Scaife ATLAS

CTS Library / Oedipus Tyrannus

Oedipus Tyrannus (1163-1210)

urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0011.tlg004.perseus-eng2:1163-1210
Refs {'start': {'reference': '1163', 'human_reference': 'Line 1163'}, 'end': {'reference': '1210', 'human_reference': 'Line 1210'}}
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It was not my own: I received it from another.
Oedipus
From whom of the citizens here? From what home?
Servant
For the love of the gods, master, ask no more!
Oedipus
You are dead if I have to question you again.
Servant
It was a child, then, of the house of Laius.
Oedipus
A slave? Or one of his own clan?
Servant
Alas! I am on the brink of speaking the dreaded words.
Oedipus
And I of hearing: I must hear nevertheless.
1171
Servant
You must know then, that it was said to be his own child. But your lady within could say best how these matters lie.
Oedipus
How? Did she give it to you?
Servant
Yes, my lord.
Oedipus
For what purpose?
Servant
That I should do away with it.
Oedipus
Her own child, the wretched woman?
Servant
Yes, from fear of the evil prophecies.
Oedipus
What were they?
Servant
The tale ran that he would slay his father.
Oedipus
Why, then, did you give him to this old man?
Servant
Out of pity, master, thinking that he would carry him to another land, from where he himself came. But he saved him for the direst woe.
For if you are what this man says, be certain that you were born ill-fated.
Oedipus
Oh, oh! All brought to pass, all true. Light, may I now look on you for the last time—I who have been found to be accursed in birth,
accursed in wedlock, accursed in the shedding of blood. He rushes into the palace.
1186
Chorus
Alas, generations of mortals, how mere a shadow I count your life! Where, where is the mortal who
attains a happiness which is more than apparent and doomed to fall away to nothing? Your fate warns me—yours, unhappy Oedipus—to call no
earthly creature blessed.
1196
Chorus
For he, O Zeus, shot his shaft with peerless skill, and won the prize of an all-prosperous fortune, having slain the maiden with crooked talons, who sang darkly.
He arose for our land like a tower against death. And from that time, Oedipus, you have been called our king, and have been honored supremely, holding power in great Thebes.
1204
Chorus
But now whose story is more grievous in men’s ears?
Who is a more wretched slave to fierce plagues and troubles, with all his life reversed? Alas, renowned Oedipus! The same bounteous harbor was sufficient for you, both as child and as father, to make your nuptial couch in. Oh, how can the soil
in which your father sowed, unhappy man, have endured you in silence for so long?

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