 1200

indeed my son. And if you fail, then I shall wait for you beneath the earth, as will my heavy curse for evermore.

Hyl.My father, what is this that you ask? A dreadful task...

Her.And yet it must be done! If not, then be no more

my son, be called some other's son, not mine.

Hyl.But think again what it is you ask me to do... become

my father's murderer, become defiled with blood!

Her.No, no, no! Rather one to heal my suffering,

become the only one to ease my burden of grief.

Hyl.How will cremation heal your body's pain? 1210

Her.If you shrink from that, at least perform the rest.

Hyl.I shall not grudge your carriage there.

Her.And the stacking of the pyre according to my word?

Hyl.As far as I may without polluting my own hands.

The rest I will do. You will not be failed by me.

Her.Thank you for that, but grant me in addition one

small further plea to supplement these other services.

Hyl.Why, even if the task is large, it will be done.

Her.You know the girl, the child of Eurytus?

Hyl.The girl you mean is Iole, I think... 1220

Her.Quite so - and this is the scope of my request:

if, when I am dead, you would in duty keep

yourself in mind of an oath to your father owed,

take her to be your wife, obey your sire in this;

and let no other man take her in place of you,

this girl that once did sleep down at my side,

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but you yourself, my son, contract this match.

Obey! The debt I owe to your obedience in things

of great weight soon is lost by a minor default.Hyl.Oh, gods, it is not good to rage at one so sick at heart, 1230

but who could endure to see him so deranged?

Her.Your words betray unwillingness to do my will.

Hyl.When she alone is guilty of my mother's death,

sole cause of what you also now endure, what man

alive would choose this course, unless sick too

and mad with guilt? Far better too for me to die,

my father, than live with those I hate the most!

Her.This man, it seems, will not respect my death bed wish. The curse of the gods awaits, be sure,

the man who will rebel against my last command. 1240

Hyl.You soon will manifest the madness in your words...

Her.Yes, yes, you will provoke my sleeping plague!

Hyl.My cowardice holds me helpless, quite unable to act...

Her.You do not think it right to heed your father's plea.

Hyl.Then, father, shall I learn to do impieties?

Her.It cannot be impiety to gratify a father's heart.

Hyl.Your orders then to do this thing are just.

Her.They are... to witness which I call upon the gods.

Hyl.Then I will obey, shall not refuse, but show

to the gods you ordered this... I would not wish 1250

to be thought a criminal through doing your will.

Her.Good sense at last! So swiftly now once more,

my son, pray render me swift service, and place

me on the pyre before the rending pains and agony

attack. Come, take the weight and lift me up;

this is the very end of pain, this hero's final hour.

Hyl.There is nothing to prevent our gratifying you,

since your orders and compulsion are clear.

Her.Come, now, my stubborn soul,

before this pain awakes, and clamp 1260

my stone sealed lips with a bite of steel.

Not a sound, no screams! I would

117



my enforced end triumphs in dignity.

Hyl.Friends, lift him up and grant to me

forgiveness, pray, for what I do,and condemnation of the gods, aware

of the crimes they are committing here

they gave him birth, were hallowed as

his parents, yet observe such suffering.

No man can see what is fated to be, 1270

but these events are a shame to gods

and tragic for us,

most deadly and hard for this man,

of all mankind who bears this destiny.

And you, young woman, stay not at the house.

You have observed deaths deadly and strange,

much suffering, unprecedented pain;

there was none of these things not of Zeus.

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Paedagogus Your father Agamemnon lorded troops

at Troy, Orestes, once, but only now you see

what you have always hankered for -

Argos, old as time, old in your heart's desires.

Here is the grove of Io, Zeus ravaged child

of Inachus - and jealous Hera's prey.

Apollo's precinct there, his guise,

Wolfslayer. Hera's famous temple ... yes,

all Mycenae, rich in gold, is at your feet,

your home, and there the house of Pelops rich 10

in kindred blood.

They killed your father there.

I rescued you, entrusted by your sister's hand,

and kept you safe, until the time was ripe

for vengeance.

Think swiftly now to plan

the necessary act, Orestes - Pylades,

the closest of our friends will help.

But sunlight stirs the clear voiced birds

to morning song; already kindly night's

protection fails with fading stars. We must

unite and plan before the city stirs. 20

This is the point of no return;

we must not shirk our crisis now.

Orestes I love you well, my friend and guide.

Your noble loyalty to us is amply shown.

Just as the well bred horse, despite its age,

despises dangers, loses not its fire,

but pricks its ears, so you inflame our hearts

and are the foremost of our followers.

Therefore, I will disclose my thoughts to you,

while you pay keen attention to my words, 30

correcting them, if I should miss the mark:

these were Apollo's words of prophecy

in answer to my question, how I might

contrive just vengeance on my father's murderers.

120



Alone, unarmed, with no great company of men

just slaughter was my task by stealth and guile;

this was the nature of the oracle.Go you then inside. Learn how things stand,

that you may bring me clear intelligence.

They will not recognise you, old as 40

you are, matured in years; they'll not suspect

at all. Your tale must be like this:

you are a friend from Phocis; Lord Phanoteus sent

you, greatest of their military friends.

Announce, on oath, Orestes' death by some

inevitable accident - hurled fromhis speeding chariot in competition; that's

our plot. Meanwhile my father's tomb I'll crown

with offerings of wine, with fresh cut locks

of hair, fulfilling so Apollo's wish. 50

Then we'll return and, bearing in our hands

the brazen urn we hid among the bushes here,

we'll give them proof of our sweet news and show

them how my body's burned to dust and ashes.

Why should a rumoured death concern me, if

by such a death I win safe fame in fact?

No word that brings advantage can be bad.

For many times I've seen men counterfeit

their death, wise men who thereby won

the greater honour on their safe return. 60

Just so I trust I'll burst upon my foes;

as some avenging star they'll see me.

My native land and gods now grant

me welcome and success on my return.

Ancestral home, I come in justice from

the gods to clear away pollution. So send

me not away dishonoured from this land,

but rather let me found this house anew

and be the rightful wielder of its wealth.

Such is my plea. 70

So go, old man;

121



take care; fulfil your necessary part.

Come, Pylades. It is the hour of crisis, which

controls the fate of every enterprise of men.El. No! No, no more pain!

Paid. I heard a cry from inside - it must

have been some slave, struck down with pain...

Or. Could it have been Electra? Such grief!

I'll stay and listen longer...

Paid. No! First we must attempt the tasks Apollo set,

make them our starting point and pour 80

the offerings for your father. Only sowill victory be ours and power for our enterprise.

El. Daylight pure, bright sky,

Earth's coverlet, you are

longstanding nightfade witnesses

to my laments, rent

from my chest, so bloodied now

with self-struck blows,

while, hated bed ,

you overhear my nightlong 90

dirge, within this wretched house,

for my poor father.

Not for him the war-god's

gracious welcome, underneath

some foreign land.

My mother and her new found man,

Aegisthus, split his skull in two -

they are all bloody -

careless as the woodsmen

lop an oak. 100

And no one now shows pity here

save me, my father, sadly dead

and shamed.

Yet I'll not stop my angry songs

while still I see

122



the faltering starlight, see

the light of day. I'll sing

the nightingale's infanticidalconstant threnody before

my father's doors - for all to hear. 110

Mistress of Hell, Persephone;

infernal escort of the dead,

Lord Hermes - o Curse upon the house -

and Furies,

awesome children of the gods,

whose care are those unjustly dead,

whose care the stolen marriage bed,come to my aid, avenge

my father's death and send

to me my brother. 120

For alone I cannot bear

the overwhelming burden of my grief.

Chorus Electra, why pine so? Why this

incessant song of grief?

Your mother is evil,

but father Agamemnon is long dead.

She deceived, ensnared, betrayed him.

I would the murderess might die,

if I may ask that.

El. My friends, I know and understand 130

that you have come in all nobility

to comfort me. And yet

I cannot wish myself to stop

my song. I must lament my father.

Respect our mutual, all-embracing love,

I pray, and grant to me

my suffering.

Ch. But neither will your prayers

nor yet those songs of grief arouse

your father from the crowded shores 140

of Hell. Unending grief

becomes an end itself.

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I have no strength, but fade away, 180

no loving man to help me;

but, like some worthlessforeign slave, I labour in my father's house,

my clothes are rags;

I stand to eat at empty tables.

Ch. I pitied his scream,

homecome to death; the blow

I pitied, full-faced and brazen.

He was at peace at home at last.

Guile planned it, 190

lust killed him.Twin parents of a thing unspeakable.

Was the agent man or god?

El. That day's coming was

the bitterest of all by far

for me. That night, the horrors

of that feast - unspeakable.

My father saw their ruthless

hands of death, the hands

that took away my life, 200

betrayed it and destroyed it.

May the great Olympian god

bring just punishment upon

them, grant no joy in wealth

achieved by such a crime.

Ch. I beg you, say no more.

Have you no sense of how

your present manner thrusts you

headlong into self-inflicted madness?

You simply win a richer crop 210

of grief, forever nourishing

those inner conflicts, which must not

be waged with those who rule.

El. Madness faced with madness is necessity.

I know that I am mad.

But in the midst of madness I'll not check

125







She yelps with rage and by her side

in concert that famous womaniser stands

who only joins in battle with a woman's help,an utter, utter coward - while still I await

Orestes' coming, hoping he will stop these crimes. 290

Always on the point of something he destroys

my every hope, unreal and real. In such

a situation friends, it is not right

to exercise your pious moderation. Evil times

must force fresh evils - that is Necessity.

Ch. Come, tell me - do you say these things

to us because Aegisthus is away?El. Yes - he's away. You must not think that I

would be so bold to come here otherwise.

Ch. If that is so, then may I question you 300

more freely, child, with confidence?

El. Ask what you will since he has gone away.

Ch. Well then I will. Have you some word about

Orestes? Is he on his way or yet to leave?

El. He promises, but promises mean nothing real.

Ch. Well may he hesitate to tackle such a task.

El. I did not shrink from saving him!

Ch. Take heart. He is by birth and nature good. He'll come.

El. I know. That is the reason I still live.

Ch. Say no more now. I see your sister, 310

Chrysothemis, come from the house. Your parents

were the same, but not your hearts. She bears gifts

in hand such as are proper for the dead.

Chrysothemis Why do you come once more to vent your grief,

my sister, underneath the palace gates,

in public view? You must surely see by now

the uselessness of anger. I myself

quite sympathise, feel upset at what is what.

Had I the strength, I'd show them my opinion.

However, now I think it best to trim 320

my sails. I'll not make ineffectual threats.

128



I wish that you would take my lead.

I know your choice is just, when I compare

it with my words, but, if I am to livein freedom, I must heed the ones in power.

El. It's strange that, though you are his child

you have no thought for Agamemnon, but 'heed'

our mother's words. For all of your advice

is learned from her. There's nothing of your own

in this. The choice is yours, to act with honour or 330

expediency, abandoning your friends.

You said just now, had you the strength, you'd show

how much you hate my enemies, but, whenI try to pay them back in full for father's death,

you are no help, but rather twist aside my aim.

You add the crime of cowardice to your family's sum

of viciousness. So tell me; rather, learn from me -

what shall I gain from ceasing my laments?

I live in misery, but that suffices me;

for I cause them annoyance, while I gratify 340

the dead, if those below are to be gratified.

Your hatred of them is a thing of words

alone. In fact, you have accommodated to

our father's murderers. I could not descend

to that, were I to win also the prizes

that you flaunt. Keep rich tables, live

with richness. My ambition is to keep

my conscience clear. I do not want your marks

of honour; nor would you were you in your

right mind. You could be known as Agamemnon's child... 350

well, be your mother's brat and demonstrate to all

how you've betrayed your father and your friends.

Ch. By all the gods, no more in anger! There is good

for both in what is said, if only each

would learn to profit from the other's words.

Chrys. For my part, friends, I'm hardened to her taunts,

would not have risked the subject, had I

not learned about an awful danger coming down

129



upon her finally to end her endless dirge.

El. What is this 'awful' danger? If it's worse than what 360I suffer now, I'll not contradict you any more.

Chrys. Well, I will tell you all I know:

if you'll not freely end your song of woe,

they do intend to send you where

no more you'll see the sun's clear light, but pent

alive inside a vaulted tomb, beyond this land

you may chant there your everlasting catalogue

of crimes. Consider this and in the future blame

not me for ills that timely wisdom could avert.El. So this is what they want to do to me? 370

Chrys. As soon as Lord Aegisthus comes back home.

El. If that is so, then let him come and quickly too!

Chrys. Poor fool! What is this prayer you make?

El. That he might come, if his intent is what you say.

Chrys. That you may suffer more. You must be mad!

El. That I may flee as far as may be from you all.

Chrys. Have you no concern at all for your life here?

El. It is, of course, so fine and wonderful.

Chrys. It could be, if you'd learn a little more sense.

El. Don't teach me to be hateful to the ones I love. 380

Chrys. Not that, but merely to obey the strong.

El. You play the fawning bitch; that's not my way.

Chrys. It does no good to fall through sheer stupidity.

El. I'll fall if I must for my poor father's sake.

Chrys. My father pardons me for this, I know.

El. These are excuses cowards use.

Chrys. You will not be persuaded by my sound advice?

El. Of course not! I would never be so shallow.

Chrys. Then I'll go upon the mission I was sent.

El. What mission? For whom do you bring those gifts? 390

Chrys. My mother sent me with these gifts for father's grave.

El. What's that? For the man she hated most in all the world?

Chrys. Yes, whom she killed. That's what you mean to say.

El. What friend advised her, thought that this was right?

130



Chrys. There was some terror in the night - I understand.

El. O gods of Argos - be with me now at last!

Chrys. You take encouragement from night-born fears?El. Tell me what she saw; then I might know.

Chrys. I only know a small part of the dream.

El. Still tell it! Often brief reports have made 400

or marred man's fortunes in the past.

Chrys. Word is she saw our father come once more

into the light to join her, side by side,

and then she saw him lift and plant

his sceptre by the hearth, the sceptre whichAegisthus holds, which once was Agamemnon's.

A thriving branch sprang from it, threw

its shade across Mycenae's lands from end

to end. Such is the tale I heard from one

who heard her morning revelation of the dream. 410

She told the sun. I know no more, except

she set me to this task through dread of it.

By our ancestral gods, I beg you be advised,

do not destroy yourself through foolishness.

El. But, sister, do not put the things you bear

upon his tomb. It is not right.

By any law, law human or divine, to bring

these gifts from one who hated him, to make

these offerings to our father. Bury them

within the winds, within the secret earth 420

where none of them might break our father's rest.

Then, when she dies, she'll find them waiting for

her, underneath the earth. For, were she not

the most unfeeling woman ever born,

she could not bring herself to crown with gifts

the grave of him she killed.

Consider if you think our father's ghost

would welcome gifts like these upon his tomb

from her that killed, dishonoured him,

emasculated his corpse, as if he were 430

131



an enemy, and wiped her hands, to clean

away the blood, upon his hair. Can you

believe this trash will wash away blood guiltlike that? It cannot be. So throw these things

away. Cut locks of hair from both your head

and mine, poor offerings, but all I have,

not even glossy - and my plain waistband.

Then fall upon your knees and beg that he

will rise in kindness from the earth to aid

our struggle with his enemies, and pray 440

his son Orestes lives to set his foot

victorious upon them, that in the future wemay decorate his tomb with richer hands

than now we do. For I believe, I do believe

that Agamemnon had a share in sending her

these dreams. So, sister, do these services

for my sake and your own and for the best,

the dearest man, our father living with the dead.

Ch. She speaks with right and justice, lady. Share

her thoughts, do as she asks - show justice. 450

Chrys. I will. When justice is at stake, we two

must not be in dispute, but work with unity

and haste. But keep your peace, while I

attempt this task, my friends.

For if my mother learns of this

I'll bitterly regret this venture still.

Ch. Unless I am an utter fool, strophe

devoid of wisdom, no prophetess,

then Justice, sender of these dreams

will come, just strength her armament, 460

will come, my child, with no delay.

The knowledge of these dreams

brings courage.

The Lord of Greece, your father, he does not forget;

nor does the double-bladed axe

of bronze, that cut him cruelly down.

132



She will come with many feet and many antistrophe

hands, with feet of bronze, in dreadful

ambush clothed, the Fury, come against aneager lust for lawless wedlock 470

stained with blood.

Convinced I am this dream portends no good

to them, the murderers - or else there is

no truth for man in prophecy from dreadful dreams,

nor in the words of gods,

unless this vision of the night proves true.

The chariot race of Pelops long ago epode

was filled with grief that lies persistently

upon this land, since Myrtilus was drowned

at sea, hurled from his chariot of gold 480

headlong by cruelty and guile,

this house was never free of violence.

Clytemnestra I see you are at large again.

It's clear Aegisthus is away.

His constant task it is to keep you in,

to save our friends' embarrassment. But, when

he is away, you have no fear of me,

although I am the frequent target of

abuse. You claim my rule is quite devoid

of justice, I am proud, insulting you 490

and yours. Yet I am not proud, share not your arrogance;

I only counter your abuse. Your harping theme

is 'father', always 'father', how I slaughtered him.

Yes, I killed him. Why deny the fact

when I had justice on my side, she took

him. If you had sense you'd march

with her. It was your father, after all,

that you lament, who dared alone

of all the Greeks to sacrifice your sister to

the gods. He did not bear the pain 500

133



of childbirth, merely sowed the seed. I was

the mother. Tell me too - on whose behalf

he cut her throat? The Greeks'? Perhaps.They had no right to murder what was mine.

And, if he killed her for his brother Menelaus,

should he not pay me penalty for that?

Had not Menelaus children too

who might have with more justice died

than mine? The fleet was sailing for

their parents' sake. Did death conceive 510

a special taste for my offspring instead

of Helen's, or had my hateful husband lostall natural affection for his own, transferring it

to Menelaus' kin? This was the choice of one

bereft of wisdom and humanity.

I know that you think differently from me,

but, could your dead sister speak, I know

she'd vote with me, I am not dismayed at what is done.

Were you in your right mind, you would ensure

the justice of your case before assailing me. 520

El. You shall not say that I began this brawl

today; for you it was that started it,

but, if you will give me leave, I'll speak for both

the dead, my father, sister - to set the record straight.

Clyt. I give you leave. If you would always start

a speech like that, you'd cause us no offence.

El. Hear me then. You say you killed my father! How can you

confess to such a thing, without a sense of shame?

Strict 'justice' is not relevant, although I say

this killing was not just; for he persuaded you, 530

that evil man with whom you live.

Ask Artemis, the huntress, why, for punishment,

she held in check the winds at Aulis. I'll

explain - you should not question her. My father once

in sport, I hear, within the goddess' grove

did startle with his foot a dappled stag.

He killed the antlered beast and boasted as

134



he shot it. Angered by this Artemis detained

the Greeks, until my father sacrificed

his daughter as a recompense. This was 540the reason for her ritual death. There was

no other way to free the army homeward or

to Troy. This was the reason he was forced

to sacrifice his daughter, much against

his will, not for the sake of Menelaus!

But if - if I may plead your case -

he did this thing to gratify

his brother, was that any cause for you

to butcher him? By what law? You seta precedent to bring harsh fate upon 550

yourself. For if we are to kill, spill blood

for blood, you first of all should die

as retribution for your crime of blood.

Consider your defence, how false it is.

Tell me why it is you live this life

of shame and procreation with the man

who killed my father, Agamemnon, your

own husband, sleep with the murderer,

have sent away in exile and disowned

the children of your former legal 560

marriage with my father. How can I

condone what you have done? Or do you

say still you are extracting justice for

a daughter's death? A poor excuse, if that's

your claim. It is not right to bed an enemy

in 'just' requital for a daughter's death.

I waste my breath with this advice; you shriek

that I abuse my mother - mother! Mistress more

than mother. I live a life of misery

because of you and your Aegisthus' slights. 570

You forced another from this place, abroad

to bitter exile then, a man who lives

a life of constant deprivation, whom

you claim I've raised to bring down vengeance on

135



your head, - Orestes, and that Iwould have done

and gladly, had I been able - know that well!

Because of him denounce my name to all;say that I'm disloyal, if you will,

or petulant, that I've no sense of shame.

For, if a single word of this is true, 580

I am a child that's worthy of its mother.

Ch. She breathes out rage. The justice of her case

does not concern her any more.

Clyt. Should I then concern myself at all with one

that hates, insults her mother, though she is

no child. She has no sense of shame.El. I have a sense of shame, a sense of shame

at what I do, whatever you believe. I know

I act disgracefully and do myself

no credit. Your hatred of me, your crimes provoke 590

me. Shame teaches shame, crime - I learn from you.

Clyt. You see her sense of shame? My life, my words,

my actions are constantly the stuff of her harangues.

El. Of course! Why so surprised? The crime was yours.

Your crimes speak for themselves.

Clyt. Now, by the goddess Artemis, you'll pay

for this exhibition, when Aegisthus comes.

El. You see! You're angry now! Although you gave

me leave to speak as I wished. You are intolerant.

Clyt. Now, at least, be silent and let me make 600

my sacrifice. I granted you free speech.

El. Please, make your sacrifice - I'll say no more.

I'll not provoke your censure, pray go on!

Clyt. You - you there! Raise the fruitful offerings

that I may raise in turn my plea

to Agamemnon for deliverance from

my present dread - and you, Apollo, my

defender, may you hear my covert prayer.

I am not in the company of friends,

nor is it right to bring all to the light 610

while she stands by, in case she broadcasts some

136



false tale throughout the state with hatred

in her heart and on her clacking tongue.

But hear me still and I will tell you whatI saw, nocturnal visions, doubtful dreams...

And if, Apollo, they bode well for me then bring

them to fulfilment, if not, then bring them down

upon my enemies - and should they wish

to separate me from my present wealth

by trickery, prevent them, keep me ever safe 620

within the house of Atreus, the sceptre in

my hand, or in my friend's, with whom I live

in happiness and with those of my children who bring no bitterness and no ill-will against me.

All else I leave to you to understand,

you are the son of Zeus and can,

of course, read every detail of my silent will.

Paid. Excuse me, ladies; could this palace be

in fact the home of King Aegisthus?

Ch. It is indeed, my friend; you are quite right. 630

Paid. And may I assume this lady is his queen?

She has a look of majesty about her.

Ch. Yes, that is so; it is the queen you see before you.

Paid. Hail, Queen! I come with happy news for you

and for your husband, King Aegisthus.

Clyt. Your words assure your welcome. Tell me first,

just who it was that sent you.

Paid. Phanoteus of Phocis - on urgent, weighty business.

Clyt. What business, friend? I know Phanoteus is

our friend and know, therefore, your news is good. 640

Paid. Orestes is dead. That is my news in brief.

El. No! No, no! I have died today!

Clyt. What's that you say, my friend? Do not heed her!

Paid. I said and say again your son is dead.

El. My life is finished, done. I'll live no more.

Clyt. That is your concern. But tell me, friend,

and truly all the details of his death.

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Paid. To that end I was sent and can tell you all.

He went to Delphi to the festival of games

when he heard the herald's proclamation of 650the foot race, first event; he entered, won

and was admired by all around the course

for his skill and beauty as he gained victory.

In short, although there's much to tell, I've never seen

a man of such accomplishments and strength.

And know this well - whatever competition was

announced, the judges gave him victory.

His reputation bloomed and men gave him

congratulations as the son of Agamemnon, Lordof Argos, who marshalled once the famous men 660

of Greece. And so it went on, but, when

one of the gods becomes malevolent, no man,

however strong can flee his fate.

For there was another day set down to race

the speeding chariots in the cool of the dawn.

Orestes entered in the race along

with many other charioteers from many lands.

One was from Achaea, one from Sparta, two

of the drivers came from Libya; then came

Orestes, his team Thessalian mares at number five; 670

the sixth, with chestnuts was Aetolian,

the seventh from Magnesia, the eighth,

with a team of greys, was from the south

of Thessaly, an Athenian ninth, his town

built by the gods - tenth in line a Theban came.

They set their chariots to the starting gates

appointed by the judges and the lot.

They leapt from the gates at the sound of the brass

trumpet, simultaneously urging their horses with cries

of encouragement, shaking the reins in their hands 680

and the whole of the course was filled with the thunder

of wheels and the dust obscured the crowded chariots

as each man plied his whip unsparingly

to pass his rival's wheels and snorting steeds,

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while the foam of their horses' breath quite covered

their backs and bespattered the wheels. Orestes shaved

the turning posts on every pass by giving their headsto the outer pair and holding back tightly the inner. All

the teams raced safely till the hard-mouthed south

Thessalian colts bolted, broke formation, crossed 690

the strip and smashed headlong into one of the teams

from Libya. And from this one catastrophe

there was a chain reaction of disaster, till

the whole race track of Delphi was awash

with wrecks of chariots, of horses. Cleverly the man

from Athens pulled aside and reined his horses in,allowing the surging tide of chariots to pass

him by in the mid-stream. Last of all

Orestes drove, keeping in check his horses for

a finishing dash. But, when he saw the sole 700

survivor from Athens, he gave chase, screaming in

his horses' ears shrill cries to speed them on -

and the two surviving teams raced neck and neck,

now one and now the other took the lead,

but only by a neck at most. Orestes had

in safety made his way through nearly all

the circuits of the race and kept himself,

and his chariot, upon an even keel.

But then he eased the tension on the left

hand pair, upon the turn and, unawares, 710

struck hard against the turning post

and smashed the axle-box in two, across

the middle was hurled above the safety rail;

involved among the leathern reins he fell

among the hooves and scared his mares

that scattered far and wide into the middle of

the course. The host of people saw him fall

and grieved at the young man's plight,

who had done such deeds and suffered this reward.

He bounced, now on the ground and now he showed 720

his heels to heaven, until the stewards struggled

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to hold his mares in check and cut loose

the blood-stained corpse. It was unrecognisable.

Then those that loved him lit a pyre at once,committed him to the flames and chosen men

from Phocis bring the ashes in an urn of bronze -

a small container for a hero's frame.

That is the essence of my tale, a tale of grief,

but sadder still for those of us had eyes to see

the greatest and most bitter stroke of fate. 730

Ch. Our royal race is finished, root and branch.

Clyt. O Zeus, why this confusion? Is this good news?

I am torn between grief and joy. For griefI feel, if such suffering alone can keep me safe.

Paid. Why are you despondent, lady, at my news?

Clyt. It is an awful thing to be a mother. It's hard

To hate one's child, however much one is provoked.

Paid. It looks as if my journey was in vain.

Clyt. No! Not in vain! How can you say in vain?

If you have come with certain proof 740

of my son's death, my son who suckled here,

flesh of my flesh, but yet was ripped away

to exile and has never seen me since.

He left this land, but ever charges me

with the murder of his father, swears revenge -

and so no sleep can bring sweet rest upon

my eyes by night or day. There is instead

the constant threat of death as time goes by...

But now! By this day's news I am released

from fear of him and of this daughter here. 750

She was more troublesome; she shared my home

and drank my very life's blood, draining dry

my soul. But now I'll pass my days

in peace, free from the threat of her and hers.

El. Oh, oh! It may be lawful now to grieve

your fate, Orestes. Now that you are dead

and are scorned by your mother... All is well!

Clyt. I think not for you, but all is well with him.

140





them in complicity?

El. Ah!!

Ch. Child, why keen so?El. Ah!!

Ch. Child, you must not...

El. Do not destroy me more.

Ch. How?

