Parodos
[Choral]
—And the race of the Labdacidae?
Oedipus
—and the pitiful Oedipus?
Oedipus
Have no fear of any words that I speak—
Oedipus
Unhappy that I am!
Oedipus
Daughter, what is about to happen?
225
Chorus
Out with you! Go forth from the land!
Oedipus
And your promise—to what fulfillment will you bring it?
Chorus
No man is visited by the punishment of fate if he requites deeds which were first done to himself.
Deceit on the one part matches deceits on the other, and gives pain instead of pleasure for reward. And you—back with you! Out from your seat!
230
Away from my land with all speed, that you may not fasten some heavier burden on my city!
235
Antigone
Reverent strangers, since you have not endured my aged father—knowing, as you do,
the rumor of his unintended deeds—pity at least my poor self, I implore you, who supplicate you for my father alone. I beg you with eyes that can still look
240
on your own, like one sprung from your own blood, that this sufferer may meet with reverent treatment. On you, as on a god, we depend in our misery. But come, grant the favor for which we hardly dare hope!
245
I implore you by everything that you hold dear at home: by child, by wife, or treasure, or god! Look well and you will not find the mortal who, if a god should lead him on, could escape.
250
