Oedipus Trilogy

Sophocles

• Publisher: pubOne.info
• Year: 2010
• ISBN:
  9782819924777
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Classics
• Index: Literature

pubOne.info thank you for your continued support and wish to present you this new edition. Formerly Scholar of Trinity College, Cambridge

OEDIPUS AT COLONUS

Enter the blind OEDIPUS led by his daughter, ANTIGONE.

OEDIPUS

Child of an old blind sire, Antigone,

What region, say, whose city have we reached?

Who will provide today with scanted dole

This wanderer? 'Tis little that he craves,

And less obtains— that less enough for me;

For I am taught by suffering to endure,

And the long years that have grown old with me,

And last not least, by true nobility.

My daughter, if thou seest a resting place

On common ground or by some sacred grove,

Stay me and set me down. Let us discover

Where we have come, for strangers must inquire

Of denizens, and do as they are bid.

ANTIGONE

Long-suffering father, Oedipus, the towers

That fence the city still are faint and far;

But where we stand is surely holy ground;

A wilderness of laurel, olive, vine;

Within a choir or songster nightingales

Are warbling. On this native seat of rock

Rest; for an old man thou hast traveled far.

OEDIPUS

Guide these dark steps and seat me there secure.

ANTIGONE

If time can teach, I need not to be told.

OEDIPUS

Say, prithee, if thou knowest, where we are.

ANTIGONE

Athens I recognize, but not the spot.

OEDIPUS

That much we heard from every wayfarer.

ANTIGONE

Shall I go on and ask about the place?

OEDIPUS

Yes, daughter, if it be inhabited.

ANTIGONE

Sure there are habitations; but no need

To leave thee; yonder is a man hard by.

OEDIPUS

What, moving hitherward and on his way?

ANTIGONE

Say rather, here already. Ask him straight

The needful questions, for the man is here.

[Enter STRANGER]

OEDIPUS

O stranger, as I learn from her whose eyes

Must serve both her and me, that thou art here

Sent by some happy chance to serve our doubts—

STRANGER

First quit that seat, then question me at large:

The spot thou treadest on is holy ground.

OEDIPUS

What is the site, to what god dedicate?

STRANGER

Inviolable, untrod; goddesses,

Dread brood of Earth and Darkness, here abide.

OEDIPUS

Tell me the awful name I should invoke?

STRANGER

The Gracious Ones, All-seeing, so our folk

Call them, but elsewhere other names are rife.

OEDIPUS

Then may they show their suppliant grace, for I

From this your sanctuary will ne'er depart.

STRANGER

What word is this?

OEDIPUS

The watchword of my fate.

STRANGER

Nay, 'tis not mine to bid thee hence without

Due warrant and instruction from the State.

OEDIPUS

Now in God's name, O stranger, scorn me not

As a wayfarer; tell me what I crave.

STRANGER

Ask; your request shall not be scorned by me.

OEDIPUS

How call you then the place wherein we bide?

STRANGER

Whate'er I know thou too shalt know; the place

Is all to great Poseidon consecrate.

Hard by, the Titan, he who bears the torch,

Prometheus, has his worship; but the spot

Thou treadest, the Brass-footed Threshold named,

Is Athens' bastion, a...

Table of contents

• PLAYS OF SOPHOCLES
• OEDIPUS THE KING
• ARGUMENT
• DRAMATIS PERSONAE
• Scene: Thebes. Before the Palace of Oedipus.
• OEDIPUS THE KING
• FOOTNOTES
• SOPHOCLES
• ARGUMENT
• DRAMATIS PERSONAE
• OEDIPUS AT COLONUS
• FOOTNOTES
• SOPHOCLES
• ARGUMENT
• DRAMATIS PERSONAE
• ANTIGONE
• Copyright