Oedipus Tyrannus
Sophocles
Sophocles the plays and fragments, Part 1: The Oedipus Tyrannus. Jebb, Richard Claverhouse, Sir, translator. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1887.
- You speak the truth, though it was long ago.
- Come, tell me now: do you remember having given me a boy in those days, to be reared as my own foster-son?
- What now? Why do you ask the question?
- This man, my friend, is he who then was young.
- Damn you! Be silent once and for all!
- Do not rebuke him, old man. Your words need rebuking more than his.
- And in what way, most noble master, do I offend?
- In not telling of the boy about whom he asks.
- He speaks without knowledge, but is busy to no purpose.
- You will not speak with good grace, but will in pain.
- No, in the name of the gods, do not mistreat an old man.
- Someone, quick—tie his hands him this instant!
- Alas, why? What do you want to learn?
- Did you give this man the child about whom he asks?
- I did. Would that I had perished that day!
- Well, you will come to that, unless you tell the honest truth.
- But if I speak I will be destroyed all the more.
- This man is bent, I think, on more delays.
- No, no! I said before that I gave it to him.
- Where did you get it from? From your own house, or from another?