El. By offering false hopes

that they will come who now 800

are dead and gone. You trample

on my misery.

Ch. I know King Amphiareus str. b

was killed, ensnared by a golden chain,

a necklace and a woman's guile,

but now, beneath the earth...

El. Ah!

Ch. He rules among the dead.

El. Ah!

Ch. And the murderess... 810

El. Was killed.

Ch. …was killed.

El. I know, I know. A champion

appeared, caring for the dead man.

I have no one any more

my champion was snatched away.

Ch. Your life is truly wretched. ant. a

El. I know that well, too well.

My life is an endless tide

of grief, a river of pain. 820

Ch. I have seen it.

El. Do not then try to turn aside

my stream of tears, when...

Ch. When?

El. when hope no more springs

to comfort me, hopes

for my noble brother.

Ch. All men by nature die. ant. b

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El. But not among the tramp and crush

of horses' hooves, embroiled 830

in the whipping reins.Ch. This death was cruel beyond belief.

El. Yes, yes! A stranger

in a strange land he lies

far from my loving hands.

Ch. Ah.

El. Buried with not one of us

to stand in grief beside his tomb.

Chrys. My dearest sister, I have come in haste,

regardless of propriety, and filled 840with joyful news to bring a joyful ending

to those sorrows which you constantly lament.

El. And where could you find any help to ease

the pains I feel. They are incurable.

Chrys. Orestes has come to us. I know this is

the truth as you know that I am standing here.

El. Are you mad, poor girl, that you mock

at this our common share of grief?

Chrys. By our father's hearth, I am not mocking you

in this. Orestes has come home to us. 850

El. Poor girl; so credulous. Who told you this?

Chrys. I had the evidence first hand and did

not have to trust another's word.

El. And what convinced you? What did you see?

that inspires such fevered confidence.

Chrys. By all the gods, hear me! Then only judge

whether or not I am in my right mind.

El. Speak, if to speak will give you special pleasure.

Chrys. I'll tell you everything that I have seen.

For, when I came to our father's ancient tomb, 860

I saw a spring of fresh poured milk flowed down

from the top of the mound, and all about the tomb

was garlanded with all the flowers that grow.

I saw and was amazed and checked to see

if anyone was there close by, but unobserved.

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And when I saw the place's calm was not disturbed,

I crept up closer to the tomb and on

the mound's edge saw a lockoff hair. Immediately I saw it there, my soul

was moved to think of our Orestes, loved 870

so well by us - and that this was a sign

from him. I took it in my hands, quite silently,

and straightaway my eyes were filled with tears

of joy. Both then and now I knew and know

this tribute came from no one else but him.

Who else would care save you and I?

I did not do it, nor did you. How couldyou when you're not allowed to leave

this prison house, not even if you wish to pray.

It is not likely that our mother's heart 880

would entertain such thoughts, nor could she have

done this without our knowing it. These gifts

have come from Orestes. Take courage from that fact,

Electra. No single fate perpetually will blight men's

lives. Ours was a gloomy fate before, but now,

perhaps this day will serve to bring much good.

El. You are so foolish that I pity you.

Chrys. What is it? You take no pleasure from my words?

El. You do not know how far you are astray.

Chrys. But how can I not know what I have clearly seen? 890

El. He's dead, my dear one. All hope of help from him

has vanished. Look no more to our Orestes.

Chrys. He's dead? Who was it told you this?

El. <A man.> He was present when he died.

Chrys. And where is this man? My mind grows numb.

El. Inside the house. Our mother likes his company.

Chrys. But who in all the world would send

such offerings and put them on our father's tomb?

El. No doubt someone who brought the gifts

to honour dead Orestes' memory. 900

Chrys. I am a fool. I hurried here borne up

with happy news and did not realise

144



my folly, while my arrival brings

me knowledge of both past and present ills.

El. That is the way of it. But if you will obeyme, you will ease the burden of our present grief.

Chrys. You mean that I will resurrect the dead?

El. That is not what I said. I am not insane.

Chrys. What would you have me do that I can do?

El. You must be brave to do my bidding. 910

Chrys. If we gain advantage I'll not hang back.

El. You realise we will gain nothing without pain.

Chrys. I realise that fact. I'll do what I can.

El. Then listen how I wish to act in this.You know we can expect no help from friends.

For death has robbed us of them all and we

are left alone, abandoned. So long as I heard

my brother was alive and well, I held

onto the hope that he would come to gain

requital for our father's murder, but now 920

he lives no more I look to you to join

with me your sister in the execution of

our father's murderer, Aegisthus. We must

not flinch from this and we must keep

no secrets from each other. How long can you

remain inactive? What other hope do we have?

You have a double loss to mourn, that of

your father's wealth and of your future happiness.

For you will live your life unwed until

the passing years bring you old age and death. 930

For you must entertain no hopes of wedded bliss,

Chrysothemis. Aegisthus is not so stupid that

he will allow us children to flourish as

a threat to his security. But if

you follow my advice you'll win just praise

both from your father in the world below

and from your sister and also you will gain

the freedom and the kind of marriage which

is your birthright. For your nobility

145



will draw the gaze of every man. Do you 940

not see the noble reputation you and I

will win if I can win you over bymy words. For every citizen or stranger in

the town will greet us with praise on their lips, 'see

these sisters, friends, who saved their father's house

and took their lives in their hands and brought

a vengeance of blood upon the murderers

despite their strength. They are worthy of our love

and of our total admiration, so that we

should celebrate their bravery throughout 950

the city with a general festival.'This is the way that each and every man

will speak of us, so that our fame will last

through all our lives and even past our death.

Dear sister, listen to my words and work

with our father, our brother and work with your sister to

put an end to our suffering for both of us

in the knowledge that to live a life of shame

brings shame and disgrace upon those nobly born.

Ch. In situations such as these forethought 960

is useful to the speaker and the audience.

Chrys. If she had not been quite deranged before

she spoke, my friends, the caution which she should

have shown would have been more in evidence.

What reason could you have to arm yourself

with rashness such as this - and summon me

to help? You do not seem to see you have

been born a woman, not a man; your strength

is less by far than is your enemies'.

Fate smiles upon them. Day by day they prosper, 970

while our luck daily dwindles, comes to nought.

No man could hope to bring down such an enemy,

without great risk of pain and punishment.

Such boldness will increase our suffering,

if anyone should hear our plotting. To die

an ignominious death will seem but poor

146



reward for winning noble fame, will seem

inadequate relief - no profit there!

In fact, to die is not the bitterest of fates, but rather to wish to die, and have that wish denied. 980

I beg you now before your family

is utterly destroyed, our race quite wiped

out, restrain your anger. I will keep my peace,

ensure your words remain mere words, without

effect. And you must learn good sense, as time

goes by, so that you don't in weakness challenge strength.

Ch. Mankind can have no better quality.

than foresight and a prudent mind.El. It's all in character. I knew well enough

you would reject all that I offered you. 990

So be it! I will do what must be done alone.

For I will not leave this thing unfinished.

Chrys. Ah!

I wish your thoughts had been like this upon

our father's death. Revenge would have been swift!

El. I was the same, but not so tempered by adversity.

Chrys. You should have stayed the same throughout your life.

El. Your words confirm you will not join with me in this.

Chrys. I think it likely you will meet defeat.

El. I envy your prudence; your cowardice I loathe. 1000

Chrys. If you should praise me too, I'll remain unmoved.

El. But you will never hear my praises sung by me.

Chrys. The length of future time will be the judge of that.

El. Please go! You are no help to me in this.

Chrys. I could be - only you refuse to hear my words.

El. Go, now! Inform your mother of all this.

Chrys. I do not harbour such an enmity to you.

El. You know the depth of shame you lead me to?

Chrys. Not depth of shame; I'd lead you into sense!

El. And must I follow your own brand of justice? 1010

Chrys. When you are wise then I will follow you.

El. It's sad that one so eloquent should be so wrong.

Chrys. You have described in fact your own malaise.

147



El. What's that? You really don't believe my words are just?

Chrys. It's possible that justice might bring trouble in its train.

El. I do not wish to live by rules like that.Chrys. If you must do this, you'll sing my praises yet.

El. I am intent. You cannot frighten me!

Chrys. That may be so, but won't you reconsider?

El. There is no fouler thing than false advice. 1020

Chrys. You are intent on total disagreement then?

El. My purpose is not new. My mind has long been fixed.

Chrys. Well, I shall go. For you cannot endure

my words nor I commend your conduct.

El. Then go inside. I will not follow you,not even if it were your heart's desire.

Stupidity it is to chase such empty dreams.

Chrys. If you do believe your choice is right, then act

on it. For when you come at last into

disaster, you will praise my words of sense. 1030

Ch. The birds of the air above, str. a

we see them care most lovingly

for the ones that gave them life

and gave them nourishment.

Why cannot we do the same?

For by the thunderbolt of Zeus

and by the universal laws

of Justice, such neglect

will soon be punished.

Voice infernal, sing below 1040

a piteous cry to Agamemnon

and his son - of foul dishonour.

Tell them there is a sickness str. b

on the house; the daughters

strive in enmity, their loving kindness

shattered. All alone Electra

is betrayed, because she

148



loves her father's memory and sings

of it, a tireless nightingale

of woe. Her own death is 1050as nothing, if she can destroy

those twin battening Furies, Aegisthus

and his loving woman.

Electra is the model of nobility.

None of the nobly born ant. a

would wish to win a name

of shame by living shamefully.

So have you picked a life of griefand spurned dishonour and won

the reputation of the best and noblest girl. 1060

So may you live in future ant. b

days with wealth and power over those

who daily humble you. For I

have seen the life you lead

in deep distress, although you win rewards,

observing Zeus' most important laws.

Or. Excuse me, ladies, did we receive good information?

Have we journeyed as we should and as we wanted?

Ch. What is it that you want that you come here?

Or. I am looking for the palace of Aegisthus. 1070

Ch. This is the house. Your information was correct.

Or. Would one of you announce our presence here

to those inside; we are, I think, expected.

Ch. She ought to do it, if the most concerned should tell.

Or. Young woman, tell your friends inside that men

of Phocis have arrived and seek Aegisthus.

El. No, no! Don't say that you are bringing clear

proof, evidence of the story we have just now heard.

Or. I know nothing of your 'story'. Old man Strophios

has sent me bearing news about Orestes' fate. 1080

149



El. What news friend? Fear assails my heart.

Or. We bring his meagre remains within this urn;

for he is dead and this is all there is of him.El. O gods! At last I see your grievous burden,

clear proof, at last, of our Orestes' death.

Or. If it is for Orestes that you weep and his

misfortunes, know this vessel holds his dust.

El. My friend, I pray you, give it to me to hold

within my hands, if he lies here, that I

may weep for him and for myself and all 1090

our clan - and grieve for his ashes here enclosed.

Or. Whoever she may be, give her the urn.Her request comes not from one who bears ill-will,

but rather from some kinswoman or friend.

El. Are these the remains of Orestes, the sole surviving man

of those I used to love? The hopes with which

I sent out are dashed. To welcome you

back home - like this! I sent you off in beauty

my Orestes. Would that I had died, before I sent

you to a foreign exile, rescued you from death. 1100

For then you would have died on that same day

and shared your father's tomb with him.

Now you have died in exile, a stranger's death,

unfriended in a foreign land and parted from

your sister. I could not even wash away

the dirt with loving hands, nor lift this sad

burden from the all-consuming funeral pyre;

that was my task - but someone else's hands

performed the final rites and so you come

to us, a scattering of dust and ashes in 1110

a tiny urn. I grieve for all the care I wasted long

ago, the care I lavished on you lovingly.

You never were your mother's boy so much

as mine. I was your nurse and no one else

within the house. My name was always in

your mouth; you called me, 'sister'. All this is gone

inside a single day. For you have died

150



and like a passing whirlwind snatched it all

away. My father too is dead and gone, and I

am dead with you and him and you are dead 1120and gone away. Our enemies exult. Our so

called Mother is quite delirious with joy - and you

sent frequent word to me that you would come,

in vengeance sent against her; but the curse

upon our house has ruined all of that, the curse

that sent you home to me like this - not in

the form I longed for - just dust and a useless ghost.

Ah! Ah!

O pitiful dust - Oh! Oh!You have come on a dreadful journey, 1130

destroyed me utterly.

You have destroyed me, brother, so welcome me

accordingly to your own hiding place

beneath the earth that I may live with you

for ever there. My life is empty of meaning now.

And when you were alive I shared alike

with you and now I wish to die and share

your tomb as well - for evermore. The dead

at least can suffer no more pain or grief.

Ch. You were born of man Electra. Think of this - 1140

so was Orestes. Therefore, do not grieve

too much. Death is the common fate of all mankind.

Or. I have no words to speak that have

a meaning here. My tongue is paralysed.

El. What pain should you feel?

Or. Are you Electra who once was famed for beauty?

El. I am Electra and very wretched is my plight.

Or. I grieve for you and all your wretchedness.

El. It is not proper, sir, for you to grieve for me!

Or. I pity you that have been so abused, despised. 1150

El. Your words describe no other than myself.

Or. I pity you - without a man, with such a life...

El. Why do you look at me so sadly, stranger?

151



Or. I did not realise what cause I had for grief.

El. I cannot see what makes you think like this.

Or. It's seeing you decked out with pain and grief.El. And yet you do not see the half of it.

Or. You mean that there is worse than what I see?

El. Oh yes! I share my home with murderers.

Or. Whose murderers? What is this guilt you indicate? 1160

El. My father's murderers. And I must be their slave.

Or. Who forces you to live a life of slavery?

El. My mother - in name alone; she does not act like one.

Or. What does she do? Does she use force or deprivation?

El. She beats me, starves me, generally abuses me.Or. There is no one to help you or to hinder her?

El. Not one! My only hope's reduced to ashes here.

Or. Poor girl. I see you, and feel pity for your life.

El. You are the only man who pities me.

Or. I am the only man to come and share your pain. 1170

El. It could not be you are some distant relative?

Or. I would answer, if I felt that I could trust....

El. You can trust them. Speak as if to trusted friends.

Or. Give back this urn that you may learn it all.

El. No! Please don't take this thing away from me.

Or. Trust what I say, and you'll make no mistake.

El. I pray you; do not take away my darling.

Or. You must not keep it

El. Please! Oh, please!

Orestes, I must be the one to bury you. 1180

Or. You must not say that. You have no need to weep.

El. Shall I not have the right to grieve a brother's death?

Or. To speak like that is quite unnecessary now.

El. And does Orestes have so little love for me?

Or. He loves you well, but grief is not your role.

El. Not even when I hold his ashes close?

Or. This is not Orestes, except in trickery and guile.

El. Where is my brother's tomb? Where does he lie?

Or. He has no tomb. The living need no tomb.

El. My brother lives? 1190

152



Or. If I have life in me.

El. Are you Orestes?

Or. I have this ring. It was our father's once.Accept this proof of my identity.

El. This is the day...

Or. The day we yearned to see.

El. Yours is the voice...

Or. The voice you longed to hear.

El. And can I hold you by the hand?

Or. For evermore, my sister. 1200

El. Friends, friends and fellow-citizens, for now

I am a citizen again - you see Orestes cometo life, his death an empty mockery,

a trick, no more, to bring him safely home.

Ch. We see him and are glad at heart, my child,

so that the tears of joy escape my eyes.

El. Son of Agamemnon, str.

son of him I loved the best,

you have come at last,

are found, have come to see your love. 1210

Or. We are together, but should hold our peace.

El. Why so?

Or. Better to be silent, should they hear inside.

El. By the ever-virgin Artemis

I shall never think it right

to tremble at women, useless

burdens on the ground inside the home!

Or. Yet you of all should know the power of war

inhabits women's hearts. For you have proof of that.

El. Ah! Ah! Ah! 1220

You bring to mind

my sorrow, by its nature

unforgettable and fixed.

Or. I know it, but, when the time demands

our work, we will remember what was done.

153



El. Time present and all time ant.

to come could justly echo my

complaints. Freedom won is hard to gag.Or. I know - so keep your new-won freedom safe.

El. What should I do? 1230

Or. Restrain your tongue, until the time is ripe.

El. But you have shown yourself!

How can I keep silence?

I never thought to see you come,

beyond all hope...

Or. Well you have seen me now.

The gods ordained the time to come.El. But if some god has brought

you here, your coming is

beyond all present hopes of joy. 1240

I must give thanks...

Or. I do not wish to curb your joy, and yet

I fear excess of it will bring defeat.

El. Orestes, now that you have shown ep.

your face, have thought to make

this journey here at last, at last...

and seen my sufferings, I pray you, do not

Or. Do not?

El. Do not rob me of the comfort of your face!

Do not! 1250

Or. No one shall move me from your side

and go unpunished.

El. You grant my wish?

Or. Of course.

El. My friends, I have heard

the voice I never hoped to hear,

nor could I check my feelings

when I heard it, nor my cry of joy.

For now I have Orestes,

clear before me. 1260

With the face that I could not forget,

the one I loved through all my pain.

154



Or. Save time and words, Electra. Do not tell

how bad our mother is and was or how

Aegisthus drains our father's wealthand squanders it in aimless luxury.

For such a tale would need more time

than we can spare. Far rather tell me what

I need to know, at this present point in time,

where we may hide or show ourselves to stop 1270

our happy enemies upon their present course.

Be sure our mother does not realise -

because you look so happy that we two

are come against the house, but grieve as ifheartbroken by this story of disaster. When

we have won will be the time to laugh in liberty.

El. Dear brother, I shall do exactly as you wish.

You are the only source of all my joy

and I would not consent to cause

the smallest harm to you to benefit myself. 1280

Not so would I show proper gratitude

to our protective deity. You know

the situation here, I have no doubt.

You've heard Aegisthus is away, but that

our mother is inside the house. Do not be

afraid that she will see me with a smiling face,

all radiant. My hate for her has long

since scarred my face, while your arrival fills

my eyes with tears - of joy. My tears

are uncontrollable for you have come 1290

back from the dead upon the very day

I heard you died. I am bemused by you

and even if my father were to come, alive

once more, I would believe the miracle

and trust my sight. But you have truly come!

Command me as you will; for left alone

I faced but two alternatives, to save

myself or meet a noble death in the attempt.

Or. Hush!

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brother from so many dangers?

Are these the hands, are these the feet

that did such loving service for us? I donot understand how you could have deceived

me with your fictions, though your mission was 1340

most dear to me! I greet you, father; for

I see you as my father, greetings! How

I have hated you and loved you, both

to distraction, on this single day.

Paid. That is enough, my child. What happened in the years

between will be the story of so many days

and nights to come, Electra; you'll tell useverything.

Meanwhile, my friends, now is the crucial time

to act! For Clytemnestra is alone.

There are no men inside. If you delay, 1350

your fight will be with men more skilled

in arms and far more numerous than you.

Or. This is not the time, friend Pylades,

for lengthy speeches, but for action. Let

us then go in and quickly, pausing but

to honour here the shrines of my

ancestral gods before the palace gates.

El. My lord Apollo, hear their words with favour.

Hear also me. For I have often come to you

with offerings devoutly in my hands. And now, 1360

Wolfslayer, lord Apollo - with all my heart,

I beg and pray and supplicate your help...

and be our kindly friend, abet

our plans and show to all mankind

the punishments gods grant for dire impiety.

Ch. See where the lord of str.

war breathes blood, advances

on the house, is now beneath

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Clyt. Again?

El. Again - for Aegisthus too!

Ch. The curse is at work.The dead are born again.

Blood flows for blood.

And those long dead

can satisfy their thirst. 1410

They come. Their hands drip blood.

The sacrifice to Ares is complete.

I cannot find fault.

El. All is well?Or. All is well inside the house,

if Apollo's oracle was well.

El. The bitch is dead?

Or. Fear no more that you will

suffer harm from her proud spirit.

Ch. Stop! Aegisthus is coming. I see 1420

him coming, joy on his face.

El. Go back inside and quickly now.

Or. And can you see him too?

El. Yes. He comes from the country

with joy on his face.

Ch. Quickly now - inside the gates!

And win yet more success.

Or. Have no fear.

El. Quickly, follow your plan.

Or. We will. 1430

El. Leave everything out here to me.

Ch. It would be advantageous first to lull his ears

with words of mock humility and so entice

Aegisthus swiftly to his just punishment.

Aeg. Does any of you know where I might find

the strangers from the land of Phocis, those

who brought us news about Orestes' death?

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In some catastrophe of chariots?

You! You, I mean! Yes, you!! What's happened to

your former boldness? Since it affects you most 1440you should be able best to tell me this.

El. I know what I know. How could I be unaware

of what has happened to the closest of my kin?

Aeg. Where, then, are these men? Tell me that, at once.

El. Within. They have reached their hostess' inmost part.

Aeg. And is it true? They have described his death?

Electra Not just described. They brought the corpse to prove their tale.

Aeg. I may then look upon the body, if I wish?

El. You may indeed. It is not a pretty sight.Aeg. It's not like you to give such joyful news. 1450

El. I wish you joy, if this it is that gives it you.

Aeg. Enough! Throw wide the gates and show to all

Mycenae and the men of Argos - should they

have entertained vain hopes in former days,

based on this man - yes, show them his corpse

let them accept my government, my hand

upon the reins, that they might have no need

to feel my anger's force against their foolishness.

El. Already I have played my part. For time

has taught me prudence and to yield to those in power. 1460

Aeg. By Zeus, I hear your words and they

have heaven's blessing - but, if that is tempting fate,

I'll say no more. Unveil the face so that

our kin may hear a suitable lament from me.

Or. You lift the covering. This is your task

not mine, to look upon, address this corpse - with love.

Aeg. That's good advice; I'll follow it. You there!

call Clytemnestra from within the house.

Or. She is already closer than you think.

You need not look elsewhere. 1470

Aeg. What is this?

Or. Are you afraid? You do not recognise it?

Aeg. Who are you that you have me snared and

fallen in your trap?

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Or. Don't you see that those whom you call dead

are still alive, while those you thought yet lived...

Aeg. Are dead. I see it now. You areOrestes - you, the one that speaks to me.

Or. I am surprised your wit was fooled so long.

Aeg. And you have quite destroyed me. A word, perhaps?1480

El. By all the gods, not one word, Orestes, please!!

No more talk! What possible advantage can

he gain by this delay, when he has so

embroiled himself in evil? Kill him now!

And when he's dead toss out his corpse

to feed the carrion birds and dogs that arehis kin. For only so will I win vengeance for

what's past.

Or. You will go inside and quickly; the issue now

is not of words, but rather is of your life. 1490

Aeg. Why take me inside? If your plans are noble, what need

of darkness? For I am ready to hand for slaughter.

Or. Don't give me orders! Go inside that you may die

upon the very spot you cut my father down.

Aeg. And must this house see all the ills

of Pelops' line, both of the past and time to come?

Or. Yours, at least, Aegisthus; in this I am true prophet.

Aeg. Your father couldn't make a matching claim.

Or. You're full of answers. Time drags. Follow me.

Aeg. After you, boy. 1500

Or. You must go first.

Aeg. You think I'll run away.

Or. No.

But you must have no say in how you die.

Your death must be as bitter as I can make

it. Instant death should be the penalty

for those who break our laws.

There would not then be so much wickedness.

Ch. O house of Atreus.

You have suffered much. 1510

At last you walk in freedom.

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This day's work assures it.

162



Oedipus the King

Dramatis Personae

Oedipus

Priest

Creon

Chorus of Theban Elders

Teiresias

Jocasta

Messenger from Corinth

Slave of Laius

Messenger from the House

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Oedipus

My children, most recent brood of ancient Cadmus' line, what is it that you want that you have settled here,

these suppliant branches in your hands?

The city is filled alike with the smoke of sacrifice,

the din of hymns and cries of misery;

not thinking it right to learn these things

at second hand, my children, I have come myself,

I, Oedipus, whose fame is on the lips of all mankind.

Now speak, old man, since you are the natural

spokesman for these folk: are you gathered in dread 10or need? I am more than willing to help

in any way I can. I would be hard of heart indeed,

were I not moved to pity by such a gathering as this.

Priest

Lord Oedipus, master of this, my land, observe

our varied ages as we group in supplication by

your altars here, some not yet strong enough

to venture far in flight, some burdened with age,

some priests, as I of Zeus, and others pickedto represent our youth; another group has sat

in supplication in the market place beside 20

Athene's double altar and Ismenus' flame of prophecy.

For, as you see yourself, the city is all at sea

and can no longer lift her head above

the surge and chop of the fatal waves,

while the fruit of the land is blighted in the bud,

and blighted too are the browsing herds and all

still-born the product of our women's birthing pain.A god of fire swooped down to press a deadly plague

upon the town and void the home of Cadmus -

and Hell's black halls are rich with cries of grief and pain. 30

We do not sit as suppliants because we think

of you as equal to the gods, but as the first of men

in dealing with life's chances and in commerce with

the gods. For you released us from the tax we paid

the cruel Sphinx, when you arrived in Cadmus' land,

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and, though you knew no more than any other man,

had not been schooled by us, yet still you saved

our lives, thanks, as men think and say, to help from god.Since all mankind respects the might and intellect 40

of Oedipus we come to you as suppliants to seek

some comfort, whether your knowledge comes

from oracles divine or from some mortal man.

For I have seen that the plans of men are most

effective when their authors have experience of life.

Come, most noble of men, and put the state to rights,

come, save your reputation too, since now this land

names you its saviour for your former services;and do not let our memory of your rule be that

you did restore the state only to let it later fall - 50

no, stabilise the state on firm foundations now!

The signs were favourable before for you, when you

restored our luck, and so now too attempt the same.

For if you would choose to exercise a sovereign's rule,

it is better that you have a population to command,

since ships and citadels are nothing worth without

the men who dwell within as crew or citizens.

Oe. I pity you, my children, and I know well why you

have come and what you want. I know too well

your sickness, but even in that sickness there is 60

not one of you whose sickness matches mine!

Your pains are individual, affecting each of you

as individuals and no one else; my heart is sick

with grief alike for you and me and for the state itself!

You have not wakened me as from some idle sleep,

but rather know that I have shed a multitude

of tears while I explored a multitude of schemes.

The only plan for safety that my care and thought

could find I set in train: for I despatched my wife's 70

own brother, Creon, Menoeceus'son, to Delphi and

Apollo's oracle to learn from there by what decree

or course of action I might save the town.

The lapse of time since his departure there

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already irks me as to what he does; for he has been

away far longer than is needful or appropriate.

But when he comes, why then I would indeed be negligent did I not do all that the god reveals.

Pr. Your words are opportune! These men have just

now signalled me that Creon is hastening here...

Oe. Apollo, lord, I pray he comes to us with luck 80

and saving grace as bright as is his countenance!

Pr. His news is good, it seems - for otherwise he would

not come with his head all garlanded with fruitful bay.

Oe. We soon shall know! He is now close enough to hear.

My kinsman, prince, Menoeceus' son, what kindof news have you come to bring us from the god?

Creon

The news is good. All our ill luck, I say, will be reversed,

and changed to good... if things are done aright.

Oe. What kind of talk is this? Your present words, such as

they are, bring neither confidence nor dread. 90

Cr. If you are ready to hear with these men standing by,

then I am ready to speak - or else to go inside.

Oe. Broadcast to all! The grief I bear for these outweighs

by far the care I have for my own very soul!

Cr. Allow me then to speak the message of the god.

Lord Phoebus gave me clear advice that we

must banish the source of this pollution on the land

and nurture it incurable within the land no more.

