Oedipus Trilogy Part 18

THESEUS The grace thou cravest then is small indeed.

OEDIPUS Nay, weigh it well; the issue is not slight.

THESEUS Thou meanest that betwixt thy sons and me?

OEDIPUS Prince, they would fain convey me back to Thebes.

THESEUS If there be no compulsion, then methinks To rest in banishment befits not thee.

OEDIPUS Nay, when _I_ wished it _they_ would not consent.

THESEUS For shame! such temper misbecomes the faller.

OEDIPUS Chide if thou wilt, but first attend my plea.

THESEUS Say on, I wait full knowledge ere I judge.

OEDIPUS O Theseus, I have suffered wrongs on wrongs.

THESEUS Wouldst tell the old misfortune of thy race?

OEDIPUS No, that has grown a byword throughout Greece.

THESEUS What then can be this more than mortal grief?

OEDIPUS My case stands thus; by my own flesh and blood I was expelled my country, and can ne'er Thither return again, a parricide.

THESEUS Why fetch thee home if thou must needs obey.

THESEUS What are they threatened by the oracle?

OEDIPUS Destruction that awaits them in this land.

THESEUS What can beget ill blood 'twixt them and me?

OEDIPUS Dear son of Aegeus, to the G.o.ds alone Is given immunity from eld and death; But nothing else escapes all-ruinous time.

Earth's might decays, the might of men decays, Honor grows cold, dishonor flourishes, There is no constancy 'twixt friend and friend, Or city and city; be it soon or late, Sweet turns to bitter, hate once more to love.

If now 'tis suns.h.i.+ne betwixt Thebes and thee And not a cloud, Time in his endless course Gives birth to endless days and nights, wherein The merest nothing shall suffice to cut With serried spears your bonds of amity.

Then shall my slumbering and buried corpse In its cold grave drink their warm life-blood up, If Zeus be Zeus and Phoebus still speak true.

No more: 'tis ill to tear aside the veil Of mysteries; let me cease as I began: Enough if thou wilt keep thy plighted troth, Then shall thou ne'er complain that Oedipus Proved an unprofitable and thankless guest, Except the G.o.ds themselves shall play me false.

CHORUS The man, my lord, has from the very first Declared his power to offer to our land These and like benefits.

THESEUS Who could reject The proffered amity of such a friend?

First, he can claim the hospitality To which by mutual contract we stand pledged: Next, coming here, a suppliant to the G.o.ds, He pays full tribute to the State and me; His favors therefore never will I spurn, But grant him the full rights of citizen; And, if it suits the stranger here to bide, I place him in your charge, or if he please Rather to come with me--choose, Oedipus, Which of the two thou wilt. Thy choice is mine.

OEDIPUS Zeus, may the blessing fall on men like these!

THESEUS What dost thou then decide--to come with me?

OEDIPUS Yea, were it lawful--but 'tis rather here--

THESEUS What wouldst thou here? I shall not thwart thy wish.

OEDIPUS Here shall I vanquish those who cast me forth.

THESEUS Then were thy presence here a boon indeed.

OEDIPUS Such shall it prove, if thou fulfill'st thy pledge.

THESEUS Fear not for me; I shall not play thee false.

OEDIPUS No need to back thy promise with an oath.

THESEUS An oath would be no surer than my word.

OEDIPUS How wilt thou act then?

THESEUS What is it thou fear'st?

OEDIPUS My foes will come--

THESEUS Our friends will look to that.

OEDIPUS But if thou leave me?

THESEUS Teach me not my duty.

OEDIPUS 'Tis fear constrains me.

THESEUS _My_ soul knows no fear!

OEDIPUS Thou knowest not what threats--

THESEUS I know that none Shall hale thee hence in my despite. Such threats Vented in anger oft, are bl.u.s.terers, An idle breath, forgot when sense returns.

And for thy foemen, though their words were brave, Boasting to bring thee back, they are like to find The seas between us wide and hard to sail.

Such my firm purpose, but in any case Take heart, since Phoebus sent thee here. My name, Though I be distant, warrants thee from harm.

CHORUS (Str. 1) Thou hast come to a steed-famed land for rest, O stranger worn with toil, To a land of all lands the goodliest Colonus' glistening soil.

'Tis the haunt of the clear-voiced nightingale, Who hid in her bower, among The wine-dark ivy that wreathes the vale, Trilleth her ceaseless song; And she loves, where the cl.u.s.tering berries nod O'er a sunless, windless glade, The spot by no mortal footstep trod, The pleasance kept for the Bacchic G.o.d, Where he holds each night his revels wild With the nymphs who fostered the l.u.s.ty child.

(Ant. 1) And fed each morn by the pearly dew The starred narcissi s.h.i.+ne, And a wreath with the crocus' golden hue For the Mother and Daughter twine.

And never the sleepless fountains cease That feed Cephisus' stream, But they swell earth's bosom with quick increase, And their wave hath a crystal gleam.

And the Muses' quire will never disdain To visit this heaven-favored plain, Nor the Cyprian queen of the golden rein.

(Str. 2) And here there grows, unpruned, untamed, Terror to foemen's spear, A tree in Asian soil unnamed, By Pelops' Dorian isle unclaimed, Self-nurtured year by year; 'Tis the grey-leaved olive that feeds our boys; Nor youth nor withering age destroys The plant that the Olive Planter tends And the Grey-eyed G.o.ddess herself defends.

(Ant. 2) Yet another gift, of all gifts the most Prized by our fatherland, we boast-- The might of the horse, the might of the sea; Our fame, Poseidon, we owe to thee, Son of Kronos, our king divine, Who in these highways first didst fit For the mouth of horses the iron bit; Thou too hast taught us to fas.h.i.+on meet For the arm of the rower the oar-blade fleet, Swift as the Nereids' hundred feet As they dance along the brine.