Oedipus at Colonus
Sophocles
Sophocles the plays and fragments, Part 2: The Oedipus at Colonus. Jebb, Richard Claverhouse, Sir, translator. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1889.
- Well then, this favor you crave from me is brief indeed.
- Yet take care; the struggle here is no light one. No, indeed.
- Do you mean in respect to your sons, or to me?
- They will compel you to convey me there to Thebes.
- But if you are willing, then exile is not becoming.
- No, when I was willing, they refused.
- Foolish man, anger amidst woes is not suitable.
- When you have heard my story, admonish; till then, forbear.
- Speak. I must not pronounce without knowledge.
- I have suffered, Theseus, terrible woes upon woes.
- Will you speak of the ancient trouble of your race?
- No, indeed; all Greeks speak of that.
- How, then, do you suffer beyond what is mortal?
- The circumstance is this: from my country I have been driven by my own sons;
- and I may not return, since I am guilty of a father’s blood.
- Why would they have you brought back, if you must dwell apart?
- The word of the god will compel them.
- What suffering do they fear from the oracles?
- That they must be struck down in this land.
- And how should bitterness come between them and me?