Oe. By what due process? What is the nature of our guilt?

Cr. We must drive out a murderer or answer blood 100

with blood to purge the blood that storms the state.

Oe. What kind of man was it that suffered such a fate?

Cr. Once Laius was our ruler in this land, my lord,

before you took control of our affairs of state.

Oe. I know him by repute, but never yet have seen the man.

Cr. The god declares that we must actively avenge

ourselves on those who killed this man.

Oe. Wherever can they be? It will be difficult

to find the traces of this ancient crime.

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Cr. He said they were in Thebes. That which is sought, 110

that will be found; that which is not escapes.

Oe. Did Laius meet his death inside at homeor in his fields or in some foreign land?

Cr. He had said when he left he would consult

the oracle, but, once gone, he never did come home.

Oe. Did no one even bring the news or see the crime,

no companion to give us useful information?

Cr. No, all were killed except for one who fled in fear

and he was totally confused except for one detail.

Oe. What detail? A single clue might lead to many more, 120

if only we seize hold of it as the meagre start of hope.Cr. He said a gang of bandits surprised and killed the king -

not one man alone, but an overpowering force.

Oe. How could any bandit have ever been so bold, unless

some business had been done with bribes in Thebes?

Cr. That did occur to us, but no one could be found

to investigate his death... in those troubled times.

Oe. What kind of troubled times could ever stop

investigation of the murder of a king?

Cr. The Sphinx and her riddling songs induced neglect 130

of mysteries in favour of more immediate needs.

Oe. Well, I will open up this case once more from scratch.

Apollo's words are worthy of the god and worthily

have you drawn our attention to the dead man's plight;

and so you all will see that I shall join with you to gain

just vengeance - both on the god's and on this land's behalf!

And I myself, for my own sake and not as for

some distant friends, shall dissipate this stench.

For whoever it was that killed this man may well

be so inclined to lift his vengeful hands also to me. 140

In laying Laius' ghost I will also benefit myself.

But quickly as you may, my children, get up

from off these steps and raise the suppliant boughs,

and let some messenger convene the folk

of Cadmus so they may know all that I do; for ( with

the god's help ) we shall either prove successful - or fail.

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beseeching surcease from their woes, no dissonance, though,

in their clarion hymn to the healer.

And so for their sake, golden daughter of Zeus,look kindly with comfort upon them.

str.c. And let savage Ares turn tail in swift flight from our land,

who in flames and in clamour assaults and consumes me

- his bronze shield of war, though, abandoned - 190

carried hence to Atlantic's

great deep, or the Black

Sea swell so unfriendly;

For if night fails at all in its purpose,this next day will bring it to pass.

O father Zeus that wields

the thunderbolt's bright flame, 200

strike him down dead

with the lightning blast!

ant.c. Lycean lord, I wish the untamed shafts

fired from your bow's bent string

of golden weave might shower down

protective screens, and Artemis' bright fires I now

invoke, with which in hand she passes through

the hills of Lycia, and Bacchus of the golden crown,

named for this land, wine flushed, 210

exalted, draw you near,

the Maenads' friend,

our ally now, with joyous torch

in hand, against the god

who is dishonoured of the gods.

Oe. You pray, and this is my response : but give my words

fair hearing, raise your own defence against the plague

and you will gain assistance and relief from toil.

I make this public declaration, although I was and am

a stranger to the tale as to the deed; for I could not make 220

much progress in my hunt alone, without some clue.

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But as things are, although I was not then enrolled a citizen

myself, I now address you all as fellow citizens of Thebes:

whoever of you has sure knowledge of the man by whom King Laius, son of Labdacus, was killed,

I bid you pass all information such as this to me;

and if a man is guilty and afraid, he should confess

and rid his path of fear. For he will suffer nothing more

severe than banishment, shall leave the land unscathed.

Again, should any man have knowledge of some foreign 230

murderer, let him speak out; for I will make it worth

his while and he shall also win my gratitude.

But yet again, should you be silent, striving soto ward my word's impact away from loved one or

yourself, that man I do forbid this land, whatever his

condition, make him exile him from this place where I hold sway

and throne and I decree that neither shall he be received

by any man, nor spoken to by any man, nor yet

shall any share with him in prayer nor sacrifice

to gods, nor grant him part of any cleansing rite. 240

All must drive him from your homes even as the bane

he is to us, and as Apollo's Delphic oracle

divine has but just now made clear to me.

My words reveal me then as ally of the god

and also of the man now dead; my solemn curse

is that the murderer, be he an unknown renegade

or one of many, should grind away his life in misery.

This curse now on myself: for should this man

share house and hearth with me and so

be known to me, my griefs must also match 250

the imprecations just now made articulate.

I solemnly enjoin that you should bring all this

to pass both for my own and for Apollo's sake

and for this land that is so barren and accursed of god.

For had this business not been driven by the gods,

you would have taken every step to clear the stain

caused by the death of such a noble man, your king,

and searched the matter out. However, I have now

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inherited the power he used to hold before,

and occupy his bed and seed his wife, would share, 260

his children's care with mine, had he been fortunateenough to breed, if unkind fate had not denied him sons.

Now that same fate has swooped upon his head

and I, because of all these things, shall be his champion,

as if he were in fact my father, and I will leave no stone

unturned in seeking to lay hands upon the murderer -

fulfilling so my debt to Laius, son of Labdacus, the son

of Polydorus, son of ancient Cadmus and of Agenor.

And as for those who disobey my words, I pray

the gods to render barren both their land 270and wives, that they might be destroyed by both

this present pestilence and one more grievous still;

As for the rest of you, you citizens of Thebes, that find

my words agreeable, may Justice fight for you - as well,

may all the other gods be with us evermore in kindliness.

Ch. Since you, my lord, have put me under oath, so shall I speak:

I did not kill the king, nor can I indicate the one who did.

It is Apollo's task, who sent this word to us, to search

and tell who did the crime, whoever he might be.

Oe. Your words are just. To force the hand of gods against 280

their will is not, however, possible for any mortal man.

Ch. There is a second plan occurs to me, if I might speak.

Oe. Do not withhold a third plan, even, should such occur to you.

Ch. I know a lordly man, Teiresias, who has a special share

in lord Apollo's visionary sight, from whom, my king,

a man investigating crime might learn the truth.

Oe. I have already taken care of that contingency.

From the time I heard the oracle that Creon brought,

I have sent two men and am amazed he is not yet here.

Ch. The rumours that were current long ago are muted now. 290

Oe. And what were they? I shall examine each and every clue.

Ch. It is said that Laius died at the hands of highwaymen.

Oe. I heard that too; the witness, though, has disappeared.

Ch. No guilty man who has the barest modicum of dread

would stay in Thebes on hearing curses such yours.

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Oe. They hold no terror for the hardened criminal.

Ch. But here is the man to find him out. These men

escort Teiresias at last, Apollo's holy priest, in whomalone of all mankind the gods have planted truth.

Oe. Teiresias, you know all things, the things that might be taught 300

and things forbidden, heavenly things and things that creep

upon the earth, and so, blind though you are, you sense

our city's plight and its disease; in you alone we find

a man to stand as our protector and our guardian.

For Phoebus has sent word to us in answer to our plea -

in case you have not heard of this from messengers -

that freedom from this pestilence will only come, if wewith certainty identify the men who murdered Laius

and kill them too, or send them exiled from the land.

Do not therefore begrudge us any means, bird cry derived 310

or from your other arts of prophecy, but rather save

yourself and save your city, save me too and all

that is polluted by King Laius' death; for we are in

your hands and humankind's most noble task

is helping others in so far as wit and skill allow.

Teiresias

How terrible is knowledge where it profits not

the one who knows. I knew this well, but it escaped

me; for I would not otherwise be here.

Oe. But what is this? How sad your coming here!

Tei. Please, send me home! Easiest it is by far for you 320

to bear your fate and me bear mine, if you obey.

Oe. You speak words out of keeping and unfriendly to the state

which reared you, by refusing to interpret Phoebus' will.

Tei. I see that what you say is far from opportune and hold

my peace to obviate the risk of suffering the same.

Oe. No, by the gods, you will not turn away from us, if you

have knowledge and we all kneel in supplication here.

Tei. Yes, fools, all of you! I never shall reveal the cause

of my distress, yes, my distress I call it, hardly yours.

Oe. I cannot believe you will not speak of what you know. 330

Is it in your mind to give us up, destroy the state?

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Tei. I will neither cause myself distress nor you. So why persist

in fruitless questions? There is nothing to be got from me.

Oe. You still refuse to speak? This is an outrage!You would provoke a very stone! Is it then

impossible to reach you, come to terms with you?

Tei. You criticise my temper, but do not know

your own domestic situation, and so I am reviled.

Oe. Who would not be furious when hearing how

your words do hold our city state in such contempt? 340

Tei. Things fated come to pass, even should I hide them now.

Oe. If fate is fixed, then why not tell me what it is?

Tei. I do not choose to tell you more. Therefore, indulgeyour rage in bitterest anger, if that be your wish.

Oe. Indeed, I am enraged and shall hold nothing back,

therefore, of what I now perceive. For know that I

believe you did conspire to plan and execute the crime

by proxy. Had you by chance been blessed with sight

I would have said the doing of the deed was yours alone.

Tei. So much for your 'perception'! Let me tell you then: 350

stand by the proclamation which you made today

and never henceforth dare address yourself to me

or to these men. You are yourself the land's pollution.

Oe. How dare you make outrageous accusations such

as this? Where shall you flee their consequence?

Tei. I am already safe. The truth secures my strong defence.

Oe. Whose 'truth' informs you? For it came not from your art.

Tei. Yours! You provoked my words, unwilling though I was.

Oe. What words? Repeat yourself that I may understand the more.

Tei. You did not understand before? Or is this further provocation? 360

Oe. No, I did not fully grasp your sense before. So speak again.

Tei. I say you are the murderer of him whose murderer you seek.

Oe. No pleasure shall you win, repeating charges foul as these!

Tei. Shall I speak further then to rouse your anger more?

Oe. As much as pleases you, since all you say is false.

Tei. I say that you are unaware of how you live in deepest shame

with those most dear to you, do not perceive your fate.

Oe. These constant charges bring but scant delight, you'll find.

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Tei. In fact they do, if there is any strength in truth.

Oe. There is except in yours! There is no truth in you, 370

since you are blind and deaf and dumb and mad!Tei. I pity you despite these taunts you hurl which soon

in turn the entire populace will hurl at you.

Oe. Your life is one eternal night and so you cannot do

me harm or any man that sees the light of day.

Tei. Your fate will crush you anyway without my help;

Apollo is sufficient in whose care its execution lies.

Oe. Did Creon fabricate these charges or are they yours alone?

Tei. Creon is no threat to you! You are a plague upon yourself.

Oe. Ah, wealth and kingship, skill outreaching skill 380in all of life's rich tapestry of rivalries, how great

the envy which you breed and keep in store,

if for the sake of this dominion in the state,

entrusted, gifted by the state to me, unasked by me,

the trusty Creon secretly assails me, seeks to throw

me out by bribing such a scheming quack as this,

whose sight is only sharp identifying gain,

whose 'art' of prophecy is, however, blind.

Come, tell me, pray, where has your art proved true. 390

How was it you produced no song to solve her riddle

for the people when the watchdog sphinx was here?

And yet that riddle did demand a seer's skills to explicate,

far more than those of some mere passer by!

The skill you had was shown in fact to come

from neither gods nor birds; but I came, yes,

"Know Nothing" Oedipus and put a stop to her,

with native wit victorious and nothing owed to birds;

and yet it is your aim to throw him out,

thinking to stand close by to Creon's throne. 400

It seems to me both you and your accomplice will regret

your plans to purge me from the land; were it not that you

seemed old your pain would have proved your foolishness.

Ch. This man's words as well as yours, it seems to us,

lord Oedipus, were likely said, inspired by rage.

Behaviour such as this is not required, but rather we

174



must think how best we might fulfil Apollo's prophecy.

Tei. Although you are the king, my right to answer back

on equal terms must needs be recognised; for I am capable.I do not live my life as slave to you but Loxias; 410

so I shall not be written down as one of Creon's minions.

Hear me now, since you have taunted me with being blind;

you have your sight, but do not see the evil you are in,

nor where you live nor yet with whom you live.

Who were your parents? Do you know? All unawares

an enemy you are to kin above, below the earth;

the twofold curse of mother and father both one day

will drive your injured feet in exile from this land,since you see nothing now, but darkness only then.

What place will not be harbour to your cries, what part 420

of Mount Cithaeron will not echo soon in sympathy,

when you shall understand the import of the marriage song

which falsely welcomed you within, safe haven found?

You have no understanding of the host of other ills

which will betray the fate your children share with you.

So pour your gross abuse on Creon and the message I

have brought; for there is no other man who shall

be crushed by such a cruel fate as yours.

Oe. Shall I endure abuse from such a man as this?

Damn you to Hell! Begone and swiftly! Never more 430

return when once you abandon, leave this house.

Tei. I would not have come had you not summoned me.

Oe. If I had known that you would spout such foolishness

I would scarce have called you to my home.

Tei. I am by nature what I am - a fool in your opinion,

but wise in your parents' eyes that gave you birth.

Oe. What parents? Wait! Parents? What parents did I have?

Tei. This very day will give you birth and bring you death.

Oe. Your every word is cryptic and designed to mystify.

Tei. And are you not the best of men at solving mysteries? 440

Oe. You taunt me with the gifts in which you will find me great.

Tei. But fate has ruined you despite your gifts.

Oe. So long as I have saved the state I do not care.

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a footsore man, alone and joyless,

his wish to shun the earthborn 480

Delphic prophecy that ever swarmsabout his living flesh.

Dread, dread the confusion aroused by the watcher of birds;str.a.

I cannot approve his claims nor can I deny them, am lost

myself for words, and shudder with blind foreboding 485

for what is to come from the past.

For never before, nor yet until now have I heard of a quarrel

between our royal house, the Labdacids, of Thebes

and that of Polybus, the which might serve for me to testthis public accusation laid on Oedipus, and be an ally 495

to the Labdacids in solving Laius' death.

Both Zeus and Apollo have full knowledge of human affairs.ant.a.

There is no certain proof, however, that any mortal man

is more of a prophet than I, though one man may surpass 500

another's skill.

But never ever shall I side with those who would denounce

our king, until I see their accusations proved.

For once before the winged Sphinx advanced against him and he

was seen to be wise and, by that test, the saviour of the state.510

And so he never shall win evil word from me.

Cr. My fellow citizens, I hear that Oedipus the King

is making dreadful accusations and so I here present

myself in righteous indignation. If you can find

that I have caused him any hurt in this our time

of trial, either by my words or deeds, why then

I have no further wish to live the normal span

of years, if carry the stain of your verdict I must.

This charge is not a single spy, but brings 520

its greatest hurt if I have gained the name

of public enemy in the mouths of kith and kin.

Ch. Perhaps the charges which he made against you

sprang rather from his rage than reasoned thought.

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Cr. Then what I hear is true that he is quite convinced

the prophet spoke false oracles because of my complicity?

Ch. He did say that. I do not know if that is what he meant.Cr. And did he make this accusation against me

straight-faced, in full control of all his faculties?

Ch. I do not know. I do not watch the doings of the great. 530

But now the man himself emerges from the house.

Oe. You there! How have you dared come here? Have you

then so much nerve as to approach my house,

although convicted clearly as King Laius' murderer,

and one who clearly seeks to rob me of my throne?

Come, tell me, by the gods, what cowardice, stupidityyou saw in me that prompted you to plot this crime!

You thought perhaps I would not see your secret threat

approaching, or that if I saw it would not ward it off?

To undertake to hunt my throne away without 540

the people's help or help of friends is foolishness indeed,

when tyrannies are won with wealth and popular support.

Cr. Observe my lips and listen in your turn to my reply

that you may make your judgement well informed.

Oe. You are a clever speaker, but I am proven quite unskilled

in reading you; for I have found you base and treacherous.

Cr. First hear how I might give an explanation of this charge.

Oe. I charge you but to demonstrate your innocence.

Cr. If you believe that stubbornness bereft of sense

is something to be desired, you are a fool. 550

Oe. If you believe a guilty kinsman can escape

his just deserts, why then you are a fool yourself.

Cr. Agreed, and what you say is just, but tell me please

the nature of the wrong you claim I've done to you.

Oe. Did you or did you not advise that I should send

to summon here that so called holy man.

Cr. I did and still I am at one with that advice.

Oe. And how much time has passed since Laius...

Cr. ...since Laius what? I do not follow you...

Oe. ...since Laius disappeared, was lost to deadly violence? 560

Cr. The sum of many long years has intervened.

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How then should I exchange my situation?

No right thinking mind could ever be so crazed. 600

Desire for dominance lives not within my soul, nor wouldI ever dare to be complicit with the murderer.

Go to the oracle at Delphi and put me to the test

by learning if the message that I brought was accurate.

If then you find that I have plotted with Teiresias,

why take, convict and kill me with a double vote;

my verdict will be consonant with yours,

but don't assume my guilt without clear evidence.

For it is neither just or right to think mistakenly

bad men are good or that good men are bad. 610I say for a man to drive away a true and noble friend

is like rejecting his own life force most dear to him.

In time you will discover that these things are surely so,

since time alone reveals the man that is just, whereas

you might identify a villain in the space of a single day.

Ch. He has spoken well, my lord, so far as a prudent man

might judge. Conclusions that are hasty are not sound.

Oe. Whenever people swiftly plot and move against me,

then I am duty bound swiftly to counter them myself.

If I remain inactive, wait for him, his work will be 620

already done while I have missed my chance.

Cr. What is that you want? To drive me exiled from the land?

Oe. Oh no, it is your death I want and not your banishment,

that you may demonstrate the price of treachery.

Cr. You speak as one that will not yield to argument.

Oe. Because you have no proof that you are free of guilt.

Cr. I clearly see that you are mad.Oe.For my part, I think not!

Cr. You ought to look at my part too.Oe.But you are vile!

Cr. What if you are mistaken?Oe. Still, I have to rule.

Cr. Not when your rule is wrong.Oe.Oh, city of Thebes!

Cr. I have a share in this city too. It is not yours alone. 630

Ch. Please, stop, my lords! I see Jocasta coming from the house,

and opportunely too, I think, since in her presence here

and with her help this quarrel should be soothed.

Jocasta

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Why have you raised this mindless din of tongues ,

you foolish men? And are you not ashamed, the land

in sickness, so to stir your private grievances?Pray, go inside the house - and, Creon, you go home,

and do not magnify this nothing to a greater grief.

Cr. My sister, Oedipus, your husband has adjudged it right

to set for me a choice of ills to undertake, since he will drive 640

me from my native land or else will take and murder me.

Oe. Exactly so, since I have found him out

in undertaking evil plots against my life.

Cr. Now may I never prosper, rather die accursed, if I

have ever done a single thing that you accuse me of. Jo. Believe him, Oedipus, I pray you, by the gods,

respect his god-sworn oath especially, and have respect

for me as well and for these men here present now.

Kommos

str. a.

Ch. Consent and gladly, lord, be wise, I beg of you. 649

Oe. To what do you wish that I should submit?

Ch. To respecting him who never was a fool, and who is now

empowered by his oath.

Oe. And do you know the meaning of your plea?Ch.We do.

Oe. Explain its meaning then.

Ch. You never must dishonour and accuse 656

on faulty evidence a friend who risks a curse.

Oe. Now know this well that when you seek from me

this thing, you seek my death or exile from the land.

str. b.

Ch. By Helios, of all the gods the champion, I swear 660

that I would godless, friendless die most bitterly,

if that was my intent. But my home and land

are withering, and this consumes my soul,

and my distress will be compounded if you shall

inflict fresh ills inspired by mutual dissent.

Oe. Then let him go, yes, even if I am condemned

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hurled dreadful curses at myself upon this very day.

Jo. What do you mean? I tremble to look at you, my lord.

Oe. There is dread in my heart that the sight of the prophet is true; tell me, though, one thing more, that more may be revealed.

Jo. Again I tremble, but will answer whatever you ask.

Oe. Did he travel escorted by few, or did he have hoplites 750

in plenty beside him, befitting a man who is king?

Jo. His party totalled five in all and there was

a herald with them, while Laius rode in a single cart.

Oe. Oh, yes, yes that is clear enough... Who was

it then who told you all of this, my queen?

Jo. A slave who escaped alone and came back home.Oe. And is this slave now present in the house?

Jo. Why, no; for when he returned and saw

you holding power with Laius dead and gone,

he came to me and clasped my hand and begged 760

me send him to the fields and grazing flocks that he

might be as far as may be out of sight of Thebes.

And so I sent him there. He was a worthy slave,

deserving to win just such a prize and more.

Oe. How might we summon him back with all despatch?

Jo. Quite easily. But what would be your aim in that?

Oe. I fear that I have said already far too much, my wife,

and because of that 'too much' I wish to see him now.

Jo. For his part, he will come: but as for me, my lord, why, I

am worthy too to learn the cause of your distress. 770

Oe. I shall not keep it from you, far gone in worry though

I am. For who means more to me that I should rather tell,

while undergoing chances such as these?

My father was Corinthian, King Polybus by name,

my mother Merope, a Dorian, while I was held

in highest honour there among the citizens, until

such chance befell that I might well have wondered at,

but not perhaps of weight enough to justify my rage.

A man well gone in drinking at a feast claimed

in his wine that I was not my father's proper son. 780

For all that day I scarce contained myself, far gone

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in anger as I was, but on the next I visited

my parents, cross-examined them. They were

enraged at the man that had let fly this taunt.So I was pleased at their response, but still

the jibe irked ceaselessly and word spread far

and wide. Unbeknown to my parents I went

to Delphi then, but Phoebus sent me disappointed

on my way, revealing in his answer rather things

of dread and doom, ill boding things, and prophesied 790

I would commingle in my mother's bed and so

reveal a race impossible for men to look upon,

and also would become my spawning father's murderer.And when I heard these things I navigated by

the stars and fled the land of Corinth for all time,

to a place where I could never see my prophecy

fulfilled to be a source of shame and spite to me.

I hurried on my way and reached the spot

at which you say this king of yours was killed.

To you, my wife, I will reveal the truth. As I came 800

close by this triple meeting of the roads upon my route,

at just that spot a herald and a man, embarked,

like you said, in a horse-drawn cart confronted me;

then both the herald and the older man himself

attempted forcibly to drive me from the road.

I struck in anger at the driver as he strove to push

me sideways; when the old man spotted this,

he watched until he saw my head in range, then swung

at it a downwards blow with the double-pointed goad.

He more than paid for that! I struck him smartly with 810

the staff clutched in my hand and tumbled him back

from the chariot's midst, straight down to the ground;

and then I killed them, all. So, if there is

some link between this stranger and with Laius, why,

what man is there alive today more pitiful than I,

what man is there more hated by the gods than I?

For no man, neither fellow citizen nor foreigner

may now receive me in his home, nor speak to me,

185







What man will ever boast he can ward from his soul

the bolts of god?

For if such acts as these are honoured,why should I dance the sacred dance?

ant. b.No more shall I go in reverence to the earth's central shrine,

nor even to Abae's holy site, 900

nor even to Olympia,

unless these oracles prove manifest,

for all men's eyes to see.

Zeus, omnipotent lord, if this your title is true,

may never this matter escape you, nor yet your rule never ending.The oracles long ago spoken of Laius the king

are already fading and men set them at naught,

while Apollo himself is no more distinguished

with honours and all that is godly corrodes. 910

Jo. The thought has come to me, lords of the land,

that I approach our gods in their temples here,

with offerings of incense in my hands and wreaths.

For Oedipus lifts his passions and his heart too high

with manifold anxieties; nor does he, as might well a man

of sense, interpret these new signs in the light of past

events, but is the prey of any man who preaches dread.

Since, therefore, my counsel does no good, I come

as suppliant to you, Apollo, Wolf God, pressing so

my suit, since you are most concerned in this, 20

that you may offer us some cleansing ease.

For we all shrink in horror when we see that man,

our vessel's helmsman, stricken with despair.

Messenger

My friends, might I enquire from one of you

where is the house of Oedipus the King?

Or better, tell me if you know his whereabouts.

Ch. This, stranger, is his house and he is himself within.

This lady here is wife to him and mother of his family.

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Me. May happiness be ever hers and may she ever be

in happiness with him as his perfected queen. 930

Jo. Likewise I wish you joy, my friend. Your courtesydeserves its due. But tell me what it is you want

that you have come and what your message is.

Me. One of benefits to you, your husband and the house.

Jo. What kind of benefits? From whom have you come?

Me. From Corinth. The message that I bring perhaps you may

take pleasure in; I'm sure you will, in fact, although...

Jo. What news could harbour such an ambiguity?

Me. The people of the land would make your Oedipus

the king of Corinth, according to the proclamation made. 940 Jo. What means this? Is Polybus no longer ruler there?

Me. Why, no! Death holds him firm within the tomb.

Jo. Then old man Polybus is dead, you say?

Me. If this is not the truth I tell, why, I deserve to die.

Jo. You, slave, go, quickly as you can, to tell

your master this! O oracles of gods,

where are you now? This was the man that Oedipus

once fled through dread of killing him, and now

he's dead at fortune's hand and not through him!

Oe. My wife, my own dear, dear Jocasta, 950

why did you send to the house for me?

Jo. But listen to this man and when you have,

consider then the standing of the oracles of god.

Oe. Who is this man and what has he to say to me?

Jo. He has come from Corinth to say that Polybus,

your father, is no more, has passed away.

Oe. Your message, friend? Give me the word yourself.

Me. If this is what I first must needs articulate, why know,

and know it well, that he is dead and gone.

Oe. By plots or visitation of disease? 960

Me. Small things may serve to tip old age to sleep.

Oe. The poor man died, it seems, of some disease?

Me. He did, but also of old age and ages lived.

Oe. Ah, then, my wife, wherefore should any man

respect Apollo's oracles and hearth, or birds

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that scream in the sky - on whose authority

I was condemned to kill my father? And he

lies hid beneath the earth, while I am here,quite innocent? Unless he died because he yearned

so much for me - and so he died because of me. 970

No, Polybus lies dead in Hades' halls and he

has taken with him all these worthless oracles!

Jo. Did I not tell you all of this before?

Oe. You did, but I was quite distracted by my dread.

Jo. But now you need not take to heart a word of it.

Oe. But must I shrink in fear still from my mother's bed?

Jo. What things precisely should one fear, when all of lifeis slave to chance and no one man has clarity of sight?

The safest course is to live one's life as best one may.

And as for you, you must not fear a mother's bed; 980

for many men have dreamed before of sleeping with

their mothers. Men most easily endure their lot

in life, if they ignore such dreams as these.

Oe. All you say I would find comforting indeed, were not

my mother still alive, but as she is, why then, despite

your good advice, I cannot but be full of dread.

Jo. Your father's death though is significant in this respect.

Oe. It is indeed, but fear nags still of the one who lives.

Me. Who might this woman be of whom you are afraid?

Oe. The consort of Polybus, old man, Queen Merope. 990

Me. What is it about her that causes you to fear?

Oe. A terrible prediction, friend, sent on us by the gods.

Me. Can it be spoken of, or is it forbidden for others to know?

Oe. It is common knowledge now that Loxias once said

that I must couple with my mother and also bring about

with my own hands the fatal spilling of my father's blood.

So this is the reason why for these long years

I have left my home in Corinth far behind; the move

was fortunate, although to see a parent's face is very sweet.

