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Responding to Literature: Stories, Poems, Plays, and Essays, 4/e

Judith Stanford, Rivier College

Reading

From Oedipus Rex

AN ENGLISH VERSION BY DUDLEY FITTS AND ROBERT FITZGERALD

SCENE III

CHARACTERS

OEDIPUS
IOCASTÊ
MESSENGER
CHORUS

Enter IOCASTÊ.

IOCASTÊ: Princes of Thebes, it has occurred to me

To visit the altars of the gods, bearing

These branches as a suppliant, and this incense.

Our King is not himself: his noble soul

Is overwrought with fantasies of dread,

Else he would consider

The new prophecies in the light of the old.

He will listen to any voice that speaks disaster,

And my advice goes for nothing.

She approaches the altar, right.

Lycean lord, since you are nearest, I turn in prayer.

Receive these offerings, and grant us deliverance

From defilement. Our hearts are heavy with fear

When we see our leader distracted, as helpless sailors

Are terrified by the confusion of their helmsman.

Enter MESSENGER.

MESSENGER: Friends, no doubt you can direct me:

Where shall I find the house of Oedipus,

Or, better still, where is the King himself?

CHORAGOS: It is this very place, stranger; he is inside.

This is his wife and mother of his children.

MESSENGER: I wish her happiness in a happy house,

Blest in all the fulfillment of her marriage.

IOCASTÊ: I wish as much for you: your courtesy

Deserves a like good fortune. But now, tell me:

Why have you come? What have you to say to us?

MESSENGER: Good news, my lady, for your house and your husband.

IOCASTÊ: What news? Who sent you here?

MESSENGER: I am from Corinth.

The news I bring ought to mean joy for you,

Though it may be you will find some grief in it.

IOCASTÊ: What is it? How can it touch us in both ways?

MESSENGER: The people of Corinth, they say,

Intend to call Oedipus to be their king.

IOCASTÊ: But old Polybos--is he not reigning still?

MESSENGER: No. Death holds him in his sepulchre.

IOCASTÊ: What are you saying? Polybos is dead?

MESSENGER: If I am not telling the truth, may I die myself.

IOCASTÊ (to a MAIDSERVANT): Go in, go quickly; tell this to your master.

O riddlers of God's will, where are you now!

This was the man whom Oedipus, long ago,

Feared so, fled so, in dread of destroying him--

But it was another fate by which he died.

Enter OEDIPUS, center.

OEDIPUS: Dearest Iocastê, why have you sent for me?

IOCASTÊ: Listen to what this man says, and then tell me

What has become of the solemn prophecies.

OEDIPUS: Who is this man? What is his news for me?

IOCASTÊ: He has come from Corinth to announce your father's death!

OEDIPUS: Is it true, stranger? Tell me in your own words.

MESSENGER: I cannot say it more clearly: the King is dead.

OEDIPUS: Was it by treason? Or by an attack of illness?

MESSENGER: A little thing brings old men to their rest.

OEDIPUS: It was sickness, then?

MESSENGER: Yes, and his many years.

OEDIPUS: Ah!

Why should a man respect the Pythian hearth, or

Give heed to the birds that jangle above his head?

They prophesied that I should kill Polybos,

Kill my own father; but he is dead and buried,

And I am here--I never touched him, never,

Unless he died in grief for my departure,

And thus, in a sense, through me. No. Polybos

Has packed the oracles off with him underground.

They are empty words.

IOCASTÊ:Had I not told you so?

OEDIPUS: You had; it was my faint heart that betrayed me.

IOCASTÊ: From now on never think of those things again.

OEDIPUS: And yet--must I not fear my mother's bed?

IOCASTÊ: Why should anyone in this world be afraid,

Since Fate rules us and nothing can be foreseen?

A man should live only for the present day.

Have no more fear of sleeping with your mother:

How many men, in dreams, have lain with their mothers!

No reasonable man is troubled by such things.

OEDIPUS: That is true; only--

If only my mother were not still alive!

But she is alive. I cannot help my dread.

IOCASTÊ: Yet this news of your father's death is wonderful.

OEDIPUS: Wonderful. But I fear the living woman.

MESSENGER: Tell me, who is this woman that you fear?

OEDIPUS: It is Meropê, man; the wife of King Polybos.

MESSENGER: Meropê? Why should you be afraid of her?

OEDIPUS: An oracle of the gods, a dreadful saying.

MESSENGER: Can you tell me about it or are you sworn to silence?

OEDIPUS: I can tell you, and I will.

