Oedipus at Colonus

A Play

Sophocles, F. Storr

• Publisher: Open Road Media
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781504062831
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Ancient & Classical Drama
• Index: Literature

The ancient Greek tragedy about the exiled king's final days—and the power struggle between his two sons. The second book in the trilogy that begins with Oedipus Rex and concludes with Antigone, Oedipus at Colonus is the story of an aged and blinded Oedipus anticipating his death as foretold by an earlier prophecy. Accompanied by his daughters, Antigone and Ismene, he takes up residence in the village of Colonus near Athens—where the locals fear his very presence will curse them. Nonetheless they allow him to stay, and Ismene informs him his sons are battling each other for the throne of Thebes. An oracle has pronounced that the location of their disgraced father's final resting place will determine which of them is to prevail. Unfortunately, an old enemy has his own plans for the burial, in this heart-wrenching play about two generations plagued by misfortune from the world's great ancient Greek tragedian.

Oedipus at Colonus

Enter the blind OEDIPUS Led by his daughter, ANTIGONE.

OEDIPUS: Child of an old blind sire, Antigone,

What region, say, whose city have we reached?

Who will provide today with scanted dole

This wanderer? ‘Tis little that he craves,

And less obtains—that less enough for me;

For I am taught by suffering to endure,

And the long years that have grown old with me,

And last not least, by true nobility.

My daughter, if thou seest a resting place

On common ground or by some sacred grove,

Stay me and set me down. Let us discover

Where we have come, for strangers must inquire

Of denizens, and do as they are bid.

ANTIGONE: Long-suffering father, Oedipus, the towers

That fence the city still are faint and far;

But where we stand is surely holy ground;

A wilderness of laurel, olive, vine;

Within a choir or songster nightingales

Are warbling. On this native seat of rock

Rest; for an old man thou hast traveled far.

OEDIPUS: Guide these dark steps and seat me there secure.

ANTIGONE: If time can teach, I need not to be told.

OEDIPUS: Say, prithee, if thou knowest, where we are.

ANTIGONE: Athens I recognize, but not the spot.

OEDIPUS: That much we heard from every wayfarer.

ANTIGONE: Shall I go on and ask about the place?

OEDIPUS: Yes, daughter, if it be inhabited.

ANTIGONE: Sure there are habitations; but no need

To leave thee; yonder is a man hard by.

OEDIPUS: What, moving hitherward and on his way?

ANTIGONE: Say rather, here already. Ask him straight

The needful questions, for the man is here.

[Enter STRANGER]

OEDIPUS: O stranger, as I learn from her whose eyes

Must serve both her and me, that thou art here

Sent by some happy chance to serve our doubts—

STRANGER: First quit that seat, then question me at large:

The spot thou treadest on is holy ground.

OEDIPUS: What is the site, to what god dedicate?

STRANGER: Inviolable, untrod; goddesses,

Dread brood of Earth and Darkness, here abide.

OEDIPUS: Tell me the awful name I should invoke?

STRANGER: The Gracious Ones, All-seeing, so our folk

Call them, but elsewhere other names are rife.

OEDIPUS: Then may they show their suppliant grace, for I

From this your sanctuary will ne’er depart.

STRANGER: What word is this?

OEDIPUS: The watchword of my fate.

STRANGER: Nay, ‘tis not mine to bid thee hence without

Due warrant and instruction from the State.

OEDIPUS: Now in God’s name, O stranger, scorn me not

As a wayfarer; tell me what I crave.

STRANGER: Ask; your request shall not be scorned by me.

OEDIPUS: How call you then the place wherein we bide?

STRANGER: Whate’er I know thou too shalt know; the place

Is all to great Poseidon consecrate.

Hard by, the Titan, he who bears the torch,

Prometheus, has his worship; but the spot

Thou treadest, the Brass-footed Threshold named,

Is Athens’ bastion, and the neighboring lands

Claim as their chief and patron yonder knight

Colonus, and in common bear his name.

Such, stranger, is the spot, to fame unknown,

But dear to us its native worshipers.

OEDIPUS: Thou sayest there are dwellers in these parts?

STRANGER: Surely; they bear the name of yonder god.

OEDIPUS: Ruled by a king or by the general voice?

STRANGER: The lord of Athens is our over-lord.

OEDIPUS: Who is this monarch, great in word and might?

STRANGER: Theseus, the son of Aegeus our late king.

OEDIPUS: Might one be sent from you to summon him?

STRANGER: Wherefore? To tell him aught or urge his coming?

OEDIPUS: Say a slight service may avail him much.

STRANGER: How can he profit from a sightless man?

OEDIPUS: The blind man’s words will be instinct with sight.

STRANGER: Heed then; I fain would see thee out of harm;

For by the looks, marred though they be by fate,

I judge thee noble; tarry where thou art,

While I go seek the burghers—those at hand,

Not in the city. They will soon decide

Whether thou art to rest or go thy way.

[Exit STRANGER]

OEDIPUS: Tell me, my daughter, has the stranger gone?

ANTIGONE: Yes, he has gone; now we are all alone,

And thou may’st speak, dear father, without fear.

OEDIPUS: Stern-visaged queens, since coming to this land

First in your sanctuary I bent the knee,

Frown not on me or Phoebus, who, when erst

He told me all my miseries to come,

Spake of this respite after many years,

Some haven in a far-off land, a rest

Vouchsafed at last by dread divinities.

“There,” said he, “shalt thou round thy weary life,

A blessing to the land wherein thou dwell’st,

But to the land that cast thee forth, a curse.”

And of my weird he promised signs should come,

Earthquake, or thunderclap, or lightning flash.

And now I recognize as yours the sign

That led my wanderings to this your grove;

Else had I never lighted on you first,

A wineless man on your seat of native rock.

O goddesses, fulfill Apollo’s word,

Grant me some consummation of my life,

If haply I appear not all too vile,

A thrall to sorrow worse than any slave.

Hear, gentle daughters of pr...