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OEDIPUS:

By the gods, since you’ve cheated my expectations
and come as the best of men to me, the worst,(1455)
grant me this; I ask for you and not for me.

CREON:

What is this thing you need so greatly?

OEDIPUS:

Cast me immediately from this land,
somewhere I can avoid all mortal speech.

CREON:

Know well that I would do this, but first I(1460)
must learn from the god what must be done.

OEDIPUS:

But his entire prophecy was made clear;
destroy the patricide, the accursed, me!

CREON:

It was said thus, but still, where we stand
it is better to learn what must be done.(1465)

OEDIPUS:

You would ask on behalf of one so wretched?

CREON:

Yes, for now even you should bear faith to the god.

OEDIPUS:

Then I enjoin you and make this request:
to her…who is inside…bury her as you will,
rightly will you act on behalf of your own—(1470)
but as for me, may this, my native city,
suffer me to dwell here while I live,
but let me to dwell in the mountains, with my own
famous Cithaeron, which my mother and
father while they lived appointed as my tomb,(1475)
so that I may die as those two wished.
Although this much at least I know: No disease
nor anything else can kill me, for I would not
have been saved from death, but for some dire fate.
This destiny of mine, let it go where it may,(1480)
but for my children, Creon—don’t worry
over my sons; they are men, so that
they will never lack a livelihood, wherever
they may be. But, for my poor little girls,
they’ve not so much as eaten a meal(1485)
apart from me; but whatever I touched,
those two always had a share in all of it.
Worry over them, and most of all I beg you,
let me touch them with my hands and mourn our woes.
Please, my lord!(1490)
Please, o truly noble man, could my hands touch them,
I’d think I held them as I did when I could see.

[Servants lead onstage the two girls.]

What’s this now?
By the gods, do I somehow hear my two dear girls
crying? Has Creon pitied me and(1495)
sent to me the dearest of my offspring?
Is it true?

CREON:

You are, for I am the one who prepared these things,
knowing the joy they have long brought you.

OEDIPUS:

Then may you be blessed, and for this meeting(1500)
may fate guard you better than it did me!
My children, where are you? Come here, come
to these hands of mine that are siblings to yours,
hands that brought to this sad state the once
bright eyes of your begetting father,(1505)
who, children, neither seeing nor knowing was
proved your father from the same place he himself sprang.
And I weep for you, although I cannot see you;
contemplating the bitterness of your lives,
the sort of life men will force you to live.(1510)
What sort of company will you keep in town?
What festivals will you attend that will not
send you home in tears, instead of joy?
When you come to the age ripe for marriage,
who will he be who will run the risk, children,(1515)
to take for himself the reproaches that will
be banes for my parents and offspring alike?
What evil is absent? Your father
slew his father; he ploughed his mother,
where he himself was sown, and he sired(1520)
you in the same fount where he himself was sired.
Such taunts you will hear, and then who will marry you?
There is no one, my children, but surely
you must die untilled and unmarried.
Son of Menoeceus, since you alone are left(1525)
as father to them, for we who created them
have both been destroyed, do not allow them,
your kin, to die unwed and beggars,
nor make them party to my evils;
but pity them, seeing how young they are(1530)
and bereft of everything, except for you.
Consent, noble one, and touch me with your hand.
Oh, children, if you could understand, I would
give you so much advice; as it is, just pray
with me that you obtain a better life(1535)
than did the father who sired you.

CREON:

You have gone far enough in weeping; go inside.

OEDIPUS:

I will, though sadly.

CREON:

All things are fair in time.

OEDIPUS:

Do you know my conditions?(1540)

CREON:

Speak; I shall learn them.

OEDIPUS:

Send me from this land.

CREON:

You ask me what is God’s to give.

OEDIPUS:

The gods hate me.

CREON:

Then they will grant your wish.(1545)

OEDIPUS:

Then you will do it?

CREON:

I’ll say only what I think.

OEDIPUS:

Then lead me away.

CREON:

Come, let go of the children.

OEDIPUS:

Do not take them from me!(1550)

CREON:

It is not your place to decide;
the power you had has not remained with you.

[Exeunt Creon and Oedipus with the attendants and children into the palace.]

CHORUS:

People of our country Thebes, behold this Oedipus,
who knew the famous riddle and was a most powerful man,
whose fortunes all the citizens watched with emulation,(1555)
how deep the sea of dire misfortune that has taken him!
Therefore, it is necessary to call no man blessed
as we await the final day, until he has reached
the limit of life and suffered nothing grievous.

• i.e., that Creon came to mock or take revenge on Oedipus
• He cannot bring himself to say her name or her relation to him.
• Sophocles shows Oedipus’ emotion by puncturing the longer, ordinary speech with short lines.
• Oedipus’ daughters, Antigone and Ismene, played an important role in the traditional stories about the aftermath of Oedipus’ downfall, particularly in Sophocles’ Antigone.
• Because of the curse now on their house, the girls cannot take part in the religious festivals that made up the bulk of Greek social life; their presence would pollute the festival and avert the gods’ favor.

1. Notes
2. Reading Pointers for Sharper Insights
3. Dramatis Personae
4. Oedipus Rex
5. Mythological Background
6. The Origins of Greek Drama
7. Tragedy and the City
8. Conventions of Greek Drama
9. Aristotle’s Influence on Our Understanding of Tragedy
10. Glossary
11. Copyright