Oedipus the King by Sophocles, Evangelinus Apostolides Sophocles Read Free Book Online Page A

enters.)
KREON Citizens, I hear that King Oedipus
has made a fearful charge against me.
I'm here to prove it false.
630 If he thinks anything I've said or done
has made this crisis worse, or injured him
then I have no more wish to live.
This is no minor charge.
It's the most deadly I could suffer,
if my city, my own people, you!
believe I'm a traitor.
LEADER He could have spoken in a flash
of anger with no thought behind it.
KREON Did he say I persuaded the prophet to lie?
640 LEADER That's what he said. What he meant wasn't clear.

     

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KREON When he announced my guilttell me
how his eyes looked. Did he seem sane?
LEADER I can't say. I don't question what my rulers do.
Here he comes, now, out of the palace.
(Oedipus enters.)
OEDIPUS So? You would come here? You have the nerve
to face me in my house? When you're
exposed as its master's murderer?
Caught trying to steal my kingship?
In god's name what weakness did you see
650 in me that led you to plot this?
Am I a coward or a fool?
Did you suppose I wouldn't notice
your quiet moves? Not fight back if I did?
Aren't you attempting something
downright stupidto win absolute power
without partisans or even friends?
For that you'll need money and a mob.
KREON Stop!
Give me time to answer you.
660 Let me speak before you judge me.
OEDIPUS You're a formidable speaker. But I listen
badly to someone trying to destroy me.
KREON I'll prove you are mistaken to think that.
OEDIPUS Your malice is too blatant to deny.
KREON Why do you prize your perversity?
If you think it's a virtue, your mind's deranged.
OEDIPUS Your mind's deranged, if you think a man
can attack a brother kinsman and not suffer.
KREON I'll grant that. Now: how have I attacked you?
670 OEDIPUS Did you, or did you not, urge me
to send for that venerated prophet?
KREON Yes. I'd give the same advice now.
OEDIPUS How long ago was it that King Laius . . .
KREON Laius? Did what? Why speak of him?
OEDIPUS was lost in that murderous attack?
KREON That was far back in the past.

     

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OEDIPUS Did this seer practice his craft here, then?
KREON With the same skill and respect he has now.
OEDIPUS Back then, did he ever mention my name?
680 KREON Not in my hearing.
OEDIPUS You did investigate the murder, though?
KREON Of course we did. We found out nothing.
OEDIPUS Why didn't your expert seer accuse me then?
KREON I don't know. When I've no facts, I don't speak.
OEDIPUS There's something you know well enough to explain.
KREON What's that. I'm holding nothing back.
OEDIPUS Just this. If that seer hadn't conspired with you,
he would never have called me Laius' killer.
KREON If he said that, you heard him , I didn't.
690 I think I've a right now to some answers from you.
OEDIPUS Question me. I have no blood on my hands.
KREON Did you marry my sister?
OEDIPUS Do you expect me to deny that?
KREON You both have equal power in this country?
OEDIPUS I give her all she asks.
KREON Do I share power with you both as an equal?
OEDIPUS You shared our power and betrayed us with it.
KREON You're wrong. Think it through rationally, as I have.
Who would prefer a king's anxious life
700 to one that let him sleep at night
if his share of power still equaled a king's?
Nothing in my nature lusts for sheer power.
It's enough for me to enjoy a king's rights,
enough for any man who values restraint.
All I want, you give meand it comes with no fear.
To be king would rob my life of its ease.
How could my share of power be more pleasant
than this painless pre-eminence, this ready
influence I have? I'm not yet so misguided
710 that I go looking for honors that are burdens.
But as things stand, I'm greeted and wished well

     

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on all sides. Those who want something from you
come to me, their best hope of gaining it.
Should I quit this good life for a worse one?
Treason has no chance to corrupt
a healthy mind like my own:
I have no love for such exploits.
Nor would I join someone who did .
Test me. Go to Delphi