Apollo said through his prophet that I was the man

Who should marry his own mother, shed his father's blood

With his own hands. And so, for all these years

I have kept clear of Corinth, and no harm has come--

Though it would have been sweet to see my parents again.

MESSENGER: And is this the fear that drove you out of Corinth?

OEDIPUS: Would you have me kill my father?

MESSENGER:As for that

You must be reassured by the news I gave you.

OEDIPUS: If you could reassure me, I would reward you.

MESSENGER: I had that in mind, I will confess: I thought

I could count on you when you returned to Corinth.

OEDIPUS: No: I will never go near my parents again.

MESSENGER: Ah, son, you still do not know what you are doing--

OEDIPUS: What do you mean? In the name of God tell me!

MESSENGER:--If these are your reasons for not going home.

OEDIPUS: I tell you, I fear the oracle may come true.

MESSENGER: And guilt may come upon you through your parents?

OEDIPUS: That is the dread that is always in my heart.

MESSENGER: Can you not see that all your fears are groundless?

OEDIPUS: How can you say that? They are my parents, surely?

MESSENGER: Polybos was not your father.

OEDIPUS: Not my father?

MESSENGER: No more your father than the man speaking to you.

OEDIPUS: But you are nothing to me!

MESSENGER:Neither was he.

OEDIPUS: Then why did he call me son?

MESSENGER:I will tell you:

Long ago he had you from my hands, as a gift.

OEDIPUS: Then how could he love me so, if I was not his?

MESSENGER: He had no children, and his heart turned to you.

OEDIPUS: What of you? Did you buy me? Did you find me by chance?

MESSENGER: I came upon you in the crooked pass of Kithairon.

OEDIPUS: And what were you doing there?

MESSENGER: Tending my flocks.

OEDIPUS: A wandering shepherd?

MESSENGER: But your savior, son, that day.

OEDIPUS: From what did you save me?

MESSENGER:Your ankles should tell you that.

OEDIPUS: Ah, stranger, why do you speak of that childhood pain?

MESSENGER: I cut the bonds that tied your ankles together.

OEDIPUS: I have had the mark as long as I can remember.

MESSENGER: That was why you were given the name you bear.

OEDIPUS: God! Was it my father or my mother who did it?

Tell me!

MESSENGER: I do not know. The man who gave you to me

Can tell you better than I.

OEDIPUS: It was not you that found me, but another?

MESSENGER: It was the shepherd gave you to me.

OEDIPUS: Who was he? Can you tell me who he was?

MESSENGER: I think he was said to be one of Laïos' people.

OEDIPUS: You mean the Laïos who was king here years ago?

MESSENGER: Yes; King Laïos; and the man was one of his herdsmen.

OEDIPUS: Is he still alive? Can I see him?

MESSENGER:These men here

Know best about such things.

OEDIPUS:Does anyone here

Know this shepherd that he is talking about?

Have you seen him in the fields, or in the town?

If you have, tell me. It is time things were made plain.

CHORAGOS: I think the man he means is that same shepherd

You have already asked to see. Iocastê perhaps

Could tell you something.

OEDIPUS: Do you know anything

About him, Lady? Is he the man we have summoned?

Is that the man this shepherd means?

IOCASTÊ: Why think of him?

Forget this herdsman. Forget it all.

This talk is a waste of time.

OEDIPUS:How can you say that,

When the clues to my true birth are in my hands?

IOCASTÊ: For God's love, let us have no more questioning!

Is your life nothing to you?

My own pain is enough for me to bear.

OEDIPUS: You need not worry. Suppose my mother a slave,

And born of slaves: no baseness can touch you.

IOCASTÊ: Listen to me, I beg you: do not do this thing!

OEDIPUS: I will not listen; the truth must be made known.

IOCASTÊ: Everything I say is for your own good!

OEDIPUS: My own good

Snaps my patience, then: I want none of it.

IOCASTÊ: You are fatally wrong! May you never learn who you are!

OEDIPUS: Go, one of you, and bring the shepherd here.

Let us leave this woman to brag of her royal name.

IOCASTÊ: Ah, miserable!

That is the only word I have for you now.

That is the only word I can ever have.

Exit into the palace.

CHORAGOS: Why has she left us, Oedipus? Why has she gone

In such a passion of sorrow? I fear this silence:

Something dreadful may come of it.

OEDIPUS: Let it come!

However base my birth, I must know about it.

The Queen, like a woman, is perhaps ashamed

To think of my low origin. But I

Am a child of luck; I cannot be dishonored.

Luck is my mother; the passing months, my brothers,

Have seen me rich and poor.

If this is so,

How could I wish that I were someone else?

How could I not be glad to know my birth?

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