Me. In dread of this you kept yourself in exile from your home? 1000

Oe. I had no wish to be my father's murderer, old man.

Me. Why then, my lord, there is no reason why I should

190



not free you from that terror, since I came in friendliness!

Oe. If but you could you would receive a fair reward from me.

Me. It was in part at least on that account I came, that Imyself might profit somewhat from your coming home.

Oe. But I will never go to the place where my parents are.

Me. My son, it's pretty clear that you are ill informed.

Oe. How so? Pray teach me what you mean, old man.

Me. If on this account you hesitate to make a journey home. 1010

Oe. I hesitate in fear Apollo's words are proven to be true.

Me. In case you win pollution from your parents' fate?

Oe. Precisely so, old man; this is my ever present dread.

Me. And still you do not realise your dread is quite unjustified?Oe. How can that be, if in fact I am my parents' child?

Me. Because King Polybus was not a factor in your genesis.

Oe. What do you mean? It was not Polybus engendered me?

Me. He was no more nor less your father than was I.

Oe. No more nor less than you that are no kin to me at all?

Me. No, neither he nor I were there at your begetting. 1020

Oe. But why then did he name me his son and heir?

Me. He received you as a gift, you see, from these my hands.

Oe. And yet in spite of that his love for me grew great?

Me. His former childlessness was instrumental there.

Oe. Did you purchase me, or did chance put me in your way?

Me. I found you in Cithaeron's tortured clefts.

Oe. What was the reason that you journeyed in that place?

Me. I used to stand and guard the mountain flocks.

Oe. You were a wandering, hireling shepherd then?

Me. But still the cause of your salvation at that time, my child. 1030

Oe. What pain was mine when you took me in your arms?

Me. Your injured ankles may bear mute testament to that.

Oe. Why speak of that longstanding source of pain?

Me. I freed the bolts that pierced and pinned your feet.

Oe. I've borne that shameful stigma from my childhood up.

Me. And so it was this chance that gave to you your name.

Oe. Was this my mother's or my father's work? I pray you, speak!

Me. I cannot tell. He better knows than I who gave you me.

Oe. You had me from another then and not by chance alone?

191



Me. No, not by chance - another shepherd gave you me. 1040

Oe. And who was he? Can you identify this man?

Me. He was one of Laius' herdsmen, it was said.Oe. The man who once was ruler of this land?

Me. Precisely so - he was a shepherd to the king.

Oe. And is this shepherd still alive that I might see him?

Me. You fellow citizens of his should best know that.

Oe. Do any of you have knowledge of this man

of whom he speaks, this shepherd, or have you seen

him, either in the fields or hereabouts within the town?

If so, speak, since it is crucial now for this to be revealed. 1050

Ch. I do believe he is no other than the countrymanyou have already sought to see. Jocasta, though,

would be best qualified to speak of this.

Oe. Jocasta, do you know whether the man I just

now summoned is, in fact, the one he means?

Jo. Why talk of him? Do not concern yourself!

Do not waste your time on this man's blathering.

Oe. It would not be a waste of time if I could only seize

such clues as might illuminate my lineage.

Jo. For the god's sake, if you care at all for your life here 1060

do not pursue this search. I am heartsick enough!

Oe. You need not be afraid, since even if my mother proves

a slave and hers and hers and I, your birth is noble still.

Jo. But still, be swayed by me, I beg of you, and do not do this thing.

Oe. You never will dissuade me from uncovering the truth.

Jo. Not even if my pleas are moved by your best interests?

Oe. Your care for my best interests grows tedious.

Jo. Poor wretch, I pray you never learn your mother's name.

Oe. Let someone go to bring this herdsman here,

and let this woman glory in her wealthy birth. 1070

Jo. Poor wretch, I grieve, I grieve for you... for these are all

the words that I can find for you, and never, ever more!

Ch. Why has she fled, your wife, lord Oedipus,

shot through with grief? I am afraid that from

this sudden calm some storm of ills will break.

Oe. Let break what will! Still I would wish to learn

192



my lineage, however meagre it may prove to be.

This woman, though, has such a high opinion

of herself, she feels ashamed, perhaps, by my low birth.Myself I count as Fortune's child and I shall feel 1080

no shame so long as Fortune smiles on me.

For I was born of her; and the passing sibling months,

her children too, define me now as humble, now as great.

Such is my ancestry and true to such I ever will

remain, and so I will pursue the secret of my birth.

Ch. strophe

If I possess the gift of reading prophecy,

then by Olympus' vast extent

I swear, Cithaeron, you will know, 1090

no later than tomorrow's circled moon,

that Oedipus is fellow citizen to you, and lauds

you as his mother and his nurse.

And so our dance will honour you, for you are pleasing to our lord.

Ensure, Apollo, this is for the best.

antistrophe

Which of the long-lived Nymphs, gave birth to you,

my son,

by keeping company with Pan, the mountain wanderer? 1100

Or was it one of Loxias's mistresses ? For upland fields

are also dear to him! Perhaps Lord Hermes of Cyllene,

or Dionysus, dweller on the topmost peaks,

received you from some Nymph, a new-born gift,

on Helicon, where most of all he shares his joy with them.

Oe. I do believe I see the herdsman whom we seek, my friends, 1110

if I might so surmise, who never met and have no knowledge

of the man. The man is of an age with this Corinthian,

and they are both advanced in years... while those that are

escorting him I recognise as members of my household here

193



in Thebes; it may well be that you outstrip me in my guess,

since you have prior knowledge of this herdsman here.

Ch. Be well assured, I recognise the man. He was the onethat Laius trusted most of all who were his shepherds then.

Oe. My first enquiry is to you, my Corinthian friend.

Is this the man you mean?Me.You see the very man. 1120

Oe. You there, old man, come look me in the face

and answer what I ask: were you once Laius' slave?

Herdsman

I was, but not one bought, but reared within the house.

Oe. What kind of work was your concern, what livelihood?

He. For the most part of my life I followed his flocks.Oe. And in what places were you mostly resident?

He. Why on Cithaeron mostly and the regions thereabouts.

Oe. Do you recognise this man from knowing him in that place?

He. What was his business there? Whom do you mean?

Oe. This man here...have you met with him before? 1130

He. Not so that I could promptly swear to it from memory.

Me. There's no surprise in that, my lord, but I'll

refresh his failing memory. For I am quite

convinced he will recall the time when he and I

were neighbours on Cithaeron, him with two

herds, me with one, for three full years

from spring until the months of autumn time.

Then for the winter I would drive my flocks

to their own folds and he his in turn to Laius' stalls.

Is not this just what we did in very truth? 1140

He. Yes, what you say is true, although so very long ago.

Me. Come, tell me now, do you remember giving me

a child that I might rear him as my foster son?

He. What's that? Why question me on that account?

Me. This man, my friend, was once that baby boy!

He. God damn you, man, and hold your peace!

Oe. Do not abuse the messenger, old man!

Your manners needs correction more than his.

He. In what particular am I remiss, my lord?

Oe. In not speaking of the boy of whom he asks. 1150

194



He. He speaks in ignorance, his energy misspent.

Oe. You will speak freely or constrained by pain.

He. By all the gods, you would not hurt a poor old man.Oe. You, quickly, twist his hands behind his back.

He. For what, my poor dear boy? What must you know?

Oe. Did you give the child to this man who questions you?

He. I did, and would that I had died that day!

Oe. You may yet come to that unless you tell the truth.

He. My death is much more likely, if in fact I speak.

Oe. This fellow is intent, it seems, to waste my time. 1160

He. No, no, my lord! I confessed before I gave it him.

Oe. Where did you get it from? The house or somewhere else?He. It was not mine... I had it from another's hand.

Oe. A citizen of Thebes? And from what house?

He. By all the gods, my lord, I beg you, ask no more!

Oe. You are a dead man, if I need to ask again.

He. He was a child from Laius' house.

Oe. A slave, or was he born of Laius' line?

He. So it comes at last, the thing too terrible to speak...

Oe. Too terrible to hear, but yet it must be heard. 1170

He. It was said the child was Laius' own, but his wife

inside could tell you best of how that was.

Oe. It was her that gave the child to you?He.It was, my lord.

Oe. With what intent?He.That I might kill the boy.

Oe. A mother could bear to do that?He.She was afraid of oracles.

Oe. What kind?He.They said the boy would kill his sire.

Oe. How came you then to pass the child to this old man?

He. I pitied him, my lord, and thought my friend would take

the child elsewhere, to where he lived himself, and so

this man preserved you for the worst of fates. For if 1180

you are that child, then know that you are damned.

Oe. All true, all true! It has all turned out to be true.

Now, holy light of day, this is the last I look on you.

I am proven son of those forbidden, cohabiter with those

forbidden, murderer of a man it was not lawful to kill.

Chorus

195



str. a. I mourn the generations of men

whose lives are mere nothings, I think.

For what man wins morethan the semblance of luck, 1190

and after the semblance,

his life is eclipsed?

I have your example before me,

your fate and your fortune to warn me, sad king,

I must not call anything blessed that is man's.

ant. a.This man's aim surpassed

all limit, won him wealth and happiness supreme,lord Zeus, and he destroyed

the virgin Sphinx,

hook-clawed and riddling, 1200

arose our land's strong bastion 'gainst death;

and from that time is called

our king and honoured most of all within this mighty land

of Thebes he rules.

str. b. But now whose name is heard more pitiful?

Who more victim now to savage plague

and toil, his life reversed?

I mourn the fame and life of Oedipus,

for whom as child and man 1208

the same great haven gave delight, the marriage bed.

How could the furrow that your father ploughed

endure your weight, you wretch,

in so deep silence for so long?

ant. b.All seeing time has found you out to your distress;

the marriage that made partners of father and son

time punishes now at the last. 1215

Ah, child of Laius, how I do wish

I had never seen you!

My cries of grief flood from my lips

as might a song for the dead. For the truth of it is

196



that I owed you my life,

but owe to you now this blindness of tears.

Second Messenger

Men honoured ever most within this land,

such things you will hear and look upon

as will lay grief's burden on your souls, if still

you have a native Theban love for the house

of Labdacus. For I do not think that Ister's flood

nor Phasis' could wash clean and purify this house

of its hidden crime, to come soon to light

as consciously done. And hurts revealed 1230as self inflicted do ever cause severest pain.

Ch. The griefs we learned before were such as could

not fail to cause us pain. Have you some further news?

S.M.The briefest way to tell and learn the tale

is this: our lady, Queen Jocasta, now lies dead.

Ch. Poor wretched lady! What was the cause for this?

S.M.She killed herself. The sharpest pain of what

was done escapes you, though, because you were

not witnesses, but in so far as memory serves

you will learn from me of that poor lady's sufferings. 1240

When she had fled inside the house, quite stormed

by emotion, she hurried straight to her marriage bed,

hands locked to her scalp and tearing her hair;

then once inside the room she slammed the doors

behind her back and calls on Laius, dead so long ago,

her mind on the son born also long ago, at whose

hands Laius died, and so left her to breed

accursed offspring of her own by his.

She cursed aloud the marriage which had birthed

a husband from a husband, children from a child. 1250

How next she met her end I do not know;

for Oedipus burst in, roaring, did not let

us look upon her final act of suffering,

but rather his frenzy now compelled our gaze.

Back and forth he goes and asks us for a sword,

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asks where his wife, no wife might be, the mother whose

one womb had borne both him and birthed his sons.

Some god it was directed him in his madness then;for none of us mere mortals who were present did.

He gave a dreadful cry and as if led he hurled himself 1260

at the double doors and forced the bolts to bend

and burst from their sockets, then stumbled into the room.

And there he saw his wife, hanged by the neck,

suspended in a swinging noose of twisted cords.

The sight dredged from the wretch a fearful cry,

as he eased her from the choking noose and laid

her on the ground...what followed was a dreadful sight.For snatching up the golden pins which clasped

her gown about the corpse, he raised them up

and then struck down and through his open eyes, 1270

and cried that they would never more behold

himself nor yet the consequences of his crime,

but in perpetual darkness he would see the ones

that he should not have seen and would not know

the ones that he had longed to see; and so he cursed as more

and more he lifted up his hands to strike his eyes.

At every blow the blood gushed down to clot and stain

his beard with no thin, sluggish stream of gore, but at each

strike black rain gushed hailstorms and gouts of blood.

These ills have sprung from a double source to curse 1280

in turn with mingled suffering this woman and this man.

Their fortune once was high and in that past

was justly so, but now on this one day they share

in lamentation, madness, death and shame,

share all the evils men can name bar none.

Ch. And is the poor man's pain as bitter still?

S.M.He roars for someone to open the palace gates and show

to all the citizens of Thebes the parricide, turned matricide,

and, mouthing curses I may not repeat, demands that he

be exiled from the land, in keeping with his curse, that he 1290

might stay no longer in this house of curses and of doom.

But he is weakened now and needs some one to guide

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his steps; for his pain is greater than he well can bear.

Yet he will show himself to you. The palace gates

are now unbarred and soon a vision will assail your eyesthat will inspire your horror and your pity both.

Ch. It is terrible to look upon the sufferings of men,

and of all the human grief that I have seen this is

most terrible. What was the madness that assailed

you, Oedipus? Which of the gods has leaped 1300

with such unprecedented spite upon your life?

I grieve, I grieve for you!

And yet I cannot dare to look at you, although I wishto ask you many things, to learn so many things,

to ponder many things;

such is the horror you inspire in me.

Oe. Agh! Agh!

I grieve for my wretchedness,

Where in the world can I go in my pain?

Where will my cries be borne on the wind? 1310

Where leaps now my fate?

Ch. Places of dread that should not be seen and should not be heard.

str. a.

Oe. The darkness!

Apotropaic of friendship! Unspeakable, it comes;

untamed and lavish on the breath of a breeze.

I grieve.

I grieve and grieve again! The sting of these goads has pierced

me with the memories of grief.

Ch. In this time of grief and woe it is no wonder

you should feel a double blow, endure a double pain. 1320

ant. a.

Oe. Ah, my friend,

constant still you stand by me. For still

you wait to tend me in my dark.

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Agh! Agh!

For you are not unknown to me.

I clearly recognise your voice, though blind.Ch. What dreadful deeds! How dared you put out the light

of your eyes in this way? Which god was it drove you?

str. b.

Oe. Apollo, my friends, Apollo it was that accomplished

my fate, a fate compounded of pain and of crime. 1330

For none other's hand has struck me save mine.

What need have I for eyes,

for whom there would be nothing sweet for them to see?Ch. Things stood even as you say they did.

Oe. What then is left for me to see?

To love? What words are left to hear

and bring me comfort still, my friends?

Drive me, drive me into exile quickly as you may, 1340

my friends, who am a mortal threat,

and execrated, hated by the gods the most

of all mankind.

Ch. I pity you both for your fate and for your knowing it,

and so I would that I had never heard of you.

ant. b.

Oe. I would that he might die, whatever man he was,

who freed me from the cruel, biting shackle on my feet, 1350

snatched me from death - false kindness this,

for had I died, I could not now have come

to be the bane I have to friends, and even to myself alike.

Ch. I also share this self same wish.

Oe. And neither would I then have come to be

my father's murderer, nor yet be called by men

the groom of her that gave me birth.

But now I am abandoned by the gods, unholy child, 1360

both son and heir to the wretched bed of him that fathered me.

If there can be a fate of fates most heinous and unparalleled,

then Oedipus has suffered it.

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Ch. I do not know that I can say that I approve this punishment;

for it were better far to live no more than live a blind man.

Oe. I do not need advice from you that claims to teach

that what is done is not done by me for the best. 1370

For I do not know with what expression I

could ever look upon my father, when I came

to Hades' halls, nor yet on my poor mother's face,

on both of whom crimes worse than capital

were done by me. And could the sight

of children born as mine were born be something I

would ever wish to look upon? Not ever, I think, by eyes such as my own; nor could the sight of town,

of city walls, of sacred images of gods... of all of which

I have despoiled myself, yes I, the most distinguished son 1380

of Thebes, who now demand in turn the citizens

should drive me out as one unclean and shown

by gods to be anathema and yet of Laius' line.

And when I ponder in my mind on such disgrace,

how then should I confront these men with level gaze?

It is not possible; and if there was a way to choke

the spring of hearing through my ears, why I would not

hold back from sealing up this miserable corpse,

to render it both blind and deaf; for it is sweet indeed

for our soul to dwell beyond the memory of grief. 1390

Cithaeron, why did you welcome me? Why not take

and kill me straight away? For then I never would

have shown myself to men, revealed my birth.

O Polybus, and Corinth and the home I used to call

my own so long ago, in me you reared a son

that promised well, but yet what evils then lay hid;

I am myself discovered evil now, spawned of the same.

Three roads I recall and a valley hidden, a copse

of trees, and the narrow place where the three roads met,

the place which drank my father's blood as a gift from my 1400

own hands - does it remember anything of me,

the services I rendered it, this place, remember what

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destroy me for the curse and parricide I am!

Cr. Those were his words before, but in our present plight

I think it better to know precisely what to do.Oe. And you will seek advice on what to do withme?

Cr. I will, since even you will now give credit to the god.

Oe. Why then on you I lay this charge, make this request:

provide as you see fit a tomb for the woman who lies

within; I know you will see to your own just as you should.

While I yet live I would not wish my father's city here

to be condemned to win me as a citizen, so rather let 1450

me dwell amid the mountain range, Cithaeron, now

notorious because of me, which mother and father while stillthey lived, determined as my proper tomb, that I might die

according to the will of those who once did wish me dead.

And yet I am convinced of this at least: no mere disease

or simple fate will undo me; I was not saved from death

before, were I not to be kept safe for some dread ill;

my fate, whatever it may be, why, let it come;

as for my sons, you need not, Creon, worry overmuch

for them; for they are men and so will never lack 1460

the wherewithal for life wherever they may be.

as for my daughters, poor, weak creatures that they are,

for whom a place was always set at table, who dined

always with me and kept their father company

and always had a share of everything I touched...

Take care of them for me, and, most of all, please let

me touch them by the hand and share my tears with them.

Please, please, my lord!

Please, show your noble heart! But let me touch them and

I might imagine then I held them as when I had sight. 1470

What's this?

By the gods, is this the sound of my two

dear daughters weeping? Has Creon pitied me

and sent to me my darling little ones?

Can this be so?

Cr. It is. I was the one to authorise their presence here, because

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I would renew the pleasure that you always had in them.

Oe. I thank you for it and in repayment for your bringing them

I would a kinder god may watch your fate than has watched mine.My children, where, where are you? Come to me, come 1480

into your brother's, father's hands, my hands,

which have contrived that you should see

your father in this state, his once bright eyes now dulled,

your father, who, my children, has been proved to have

begotten you in blind, incurious ignorance...where he himself...

I weep for the two of you as well... for see you I can not...

although I clearly see the bitter future that is yours,

the kind of life that men will make you lead.Where will you go to keep the company of citizens?

What festivals will you attend where you will not 1490

flee home in floods of tears instead of celebration?

And when you come to your maturity, the time

to wed, what man will there be, my little ones, who

will risk to win the kind of insults which will blight

the lives of you, my children, and your offspring too?

What face of grief is absent here? Your father killed

his father, ploughed and impregnated her from whom

he had himself been born and got himself

you children where his very nature had been formed.

Such insults will be yours; who then will marry you? 1500

There is no man who will, my children, and it

is plain that you must wither, barren and unwed.

Menoeceus' son, since you are the only father left

them now... for we that gave them life are both

destroyed... do not endure to see these children

that are your kin as unwed vagrant mendicants,

nor yet reduce them to a fate to equal mine.

Pity them rather, young as they are and bereft,

as you see, of all save what you share with them.

Clasp hands, my noble friend, to seal your word. 1510

For you, my children, I would have so much advice,

were you of an age to learn from it, but as it is, I would

this were your prayer: live as the opportunity allows,

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and win yourselves a life that is better than your sire's.

Cr. You have had sufficient time for tears; go now within.

Oe. I must obey you even if it rankles.Cr.All good thingsare changed in time.

Oe. What are my terms of exile?Cr.Tell them me yourself

that I might know them.

Oe. Be sure to send me far outside the land.Cr.That which

you ask is in the gift of gods.

Oe. But I am become anathema to them.Cr.Then they will

swiftly grant your wish.

Oe. I have your promise then?Cr.I am not a man to give

my word and then forswear myself. 1520Oe. So drive me from this place at once.Cr.Make haste

and let your children go.

Oe. No, no! Leave them at least with me!Cr.Do not desire

to have your way in everything.

For the power you used to wield has now deserted you.

Ch. You citizens of Thebes, observe this man, this Oedipus,

who solved the famous riddle and became our king,

on whose good fortune no man looked and envied not;

observe the stormy trough of fortune he has plumbed.

Call no man fortunate until his final day has come

before his eyes, until he gains the winning post

and end of life unscathed by grief and pain. 1530

Philoctetes

(Dramatis Personae)

205



Odysseus

Chorus of Sailors, Commanded by Neoptolemus

The Spy, Disguised as Trader

Neoptolemus

Philoctetes

Herakles

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Odysseus

This is Lemnos, Neoptolemus, Achilles' son,

whose father was the strongest man among the Greeks;its island coast is washed, surrounded, by the sea,

and uninhabited quite, untrod by humankind,

Philoctetes, acting on

the orders of my generals,

a man whose foot, consumed by disease, oozed pus;

for you see we could not peacefully make offerings

of drink or sacrifice, because his wild, ill omened cries

had completely paralysed our force in its entirety, 10

as he screamed and groaned. What need to speak of this?Necessity demands no lengthy speech in case he learns

that I have come, and so I squander all my plans

by which I think immediately to capture him.

But yours is now the task to help in what remains, 15

to search where hereabouts there is a cave,

twin mouthed, such that in chilly times a man

might sit in the sun, or the summer breeze

might funnel through to ease the heat with sleep.

Perhaps you will also see, just below on the left, 20

a spring of drinking water, if it still remains.

Approach this cave in silence and then indicate to me

if he still occupies the place, or lives elsewhere,

and then, so you may hear the rest of what I have

to say, I will share the plan that we must implement. 25

Neoptolemus

My lord, Odysseus, the task you tell is close;

for I do believe I see the very cave you mean.

Od. Above or below? I cannot see myself.

Ne. Above, with no apparent footfall sound.

Od. See whether he is bedded down asleep. 30

Ne. I see his home is empty, no man there.

Od. What evidence that this is still his dwelling place?

Ne. A bed of leaves for the man who lodges here.

Od. The rest is bare with nothing else inside?

Ne. There is a home made cup, the product of 35

where, long ago, I put ashore the son of Malian Poeas,

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an unskilled hand... and also tinder for a fire.

Od. You describe a meagre treasure trove indeed.

Ne. Ugh, ugh! Other rags are also drying here, all fullof matter, thick and heavy with disease.

Od. It is clear that the fellow lives here still, 40

and is not far away. For how could a man,

so long so sick with a crippled foot move far ?

Perhaps he has set off to search for food,

or for some soothing herb seen hereabouts.

Send one of these to watch for his approach, 45

in case he falls on me all unawares - for he

would rather capture me than any of the Greeks.Ne. Very well... the man is gone to watch the path.

However, if you're willing, tell me something else.

Od. You must be true to your breeding to facilitate 50

your mission, son of Achilles, and not just

in bodily strength, so take aboard now fresh

intelligence to help you serve your officers.

Ne. What task?Od.You must mislead, ensnare

the soul of Philoctetes, when you speak with him, 55

and when he asks you who you are and whence

you come, then tell him truthfully you are

Achilles' son, but sailing home, deserting from

the Argive naval force and nurturing a deep

felt enmity in that the men, who prayed for you 60

to come, convinced that only so would they

take Troy, judged you unworthy to receive

Achilles' arms when properly demanding them,

but gave them to Odysseus - and then insult

me freely with the vilest slanders you can find. 65

For none of this can damage me... but if you fail

in this, you will inflict pain on all the Greeks.

For unless we take possession of this man's bow,

then you will never sack the plain of Dardanus.

Learn how it will be possible for you, though not 70

for me, to secure a close alliance with this man.

You sailed to Troy not bound by oath to any man,

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Ne. How dare a man speak so and look you in the face? 110

Od. When advantage is at stake, you must not hesitate.

Ne. But how does his advent at Troy advantage me?Od. His shafts alone are capable of taking Troy.

Ne. Then I am not the one to sack the city, as you claimed?

Od. Not you divorced from these, nor they from you. 115

Ne. If that is so then we must hunt them down.

Od. If you accomplish this twin prizes will be yours.

Ne. Twin prizes? Learning what they are I shall comply.

Od. You will be called both wise and brave...

Ne. So be it then. I'll do it, and ignore the shame. 120

Od. You have and will bear in mind then my advice?Ne. You can rest assured now that you have my word.

Od. Then you wait here to welcome him, while I

shall leave, in case my presence is betrayed,

and I'll send our look-out here back to the ship. 125

Then if you seem to me to be spending too

much time, I will send this same man back

again, disguised in the style of a skipper of

a merchantman, to aid your subterfuge;

and when he weaves his tale, my son, accept 130

the help his words might bring. I will go back

to the ship and leave you to your work, and

may Hermes, cunning escort, guide our plans,

with Nike and Athena Polias, who ever keeps me safe.

Chorus

What secrets must I keep, what words reveal, pray tell str.

me, lord, before this exile so suspicious, and I 136

a stranger here?

Your ruling skills and strength of mind

exceed all other men, since Zeus in you invested rule

and the sceptre, a gift divine. 140

To you has come, my child,

the power complete of old - so tell

me what it is that I must do.

Ne. For now perhaps you might observe this place

210









Ne. How can I know a man I never ever saw before? 250

Ph. You have never even heard my name nor yet

of the woes notorious that brought me down?Ne. Understand that I am ignorant of what you ask.

Ph. Accursed I am on many counts and hated by the gods,

since no report of me has reached my home, 255

nor anywhere within the land of Greece.

But those who threw me out impiously,

they mock me by their silence, while my disease

forever thrives, increases more and more.

My child, son, born of your father Achilles, 260

I am that man, the man of whom perhapsyou know as master of the bow of Herakles,

yes, Poeas' son, Philoctetes, the man the twin

commanders and the lord of Ithaca expelled

in shame to be this lonesome castaway, reduced 265

now by a harsh disease, struck down, consumed

alive by the venomous bite of a deadly snake.

And they abandoned me here, my child, alone

but for the disease as company, when they sailed

from Chyrse's island shore to put in here. 270

Then when in their delight they saw me fall asleep,

exhausted by much tossing on the sea, they left

me behind in a hollow rocky cave upon the shore

with a meagre gift for a wretched man of rags

and a niggardly supply of food - I wish the same on them! 275

Imagine then, my son, the kind of waking that

I had, to rise from sleep and find them gone.

How bitter were the tears I wept, the ills I grieved!

I saw the ships all gone that brought me here,

all gone and no man left to give me aid, 280

no one to nurse me in the throes of my disease.

As I surveyed the scene in its totality, no thing

I saw that was not a source of grief, my son,

and of that grief a plentiful supply.

Time dragged for me its weary way beneath 285

this humble roof and all the while, and all alone

214



I had to serve my needs. This bow provided food

to ease my stomach, shooting down the doves

in flight. Whatever prey my gut sped shaft brought down I haltingly approached it, hauled 290

my wretched foot behind. And if I needed drink,

or, if the frost had spread, as in the winter time,

I needed wood to burn, I staggered out in misery

to cater for myself. And at that time there was

no fire to hand, but by striking stone on stone 295

I urged to life the hidden flame within, which keeps

me ever safe. And so this dwelling place,

complete with fire, provides me withmy every need except good health.

