Oedipus Tyrannus

Sophocles

Sophocles the plays and fragments, Part 1: The Oedipus Tyrannus. Jebb, Richard Claverhouse, Sir, translator. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1887.

  1. It was you who gave me new life, to speak directly, and through you darkness has fallen upon my eyes.
A second messenger enters from the house.
Second Messenger
  1. You who are most honored in this land, what deeds you will hear, what deeds you will behold, what burden of sorrow will be yours,
  2. if, true to your race, you still care for the house of Labdacus. For I think that neither the Ister nor the Phasis could wash this house clean, so many are the ills that it shrouds, or will soon bring to light, ills wrought not unwittingly, but on purpose.
  3. And those griefs smart the most which are seen to be of our own choice.