Second Episode

Creon comes out before the palace, having heard what Oedipus has accused him of. His tone is wounded and steady. The chorus tries to calm him. Oedipus arrives in fury and speaks first — the brazen-faced rogue, the would-be murderer, the filcher of the crown. He tells Creon his plot is plain. Creon asks to be heard; Oedipus refuses; Creon insists on his right to answer, and the two exchange taut, line-by-line speeches in which neither yields ground.

Creon's defense is famous for being calm rather than fiery. He argues from the unattractiveness of kingship. As things stand, he says, he has all the privileges of power — he can ask favors of the king and grant them to others — without the burden of being king himself. Why plot to take a throne when he already has all that it offers and none of its risks? He asks Oedipus to send to Delphi himself if he doubts the oracle, and warns him that quick judgment reveals a quick temper. A man who would condemn a friend on suspicion alone is unfit to rule.

Oedipus is unmoved. He insists on Creon's death; Creon insists on exile at worst. Jocasta comes out from the palace and rebukes both men — strange, she says, that they let private quarrels erupt in public while Thebes is dying. The chorus joins her, begging Oedipus to spare a man who has sworn his innocence. Oedipus, against his own conviction, yields. Creon leaves with a bitter parting shot — temperaments like yours are hardest on themselves. The accusation against Creon has been deflected, but the engine that produced it is still running, and the king who pronounced it has not changed his mind.