Come, child, and learn the nature of the isle. 300

No mariner will willingly approach this place;

there is no harbour here, nor any port where he

might land to trade for profit or be welcome made.

No sensible man would ever choose to voyage here.

Suppose some men though make a landfall here by chance - 305

since over time chance often might well have it so,

then when they come, my child, they pity me

with words, and in their pity share with me

some portion of their food, or of their clothes;

No one is willing though, if I should mention this, 310

to bring me safely home, and so I die in misery

for ten long years, in hunger and in wretchedness,

providing myself as food for this insatiable disease.

Such are the crimes the sons of Atreus, and the bold

Odysseus have done to me - may the Olympian gods 315

some day repay them with a punishment equal to mine.

Ch. I too seem overcome with pity equally,

as were your former visitors, Philoctetes.

Ne. And I myself I also know and can bear witness

to the truth of what you say, since I have had my share 320

of troubles from the Atreids and bold Odysseus.

Ph. Why then you also hold some grudge against

215





for him, I went quite soon to see the sons of Atreus, 360

my friends -at least I thought it fair to think them so,

to ask them for my father's arms and other gear.Their answer though, I hate to say, deserved contempt,

"Achilles' son, you are free to take away the rest

of your father's gear, but another man has now 365

dominion over his arms, Odysseus, Laertes' son."

Tears sprang to my eyes and I leapt to my feet

in grievous rage, and from my pain I answered them,

"You wretch, how dare you give away my property

to someone else without so much as asking leave!" 370

And then Odysseus spoke, as he chanced to be near,"Boy, justly have they given up these arms to me;

for I was the one at hand to save both them and him."

My anger flared again at once, and I began to hurl

at him each and every taunt that came to mind, 375

if he were indeed intent on robbing me of my arms.

Then, stung by the insults which he heard, he was

provoked, though not a quick tempered man, to cry,

"You were not here with us, but in your duty derelict!

And therefore, you, both loud of mouth and insolent, 380

shall never sail to Scyros in possession of these arms."

On hearing wickedness and evil insults such as these

I sailed for home, despoiled of what was mine by that,

the lowest of the low of low born scum, Odysseus.

And yet I do not blame Odysseus as much as I blame 385

the generals, since, like a city state, an army too, it is

identified with those who lead. When men offend

their teachers' lessons are responsible for wickedness.

My tale is told in its entirety, and any man who hates

the sons of Atreus is friend alike to me and to the gods! 390

Ch. O mountain mother, all nourishing Earth, str.

mother of Zeus himself,

providing a home of Pactolus, broad flowing and rich in gold,

I called then too on your name, holy mother, 395

when on the Atreidae advanced

217



a river of pride full in spate,

and they gave away the arms of his sire,

ah, blessed one, seated on bull 400killing lions, yes, gave that treasure

supreme to Odysseus, son of Laertes.

Ph. It seems that you have come to us, my friends,

with positive proof of a grief that is shared with us.

Your narrative confirms my knowledge of how a man 405

might suffer at the hands of Atreus' sons, and of Odysseus.

For I well know how capable he is of laying his tongue

to any wicked tale or evil stratagem so long as hecan so advance injustice to whatever end he would.

No, this does not surprise me in the least, but rather that 410

the elder Ajax, were he there, could bear to see such crimes.

Ne. He lives no more, my friend. For I would never have

been subject to such plundering, while yet he lived.

Ph. What's that? Has even Ajax gone, departed in death?

Ne. Be well assured that hero looks no more upon the light. 415

Ph. I might have known! And so the son of Tides will not die,

nor will the son of Sisyphus, procured at great expense

by Laertes, since they are men who ought by rights to die.

Ne. Not them! Since, know it well, that they are prospering

quite splendidly now in the Argive army at Troy! 420

Ph. But what about my oldest and most dear of friends,

what of Nester of Pylos? Lives he still? For he was one

whose sound advice could keep their schemes in check.

Ne. At present it is by no means well with him, since his sole

surviving son Antilochus is gone and lost to him. 425

Ph. Such sadness in your news! Since these twin deaths

are of the very pair I least could wish had died.

What can a man believe when such as these are gone,

and yet again Odysseus is with us still, the kind of man

who ought indeed to have perished in their place. 430

Ne. He is a sharp and tricky opponent, Philoctetes,

but even clever moves are often tripped or foiled.

Ph. But tell me, by the gods, where was Patroclus, who was

218



your father's dearest friend, in this your time of need?

Ne. He too was dead and gone. And so, in sum, I tell 435

you this that war will never take an evil man by choice, but only ever men both great and good.

Ph. And I can testify to that - and by the same token I

shall ask how does a worthless fragment of humanity,

a man both devious and sharp of tongue, a man... 440

Ne. You ask about no other save Odysseus, I realise...

Ph. No, not of him, but rather of Thersites who

could never choose to speak but once, though all

would muzzle him. Lives this man still, do you know?

Ne. That man I never saw, but heard was still alive. 445Ph. He would be... since nothing that is evil ever dies,

but the gods dispose things ever well for them,

and take delight in turning back from Hades' halls

the creatures that are villainous, well versed in ill,

but ever dispatch to death the just and good. 450

What must I think of things like this, how praise

the gods, when praising them I find them vile.

Ne. For my part, Philoctetes, son of Poeas of Oeta,

I shall ensure that in the future I shall keep

both Troy and the sons of Atreus far from sight; 455

and when the baser man is stronger than the good,

when virtue withers and the coward thrives,

then I shall never call such men my friends;

No, rocky Scyros' isle will evermore suffice

for me and so I shall take pleasure in my home. 460

But now to my ship. So fare you well, Philoctetes,

yes, fare you very well... and may the gods grant you

remission from disease as you yourself would wish.

However, we must go, so, when the god approves

our casting off, we might be ready then to sail. 465

Ph. Must you go already, my son?Ne.Occasion demands

we keep a weather eye close to the ship, not far away.

Ph. My son, I beg you by your father's name, and on

your mother's life, by anything at home that you

hold dear, a suppliant I beg you, do not leave me here 470

219



alone and in these many foul conditions which

you see, in which you have discovered that I live,

so make of me a secondary task, a cargo that I knowwill bring you much discomfort and distress;

endure it though... for men of noble birth 475

a shameful act is hateful, noble deeds bring fame.

If you abandon me your reputation is besmirched,

but if I come safe home to Oeta, thanks to you,

then you will win yourself the prize of fame.

Come, come... your trial will not last a single day. 480

Be daring and stow me where on board you will,

in the hold, at the stern, at the prow, wherever Iam likely least to cause your crew distress.

Nod yes, my child, I beg, by Zeus of suppliants,

be swayed... I fall at your knees, maimed though 485

I am, and impotent, a wretch. Do not abandon me

deserted here, removed from all the paths of men,

but give me passage safe as far as your own home,

or to the halls of Chalcedony, to his Euboean seat;

from there it will be no distance at all for me 490

to Oeta, the Trachinian hills and Spercheius' fair

flowing stream that I might show myself to my

dear father, whom though I have long since feared

has gone from me. For often I have urged on him

the need to send himself a ship to bring me safely home, 495

through messages I did entrust to random visitors.

But either he is dead, or more likely, as I think,

my messengers, so called, paid little heed to my

affairs and rather hastened on their journey home.

But now, since I have found a man as escort both 500

and messenger, have pity on me and grant

salvation, since you have seen how mortal life

is so ordained that evil luck must follow good.

The man whose life is innocent of suffering must be

aware of misery, and so must care for his own life, 505

if fortunate, to save himself from ruin unforeseen.

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Ch. Have pity, lord, since he has told str.

of labours unendurable,

of toils I would not wish on any of my friends.And if, my lord, you hate the toxic sons 510

of Atreus, then I would turn

their crime to his advantage,

and speed him home where he 515

desires, embarking on a well

found, speedy ship,

that we might flee the anger of the gods.

Ne. Take care that, though you may be generous now,you do not in the future change your tune, when you 520

are sickened by too close company with his disease.

Ch. You shall not by any means be able justly

to direct an accusation such as this at me.

Ne. It would indeed be a cause of shame to me were I

inferior to you in dealing to the stranger's needs. 525

So let us sail, if that is that, and let him swiftly board.

For the ship herself will carry him without demur.

And so I pray the gods deliver us in safety from

this place, that we might sail our hoped for course.

Ph. This is the best of days and you of men the best, 530

and this the best of crews... how can my deeds display

how much you have endeared yourselves to me?

Let us go, my son, and together bid farewell, inside,

to this home, no proper home, that you may learn

how I sustained myself, how staunch my nature is. 535

For I believe no other man than I, on having this

confront his gaze, could have endured the place,

while I have gradually learned to bear necessity.

Ch. But wait, that we might learn of these two men

approaching, one of your ship's crew, and one unknown... 540

go only in when you have heard from them.

Merchant

This present companion of mine, who with

221





Ne. I do not know his meaning yet, but he must say 580

what he has to say quite openly to both of us.

Mer.Do not, Achilles' son, expose me to the armyas one who said what he should not... for I do well

by servicing them, as any poor man might...

Ne. The sons of Atreus are my sworn enemies and this 585

man is my best friend because he hates the Atreids.

And now you must, as one who came here as

my friend, reveal each and every thing you heard.

Mer.Take care of what you do, my son.Ne.I always do.

Mer.I shall hold you responsible.Ne.Then do, but speak. 590

Mer.Then speak I shall. This is the man for whom the sonof Tydeus, as I said, and the mighty Odysseus search

and sail, and they have sworn to take him back by force

of violence, or by persuasion's force of argument.

And all of the Achaeans heard Odysseus loud and clear 595

when he promised this. For he it was that of the two

had much the greater confidence they would succeed.

Ne. And why do the sons of Atreus now, and after such

an interlude, pine so much for him, the very man

that they so long ago had driven out themselves? 600

What craving has overtaken them, or what necessity

or force divine, from the gods who punish crime?

Mer.I will tell you this. For perhaps you have not heard

it all. There was a prophet, a man of noble birth,

a son of Priam, whose name was Helenus, and him, 605

Odysseus, a man whose reputation reeked of criminality

and every shameful act, did capture once by trickery

while on a solo raid at night. And him he brought

in chains to show him to the Greeks, a noble prey;

Helenus revealed all manner of prophecies then, 610

and said as well the Greeks would never sack

the citadel of Troy unless they could persuade

this man to join them from his present island home.

And when the son of Laertes heard the prophet say

these things, immediately he undertook to get 615

this man and show him off to the Greeks;

223



he thought most likely he could bring him willingly,

but if not, then yes, against his will - and if he failed,

then any man who wanted it could take his head.You have heard it all, my son, and I urge haste 620

on you, and on any man for whom you have a care.

Ph. Wretch, wretch that I am! That man, that total bane

has sworn to persuade and bring me back to the Greeks!

I am as like to be able to be persuaded to return

after death to the world of light, although his father did.* 625

Mer.Of that I have no knowledge. I shall go to my ship,and may the gods grant what is best for the both of you.

Ph. Is not this miraculous, my son, that he, Laertes' son,

expects by means of winning words to show me off

among the Greeks, and lead me captive from his ship ? 630

No, rather and more quickly would I heed that snake,

most hated of all my enemies, that destroyed my foot.

But he, Odysseus, is capable of any lie, of any act

of arrogance - and now I know that he will come.

However, let us leave, my son, so that a great expanse 635

of sea might separate us from the vessel of Odysseus.

Come, let us go, since energy well spent on a task

completed brings rewards of sleep and peacefulness.

Ne. So we will leave our anchorage as soon as this

head wind drops. Presently though it blows against us. 640

Ph. The sailing is always good when you flee calamity.

Ne. Not so, for these conditions neither suit our enemies.

Ph. There is no breath of wind that stands in evil's way,

when there is opportunity to plunder and to rob.

Ne. Well, let us go. if you must have it so - but take 645

from within whatever you need or cherish most.

Ph. Some things I need, though not a rich supply...

Ne. What can there be my ship cannot supply?

Ph. I have a certain herb with which when most I am

* The reference is to the cunning Sisyphus who in post Homeric accounts is sometimes identified as the

father of Odysseus.

224



in need I treat this wound, until the pain is stilled. 650

Ne. Then get it. What else is there you wish to bring.

Ph. Some arrows may be left behind, mislaid;I would not leave them for another's hand.

Ne. Is that the celebrated bow that you now hold?

Ph. This is the very one, none other, in my grasp. 655

Ne. And is it possible for me to take a closer look,

and even handle it, and honour its divinity.

Ph. Of course you may, my boy, and welcome too

to any other service I might render you.

Ne. I do so long to, though my desire is qualified. 660

If it is proper, then I would. If not, then let it be.Ph. Your words betray due reverence and piety,

my boy, since you alone have let me look upon

the sunlight, looking down itself on Oeta's land,

upon my aged father, on my friends, who saved 665

me from beneath the footfall of my enemies.

Fear not, but here it is for you to grasp and return

to me, who gave it you, and boast that you alone

of mortal men were good enough to handle it;

I received it in return myself for favours done. 670

Ne. I am glad to have seen and befriended you,

since the man who learns to pay a kindness

in kind, becomes a friend without peer.

But go inside.Ph.And I will take you also in...

my feebleness demands I take you as my comforter. 675

Chorus

I heard in story once, was not myself a witness though, str.

of how a man who dared approach the marriage bed of Zeus

was bound upon a speeding wheel by him,

of Kronos, son omnipotent;

and yet there is no other man 670

of mortals I have known nor seen

who met a fate more terrible than this

poor man, who harmed nor slandered any man,

but was equal among his peers

225





with the Malian nymphs, 725

to the banks of Spercheius, where,

on Oeta's ridge, the lord of the shield of bronze,lit up by the light of his father's bolt, drew close on his pyre

to the host all divine.

Ne. Come, if you will. Why struck dumb, why stand 730

stock still, when there can be no reason for delay?

Ph. A! A! A! A!*

Ne. What is it?Ph.Nothing too dreadful - come, my son.

Ne. You have some pain from your companion disease?

Ph. No, no, not I, in fact it's in abeyance now I think... 735immortal gods!

Ne. Why do you raise your voice to call upon the gods?

Ph. That they might come as my kind saviours.

A! A! A! A!

Ne. What ails you now? Will you not speak, why stay 740

so silent? Clearly you are in some deep distress.

Ph. I am destroyed, my son, and can no more conceal

this pain from you... attatai! It pierces me again,

it pierces me, poor wretch I am, unhappy man.

I am destroyed, my son! I am devoured...my son... papai, 745

apappapai, papa pappa pappa papai....

By all the gods, my boy, if you have to hand

a sword, then strike at my heel... spare not my life!

Come, come, my boy! 750

Ne. What is the new and sudden pain which causes you

to cry aloud so, groaning at your body's state?

Ph. You know, my child?Ne.Know what?Ph.You know!

Ne.What ails you now?

I do not know.Ph.How so ignorant? Pappapappapai!

Ne. Dreadful indeed and swift is the disease's attack. 755

Ph. Dreadful, unspeakable... Have pity on me!

Ne. What shall I do?Ph.Do not betray me in your dread.

The disease, she comes but from time to time, perhaps

* I have opted for a simple transliteration of Philoctetes' inarticulate cries of grief which in

performance would depend for their effect on the skill of the actor involved.

227



when her wanderlust is satisfied...Ne.Poor wretched man!

And piteous through all your sum of grief and pain! 760

You wish I should take hold and help you now.Ph. No need for that... but rather take this bow from me,

in tune with your request just made, until the time

this present spate of my disease is past and gone. 765

Watch over it and keep it safe. For sleep takes hold

of me whenever this evil thing does take its leave,

nor can it ease before, so you must let me sleep

in confidence... but if in this interlude those men

arrive, then, by the gods, I urge on you, do not, 770

or willingly or no or by deceit, give up this bow,these weapons to our enemies, and so destroy

yourself, and at the same time me, your suppliant.

Ne. Fear not on my account. For it shall not change hands

except between us two, so yield it up and happily to me. 775

Ph. There, take it, child, and pray no jealousy divine

accompanies the bow with manifold toils as came

upon its former owner and upon me myself.

Ne. O gods, grant both of us a favourable breeze,

and a passage safe and speedy to whatever place 780

the god approves and which our need demands.

Ph. I fear, my son, our prayers might be in vain...

The bloody flux upwells and oozes once again

from deep within, and I foresee a fresh attack.

Papai, pheu! 785

Again, papai, my foot, what tortures do you bring?

It creeps upon me,

this thing steals ever closer - oh no, poor wretch I am!

So now you understand... do not desert me now!

attatai! 790

I would, Odysseus, this agony might penetrate,

transfix your heart. I would that Agamemnon and

you, yes, you Menelaus, generals both, might feed

this plague instead of me, and for an equal time. 795

Agh, pity me!

Death, death, no matter you are summoned so on each

228



and every day, you can not ever bring yourself to come.

O child, o noble child, please take me in your arms,

incinerate me quite in Lemnos' famed volcanic fires, 800 be generous, my son! I thought it right myself to do

this thing once long ago for Zeus's son and so I won

the weapons that you presently keep safe.

What say you, son?

What say you? Why so silent? What your thoughts? 805

Ne. Your pain has long inspired my sympathy and grief.

Ph. No, rather have courage, my boy! For sharply she comes,

my disease, and as swiftly takes her leave.

But please, I beg of you, do not abandon me alone.Ne. Be sure that we will wait.Ph.You will?Ne.Be well assured. 810

Ph. I judge there is no need to put you on your oath, my son.

Ne. No need at all. I cannot in all good faith abandon you.

Ph. Your hand upon that pledge!Ne.I give my hand. I'll stay.

Ph. Now over there, yes, over there...Ne.Where do you mean?Ph.Above...

Ne. Distracted again? Why gaze so at the circling sky? 815

Ph. Let go of me, let go of me!Ne.Where would you...Ph.Let go of me!

Ne. I must not let you lie...Ph.But you destroy me, merely touching me.

Ne. There, there... I will let go of you. Your mind is more itself.

Ph. O earth, receive me now. For I come close to death,

and this evil thing no longer lets me stand... 820

Ne. It seems that sleep will overtake this man,

and soon. His head is drooping back and down,

and all his body now is drenched with sweat,

his black life's blood is trickling from his foot,

his heel. We, though, my friends will leave 825

him now in peace, that he might fall asleep.

Chorus

Sleep that has no share in pain, shares not in private agony, str.

come, soft of breath to us,

yes, come, lord Sleep, that brings us bliss,

and keep before his eyes 830

this present breadth of inner light.

Come, come, I pray, and heal!

229



My son, consider how you stand,

what is the step, decision that you next

must make. Do you see? He sleeps. 835Why wait to do the deed?

Prompt action is in every task most critical,

and often brings a swift result.

Ne. This man hears nothing now, but yet I see the foolishness

of making this bow our quarry and of sailing without him. 840

For his is the crown and the god required we take this man.

It is a shame and indictment to make a boast proved false.

Chorus

My child, the god will take care of that himself, ant.

but when you answer me

again, my boy, then cast your words in tones 845

both soft and low.

For the sleep of men afflicted with disease

is sharp of sight, no sleep at all.

See to it then to take the maximum

of care to do the thing that you must do without 850

disturbing him.

For if you are intent upon another plan -

you know the plan I mean -

a man of sense might see some sorrow inescapable.

Fair blows the wind, my son! ep.

The man is sightless now and helpless quite, 856

exposed in inner dark...

(his sleep in the sun seems sound)

no power he has to control his limbs, 860

his hands, his feet, but deathlike lies.

Observe and see if your plans

are opportune. In my view, child,

the task that involves no risk

is the most effective by far.

230



Ne. Be still, I say, and keep your wits alert. 865

He moves his eyes and lifts his head.

Ph. Light following sleep, and unexpected vigil,so unhoped for, kept here by these my friends!

I never would have prayed for this, my son,

that you could endure for pity's sake to stay 870

to help and guard me in my misery.

The sons of Atreus could not endure

my company so well, those gentle generals.

A noble nature though is born of noble kin,

my child, yes, yours, which copes so easily 875

with all of this, despite the noise and stench.And now it seems that this disease is in

remission, grants me brief relief, my child,

you, raise me up to set me, child, upon my feet,

that if and when this weakness goes from me, 880

we might at once set out for the ship and sail.

Ne. I am glad to see you free from pain, beyond

all hope, with sight restored and breathing still.

For your vital signs in this attack appeared

to belong to a man who lived no more. 885

Now, up you get, or, if you would prefer it so,

these men will carry you. They will not resent

the task, since this choice belongs to both of us.

Ph. I am obliged, my son, but lift me up yourself,

as you intended, and do not put the burden of 890

my stench upon these men before needs be... to share

the ship with me will prove hardship enough.

Ne. As you wish - but raise yourself, and lean on me.

Ph. Fear not. I have my well worn ways of standing up.

Ne. Oh, no! What shall I do? What next? What now? 895

Ph. What's that, my son? What mean these rambling words?

Ne. I do not know how best to guide my hesitant speech...

Ph. Why hesitant? You must not say such things, my son!

Ne. That is my case already, here and now, confused...

Ph. Perhaps the dread of my disease has so affected you, 900

you cannot bring yourself to take me on your ship.

231





of no one else to whom to speak - complaints aloud

of crimes committed by this... Achilles' whelp, 940

who swore to take me home, but sails instead for Troy.He pledged his faith with his right hand's grasp,

then stole the sacred bow of Herakles, the son of Zeus,

and holds it, and wants to flaunt it before the Greeks,

as though he took and leads a mighty warrior by force, 945

but does not know he kills a corpse, an insubstantial shade,

a phantom only. He could not have captured me had I

been strong, could not have, even as I am, except by guile!

But I have been so sorrily deceived. What must I do?

Please, give it back! Be true once more to your own self. 950What do you say? Still silent? I am nothing, wretch I am...

You, cavern of mine, twin entrances, once more, again,

I come within, stripped helpless now, no means to live;

all alone in your vault I shall wither my life away,

unable with those arrows to kill the winged bird, 955

or any mountain beast, but shall myself in wretchedness

provide in death a feast for those on whom I fed,

while they will hunt me down on whom I once did prey;

I shall pay the extreme penalty of death for death,

because of him who seemed so innocent of crime. 960

Then die... but no, not yet, before I learn if you

might change your mind, if not, then die, in shame.

Ch. What should we do? The choice is yours, my lord,

as to whether we sail away or yield to his requests.

Ne. A dreadful sense of pity for this noble man has come 965

upon me - not just now, came, rather, long ago.

Ph. In heaven's name take pity on me, child, and do

not shame yourself among mankind by cheating me.

Ne. Good gods, what shall I do? I wish that I had never left

my home on Scyros! Such is my present burden's weight. 970

Ph. You are not an evil man. You have, though, learned

disgrace from criminals. But now pay others back

as to their due, and sail away, and give my arms to me.

Ne. Oh, what to do?Od.You wretch ,what are you up to now?

Come here at once, and hand those weapons back to me. 975

233



Ph. Agh, what man is that? Is that Odysseus I hear?

Od. Odysseus indeed - know well, you hear and see me both.

Ph. I am then totally betrayed, destroyed. For this it waswho snared me first and parted me from my arms.

Od. That I do confess, know it well - it was none other than I! 980

Ph. Give me back, return my weapons, boy!Od.This he shall not do,

not ever, though he wishes to - but you must hurry too,

along with the bow... or else these men will force your company.

Ph. You mean that they will lead me off by force, you... you worst,

most outrageous of evil men?Od.Unless you volunteer to crawl...985

Ph. O land of Lemnos, and all consuming flame of Mosychlus,

ignited by Hephaestus' hand, can this be borne, that thisOdysseus should drag me off from your domain by force?

Od. It is Zeus himself, that you might know, yes, Zeus who rules

this land whose decree this is... and Zeus it is I serve. 990

Ph. So hateful you are to concoct such excuses as these!

In making gods your pretext you make liars of the gods!

Od. I tell the simple truth. This is the path that you must tread.

Ph. Then I say "no"!Od.And I say "yes" and say you must obey.

Ph. Poor fool, I am, and did my father sire me then to be 995

a manifest slave, and no free, nor liberated man?

Od. No slave, no more than are the best of us, with whom

it is fated that you will take and sack the town of Troy.

Ph. That I will never do! No, not even if I suffer death,

so long as these high island cliffs lie steep before me. 1000

Od. What would you do?Ph.I will plunge from above

and straightway smash my head on the rocks below.

Od. Take hold of him, and so remove that opportunity.

Ph. My hands, a prey to this Odysseus, you suffer such

indignity, because you lack your taut bow string. 1005

And you, whose mind, devoid of health and generosity,

again has stolen up on me to capture me... why, you

have used this child, not known to me, to shield yourself,

and he does not deserve your company, but rather mine;

he nothing knows but to do what is set out for him to do, 1010

who even now, it is clear, is racked with pain and guilt,

234



because of his own fatal error, and my sufferings.

Your vicious soul, forever peering from its inner depths,

has taught this youth, against his better nature, and allunwilling, has taught him well the art of evil ways. 1015

And now you have me bound and intend to lead

me from this shore, on which you once abandoned me,

no friends, alone - among the living, a corpse displaced.

Alas!

I wish you dead! Have wished your death so many times,

but the gods, they do not gratify my heart in any way, 1020

while you live, laughing loud, and I am tortured by

this thought, that I must live as victim to a host of ills,an object of derision both to you and Atreus's sons,

twin generals, whose will it is that you obey in all of this.

And yet you only sailed along with them when bound 1025

by force and stratagem, while I, who sailed as volunteer,

and brought his seven ships, poor fool, they threw me out

in shame: their wish, you say, but, rather, yours, say they.

And so why take me now? Why carry me off? For what?

I am nothing now and, indeed, was dead for you long since. 1030

How is it I am no longer branded as a noisome cripple

by you, you bane, most hated of the gods? How is it right

for me now to burn the holy offerings, to pour libations now?

For they were once your specious grounds for ejecting me.

I wish you damned, because of the harm you have done 1035

this man present here, if justice still concerns the gods.

Concern them though it does, I know, since you would not

have ever sailed this expedition for the sake of one poor man,

had not some god sent urgent need for me applied the goad.

My father's land and watchful gods, I pray, avenge me now, 1040

take vengeance at the last, in the fullness of time, on all

of them, on all of them if you harbour any pity for my fate.

For though my life is piteous, were I to see them dead,

I could believe I had escaped from my disease.

Ch. Grim words this grim faced stranger speaks, my lord 1045

Odysseus, and he is unbending in the face of misery.

Od. I could say much in answer to the insults of this man,

235



were it convenient, but, as it is, one statement will suffice.

I play my varied parts as circumstance demands;

so when the competition is of who is just and good, 1050you could not find another man more dutiful than I.

I am by nature though a man who ever lusts for victory -

except for over you... so now I will release you willingly.

Yes, let him go, release him from your grasp at once.

Allow him to remain... we have no longer need of you, 1055

now that we have your bow. For Teucer keeps us company

and so we have his skill and knowledge too to call upon.

And I am present too, who think myself to be as powerful

in archery as you, nor think my hand less accurate in aim.What need of you? Therefore, farewell, go, tramp your isle! 1060

But we shall leave and perhaps in time your treasured bow

will bring to me the prize that should by rights be yours.

