Oedipus at Colonus (1185-1285)

He will not tear you by force from your resolve—never fear—with such words as will not be for your good. What harm can there be in listening to words? Deeds wickedly devised, as you know, are betrayed by speech. You sired him,

so, even if he wrongs you with the most impious of wrongs, father, it is not right for you to wrong him in return. Let him come! Other men too have evil offspring and a sharp anger, but they hear advice and are charmed from their mood by the gentle spells of friends.

Look to the past, away from the present; consider all the pains that you have suffered through your father and mother. If you consider those things, I know well that you will perceive that what results from an evil anger is evil. Your reasons to reflect on this are not trivial,

bereft of your unseeing eyes. Yield to us! It is not a fine thing for those seeking justice to keep asking; nor is it good that a man should be treated well, and thereafter not know how to requite it.

My child, by your pleading you overcome me; but your pleasure here is my grief.

Still, let it be as is dear to you. Only, if that man is to come here, stranger, let no one ever become master over my soul.

Once only do I need hear such words, and no more, old man. I do not want to boast,

but you may feel sure that your life is safe, while any of the gods preserves mine. Theseus exits.

Look, the stranger, it seems, is coming here to us.

Yes, without attendants, father, with tears streaming from his eyes.

Who is he?

The very man who was in our thoughts from the first. Polyneices has come to us.

Ah, me, what should I do? Should I weep first

for my own woes, sisters, or for those of my father here, in his old age? I have found him in a foreign land, here with you two as an exile, clad in such garments as these. Their unfriendly filth has resided with the old man for long,

wasting his flesh; while above the sightless eyes the unkempt hair flutters in the breeze; and matching with these things, it seems, is the food that he carries, sustenance for his poor stomach. Wretch that I am! I learn all this too late.

And I bear witness that I have proved the worst of men in all that concerns care for you; from my own lips hear what I am. But seeing that Zeus himself in all his actions has Shame beside him to share his throne, may she come to your aid too, father. For the sins committed can be healed,

but can never be made worse. Why are you silent? Speak, father. Do not turn away from me. Do you not have any answer at all for me? Will you dismiss me without a word, dishonored, and not tell me why you are angry?

Seed of this man, my sisters, you at least must try to move our father’s implacable, inexorable silence, so that he may not send me away like this, dishonored and with no word in return, when I am the suppliant of the god.

Tell him yourself, unhappy man, what you have come to seek. When words flow, you know, they may give joy, or incite anger or pity, and so they may give a voice to the mute.

Then I will speak boldly, for you give me excellent guidance,

first claiming the help of the god himself, from whose altar the king of this land raised me to come to you, with a guarantee to speak and hear, and go my way unharmed. And I wish these pledges, strangers, to be kept with me by you, and by my sisters here, and by my father.