Oedipus at Colonus
Old, blind, and exiled, Oedipus arrives at a grove outside Athens seeking the death the gods have prepared for him. Sophocles' final play, written at ninety, is a meditation on suffering, reconciliation, and the hero's strange blessing on the land that receives him.
Start reading in Tinct →Prologue
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...