Ph. What shall I do, poor wretch I am? Shall you appear

'midst Greeks adorned with arms that once were mine?

Od. No more of your questions now, for I am on my way. 1065

Ph. Achilles' son and heir, have you no further word

for me to hear, or do you also leave so gracelessly?

Od. Neoptolemus, come! You must not even look at him,

kind hearted as you are, you could destroy our chance.

Ph. And shall I be deserted by you too, my friends, 1070

abandoned here - and no compassion in your heart?

Ch. This youngster here is our commanding officer, and so

whatever he may say to you becomes our message too.

Ne. Odysseus will say of me that I am by nature far

too soft. Yet you attend him here, if he will have 1075

it so, until such time as the crew have fitted out

the ship for sea and we have made due sacrifice.

This man perhaps might think more kindly of

us then... We, though, are on our way, and do

you come with all despatch when word is sent. 1080

Ph. Cavernous cliff of hollowed rock, str.

hot and freezing cold by the seasons' turns,

my destiny it is to leave you not

236



at all, not ever now, and you will be

a witness to my death, 1085

wretch that I am.A dwelling filled with cries

of wretched agony and grief,

what will be my daily bred

henceforth? Vain hope indeed 1090

of winning food to ease my hunger's pang.

The birds once timid now will swoop

from above through the singing breeze

to take me - my hand is strengthless now.2

Ch. Ill starred you are and these your just 1095

deserts... This fate descends on you from no

more mighty source than you yourself.

A wiser choice lay in your grasp

and yet you chose, infatuate,

the more destructive course. 1100

Ph. Distressed and destitute am I ant.

and damned to suffering, who

from now on until I fade in death

shall be for ever on my own,

no man to keep me company, 1105

such grief, such grief!

Incapable of winning now

my sustenance with shafts

that flew from hands 1110

empowered. For lies

and hidden guileful wit seduced me...

I would that I might see

the man who plotted this receive

my pain and for as long a time. 1115

Ch. Fate, fate and the will of gods has this

2This is a free rendition of the text suggested by T.B.L.Webster, Sophocles: Philoctetes (Cambridge, 1970)

n. ad loc.

237





any more, but a fine chance now to glut 1155

and gratify yourselves in turn

on my discoloured meat.For I shall leave this life and soon.

I have no means to keep myself alive.

No man can live on empty air alone, who has lost 1160

the strength to win the gifts the good earth brings.

Ch. By the gods, if you respect at all a friend

who comes with all good will, concede to him.

Know this and know it well - the means 1165

to flee this plague is in your hands.To nourish it within your flesh is pitiful, when flesh

itself cannot endure its countless pains familiar.

Ph. Again, again you bring to mind the insult and the injury, 1170

although the kindest of my visitors.

Why devastate me so?

What have you done?

Ch. What do you mean?Ph. If it was your hope

to drag me off to the hateful land of Troy... 1175

Ch I do believe it would be best.Ph.Then leave me now, at once!

Ch. Your words are just the words I wished to hear and willingly obey.

Let us go, let us go, 1180

each to our station in the ship.

Ph. For the love of Zeus, don't go, I beg of you!Ch.Compose yourself.

Ph. No, friends, by the gods, remain!Ch. What is this urgent cry? 1185

Ph. Oh, no, oh no!!

My wretched, wretched fate! I am utterly, utterly lost!

O, foot, foot, how shall I cope with you

in what remaining life I have to come?

Friends, friends, come back, return! 1190

Ch. What would you have us do

so different from your former will expressed?

Ph. To condemn a man distraught

and stormed with pain for ill

considered speech, it is not right. 1195

239



Ch. Then come, as we request, unhappy man.

Ph. No, never, never, know that well , not even if,

yes, Zeus himself, the lightning lord, fire carrier,intent on my incineration, threatens with his thunderbolt!

No, let Troy die and all the men 1200

beneath her walls, who dared to hurl me crippled out...

But, friends, one wish at least make good for me.

Ch. What wish is this ?Ph.Bring me somehow

a sword, an axe or any cutting edge... 1205

Ch. What violence would you inflict?

Ph. Flesh from flesh I'd hack and mangle limb from limb.

Death, death alone is all my thought.Ch. But why? Ph. I seek my father... 1210

Ch. But where?Ph.In Hell.

He is no longer in the sun.

Homeland, my city, city, how

I wish that I might see you, wretched though I am,

who left your holy streams 1215

to be an ally of the Greeks, whom now

I hate. I am as nothing now.

Ch. If I had only left you long ago I would have reached

my ship by now, but there I see Odysseus hurrying near 1220

to us and, too, Achilles' son returning to this place.

Od. And can't you say what need it is that urges you

bend back your steps with eagerness and haste?

Ne. To free me from the tragic fault I did before.

Od. You speak in riddles. Tragic fault, what fault? 1225

Ne. In that I was induced by you and by our entire force...

Od. And what is it that you did you think unfitting now?

Ne. Entrapment of a man by schemes of guile and shame.

Od. What schemes? Good gods above! You plan some rash...

Ne. No, nothing rash, but to the son of Poeas... 1230

Od. What will you do? How dread creeps up upon my soul.

Ne. From the man from whom I stole this bow, to him again...

Od. By Zeus, what can you mean? No, not to give it back?

Ne. Because it was a crime to steal them shamefully.

Od. By all the gods, is this some kind of joke you play? 1235

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Ne. If some kind of joke it is to tell the truth.

Od. What are you saying, son of Achilles? What have you said?

Ne. You wish that I repeat my meaning yet again?Od. I would I had not heard you speak at all.

Ne. Be well assured! You have heard all I have to say. 1240

Od. There is a thing to stop you doing this...

Ne. And what is that? What will prevent my act?

Od. The whole of the Achaean host including me!

Ne. Your native wit gives birth to witless words.

Od. Nor your words nor deeds spell wit nor wisdom. 1245

Ne. But if my words are just then they surpass the wise.

Od. How is it just to surrender the things you wonthrough plans of mine?Ne.I shall attempt

to make good my shameful error of before.

Od. Your crime inspires no fear of the Achaean force? 1250

Ne. With justice on my side I do not fear your threats.

Od. Despite your brashness I will force you to my will.

Ne. Not even force can sway me to embrace your crime.

Od. Our war will therefore be with you and not with Troy.

Ne. What will be will be.Od.You see my own right hand,

how it grips the pommel of my sword?Ne.I do, and so 1255

shall you see mine do just the same and swiftly too!

Od. But I shall leave you be, and go and tell this news

to all the host and they shall be the ones to punish you.

Ne. Now that is wise... and if you stay of such a mind

in future, perhaps you will steer clear of grief. 1260

But you, Philoctetes, I mean, yes Poeas' son,

come out and leave your rocky shelter behind!

Ph. What is this new made din of voices near my cave?

Why call me out? What do you need of me?

No, not again... another threat? Are you here 1265

to pile fresh crimes upon your former wrongs?

Ne. Don't be afraid... but listen to the words I bring.

Ph. I am afraid! For formerly I suffered terribly

from heeding specious and persuasive words.

Ne. Is it not possible for a man to change his mind? 1270

Ph. Your manner matched your talk just so, the time

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you tried to steal my bow, a plausible thief.

Ne. But not this time... and yet I want to hear from you,

if you are still determined to stay and suffer here,or sail along with us.Ph.Enough, and say no more! 1275

Whatever you may say will all be said in vain.

Ne. Your mind is quite made up?Ph.Yes, more than I can say.

Ne. I could have wished my words might have persuaded you.

However, if my arguments are all perhaps in vain,

then I am done.Ph.A waste of breath your words. 1280

For you will never win a friendly thought from me,

because by guile you stole my very life from me,

and have the gall to come and counsel me,your noble father's scoundrel son. I wish you dead,

yes all of you, the sons of Atreus, Laertes's son 1285

and you as well!Ne.Curse me no more,

but take these weapons from my hand.

Ph. What's that? Is this some second trickery?

Ne. My oath upon the highest majesty of holy Zeus!

Ph. Your words are welcome, if they prove true. 1290

Ne. The very act is proof. Stretch out your own

right hand, and take control of what is yours...

Od. No! I forbid this thing, gods be my witnesses,

and speak for the sons of Atreus and all the Greeks.

Ph. My son, whose voice is that? It cannot be Odysseus 1295

I heard?Od.Know well it is, and also, clear to see,

the man to force your journey to the plains of Troy,

irrespective of the wishes of Achilles' son.

Ph. And yet you'll get no joy, if this shaft flies true.

Ne. No, no, by all the gods, do not release the bow! 1300

Ph. Dear boy, by all the gods, release my hand...

Ne. I cannot let it go.Ph.Why rob me of my chance

to shoot and kill with this my bow a mortal enemy?

Ne. For such a deed would do no good for me or you.

Ph. Ha! Then know this well at least, the leaders of the Greeks , 1305

their lying heralds too, are cowards every one of them

in the battle line, however bold they are with words.

Ne. That may be so... but now you have the bow

242



and have no cause to rage at me or bear a grudge.

Ph. You are right. You show your own true self, my son, 1310

and the line from which you sprang, no son of Sisyphus, but rather of Achilles, whose repute was best of all

while yet he lived and is as yet among the dead.

Ne. I am glad you praise my father so, and by association me

myself... but listen to the favour I would ask of you. 1315

All men and women equally must bear the fate

and fortune granted as their portion by the gods.

However, they that cling to self-inflicted miseries,

as you do yourself, why it is not right nor just

for us to pardon them, nor even pity them. 1320And you yourself are grown half wild, cannot accept

advice, even if the man who speaks is well disposed -

you hate him, thinking him malevolent, an enemy.

Yet, I shall speak and call on Zeus of oaths to witness me.

Take note then of my words and write them in your heart. 1325

The sickness that you suffer from was fated by the gods,

because you came too close to Chryse's guardian snake

that keeps a secret watch upon her unroofed shrine.

And know that you can never gain relief from this,

your foul disease, so long as the sun shall dawn 1330

in the east and settle down in turn into the west,

no, not until you come yourself and of your own

accord to Troy, meet there with us the sons of Asclepius,

be cured of this disease, and with my help and with this bow

be seen the man to take and sack the towered city there. 1335

I shall tell you how I know these things are so disposed.

We have with us a man we took from Troy, by name

Helenus and a gifted prophet, a man who clearly says

that this must be the way of things. And furthermore

he says that Troy must fall and utterly within the space 1340

of this upcoming summer. He has promised, if his words

prove false, to give himself up willingly for us to kill.

Since now you are aware of this, come with us willingly.

For the further gain is splendid, being judged alone

the best of all the Greeks and worthy both to come 1345

243



to the healers' hands and win unprecedented fame

for having captured Troy, the source of many tears.

Ph. I hate this life of mine... oh, why, oh, why do you insistI look upon the light of day, do not despatch me down to Hell?

What shall I do? And how reject this man's advice, 1350

whose gentle feelings for me lie behind his words?

Then shall I yield? But then, how shall I do that,

then creep before the gaze of men? To speak to whom?

And you, my eyes, that have witnessed all my woes,

how could you suffer this, to see me in the company 1355

of the sons of Atreus, of the men who ruined me,

or in the company of Laertes' loathsome son?It is not the pain of things gone by that tortures me,

but rather I can see the kinds of thing I needs must bear

in future now. For once a man's intelligence 1360

gives birth to crime, it ever after teaches crime.

And as for your behaviour I am quite amazed.

You must never return to Troy yourself, must prevent

me too from going there. These men dishonoured you,

despoiled you of your father's legacy* - so would you then 1365

go, fight beside them and force me to do the same?

By no means, my child, but rather, as you swore on oath,

return me home, and stay yourself in Scyros, leave

these evil men to the evil fate that they deserve.

And so you will receive a twofold thanks from me, 1370

and from my father too - nor will you seem,

by helping evil men, to be yourself by nature evil too.

Ne. Your words are fair... but still I wish you would

have faith both in the gods and in my promises,

and sail away from here with me, your friend. 1375

Ph. You mean to take this foul, diseased foot and sail

to Troy's broad plain to meet the hateful son of Atreus?

Ne. No, rather to meet with those who shall save

your ulcerated foot, and you yourself from pain.

Ph. What can you mean? Such dread advice you give! 1380

* There is an apparent interpolation here to the effect that these men too considered Odysseus a more

worthy recipient of Achilles' arms than sad Ajax.

244





and to prevent this journey you intend;

so, listen now to my advice.

At first though I shall tell you of my fate,the labours undergone and overcome

that won immortal glory, as you now can see. 1420

And as for you, know well, your sufferings

will profit you and bring you lifelong fame.

Accompany this young man to the citadel

of Troy and first you will be cured of this

foul pain, be judged most virtuous of all 1425

the host and kill with this my bow,

kill Paris, guilty cause of all of this grief,lay Troy waste, sending homeward loot,

the prize of courage from your fellow warriors,

to please your father, Poeas, on Mt Oeta's heights. 1430

And from whatever booty you receive, the army's gift,

transport a portion to the pyre where I was burned,

in honour of my arms - and this is my advice for you,

Achilles' son, since you are not empowered to take

Troy's kingdom except in this man's company 1435

and he in yours, paired lions keeping watch

in mutual defence. And I shall send Asclepius

to Troy to make an end of your disease.

For it is the city's fate to fall a second time

to my weaponry. Think, though, on this when you 1440

destroy the land - respect the property of gods.

Our father Zeus counts all as secondary to this -

For piety persists when mortal men are dead,

and in their life and in their death is indestructible.

Ph. At last you come to me and send to me the voice 1445

I so long longed to hear,

and so I shall obey your words.

Ne. My will is acquiescent too...

He. Do not delay your duty over long.

The time is right to sail 1450

with a fair wind following behind.

246



Ph. Come, then, and I shall bid this land farewell.

Good bye, my chambered home that kept me safe,

and neighbouring Nymphs of field and stream,good bye, deep sounding roar of sea swept cape - 1455

where often indeed my head was battered,

soaked and wet within my home by spume

and flying foam, and often too the mount,

Hermaeon, returned antiphonal my cries

of echoing agony and pain, tempestuous grief. 1460

Now, though, you springs and water source

Apolline, I am leaving, leaving you behind,

yes, now, who never entertained that hope.Farewell, my home of Lemnos, set in the sea,

and fairly send me uncomplaining on my way, 1465

to where my mighty Fate and Fortune lead,

and friends' advice and that of Zeus,

all powerful, whose nod and will this is.

CH. So let us go together now, yes, all of us, with prayer

directed to the sea-borne Nymphs that they might come 1470

to keep our homeward passage safe.

247



OEDIPUS AT COLONUS

(Dramatis Personae)

Oedipus

Antigone

Xenos

Chorus of Attic Elders

Ismene

Theseus

Creon

Polyneices

Messenger

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Oedipus

Antigone, my child, since I am blind and old,

what is this place that we have reached, to whom

belongs the city here and who will entertain

the vagrant Oedipus today with meagre gifts?

My wants are small and what I win is often less,

but that small gain is yet sufficient to content me;

for my experience combines with length of life

and thirdly with nobility, teaching patience to a man.

If, though, my child, you see some resting place

beside the common way or by some precinct of the gods, 10

then place me there and set me down, that we may learn

our whereabouts; our state is such we must ask that

of the natives here and what our next step is.

Antigone

Long suffering, father Oedipus, as best as my eyes

can judge, the walls that gird the town are far away.

It is plain to see this place is holy ground, luxuriant

with laurel, olives trees and vines, while throngs

of sweet voiced nightingales give tongue within.

So rest your limbs here upon this piece of unhewn stone;

your journey has been long for a man as old as you. 20

Oe. Yes, settle me down and protect the blind old man.

Ant.That is a lesson I have no fresh need to learn.

Oe. And can you tell me where we are at last?

Ant.The city is Athens, that I know, but not this place.

Oe. Everyone we met has told us that at least.

Ant.Shall I then go to learn what this place is?

Oe. Indeed, my child, if it is inhabited, that is...

Ant.I am sure it is - but there is no need, I think,

for me to go - for I see a man not far away.

Oe. And is he coming here, in our direction? 30

Ant.Indeed, he has already come. Address him now

as you think fit, since he is present by your side.

Oe. My friend, I hear from this young girl whose eyes

249



do service for both herself and me alike that you

are opportunely come to clear our doubts, to see...

XenosBefore you ask me more, leave that seat of stone

at once! It is an impious act for you to tread that place.

Oe. What is this place? Which of the gods is thought to own it?

Xe. It is a place inviolate, where none might live. Dread goddesses

possess it, virgin daughters of the Earth and the Dark. 40

Oe. Tell me their holy name that I might pray to them.

Xe. The people here call them Eumenides, the goddesses who see

all things - but other euphemisms serve elsewhere.

Oe. Then may they welcome me, their suppliant, with grace;for from this spot I would no more remove myself.

Xe What does this mean?Oe.This place is set to seal my fate.

Xe. I lack the will to drive you out myself without the state's

authority, before I tell the people of your blasphemy.

Oe. By all the gods, my friend, do not reject me, poor,

sad exile that I am, but rather tell me what I seek. 50

Xe. Speak up, then. I for my part won't refuse your plea.

Oe. What then is this place in which we find ourselves?

Xe. Hear all that I myself have knowledge of and learn.

This whole place is sacred ground. Poseidon is

its holy lord. Here also dwells divine Prometheus,

the Titan, fire-carrier, but as for where you stand,

that place is called the brazen footed gate to Hell,

deep-seated stay of Athens, while the neighbouring fields

do honour to the horseman Colonus as their

heroic lord of old, and all around do bear 60

and share his name. Such is the way of things,

my friend, things honoured not in word alone,

but rather by and in the fact of our proximity.

Oe. There are then those that live around this place?

Xe. Indeed there are and they take their name from this god.

Oe. And do they have a king? Or is the people's voice supreme?

Xe. This region is subject to the city's king.

Oe. Who is this man who rules with reason and with force?

Xe. His name is Theseus, the son of Aegeus who preceded him.

250



Oe. And might you send a messenger from here to him? 70

Xe. What for? To take some news, or urge that he should come?

Oe. That by a simple service he might win great gain.Xe. What gain can be had from a man with no eyes?

Oe. Whatever I say shall be said by one who sees all.

Xe. Be sure, my friend, you shall not come to harm.

For you are noble, it would seem, despite your fate

and circumstance. Stay here and out of sight, therefore,

until I go and tell my neighbours - not the city folk - about

your plight. For theirs will be the judgement whether you

must stay, or journey on your way once more. 80

Oe. My child, the stranger - has he gone from us?Ant.He has and we are quiet here, so you may speak

with freedom, father, since I alone am close at hand.

Oe. Dread ladies, because yours is the altar where first

in this land I have set me down to rest, do not, I pray,

therefore, be less than kind to me or lord

Apollo, who, in prophesying many ills for me,

also declared that in time's fullness this very place

would be a place of peace for me, an exile's end

where refuge is beside the altars of the awesome deities. 90

Here should I bring an end to weary life, he said.

and bring advantages to those who offered me a resting place,

destruction, though to those who sent me on and drove me out.

Portents would come to show this place to me,

earthquake or thunder, Zeus's lightening bolt.

And now I understand that it cannot but be that you

have led me on my road by trusty omens to this grove.

For else my wanderings would never have brought

me first, ascetic and austere, to you the goddesses,

the wineless ones, and never have set me down upon 100

this unhewn stone. Therefore, according to Apollo's word,

allow me, goddesses, to turn about life's course

and end it here, unless I seem to you to be

unworthy, ever barking on and on and on

about man's life of utmost toil and misery.

Come, ancient daughters sweet of the olden Dark,

251



come, city, which is honoured most of all

of mighty Pallas and named Athens after her,

have pity on this paltry imitation of a man,this Oedipus; for he is no more the man he was. 110

Ant.Be still! For certain men advanced in years

are making their way to spy upon your resting place.

Oe. I will be still, and you must hide me in this grove,

well off the track, until I overhear their conversation.

With such intelligence I may take care to serve

our interests the best in what is yet to come.

Chorusstr. Look, look! Who was this man, where is he now?

Where is the stranger fled, who is of all mankind, of all

mankind the most intemperate? 120

Pay close attention, look for him,

yes, seek in every place!

A wanderer,

he was, a wanderer, this ancient man,

not of this land; for he would never else

approach this shrine where none may tread,

belonging to the maids that none may fight,

whose name we dread to speak,

whose shrine we pass with eyes

averted, 130

speechless, wordlessly

mouthing thoughts

of piety;

but word now is a man

has come who fears them not,

yet, though I search throughout

the grove, I cannot

find him out, nor yet his resting place.

Oe. I am that man. For my ears are as my eyes,

as men would have it said.

Ch. Ah! Ah! 140

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The man is terrible to see, is terrible to hear!

Oe. Do not, I beg, look down on me as one who is beyond the law.

Ch. Lord Zeus, protector! Who is this ancient man?Oe. A man whose life has not enjoyed the best of luck

that you should call him blessed, lords of Attica!

But this is obvious. For otherwise I would not creep

dependent on another's eyes,

nor make my weighty way supported on such feeble strength.

Ch.

ant. I pity your sightless eyes! 150

And were you blind from birth, old man?For I see that your years have been long.

But yet, in so far as is in my gift,

You will add no further curse to your lot.

You go beyond

what is right! So do not trespass more

on the grass of this speechless

grove - a place for the blending

of water brought from the well

with sweet honey to drink - 160

and be sure, my poor friend,

to remove

from that place and withdraw!

The distance between us is great.

Do you hear

me, poor wandering soul?

If you would meet with us

to speak where all may freely speak, abandon

that forbidden

ground. Until then silence keep.

Oe. My daughter, tell me what a man should think to do. 170

Ant.My father, we must accommodate our ways to theirs,

must yield where it is right and be obedient.

Oe. Then take me by the hand.Ant.Here is my hand.

Oe. Let me not suffer wrong, my friends, should I

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entrust myself to you and leave my sanctuary.

Ch.

str.No one will drag you from your resting place

against your will, old man.

Oe. Still further?Ch.Further still.

Oe. And more?Ch.Child, lead him further out, 180

since you can see.

Ant. Follow me, father, placing your

unseeing step where I may lead.

Oe. . . . .

Ant. . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . .

Oe. . . . . . . . .

Ch. You have suffered much, but now as guest

in our land you must learn to dislike what our city

has learned to dislike and honour the things

that our city holds dear.

Oe. Then lead me now, my child,

that we may come where piety demands, that we

may speak and also hear that which is said 190 and fight no longer with necessity.

Ch. There! You need not forge your step beyond

that step of native rock...

Oe. Thus far?Ch.And no further...

Oe. And may I sit?Ch.Yes, move across

and crouch down at the edge of the rock.

Ant. My task, father, this and so match step

with quiet step with me...

Oe. Ah, ah! I, I...

Ant. Support your aged body on 200

my loving arm.

Oe. I curse infatuation's fate.

Ch. Since now you are at ease, my friend,

declare what manner of man you are.

Who is it that takes such a weary path?

And might we learn the land of your birth?

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Oe. I am a stateless refugee, my friends, but do not...

Ch. What is it that you would deny us knowledge of, old man?

Oe. No, no, no...you must not ask me who I am, 210nor question me further in your curiosity...

Ch. But why?Oe.My very self is dreadful!Ch.Speak!

Oe. My child, my child, what shall I say?

Ch. Tell me at least your lineage,

and your father's name.

Oe. My child, my child, what will become of me?

Ant. Declare yourself, since you have come to this extremity.

Oe. I will. I have no further place to hide.

Ch. Why both delay? Come hurry with your tale.Oe. Have you heard of Laius' son?Ch.Agh! 220

Oe. Yes, Oedipus, the damned...Ch.You are that man?

Oe. There is nothing for you to fear in what I say.

Oh, wretch that I am!

My daughter, what is going to happen now?

Ch. Depart this land at once!

Oe. But your promises...how will you then redeem them?

Ch. No man can suffer fated punishment for promises that have

already caused him pain in keeping them; deceit piled on 230

deceit is like to bring disaster more than kindness in return.

And you, again, I say, make haste to leave this resting place

and get you gone, outside my land, and harbourless once more,

in case you lay some further obligation

on this state I call my home!

Ant. You are devout in hearts and minds,

I know, my friends, and so cannot endure

my father, aged though he is, because of hearing

rumours of his unintended crimes; 240

but yet, I beg of you, please pity me

in all my wretchedness when I

approach on his behalf alone, not mine,

approach with eyes that see and still

can meet your gaze, approach as if I were

your child in very truth, that he may win

255



some pity for his pain. Our fate depends

on you as on some god and so, please, nod

your head in unexpected kindness, I plead by allthat you hold dear, your children and your wives, 250

your fortune and your gods.

However closely you may look you'll never see

the man that can escape,

if some god it is that drives his fate.

Ch. Know, child of Oedipus, that we pity you both

and equally for all that you have undergone;

but because we fear what the gods might send,we lack the strength to alter our decree just made.

Oe. How then to value reputation and good name

if all that it is worth is idleness and wind, when men

make idle boasts that Athens is so pious, capable 260

alone of keeping safe the stranger in his misery,

and capable alone of aiding him?

What are such pieties to me, when men like these

arouse me from my resting place and drive me out,

because they simply dread a name? It cannot be

they fear my strength, nor yet what I have done,

since all that has been done I suffered more than did-

if I should think it right to tell my parents' history -

for that is the reason for your fear of me, I know

it well! Yet how can I be evil in my very self, 270

if all I did was self-defence, when, even if I had done

what I did with full intent, I would have earned no blame?

The journey that I made I made in ignorance, but yet I was

destroyed by those who were aware of what they did to me.

And so I beg of you, by all the gods, my friends,

that in the spirit that you roused me from my seat,

so keep me safe, and do not as 'god-fearing men'

deny the gods their proper share of piety. Consider too

how they look down upon the pious of mankind

and on the impious alike, and that so far there never yet 280

256





Ah, fool that I am!

It is none other. Her bright face smiles

a greeting as she comes and shows herself 320to be none other than my own Ismene.

Oe. What's that, Antigone?Ant.I see your child,

my sister. But hear her voice and know.

Ism.Father, sister, how these words are music

to my ears! It has been difficult to track you down,

but now I scarce can see you through my tears.

Oe. And are you come, my child?Ism.And sad to see you so.

Oe. I see your image, child.Ism.But only at some cost.Oe. Touch me, my child.Ism.Please, let me touch you both.

Oe. My children, sisters both!Ism.Such wretched lives! 330

Oe. Her life and mine?Ism.Mine too, a wretched third!

Oe. Why have you come, my child?Ism.Through care for you.

Oe. Through missing me?Ism.Also to bring you news,

alone but for this single trusted slave.

Oe. Where are your brothers then that they might help?

Ism.They are where they are and dreadful is their plight.

Oe. How like the ways of Egypt are the natures

and the style of life of my two sons!

For in that place the menfolk sit beneath their roofs

and weave the cloth; their wives, however, work 340

outside always to gain the wherewithal for life,

while as for these two sons, who ought by rights

to work, they keep themselves at home like maids,

while you, my daughters, labour in their stead

to ease my pain. The one since her childhood passed

into maturity relinquished care for self to be

a wanderer, sharing ever in my ill-starred company,

to guide an aged man, enduring much

in forests wild, an unfed, unshod nomad, prey

to storms of rain and the searing of the sun, 350

poor thing, quite careless of her style of life so long

as father had the means by which he might survive.

