Epeisodion 1
Oedipus
You pray. And in answer to your prayer, if you will give a loyal reception to my words and minister to your own disease, you may hope to find help and relief from woes. These words I will speak publicly, as one who was a stranger to the report,
a stranger to the deed. I would not go far on the trail if I were tracing it alone, without a clue. But as it is—since it was only after the event that I was counted a Theban among Thebans—to you, Cadmeans all, I do thus proclaim: Whoever knows
220
by whom Laius son of Labdacus was slain, I order him to declare all to me. And if he is afraid, I order him to remove the danger of indictment from his path by denouncing himself: he will suffer no other punishment, but will only leave this land, unhurt.
225
If anyone knows the assassin to be an alien, from another land, let him not keep silent. I will reward him, and my thanks shall rest with him besides. But if he keeps silent, if anyone, through fear, seeks to screen himself or a friend from my orders,
230
then hear what I shall do: I charge you that no resident of this land, which I rule, give shelter to or address that murderer, whoever he is, or make him a partner in prayer or sacrifice,
235
or give him a share of the lustral rite. Ban him from your houses, all of you, knowing that this is the defilement, as the oracle of the Pythian god has recently shown to me. In this way
240
I am an ally both to the god and to the dead man. And I pray solemnly that the slayer, whoever he is, whether he alone is guilty or he has partners, may, in the horrible way he deserves, wear out his unblest life. And for myself I pray that if he should,
245
with my knowledge, become a resident of my house, I may suffer the same things which I have just called down on others. And I order you to make all these words good, for my sake, for the sake of the god, and for the sake of our land, thus rendered unfruitful and ungodly.
250
For even if the matter had not been urged upon us by a god,
it still would not have been fit that you should leave the guilt unpunished as it is, when one so noble—and he your king—had perished. You should have searched it out. But now, since I hold the powers which he once held,
255
possessing his bed and the wife who bore his children, and since, had his hope of offspring not been unsuccessful, children born of one mother would have tied us with a common bond—as it was, fate swooped upon his head—I will uphold this cause, as though it were that of my own father,
260
and will leave no stone unturned in my search for the one who shed the blood, for the honor of the son of Labdacus and of Polydorus and the elder Cadmus and Agenor of old.
And for those who do not obey me, I pray that the gods
265
send them neither harvest of the earth nor fruit of the womb, but that they perish with the present fate, or one still worse. But to all you, the loyal Cadmeans who are satisfied by these things, may justice, our ally,
270
and all the gods be gracious always.
275
Chorus
As you have put me under oath, on my oath, my king, I will speak. I am not the slayer, nor can I reveal him. As for the investigation, it was for Phoebus, who enjoined it, to tell us who did the deed.
Oedipus
Justly said. But no man on earth can force the gods to do what they do not want.
280
Chorus
I would like to say what seems to me the next best course.
Oedipus
And if there is a third course, do not hesitate to reveal it too.
Chorus
I know that our lord Teiresias is the seer most like our
lord Apollo: from him, my king, an investigator might learn most clearly about these affairs.
285
Oedipus
Not even this have I neglected. On Creon’s suggestion, I sent a man twice
to bring him. And I have been wondering for some time why he is not here.
Chorus
Indeed—his skill apart—the rumors are but faint and old.
290
Oedipus
What are the rumors? I am investigating every tale.
Chorus
He was said to have been killed by some wayfarers.
Oedipus
I too have heard that. But no one sees the one who saw it.
Chorus
If he knows what fear is, he will not hesitate to come forward when he
hears your curses, so dire are they.
295
Oedipus
When a man does not shrink from a deed, he is not scared by a word.
Chorus
But there is one to convict him. But here they bring at last the godlike prophet, the only man in whom truth lives.
Oedipus
Teiresias, whose soul grasps all things, both that which may be told and that which is unspeakable, the Olympian secrets and the affairs of the earth, you feel, though you cannot see, what a huge plague haunts our state. From which, great prophet, we find you to be our protector and only savior.
300
Now, Phoebus—if indeed you have not already heard the news—sent answer to our question that the only way to rid ourselves of this pest that afflicts us is to discover the slayers of Laius, and then to slay them or banish them from our land.
305
