Epeisodion 2
Creon
No, for I see you are not sane.
Oedipus
Sane, at least, in my own interest.
Creon
But you should be so in mine also.
Creon
But if you understand nothing?
Oedipus
Still I must rule.
Creon
Not if you rule badly.
Oedipus
Hear him, city of Thebes!
Creon
The city is mine too, not yours alone.
630
Chorus
Cease, lords. In good time I see Iocasta coming from the house, with whose help you should resolve your present feud.
Iocasta
Misguided men, why have you raised
such a foolish argument? Are you not ashamed, while the land is so sick, to stir up troubles of your own? Come, go into the house—and you, Creon, go to yours—and stop making so much of a petty grief.
635
Creon
Kinswoman, Oedipus, your husband,
wants to do one of two terrible things to me, either to thrust me from the land of my fathers or to arrest and slay me.
640
Oedipus
Yes indeed, for I have caught him, lady, working evil against my person with his wicked craft.
Creon
May I derive no benefit,
but perish accursed, if I have done any of the things of which you charge me.
645
Iocasta
In the name of the gods, believe it, Oedipus, first for the sake of this awful oath to the gods, then for my sake and for the sake of those who stand before you.