And you, my child, have ever come to bring

258



your father all the oracles that touched upon his fate -

the Thebans unaware - and have kept faithful watch

for me since I was exiled from the land.Again, Ismene, what then is this message which you bring

to me? What mission roused you from your home?

You have not come here empty handed I am sure,

but rather bring your father dreadful news. 360

Is. I will not touch on all the sufferings that I

endured in seeking, father, where you'd made

your present home. I do not wish to live again

those pains, retelling them a second time.

Now rather is the time to tell the tale of ills besetting your two wretched and unlucky sons.

At first it was their wish to leave the sovereign power

to Creon, so to spare the city more pollution yet,

in contemplation of the former taint upon the race,

which once had taken hold of your unlucky house; 370

but now foul strife has come upon these thrice

unlucky sons - some god or errant thought the cause -

inspiring them to snatch the kingship for themselves.

The younger of the two in years and temperament,

Eteocles, has driven his elder brother Polyneices both

from the throne and from the land in exile.

And he, according to the tale that most has currency

among us, went in his flight to Argos in its ring of hills

and there procured new kinsmen and spear friends -his aim

that Argos either should possess the land of Thebes 380

with honour, or that Theban fame should reach the stars.

These things, my father, are more than a sum of words.

Deeds terrible they are, and I am no way competent to tell

the point at which the gods will feel some pity at your fate.

Oe. You had some hope before then that the gods would set

some time in which I might some day be saved?

Is. Because of present oracles I had that hope.

Oe. What oracles? What has been prophesied, my child?

Is. Some day the men of Thebes will need to seek

you out, alive or dead, to bring them benefits. 390

259



Oe. But who could gain a benefit from such a man as I?

Is. In you they say there rests their future strength.

Oe. Precisely when I am no more I then become heroic?Is. The gods that brought you down are now restoring you.

Oe. Restored in age means nothing when one's youth was lost.

Is. Still you should know that Creon anyway will soon

or late be here because of matters such as these.

Oe. With what in mind, my child? Enlighten me.

Is. To plant you near the Theban border, that they might

control you there without your stepping on the land itself. 400

Oe. What benefit can come from one entombed outside the land?

Is. They think your tomb itself could be a grievous curse to them.Oe. Why that at least a man might understand without god's help.

Is. Therefore they want to set it in the ground close by,

but in a place wherein you have yourself no sovereignty.

Oe. They will not hide me then in Theban dust?

Is. The father's blood you spilled does not allow of that.

Oe. Then never ever will they lord it over me at least.

Is. This matter will prove baneful to the men of Thebes.

Oe. What are your grounds for this conjecture, child? 410

Is. Your anger when they shall stand beside your tomb.

Oe. From whom did you receive this news, my child?

Is. Ambassadors from beside the Delphic flame.

Oe. And has Apollo spoken thus of me?

Is. According to those who came to the land of Thebes.

Oe. Has either of my sons got wind of this?

Is. Yes, both of them alike are well acquainted with the news.

Oe. And in their wickedness, on hearing this, they put

their lust for power ahead of my recall?

Is. I grieve to hear that said, but it cannot be denied. 420

Oe. Then let not the gods put out the fated conflagration

of their strife, but rather let in my hands be the means

to bring conclusion to this war in which they are embroiled,

where spear is raised against competing spear;

so neither then would he who holds the throne

and sceptre stay in power, nor yet would ever he

come back again who now is fled; these sons, so called,

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did nothing to save me, forced headlong from

my native land in shame, but I was sent

away from home by them, proclaimed a fugitive. 430You well might say that in those days the city gave

this exile as a welcome, kindly gift to me.

Not so; for on that self same day when my heart

and soul did burn, although it was my dearest wish

to die that day, be stoned to death, no man appeared

to help me bring about that which I so desired;

in time, however, when my sum of pain had eased

and I began to realise my rage had in its urge

to punish far outrun the crimes that I had done before,why then it was precisely that the city forced 440

me from the land, belatedly indeed, and they,

their father's sons, who could have aided me,

refused to help and I for the lack of one brief word

was driven out by them, exiled in everlasting penury;

but it is from these innocent girls, in so far as nature will

allow them, that I receive the means to live, protection in

my wanderings about the land, the help that kin should give;

the brothers rather chose to seize their father's throne,

to wield his sceptred power and lord it over Thebes.

So they will never gain this man as ally to their cause, 450

nor will they ever gain a benefit from 'lording' it

in Cadmus' town; this I know both when I hear

the oracles this maiden brings and think on those

long since articulated words Apollo has achieved for me.

Therefore, I bid them dispatch Creon for to seek me out,

or any one who has some power in the town of Thebes.

For if, friends, you are willing, with the help of these

dread goddesses that are your fellow citizens, to give

me aid, then you will win a saviour for your city, bring

confusion and distress upon your enemies. 460

Ch. You and your daughters both, lord Oedipus,

deserve our sympathy and so, and since your words

declare you as a benefactor to this land, I wish

to render you advice regarding your predicament.

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Oe. My friend, I will abide by what you say in all respects.

Ch. Make cleansing offerings appropriate to these divinities

into whose precinct you first came and trespassed here.Oe. With what kind of rituals? Pray teach me, friends.

Ch. Bring sacred drinking water from a spring that does

not fail, and bring it here in hands that are clean. 470

Oe. And when I have procured this virgin draught?

Ch. There are bowls, the work of a man well skilled in his craft,

the rims and both handles of which you must adorn...

Oe. With branches or with offerings of wool, or something else?

Ch. With wool fresh shorn from a young she lamb.

Oe. So be it - and then to what last rite must I proceed?Ch. You must face the dawn's first light and pour the offerings.

Oe. Am I to pour them from the jars of which you speak?

Ch. In three streams, yes; and empty the last completely out.

Oe. Tell me with what I should fill this before I set it down. 480

Ch. Mix water and honey, but add no wine to it.

Oe. And when the shaded ground has had its fill of these?

Ch. Place three times nine of olive sprays from both

your hands upon the earth and make these prayers then.

Oe. I would be pleased to hear them. For they are critical.

Ch. Pray that these that we call the Kindly Ones, Eumenides,

with kindness in their saviour hearts receive the suppliant,

yes, pray for this yourself - or whosoever else prays in your stead,

and pray beneath your breath, do not lift up your voice.

Return then here without a second glance, and I will stand 490

beside you as you sacrifice to give encouragement.

For otherwise I would feel fear for you, my friend.

Oe. My children, did you hear the strangers' words?

Ant. We did; so tell us now what we must do.

Oe. I cannot go myself. For I am left quite helpless on

two evil counts - I am enfeebled and I can not see;

One of you two must go and do this thing for me.

For I believe it is enough for a single soul to pay this debt

on the part of thousands, if that soul is well disposed;

make haste, however, and do not leave me by myself. 500

My body does not have the strength to crawl

262



if left alone, without some helping hand.

Ism.I will go to fulfil this task, but I would like

to know where is this place I needs must find.Ch. Over there, beyond this grove, my child. There is

an attendant there to give advice, should you require it.

Ism.Then I will go and do this thing and you, Antigone,

protect our father here; we must not take account

of toil, if toil we must upon our parents' part.

Ch. Dreadful it is to arouse the memory of crimes str.

long buried, friend, 511

but still I yearn to know...Oe. Know what?

Ch. The agony that came and knew no cure

in which you were...involved.

Oe. By your friendship shown,

do not unlock the shame I felt.

Ch. The tale lives on and is widespread, my friend,

and I would learn the truth of it.

Oe. Oimoi!

Ch. Bear with me, I beg of you.

Oe. Pheu, pheu!

Ch. Indulge me, even as you have been by me indulged. 520

Oe. I have endured such misery, my friends, such misery, ant.

all unwilling and unwitting,

(god witness that) and nothing of my choice.

Ch. In what respect?

Oe. In my ignorance the city made for me an evil union

and shackled me to sin.

Ch. The rumour is that you have filled

your mother's bed, made it notorious?

Oe. O gods, these words are death for me to hear,

my friend, and my two daughters here... 530

Ch. Yes...

Oe. These children, damned...

Ch. O Zeus!

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Oe. Sprang from the pain and womb that mothered me.

Ch. These then are both your daughters and.. str.Oe. Yes, and sisters to their father too.

Ch. Oh, no!Oe. The twists and turns of countless ills.

Ch. You suffered...Oe.Dreads intolerable.

Ch. Your crimes...Oe.No crimes!Ch.No crimes?Oe.I won

a gift and now, distraught, I wish that I had not, 540

nor served the city so.

Ch. Distraught and wretched too... Was it a father's... ant.

Oe. What is that you still would know?Ch. blood you spilled?Oe.Again, a second blow

of hurt on hurt you wreak!

Ch. You murdered...Oe.Yes, I murdered him, but...

Ch. But what?Oe.There was some justice on my side.Ch. Justice?

Oe.I'll tell you how.

The man I killed I killed in ignorance;

Innocent in law and all unknowing I am come to this pass.

Ch. Here comes our master, Theseus the king,

the son of Aegeus, answering our call. 550

Theseus

From many have I heard in time gone by

of how you worked the bloody ruin of your sight,

and further information had upon this road

and so I know and recognise that you are Laius' son.

Your rags and ruined face betray

the fact to us of who you are and so I would

in pity ask, unhappy Oedipus, what you

would have of me and of my city here that brings

you to this place, both you and your companion.

Declare yourself. For you would have to tell 560

a story terrible indeed for me to turn away from it.

For I like you experienced an exile's life when still

a child, and wrestled in that foreign land

264



with fatal dangers, like no other man before or since.

And so I would not turn away from giving help

to any man who like you is suffering the exile's fate.I know I am a man and that I have no surer share

than you in what tomorrow brings.

Oe. These few noble words have demonstrated, Theseus,

that I need feel no shame to answer briefly too. 570

You have identified correctly who I am

and who my father was and what my home;

So nothing else is left to me but this, to tell

you what I want and then my tale is told.

Th. Then tell just that, that I may know.Oe. I am come to give my worn out corpse to you, a gift,

but not a pretty sight; and yet the benefits it brings

are greater far than beauty could alone bestow.

Th. What is the nature of this benefit you claim to bring?

Oe. In time you will discover that, not now. 580

Th. When will your kindness be revealed?

Oe. When I am dead and you provide a grave for me.

Th. Your sole request is for last rites, but what precedes

you count as nothing, have no care for it.

Oe. That sole request will guarantee the rest.

Th. This favour that you ask is limited in scope.

Oe. Consider though the struggle that it brings is great.

Th. You mean the war between your sons and me?

Oe. Those men will force my way from here to Thebes.

Th. But if you wish it so... this present exile is not good. 590

Oe. But when I did want Thebes, they would not have me there.

Th. To harbour grudges when one's out of luck is foolishness.

Oe. Restrain your good advice until you hear me through.

Th. Then teach me! For I must not speak in ignorance.

Oe. I have suffered grave indignities compounding wrong.

Th. You mean the ancient curse upon your race?

Oe. No, I do not - for that is common knowledge now.

Th. What sickness blights you more than other men?

Oe. This is my history: the very offspring of my loins, my sons

have driven me from my home and, as a parricide, it is 600

265



impossible that I should ever go back there again.

Th. How can they summon a fated exile back to them?

Oe. Apollo's oracle will force their hand.Th. What is the fate they fear will come to pass?

Oe. Necessity will strike them down in Attica.

Th. And how should bitterness arise between your sons and me?

Oe. Dear son of Aegeus, only the gods are free

from the threat of age and death, while time

that rules all things confounds all things.

The land's strength dies, the body's strength decays, 610

trust is dead and mistrust comes to be,

and neither does that consistent spirit liveamong the congregations of men and nation states.

For already now and in the time to come

men's pleasures bring them pain and pain reverts

to joy and if the sun shines brightly now on you

and Thebes, why, endless time gives birth

in time to endless days and nights in which

the spear will soon for trivialities disrupt

the pledge of present peace and harmony. 620

And on that day my corpse in death's

cold sleep will drink their hot blood spilt,

if Zeus is Zeus and Zeus' son Apollo true.

I have though no desire to speak of mysteries,

so let me stop where I began and simply keep

the promise which you made; and never will

you say that you were not well served to harbour

Oedipus, unless the gods shall play me false.

Ch. My lord, this man has given promise all along

of being one to work advantage for the land. 630

Th. What man would throw away the generosity

of such a one, with whom, as ally first of all,

our hearth is ever shared in mutuality?

He also comes as suppliant to our gods

and brings no little benefit to this land and me.

So, honouring his claim, I never shall reject

his gift, but rather settle him in the land as citizen.

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And if it suits the stranger to settle here, I lay on you

the task of guarding him, or he may come with me.

I grant you, Oedipus, the chance to make your choice 640and pleasure. I will fall in with what you wish.

Oe. Lord Zeus give rich reward to such as these.

Th. What is your choice? To come to my home?

Oe. If it were right for me... but this is the place...

Th. Where you must...what? I shall not hinder you.

Oe. Where I shall conquer those who threw me out.

Th. Rewards of victory for housing you would benefit indeed.

Oe. If you stay true to the promises you made.

Th. Fear not on my behalf. I'll not betray your trust.Oe. I will not put you under oath like any common man. 650

Th. You'd win no greater guarantee than from my word alone.

Oe. What will you do? Th.What causes you most dread?

Oe. Some men will come...Th.Then these will look to that.

Oe. Be careful if you leave...Th.Don't tell me what to do.

Oe. Fear presses me... Th.No fear consumes my heart.

Oe. You do not know the threat.Th.I know that none

will drive you from this place against my will.

Threats blurted out in rage are just so many

empty words and when the mind regains

composure, blusterings prove vain. As for these men, 660

it may well be that, though they found the hardihood

to speak harsh words concerning your return, the sea

will prove, I know, to be too wide and hard to cross.

For my part I urge confidence and not on my

say so alone, if Apollo was your escort here.

But still, without my presence here, I know my name

itself alone would keep you safe from any harm.

Ch. You have come, my stranger friend, str.

to the staunchest home in this dominion, rich

in horse - Colonus, blond of soil - wherein 670

the clear voiced nightingale

flutes constantly beneath

green groves,

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her home the wine dark ivy and the god's

untrodden greenery, so rich

in grapes and shaded from the sun,untouched by any storm

where Dionysus

ever keeps his reeling company

with nymphs divine. 680

Beneath the heavenly dew ant.

the clustering narcissus daily ever blooms,

of mighty goddesses time honoured

crown, and goldenflaring crocuses; nor do

the sleepless springs

of Cephisus run dry

that daily distribute her quick

and fertile stream across the plain,

a pristine flood 690

upon the land's broad breast;

nor do the Muses in their dance mislike this place,

nor Aphrodite of the golden rein.

And there is something here str.

unheard of in all Asia's lands,

unheard of too throughout the Doric isle of Pelops,

as ever being born,

a plant indomitable, spontaneous its growth,

a foreign army's dread,

luxuriating best of all in Attic soil, 700

the grey green olive branch that feeds our young;

no man, nor youth nor any else that dwells with age,

shall damage it with ravaging hand; the ever seeing

eye of Zeus who guards

the sacred trees looks over them,

as does the grey eyed goddess Athena.

Still further praise I have to tell ant.

268



of this our mother city, of a gift

most potent from a god most potent in himself,

a gift to glory in within the land, 710of horses fair and horses young, Poseidon's gift.

Yes, son of Cronos, Lord Poseidon, you

established Athens in this glory, contriving first

in Attica the reins that guide, control

the horse, invented too the well

turned oar that fits the hand

to leap amazingly

across the sea, to trail

the hundred footed Nereids.

Ant.Land granted warmest acclamation 720

match now with deeds these shining words.

Oe. What new circumstance, my daughter?Ant.Creon comes

upon us, father, his retinue a company of guards.

Oe. My aged friends, the time has come

for you to guarantee my safety now.

Ch. Be sure our promise stands; although I may be old,

the strength of this our land has not decayed with age.

Creon

Noble citizens of Attica - gentlemen - I see

from your expressions that you have conceived

some fearfulness at my arriving unexpectedly; 730

do not, pray, shrink from me, nor speak harsh words.

For I am not come as one with any untoward

designs, for I am old and know that I am come

upon a city strong as any that exists in Greece.

No, I am sent, despite my years, to convince

this man to follow me back to Cadmus' land,

sent not by any individual, but under orders from

the citizens at large, because I, most of all of them,

did grieve through kinship for his sufferings.

So, Oedipus, unhappy man, pay heed to me, 740

come home. All Thebans summon you

269



and justly so, but none more fervently than I,

by that degree, unless I am by nature born

the worst of men, that I feel pain at your distress,old man, on seeing you in exiled wretchedness,

always the wanderer, in straitened circumstance,

but one attendant, this daughter whom I thought

could never fall to such a pitch of misery

as these sorrowed depths she now has plumbed,

poor child, forever looking to your needs 750

in blindness and in daily poverty, unwed, though of

an age, and prey to any passing predatory man.

And is not this a harsh reproach that I have harshlylaid against myself and you and all our race?

It is not possible out here to hide a patent shame

and so, by our ancestral gods, obey me, Oedipus,

and hide it by returning willingly to Thebes,

and your father's house. Farewell this city here.

She is deserving. Though, by rights, your home

deserves respect, which was your nurse of old. 760

Oe. Is nothing then beyond your nerve that can produce

a cunning plot devised from specious rhetoric?

Why try this ploy again and wish once more to trap

me, taken in those very toils that cause me greatest pain?

In former days when I was sick with self inflicted ills,

and when my dearest wish was but to flee

the land, you then refused to gratify that wish,

but came the time my passion all was spent

and it were sweet to spend my life at home,

why then you chose to thrust me out, refused 770

to take account of kinship then as something worth.

And now again, on seeing Athens well

disposed to me and all my family, you try

to snatch me 'home', smooth talking villainy.

Perverse the pleasure here, in pleasuring unwilling men!

A man might just as well refuse to gratify

your eagerness or give you anything, but then,

when all your heart's desire was satisfied, bring gifts,

270



when favours bring no favour then at all!

Would you not gain an empty pleasure then? 780

And yet such are the benefits you bring to me,in theory fine gifts, but false in actuality.

I'll speak to these and prove how false you are.

You have come to take me away, but not to take

me home, but set me down as neighbour so

to keep your city free from threats from Attica.

Yet this you may not have, but rather, yes,

my ever living curse inhabiting the land

while the only portion of my land my sons

will win will be enough to bury them. 790Is not my care for Thebes superior to yours?

By far and by as much in fact as my advisers are

superior, Apollo and his father, Zeus himself.

The words you bring are counterfeit and edged

with steel, and yet these very words are like

to bring disaster rather than salvation on your head.

I know you cannot be persuaded though, so go!

And leave us be to live in Attica; for even living as

we are our life would not be bad, were we content.

Cr. You think the damage I may suffer will outweigh 800

the harm you do yourself by talking in this way?

Oe. One thing alone is best for me: that you cannot

inveigle me, nor influence our neighbours here.

Cr. Ill-starred you are, whose native wit has not improved

with time, who grows to be a shame to reverend age.

Oe. You are clever with your tongue, but I know of no

just man whose rhetoric is match for any theme.

Cr. Much talk and talk's effectiveness are poles apart.

Oe. As though your talk was brief and to the point.

Cr. A mind like yours might well think thus. 810

Oe. Oh, go away - for I will speak also for them -

and set no guard to watch where I must live.

Cr. I call these men to witness - not you - the words

with which you answer kin...if ever I lay hold on you...

Oe. And who would force me away from allies such as these?

271



Cr. You will suffer grief enough without my touching you...

Oe. What gives you confidence to make such boasts?

Cr. Of your two daughters one I've just now seizedand sent away and shall the other presently.

Oe. No, no!Cr.And soon you'll have more cause to weep! 820

Cr. You have my child?Cr. And shortly this one too.

Oe. My friends, what will you do? Will you betray

my trust, or will you drive this villain from the land?

Ch. Leave, stranger, now and quickly! Your actions past

and present are unjust and criminal.

Cr. Time now for you to drag her off.

Unwilling or not, it makes no difference.An. No, no, no ... where, where to...? Can any god

or mortal help me?Ch.Stranger, what...?

Cr. I shall not touch this man, but only what is mine. 830

Oe. Athenians!!Ch.This is rank injustice, stranger.

Cr. No, justice!Ch.How is this just?Cr.I take my own!

Oe. Athens, Athens! str.

Ch. What are you doing, stranger? Let her go! Do not provoke

a test of strength.

Cr. Stand clear!Ch.Not when you contemplate this crime!

Cr. War with Thebes, should you lay hands on me!

Oe. Did I not prophecy this fact?Ch.Release that girl

immediately!Cr.No sanctions when you have no strength!

Ch. I tell you, let her go!Cr.And I tell you to get you gone! 840

Ch. Friends, fellow citizens, advance!

My city is outraged in all its strength...

Advance to help!!

An. They are dragging me away...friends, help me, friends.

Oe. My child, where are you?An.Here, here forced to leave...

Oe. Stretch out your hands, my child...An.I can't...no strength...

Cr. Away with her!Oe.I am destroyed, destroyed...

Cr. You never more shall walk with help of these

twin crutches! Now since you want to best

your native land and people - on whose authority, 850

272



as king, of course, I act in this - why, have

your way. In time you will, I think, begin to see

that you do yourself no favours here, nor didyou so before, indulging in your rage, despite

your friends' advice, that rage that ever did you harm.

Ch. Wait there, my friend!Cr.I suggest you leave me be...

Ch. I will not let you go until you free these girls.

Cr. You soon will give to Thebes an even greater pledge

of good behaviour. I'll lay my hands on more than girls.

Ch. So, meaning what?Cr.I'll seize and drag this man away. 860

Ch. A blasphemy...Cr.And all too soon fulfilled.

Ch. Not if the ruler of this land gets in your way.Oe. Have you no shame? Would you lay hands on me?

Cr. Be silent, I say!Oe.I pray these goddesses to give

me voice to utter still my imprecation on your head,

you villain, who leave this place a violent thief,

who robbed me in my blindness of my child, my eyes.

So may the sun who watches all grant

you yourself and all your race the kind of life

to bring at last an old age such as mine. 870

Cr. Do you see this, people of the land?

Oe. They see us both and understand my injuries

are actual, but my defence can be but words.

Cr. I will not check my rage and though I am alone

and slowed by age I'll take that man by force.

Oe. Help me, please! ant.

Ch. Fraught with arrogance, stranger, you have

come, if you intend to carry this through!

Cr. I do intend.Ch.Then I shall no more believe in Athens.

Cr. In a just cause even the weak can overcome the strong. 880

Oe. Do you hear his words!Ch.Yes, threats he won't fulfil, if Zeus

is sensible to this.Cr.Oh, Zeus is far more sensible than you.

Ch. Is this not arrogance?Cr.Arrogance perhaps, but yours to bear.

Ch. Help, citizens all, help, leaders of the land!

Make haste, make haste! These men

are making their escape.

273



Th. What are these shouts, and what is going on? What fear

has prompted you to keep me from my sacrifice besidePoseidon's altar, lord of Colonus? You, tell me all! For I

have had to run much faster than I'd choose to find this out! 890

Oe. O dearest of men - for yes I recognise your voice - just now...

oh, I have suffered dreadful treatment at his hands.

Th. What kind of treatment? Tell me who has done you harm.

Oe. This man, Creon, whom you can see is leaving, snatched

from me my daughters, both of them, and all I have.

Th. Your daughters?Oe.Yes, you heard my injury.

Th. Go, quickly, one of you, go quickly as you canto the place of sacrifice and order all the people there,

on foot and mounted too, to leave the sacrifice

and speed their urgent flight near where the roads, 900

twin highways come together, meet, to stop

the passage of his daughters and save me from ridicule

at this stranger's hands, as one outdone by force.

Go quickly now on my command! And as for him,

if I were to deal with him as angrily as he deserves,

he would not leave this land of mine unscathed;

But now he will be dealt with in accordance with

those self same rules he brought with him himself.

For you shall not depart this land until such time as you

restore those girls and bring them back before my eyes. 910

Your crimes are a source of shame and embarrassment

both to me and to your countrymen and to your native land,

in that you have come to Athens, a city that observes

the rule of law and justice absolutely and yet set at nought

her sovereign principles by this invasion and this rape,

by seizing what you would and taking it by force;

it seems to me you either thought my city was devoid

of men or slavish in mentality, and I a man of no account.

And yet it was not Thebes that schooled you in iniquity;

for it is not the Theban way to nurture lawlessness, 920

nor would the men of Thebes approve of your misdeeds,

if they should learn that you had plundered what was mine,

274



and what belonged to the gods, abducting helpless suppliants.

Nor, should I set foot upon your land, would I snatch -

had I a case as just as any case could be - or take awayone thing without the sanction of the ruler of your land,

whoever he might be, since I would know just how

a foreigner should act when living in a foreign land.

But you have brought an undeserved disgrace

upon your native Thebes, and time in its fullness will set 930

you down as a man both old and quite bereft of sense.

I have spoken once and will do so again:

let someone bring the young girls here as fast

as possible, unless you wish to share our hospitality,enforced against your will; these words I speak

come spoken with the sanction of my heart and mind.

Ch. You see your situation, stranger? Your origins

should show you just, did not your crimes prove otherwise.

Cr. Not because I thought this city cowardly, lord Theseus,

nor lacking in good counsel, as you claim, did I do 940

this thing, but in the knowledge and belief that your

own folk could never be so moved by love for mine

that they would wish to harbour them against my will.

And furthermore I knew that you would never welcome

here a man polluted by his patricide, convicted of

unholy marriage ties with her that gave him birth.

I also knew the native wisdom of the Areopagus

was such that it would not allow such wanderers

as these to take up residence within the state;

this gave me confidence to undertake this chase. 950

And even then I would not have done these things

had he not hurled sharp curses both at me and mine.

My response was justified as payment for these hurts.

For anger grows not old, does not decay,

can only die, while only the dead can feel no rage.

And your response will take what shape you will;

the fact I am alone reduces my effectiveness,

whether or not my words are just. Yet weak though I

may be, I'll try to combat you as best I can.

275



Oe. Such shameless arrogance! Who bears the stigma more, 960

do you think, of your insults - me, old as I am, or you?

Your lips have hurled the slurs of parricideand incest against me and all my fate, which I

endured in misery perforce; for such was the will

of the gods who were ever hostile to my race.

You could not find in me, if taken by myself,

a cause for insult based on real, objective guilt

for any of the 'crimes' I did against my kin and me.

Instruct me, pray, how you might find just cause to hurl

abuse at me, if some god spoken oracle had come

to my father saying he should die at his son's hands, 970when I was not yet even born, had not been sired,

nor even planted in my mother's womb?

And had you been shown, as have I in my wretchedness,

to have come to blows with your own father and killed

him, unaware of what you did, though, and to whom,

how could you properly condemn that involuntary act?

Nor are you ashamed, you wretch, to make me speak

about my mother and the match I made with her,

your sister, as speak of it I shall; for I shall not be still, 980

when you have emerged to talk with such impiety.

Yes, she gave birth to me, yes, gave me birth, accursed

as I am, but neither of us knew, and having borne

me she bore sons by me to be a cause of shame.

But this one thing I do know well, that you have willingly

reviled both her and me in this, while all unwittingly

I married her and do not wish to even speak of it...

but even in this marriage people do not call me criminal,

nor even in respect of that which you forever charge me with,

my father's murder, bitterly taunting me with that. 990

So answer me one single question that I ask.

