Eksodos
Oedipus
they are men, so that they will never lack the means to live wherever they should be. My two girls, poor hapless ones—who never knew my table spread separately, or lacked their father’s presence, but always had a share of all that
1460
reached my hands—I implore you to take care of them. And, if you can, allow me to touch them with my hands, and to indulge my grief. Grant it, prince, grant it, noble heart. Ah, if I could but once touch them with my hands, I would think that I had them
1465
just as when I had sight.
1470
What is this? Oh, gods, can it be my loved ones that I hear sobbing, can Creon have taken pity on me and sent my children, my darlings?
Creon
You are. I have brought this about, for I knew the joy which you have long had from them—the joy you now have.
Oedipus
Bless you, and for this errand may the god prove a kinder guardian to you than he has to me.
My children, where are you? Come, here, here to the hands of the one whose mother was your own, the hands that have made your father’s once bright eyes to be such orbs as these—his, who seeing nothing, knowing nothing,
1480
became your father by her from whom he was born! For you also do I weep, though I cannot see you, when I think of the bitter life that men will make you live in days to come. To what company of the citizens will you go, to what festival,
1485
from which you will not return home in tears, not sharing in the holiday? But when you reach a ripe age for marriage, who shall he be, who shall be the man, my daughters, to risk taking upon himself the reproaches
1490
that will certainly be baneful to my offspring and yours? What misery is lacking? Your father killed his own father, and bore you from the source of his own being!
1495
Such are the taunts that will be cast at you. And who then will wed you? The man does not live, no, it cannot be, my children, but you will wither in barren maidenhood. Son of Menoeceus, hear me: since you are the only father left to them—we, their parents, are both gone—
1500
do not allow them to wander poor and unwed, for they are your own kin, nor abase them to the level of my woes. Pity them, seeing them deprived of everything but you at such an age.
1505
Promise, noble man, and touch them with your hand. To you, children, I would have given much counsel, if your minds were mature. But now pray that you may live where occasion allows, and that the life which is your lot may be happier than your father’s.
1510
Creon
Your grief has had a sufficient scope: move on into the house.
1515
Oedipus
I must obey, though I do it in no way gladly.
Creon
Yes, for it is in season that all things are good.
Oedipus
Do you know on what terms I will go?
Creon
You will tell me, and then I will know when I have heard them.
Oedipus
See that you send me to dwell outside this land.
Creon
You ask for what the god must give.
Oedipus
But to the gods I have become most hateful.
Creon
Then you will quickly get your wish.
Oedipus
So you consent?
1520
Creon
It is not my way to say idly what I do not mean.
1520
Oedipus
Then it is time to lead me away.
Creon
Come, then, but let your children go.
Oedipus
No, do not take them from me!
Creon
Do not wish to be master in all things: the mastery which you did attain has not followed you through life.
Chorus
Residents of our native Thebes, behold, this is Oedipus,
