Part 21 (1/2)

THESEUS Ho! hasten to the altars, one of you.

Command my liegemen leave the sacrifice And hurry, foot and horse, with rein unchecked, To where the paths that packmen use diverge, Lest the two maidens slip away, and I Become a mockery to this my guest, As one despoiled by force. Quick, as I bid.

As for this stranger, had I let my rage, Justly provoked, have play, he had not 'scaped Scathless and uncorrected at my hands.

But now the laws to which himself appealed, These and none others shall adjudicate.

Thou shalt not quit this land, till thou hast fetched The maidens and produced them in my sight.

Thou hast offended both against myself And thine own race and country. Having come Unto a State that champions right and asks For every action warranty of law, Thou hast set aside the custom of the land, And like some freebooter art carrying off What plunder pleases thee, as if forsooth Thou thoughtest this a city without men, Or manned by slaves, and me a thing of naught.

Yet not from Thebes this villainy was learnt; Thebes is not wont to breed unrighteous sons, Nor would she praise thee, if she learnt that thou Wert robbing me--aye and the G.o.ds to boot, Haling by force their suppliants, poor maids.

Were I on Theban soil, to prosecute The justest claim imaginable, I Would never wrest by violence my own Without sanction of your State or King; I should behave as fits an outlander Living amongst a foreign folk, but thou Shamest a city that deserves it not, Even thine own, and plent.i.tude of years Have made of thee an old man and a fool.

Therefore again I charge thee as before, See that the maidens are restored at once, Unless thou would'st continue here by force And not by choice a sojourner; so much I tell thee home and what I say, I mean.

CHORUS Thy case is perilous; though by birth and race Thou should'st be just, thou plainly doest wrong.

CREON Not deeming this city void of men Or counsel, son of Aegeus, as thou say'st I did what I have done; rather I thought Your people were not like to set such store by kin of mine and keep them 'gainst my will.

Nor would they harbor, so I stood a.s.sured, A G.o.dless parricide, a reprobate Convicted of incestuous marriage ties.

For on her native hill of Ares here (I knew your far-famed Areopagus) Sits Justice, and permits not vagrant folk To stay within your borders. In that faith I hunted down my quarry; and e'en then I had refrained but for the curses dire Wherewith he banned my kinsfolk and myself: Such wrong, methought, had warrant for my act.

Anger has no old age but only death; The dead alone can feel no touch of spite.

So thou must work thy will; my cause is just But weak without allies; yet will I try, Old as I am, to answer deeds with deeds.

OEDIPUS O shameless railer, think'st thou this abuse Defames my grey hairs rather than thine own?

Murder and incest, deeds of horror, all Thou blurtest forth against me, all I have borne, No willing sinner; so it pleased the G.o.ds Wrath haply with my sinful race of old, Since thou could'st find no sin in me myself For which in retribution I was doomed To trespa.s.s thus against myself and mine.

Answer me now, if by some oracle My sire was destined to a b.l.o.o.d.y end By a son's hand, can this reflect on me, Me then unborn, begotten by no sire, Conceived in no mother's womb? And if When born to misery, as born I was, I met my sire, not knowing whom I met or what I did, and slew him, how canst thou With justice blame the all-unconscious hand?

And for my mother, wretch, art not ashamed, Seeing she was thy sister, to extort From me the story of her marriage, such A marriage as I straightway will proclaim.

For I will speak; thy lewd and impious speech Has broken all the bonds of reticence.

She was, ah woe is me! she was my mother; I knew it not, nor she; and she my mother Bare children to the son whom she had borne, A birth of shame. But this at least I know Wittingly thou aspersest her and me; But I unwitting wed, unwilling speak.

Nay neither in this marriage or this deed Which thou art ever casting in my teeth-- A murdered sire--shall I be held to blame.

Come, answer me one question, if thou canst: If one should presently attempt thy life, Would'st thou, O man of justice, first inquire If the a.s.sa.s.sin was perchance thy sire, Or turn upon him? As thou lov'st thy life, On thy aggressor thou would'st turn, no stay Debating, if the law would bear thee out.

Such was my case, and such the pa.s.s whereto The G.o.ds reduced me; and methinks my sire, Could he come back to life, would not dissent.

Yet thou, for just thou art not, but a man Who sticks at nothing, if it serve his plea, Reproachest me with this before these men.

It serves thy turn to laud great Theseus' name, And Athens as a wisely governed State; Yet in thy flatteries one thing is to seek: If any land knows how to pay the G.o.ds Their proper rites, 'tis Athens most of all.

This is the land whence thou wast fain to steal Their aged suppliant and hast carried off My daughters. Therefore to yon G.o.ddesses, I turn, adjure them and invoke their aid To champion my cause, that thou mayest learn What is the breed of men who guard this State.

CHORUS An honest man, my liege, one sore bestead By fortune, and so worthy our support.

THESEUS Enough of words; the captors speed amain, While we the victims stand debating here.

CREON What would'st thou? What can I, a feeble man?

THESEUS Show us the trail, and I'll attend thee too, That, if thou hast the maidens hereabouts, Thou mayest thyself discover them to me; But if thy guards outstrip us with their spoil, We may draw rein; for others speed, from whom They will not 'scape to thank the G.o.ds at home.

Lead on, I say, the captor's caught, and fate Hath ta'en the fowler in the toils he spread; So soon are lost gains gotten by deceit.

And look not for allies; I know indeed Such height of insolence was never reached Without abettors or accomplices; Thou hast some backer in thy bold essay, But I will search this matter home and see One man doth not prevail against the State.

Dost take my drift, or seem these words as vain As seemed our warnings when the plot was hatched?

CREON Nothing thou sayest can I here dispute, But once at home I too shall act my part.

THESEUS Threaten us and--begone! Thou, Oedipus, Stay here a.s.sured that nothing save my death Will stay my purpose to restore the maids.