If some man attacked you now, yes, you, "just" man,

with murderous intent, would you first ask if the would

be murderer had fathered you, or punish him at once?

No, I believe, as you love life, you would subdue

the guilty one, and not look to justify yourself.

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Such were the exact circumstances that I met,

when driven by the gods; and so I do not even think

my father's spirit, did it live, would contradict my case.But then you are not just, but think it right to talk 1000

of anything, what should be said and what should not,

and to taunt me in this way before these men.

You think it right to flatter Theseus' name, and Athens,

how well regulated is the place, but while indulging

in this flattery the fact escapes your notice that of all

the city states this Athens knows the honours due

to gods, excelling in their rituals, yet from this very place

you would attempt to snatch this aged suppliant, try layyour hands on him, abduct his daughters and flee.

Wherefore I now appeal as suppliant to these 1010

dread goddesses and assail them with my pleas

to come as allies to my aid that you may learn

by what manner of men this city is sustained.

Ch. The stranger is a noble man, my lord; his fate

was truly terrible, but he deserves our help.

Th. Enough of talk! The perpetrators of this crime

have fled, while we, the victims are stock still.

Cr. I am helpless in your hands. What should I do?

Th. Lead off in their direction with me to escort you

that if you have those children hereabouts you can 1020

come to them yourself and show me them. But if

your men have taken them and fled we need not be

concerned. For others of our troops

will make such haste they never will escape

this land to gratify their gods. So, on your way!

The biter has been bit and fate has trapped

the hunter. Ill gotten gains cannot be kept -

and you will have no other help in this,

since I know well you did not come unarmed and ill

prepared for such a daring and outrageous act. 1030

You had another trusted partner in this crime.

I must look into this and not allow my city to seem

far weaker than a single man. You understand

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my meaning then? Or perhaps you think the threat

I pose is as empty as those made when you plotted this.

Cr. One must, of course, take seriously what you sayin Athens, but at home I too will know my duty.

Th. Brag on but go now! Oedipus, remain secure,

our guest in Attica, and be assured that I, unless

I die before I shall leave no stone unturned 1040

until I return your children to your care.

Oe. Gods bless you, Theseus, for your nobility

of heart and your kind care of us.

Ch. Would that I might see str.

the enemy forces wheel

and mix in bronze and clanging war

either by the Pythian shore or the torch

lit side of the sea,

where reverend goddesses establish rites 1050

consecrated to the dead,

lips sealed in golden peace

by attendant priests;

I see there Theseus provoke the fight

and twin unmarried girls

surrounded soon

by battle cries opposed

within the land.

Perhaps their path ant.

is westward on to Oia's rocks 1060

and snow grassed heights

on horseback or on chariots so rapid

in their flight.

His plans will fail! The men of Colonus are dread

in war and dread is Theseus' might.

The bridles glitter in the sun;

loose reined the whole

contingent headlong hurls

in hot pursuit, the knights 1070

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who hold Athena high,

horse goddess, and the sea born earthquake lord,

loved son of Rhea.

Is the action under way or close to hand? str.

My premonition is

I soon shall meet these

daughters who have suffered so, have found

ill treatment at a kinsman's hands.

Lord Zeus will have it so, will have it so today.

I prophecy our victory in the fight. 1080

I wish I were a dove, storm swift and strongthat I might command and gain

a vantage point of cloud

to cast my eye as witness

of the battle that is formed.

All seeing Zeus, lord of the gods ant.

supreme, ensure

the rulers of this land

ensnare, with strength in victory,

the prize for which they seek

I pray to Pallas Athena too, the holy child of Zeus, 1090

and Apollo the hunter to come,

with his sister by his side, yes, Artemis

whose quarry is the parti-coloured deer

so swift of foot, twin source

of aid to Athens and her citizens.

My wandering friend, no need for you to claim

my second sight is flawed; I see your daughters both,

they are under escort and drawing nearer now.

Oe. Where, where? What did you say?Ant.O father. father!

I wish some god might grant that you could see 1100

this best of men who has brought us here to you!

Oe. My child, you're really here?Ant.Because these hands,

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yes, Theseus' hands have saved us and his faithful friends.

Oe. Approach your father, child, and let me hold the form

that I despaired would ever come to my embrace again.Ant.But ask and win! Your wish is matched by mine.

Oe. Where are you both?Ant.Together we come to you.

Oe. My dearest ones.Ant.A father always loves his own.

Oe. My sole support!Ant.We shared in your unhappy fate.

Oe. I have what I love most and should I die, I now 1110

would not be sorrowful with you, together, at my side.

Cling close on either side, my darlings, hold

your father close, be calm, our separation now

is ended and your unhappy jeopardy is past.So tell me, quickly as you can, what happened;

for modesty forbids young girls to talk at length.

Ant.This man did rescue us and so it is from him that you

should hear his exploits, father... so, my brief task is done.

Oe. Do not be surprised, my friend, if I so earnestly extend

my greeting to my girls - restored against all hope. 1120

For I well know the joy I have in them

is come from no other benefactor but you.

For you it was and no man else that rescued them.

So may the gods provide for you as I would wish,

for you yourself and for your land, since all alone

among your folk have I found piety of heart,

fair-mindedness and men that tell no lies.

My praise is conscious acknowledgement of this.

I have that I have from you and from no mortal else.

Stretch out your good right hand to me, my lord, 1130

that I might touch it and, god willing, kiss your cheek.

But what am I saying? How should a man, accursed as

I am, dare to lay his hand on one who has no stain

nor share of infamy? I would not wish it so,

nor yet will I allow it. Only those experienced

in my plight may share in comforting my grief.

Do you receive my welcome where you stand, and for

the rest, remain as just as you have been to me today.

Th. I am not surprised that your delight in these

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your children should provoke a lengthy salutation, 1140

nor that you should prefer their speech at first to mine.

There is absolutely nothing here to hurt my pride.We do not exercise ourselves for noble reputation

based on words alone, but rather based on deeds.

My proof is this: on not one promise made to you,

old man, have I defaulted. These, your daughters, safe

and sound, untouched by their ordeal, I have returned

to you. And as to how their kidnapper was caught, why boast

in vain of that, when you will learn it anyway from these.

There is, however, a fresh report that I have chanced upon 1150

while hurrying here regarding which I would appreciateadvice - a minor tale perhaps, but surprising all the same.

A mortal man should not treat any thing as trivial.

Oe. What is it, child of Aegeus? Inform me, since

I am myself in ignorance of what you ask.

Th. They say a certain man, no countryman of yours,

but of your family, has hurled himself as suppliant

and taken up his place beside Poseidon's tomb, where I

was making sacrifice when I set out for here.

Oe. What is his land? And what the object of his plea? 1160

Th. I only know one thing; my people tell me that

he wants brief audience with you, a minor thing...

Oe. But why? One does not fall at altars seeking trivia.

Th. They say his sole request is to speak with you

and then depart in safety from this place.

Oe. Who can it be that would make such a plea to the god?

Th. Have you by chance a kinsman living in Argos who

might wish to gain some favour from your hand?

Oe. My friend, I beg you, stop...Th.But why, what is it now?

Oe. I beg you, do not ask!Th.Not ask for what? Speak, speak! 1170

Oe. From hearing what you say I know the suppliant.

Th. Who is this man to whom I might object?

Oe. It is my son, my lord, a villain, to hear whose words

would cause the sharpest pain to me of any man.

Th. But why? Can you not give a hearing but yet refuse

to act against your will? What harm in hearing him?

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Oe. My lord, his voice has become his father's bane;

do not require me to yield as to necessity in this.

Th. Consider his state and its necessities: perhapsyour own devotion to the god must be conserved. 1180

Ant.Though I am but a young girl, father, listen to me.

Allow this man to gratify his wishes and grant

whatever service to the god it is his will to grant;

give way to us as well and let our brother come.

Be sure he will not move you from your resolve

by force of arguments that bode no good to you.

What harm then in hearing him? His evil plots

will be betrayed, discovered through his tone.You fathered him and so were he to do to you

the foulest wrong a villain might commit, why you 1190

must not retaliate and match a wrong with wrong.

No, let him come! For other men have evil sons

and an impetuous heart, but still are mollified and change

their mood when gently guided by their friends.

Think not of now, consider rather what you

have suffered at a father's and a mother's hand,

and, if you do, I know that you will recognise

the evil end that is an evil temper's lot. For you

have ample evidence of this - in rage you once

did ravage sight from eyes that see no more. Be ruled 1200

by us! It is not right nor fair that those whose cause

is just should have to plead too long, nor that a man,

whose plea was met, should refuse to pay his debt.

Oe. My child, your plea will win from me consent,

but grudgingly; but let it be as you would wish it so.

But, friend, should that young man come here,

let no man ever be the master of my soul.

Th. I do not wish to hear such prayers more than once,

old man. I have no wish to boast, but know your

life is safe, so long as any god shall keep me safe. 1210

Ch. Whoever wants to live beyond str.

life's normal share of years, rejects

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that modest span, in my view he shall

be patent in his guilt of courting phantom goods.

Excessive length of days sets muchin place of closer kin to pain, while joys

shall find no place for witnessing,

when life befalls a man beyond

the limit due; eventually the self same helper comes, 1220

when Hades' fate is manifest,

unhymned, undanced, unwed,

yes, Death delivers at the last.

Not to be born is far the best ant.

scenario; but if a man appears,

next best to go as swiftly as he may

back down the path from whence he came.

For once his thoughtless youth

is spent and gone in idleness, what blows 1230

of wretched fate are strange to him?

What grief is not his lot?

Spite, discord, strife, disputes

and deaths; then friendless and unloved old age,

abused and weak and separate,

obtains possession, age-old

participant in woe on woe.

Such this man's wretched fate he shares with me, ep.

like some north facing cape that from all sides, 1240

surf struck, is lashed by winter's echoing surge,

just so the dreaded curse,

his fellow traveller, assails

his head with constant serried storm tossed blasts,

some from the setting of the sun,

some from the eastern dawn,

some from the noontide's rays,

some from shadowed northern hills.

Ant.I do believe the so called stranger is approaching us...

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all unattended and alone and from his eyes stream 1250

floods of tears to keep his journey company.

Oe. Who is the man?Ant.The man we always have in mind,my father. Polyneices is the man who comes to us.

Polyneices

But what to do? Should I bemoan, my sisters, first

the ills afflicting me, or the sight of this old man's,

my father's tragedy? I find him in a foreign land,

with you alone to share his exile, dressed in foul

and squalid clothes that match his old man's age,

unhealthy on his flesh, while on his sightless head 1260

the uncropped hair blows wildly in the wind;as if as kin to these, it seems, he carries bits of food

with which to soothe his wretched hunger pangs.

I learn these things all far too late, wretch that I am.

And I confess I am the worst of men in all that has

to do with care for you. Learn this from me alone.

But since Compassion shares the throne of Zeus in all

his works, then let her sit by your side, father, too.

There is a remedy for all the errors we have made,

but no way at all in which we can compound them. 1270

Why this silence?

Say something, father, do not turn away from me.

No answer then? You'd send me off dishonoured then,

without a word of explanation for your rage?

My sisters, offspring of this self-same sire, I beg

you, try to move to speech our father's heart

that is so hard to deal with, so implacably set, and pray

that he may not dismiss, disgrace me so - although I come

as suppliant to the god - without a word's response.

Ant.Reveal yourself what need and sorrow brings you here. 1280

Words freely flowing can themselves bring joy,

show rage, or even pity in a man and so provide

a voice for those who thought their voice was lost.

Pol. Then I will speak. For your advice is sound, Antigone;

I must at first enrol that god as ally to my cause from whose

shrine Theseus, Athens' lord, did send me out to come,

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with conduct safe upon the road, to speak to you and hear.

And so I wish that I might gain from you my friends,

and from my sisters - and my father too - this privilege. 1290I wish to tell you, father, why I came.

I have been driven as an exile from my native land,

because I did demand by right of primogeniture

my lawful place upon your seat of power.

It was for this your younger son, Eteokles, did drive

me from the land, although he had not won his case

in argument, nor come to test me hand to hand,

but yet he tricked the citizens. I declare the cause of these

events to be the curse that dogs your house;such also I have heard from oracles divine. 1300

For when I came to Dorian Argos, there I took

to wife the daughter of Adrastus and, by oaths

administered, allied myself with all the men of Apia

renowned and honoured for their deeds in war,

so that by raising such a sevenfold force of spears against

the town of Thebes I might in just cause die, or throw

the men who did this thing out from the land.

And so - what is the reason for my visit here?

To bring my prayers to you, my father, mine

and those pleas of my allies too who even now 1310

with seven spears in hand and seven hosts drawn up

behind invest the plain of Thebes in its entirety:

they number Amphiaraus, strong of spear, foremost

in battle with the spear and foremost too in augury;

the second is Aetolian Tydeus, Oeneus' son,

and after him Eteokles, one born of Argive stock;

the fourth, Hippomedon, his father Talaos

did send; the fifth, Capaneus, proclaims in pride

he will demolish Thebes and burn it to the ground;

From Arcadia Parthenopaeus next makes haste to war, 1320

his name is from his mother Atalanta, virgin once,

but who in marriage later birthed her trusty son;

and I, your son, or if not yours, the progeny born

of evil fate and notorious at least as yours, I lead

285



the fearless Argive force against the town of Thebes.

And so we beg of you in concert, father, by the lives

of these two girls and by your very life and soul,give up to me your heavy rage as I set out

to seek a punishment for him, Eteocles, who drove

me out and robbed me of my native land. 1330

For if validity exists in oracles of gods, why then

the strength is theirs with whom you take your place.

Now by the springs and by the gods that share

our race, I beg you, be persuaded, yield to me,

` for we are beggars both and exiles too alike;

We find a roof, the both of us, by flattery ofstrangers, share the self same fate allotted us - but he,

he swells at home in kingly pride and mocks us both.

Him I shall, if you ally yourself with me and my 1340

design, dismember in a minimum of time and toil.

Then taking you to your own house I'll set you there,

and set myself up too, when I have forced him out.

With you at my side me I may yet boast these things,

without you scarce the strength I have to save my life.

Ch. For Theseus' sake who sent this fellow here, lord Oedipus,

consider what is best to say before dismissing him.

Oe. My friends and guardians of this land, were it not

for the fact that Theseus himself had sent him here

to me, and judged that he should hear my words, 1350

he never would have gained this access to my voice.

But now he has been honoured with this audience,

he will hear such things as never shall make glad his life;

you are the reprobate who, when you held the throne

and sceptre, that your brother now does wield in Thebes,

did drive me, your own father, out yourself and made

me stateless, made me dress in rags like these, the sight

of which inspires your tears, when now you find yourself

to be surrounded by a mass of troubles similar to mine.

I have no tears shed, but rather now must bear my lot, 1360

so long as I shall live, and think of you as murderer.

For you it was that set my life within this misery,

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who drove me out; you caused my wanderings

and make me beg my daily bread from foreigners.

For if I had not got these girls to give me sustenance ,I would be dead for all the help I got from you.

But now they keep me safe and tend my needs,

and work for me like very men indeed, not girls,

while you behave like someone else's sons, not mine.

A god of vengeance looks upon you now, therefore, 1370

but not as fiercely as he will should come the time

your host shall march on Thebes. There is no way that you

will storm that city. Rather, you will fall before the walls,

bespattered with a brother's blood, as he with yours.Such are the curses that I loosed on you both before,

and now I summon them again as allies to my side,

that you may learn the worth of honouring your sire,

learn not to hold me worthless just because the man

who fathered you is blind. These girls did otherwise.

And so your pleas and powers are subject to my curse, 1380

if Justice, of the ancient voice, still sits and dwells

with Zeus, according to the laws long since set down.

So go then and be spat upon and be disowned by me,

your father, for your utter criminality, and gather up

my curses, called upon your head, proclaiming you

shall never conquer Argos with the spear, nor yet

return to live in the Argive vale, but rather die

by a sibling hand and kill the kin who drove you out.

Such then my curse, and I invoke the dread paternal dark

of Tartaros to drive you from this place, whose guardian 1390

deities I also have invoked, and on Ares shall I call

who has instilled in you this dread and mutual hate.

Hear this then and go, and as you go pronounce

to all the men of Thebes - and to your trusty host

as well - the kind of gifts and privilege

that Oedipus has shared between his sons.

Ch. I never yet took pleasure, Polyneices, in past journeyings

of yours, and also now I bid you quickly go from here.

Pol. My journey then is wasted and my failure damns

287



my friends, and this is the fated climax to my quest 1400

from Argos, cursed and unlucky that I am.

An outcome such as this I cannot tellto my companions, nor turn them back,

but I must keep my peace and meet my fate.

My sisters, you have heard our father's harsh

curse launched against me and so, by all the gods,

I beg you, if his imprecations are fulfilled,

and you somehow do make your way back home

to Thebes, do not you dishonour me, at least,

but place me in my tomb with proper burial rites. 1410

And then the praise you win from him for whatyou've done for him, you'll win again no less

from me for services you render to my corpse.

Ant.I beg you, Polyneices, listen and consent to what I say.

Pol. Tell me what is it that you want, Antigone, my sweet.

Ant.Return your force to Argos with all speed;

do not bring destruction on yourself and Thebes.

Pol. It is not possible. For how could I take charge of these

same men again, when I had once shown fear?

Ant.But why must you be angry for a second time? 1420

What gain for you in laying waste your native land?

Pol. Exile brings shame and also being mocked,

although the elder, by the younger son.

Ant.You surely see how this will expedite our father's curse,

which shrieks that you will cause each other's death.

Pol. That is his wish, but I must not grow soft.

Ant.My family is cursed! And who will dare to follow you,

when once they learn the nature of your father's curse?

Pol. I shall not announce his ravings, since the careful general

should only tell what boosts morale, not shatters it. 1430

Ant.Your mind is quite made up then, Polyneices?

Pol. It is - and you must not seek to hold me back.

This ominous deadly path awaits me now,

carved out by father's vengeful and furious will.

As for you two, may Zeus reward you well, if dead

you render me the services forbidden in my life.

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Now let me go, and fare you well. No more will you

look on my living face again.Ant.No, no, no...

Pol. You must not grieve for me.Ant.Who would not grieveyou, brother, headlong in flight to a death foretold? 1440

Pol. Needs must, so I shall die.Ant.There is no need, I say.

Pol. You must not say there is no need.Ant.Then I am lost...

bereft of you.Pol.Whichever way these things turn out,

they all are in the hands of fate. And as for you,

I pray the gods you never come to any harm.

For every man agrees that you do not deserve to suffer ill.

Ch. I have heard this wanderer speak fresh str. a. disasters fresh to come and heavy with doom -

unless by chance Fate fails to strike. 1450

But I cannot proclaim that any of the gods' decrees are vain.

For ever Time keeps watch on watch, destroying some,

but daily raising others up in turn.

The sky reverberates... lord Zeus!!

Oe. My children, children, send some one of these

to summon and to bring the noble Theseus to us.

Ant.What is it, father, that you want from him?

Oe. This winged thunder of lord Zeus will speed 1460

me down to Death - so send for him at once.

Ch. Behold, the blast of Zeus is crashing down,

unspeakable - the terror - Hair crawls

erect upon my head... the heart

thumps in my chest... the sky is all ablaze again with fire.

What issue from the flare? I am afraid. For never in vain

does the lightning flash, nor yet without calamity. 1470

Great Heaven, lord Zeus!!

Oe. My children, there comes upon this man the end of life

as prophesied, from which there can be no escape.

Ant.How can you now? What proof have you of this?

Oe. I know! But quickly as you can let someone go

and bring to me the ruler of this land.

289





of lightning, hurled from Zeus' indomitable hand.

Th. I am convinced. For I see that of your many prophecies

not one is false. So tell me what it is that I must do.Oe. I will reveal to you those gifts that neither time nor age

can spoil, which you shall lay in store to benefit your city.

I shall myself at once and with no guiding hand 1520

direct you to the place where I must die.

Do not betray the secret of this place where it is hid,

nor yet the ground wherein it lies to any mortal man,

so that this place will make for you a bastion worth

many shields, worth more than a host of allied spears.

There are, however, mysteries that words may not reveal,which you will learn when unaccompanied you visit there.

And these I cannot tell to any of your citizens, nor yet

to my daughters here, despite my love for them.

So keep the secret safe and when you come 1530

to the end of life, reveal it only to your closest heir,

then let him teach his too, and so on in perpetuity.

Thus you will keep this town of Athens safe

from Theban warriors. Ten thousand cities take offence

at trivialities, although well one governs them.

The overview of the gods is keen, but slow to act,

should a man run mad and neglect the rites divine.

Be sure you never suffer such a fate, Lord Theseus -

but I am teaching one who is well versed in government.

Let us now make haste to the place itself, since the word 1540

of god is pressing me, and let us not be turned aside again.

My children, follow on - for I am now transformed

to be your new found guide as once you guided me.

So forward now and do not touch my hand, but let

me hunt out my sacred resting place unaided where

it is my lot to be concealed within the earth.

This way, then, come with me! For this is the way

that Hermes, guide of souls, and Death are leading me.

Sun's light, no light to me, though once you were,

now grace my body with your farewell touch. 1550

For now I creep to this last chapter of my life,

291



to hide myself in Hades' house - and you, most kind

of stranger friends, and your land and descendants, blessed

for ever be, and when good fortune smiles on you, think thenof me and of my death that brought you lasting benefit.

Ch. If it is right for me to honour the unseen goddess str.

and also you with my prayers,

dread lord of the dead,

Aidoneus, Aidoneus, I beg of you 1560

let the stranger's descent

to death's enclosing plain

and Stygian home below be free from pain and heavy grief.

For many and undeserved were the ills

that came on him before for which

some just god should restore him.

292



Earth Goddesses, and you their dread, ant.

strong bodied hound that rests and guards

the hospitable gates and snarls 1570from the caves of Hell,

unconquerable watchdog

of myth everlasting,

I call on you and on the son

of Earth, yes, Death himself, allow

clear passage for this stranger

down below to the plains of death;

I call on you that grants the sleep of death.

Messenger

Friends, fellow citizens, my message is

in essence briefly told: lord Oedipus is gone. 1580

But as to what occurred, the tale of that is neither brief

to tell, nor were the things that happened brief themselves.

Ch. Then poor Oedipus is dead?Me.Be well assured

that Oedipus has left this lengthy life at last.

Ch. And did the gods grant him a painless death?

Me. Now there's a thing that one can justly wonder at.

For as to how he crept away from here, with none of his kin

to guide him, you were eye witnesses yourselves

and know how he was guide himself to all of us;

but when he reached that steep and broken cleft, 1590

where steps of bronze lead down to the root of earth,

he stopped at one of the many branching paths -

close by the hollow in the rock where ever stands the stone

that Theseus set to mark his pledge to Peirithous;

he stood mid way between the stone of Thoricus

and the hollow pear, between the tree and the tomb

of marble, and there he sat and shed his grimy robe.

He called aloud to his daughters then and bade them bring

spring water with which to wash and pour an offering;

so they made their way to a nearby hill - it was sacred 1600

to Demeter, goddess of green and tender growth,

and quickly carried out their father's wish and washed

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and dressed him in the right and proper way.

When Chthonian Zeus was satisfied that Oedipus

had done all that he was enjoined to do and that nowish else was unfulfilled, he thundered and they,

the daughters froze in fear on hearing this and fell

before their father's knees, burst into tears and beat

their breasts, gave vent to lengthy cries of fear.

And when he heard their sharp and sudden screams, 1610

he folded them in his arms' embrace and said,

"My children, on this day your father is no more.

For everything that is of me is dead. No more

will you have the tiresome task of looking after me.No easy task, I know, but one brief word transforms

those hardships every one and makes them null.

For such a love you had from me as you could have

from no man else, but you shall lose me now

and live through the rest of your days bereft."

All wrapped in each other's arms they wept, 1620

exchanging sorrows such as these. And when

they came to the end of weeping, and their sobs

were heard no more and silence fell, a sudden voice

bayed out to him, so that in dread their scalps

began to crawl and raise the hairs upon their necks.

For the god called out aloud to him repeatedly,

"You, Oedipus, yes, Oedipus, why do we hesitate

to leave? This business is delayed by you too long."

And when he heard that he was summoned by the god,

he asked that Theseus approach, king of the land. 1630

And when he came he said, "Dear man, I beg

you, give your hand to my daughters in solemn trust,

and do you children do the same to him. You must

not ever willingly forsake these children, Theseus,

and always be disposed to do the best you can for them."

And Theseus immediately, the natural gentleman,

with no demur, pledged he would this for his friend.

When Theseus had made his promise, Oedipus

placed blind hands upon his children and said,

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"My children, you must now be true to your brave 1640

and noble hearts and leave this place and do not think

to look upon that which you must not, nor hear it.Away with you as quickly as you can, for only Theseus,

the king, may stay to learn what shall be done.

All who were present there together heard

his words and joined in weeping with the girls

and followed them away. No sooner had we left

than, turning round, we looked back and saw

no further sign of Oedipus, while the king

had placed his hands before his face as if to shield 1650

his eyes, as if some dreadful vision had appearedthat had proved impossible for him to look upon.

After but a little while we saw him greet

in single prayer and at one time his native earth

and Olympus, home of the gods.

But of the final fate of Oedipus himself,

no mortal man can tell but Theseus.

For it was no fire-breathing thunderbolt

of god removed him at that time,

nor any storm arising from the sea, 1660

but it was some god escorted him, or earth's

deep base in kindness gaped painlessly for him.

No cries of grief accompanied the man, nor pains

from sickness sent him on his way - his death,

miraculous... Perhaps you think my words run mad?

But if you think that that is so, so be it.

Ch. Where are his daughters and the men who went with them?

Me. They are close by. Their cries of grief

betray that they are drawing near.

Ant.Now we sad sisters both must grieve and grieve again, 1670

utterly, utterly for the curse of our birth str.

and blood that afflicted our father.

For him we bore

the long labour so long stretching before us.

And at the last must report on a vision,

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weeping and I to my sorrow 1710

know not how to lighten

this burden of grief.I grieve at your wish

to die in strange lands, so you died

unadorned by my hands.

Is. Ah, wretch that I am, what fate

yet awaits you and me, my dear sister,

now bereft of our father?

Ch. No, since his end has been accomplished well, 1720

cease from grief, my dear ones.

All men fall swift prey to ill luck.

Ant.Dear sister, we must hurry back...Is.To do what? str.

Ant. Nostalgia seizes me...Is.For what? Please tell.

Ant. To look once more upon our native hearth...

Is. On whose?Ant.Our father's, wretch that I am...

Is. Can that be lawful? Can you

not see for yourself?Ant.But why this reproach? 1730

Is. And also see...Ant.Yes, see what else?

Is. He chose to die untombed apart from all.

Ant. Then take me there and kill me too!

Is. How then shall I keep a hold

on life, deserted and destitute,

poor wretch that I am?

Ch. Dear children, have no fear.Ant.But where shall we fly? ant.

Ch. But you have found a haven here...Ant.Where, Where?

Ch. as has your fate, that will come to no harm. 1740

Ant. I know...Ch.What is it then that troubles you?

Ant. I do not have the means to bring

us safely home.Ch.Do not then seek to go.

Ant. It is all so hard...Ch.And ever was before.

Ant. I was helpless then and am even more so now.

Ch. Yours has been an ocean of grief.

Ant.But where, oh where shall we go, Lord Zeus?

Is there any last hope to which

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7plays of Sophocles Copy (1)