Epeisodion 2
Creon
Due search we made, of course, though we learned nothing.
Oedipus
And how was it that this sage did not tell this story then.
Creon
I do not know: where I lack insight it is my custom to be silent.
Oedipus
This much, at least, you know, and could declare with insight enough.
570
Creon
What is that? If I know it, I will not deny it.
Oedipus
That, if he had not conferred with you, he would not have named me as
Laius’ slayer.
Creon
If he says this, you know best: but I deem it just
to learn from you as much as you have from me now.
575
Oedipus
Learn your fill. I will never be found guilty of the bloodshed.
Creon
Say, then—have you married my sister?
Oedipus
The question allows no denial.
Creon
And you rule the land as she does, with equal sway.
Oedipus
She obtains from me all that she wishes.
580
Creon
And do I not rank as a third peer of you two?
Oedipus
It is just in this that you are seen to be a false friend.
Creon
Not so, if you would reason with your heart as I do with mine. Weigh this first—whether you think that anyone would
choose to rule amid terrors rather than in unruffled peace, granted that he is to have the same powers. Now I, for one, have by nature no yearning to rule as a king rather than to do kingly deeds, and neither does any man I know who has a sound mind.
585
For now I attain all everything from you without fear, but, if I were ruler myself, I would have to do much that went against my own pleasure.
How, then, could royalty be sweeter to me to have than painless rule and influence? I am not yet so misguided
590
that I desire other honors than those which bring profit. Now, every man has a greeting for me; now, all that have a request of you crave to speak with me, since in me lies all their hope of success. Why then should I give up these things and take those others?
595
No mind will become false while it is wise. No, I am no lover of such a policy, and if another put it into action, I could never bear to go along with him. And, in proof of this, first go to Pytho, and ask whether I brought a true report of the oracle.
600
Then next, if you have found that I have planned anything in concert with the soothsayer, take and slay me, by the sentence not of one mouth, but of two—by my own no less than yours. But do not assume my guilt on unproven inference. It is not just to judge bad men good at random,
605
or good men bad. I think that casting off a true friend is for a man like casting away the life in his own bosom, which he most loves. You will surely learn about these affairs in time, since time alone reveals a just man.
610
But you can discern a bad man even in one day alone.
615
Chorus
He has spoken well, my king, for one who is taking care not to fall: those who are quick in counsel are not sure.
Oedipus
When the stealthy plotter is moving on me quickly, I, too, must be quick in my counterplot.
If I await him in repose, his ends will have been gained, and mine lost.
620
Creon
What do you want then? To banish me from the land?
Oedipus
Hardly. I desire your death, not your exile, so that I might show what a thing envy is.
Creon
Are you resolved not to yield or believe?
625
Oedipus
No, for you persuade me that you are unworthy of trust.
625
