Listening for Leadership

Possible Group Activity

Sophocles' Oedipus Tyrannus (c.429 BCE), Translated by Sir Richard Jebb (1887)

Oedipus
My children, latest-born wards of old Cadmus, why do you sit before me like this with wreathed branches of suppliants, while the city reeks with incense, [5] rings with prayers for health and cries of woe? I thought it unbefitting, my children, to hear these things from the mouths of others, and have come here myself, I, Oedipus renowned by all. Tell me, then, venerable old man—since it is proper that you [10] speak for these—in what mood you sit here, one of fear or of desire? Be sure that I will gladly give you all my help. I would be hard-hearted indeed if I did not pity such suppliants as these.

Priest of Zeus
Oedipus, ruler of my land, you see the age of those who sit [15] on your altars—some, nestlings still too tender for flight, others, bowed with age, priests, like me of Zeus, and some, these here, the chosen youth. The rest of the folk sit [20] with wreathed branches in the market-place, and before the shrines of Pallas, and where Ismenus gives answer by fire. For the city, as you yourself see, is now sorely vexed, and can no longer lift her head from beneath the angry waves of death. [25] A blight has fallen on the fruitful blossoms of the land, the herds among the pastures, the barren pangs of women. And the flaming god, the malign plague, has swooped upon us, and ravages the town: he lays waste to the house of Cadmus, but enriches Hades with [30] groans and tears. It is not because we rank you with the gods that I and these children are suppliants at your hearth, but because we deem you the first among men in life's common fortunes and in dealings with the divinities: [35] when you came to the city of the Cadmeans, you freed us from the tax that we rendered to the hard songstress, and that when you knew no more than anyone else, nor had you been taught, but rather by the assistance of a god, as the story goes, you uplifted our life. [40] Now, Oedipus, king glorious in our eyes, we, your suppliants, beseech you to find some defence for us, whether you hear it from some divine omen, or learn of it from some mortal. For I see that the outcome of the councils of experienced men [45] most often have effect. On, best of mortals, uplift our state! On, guard your fame, since now this land calls you savior on account of your former zeal. Let us not remember of your reign that [50] we were first restored and then cast down: lift this state so that it falls no more! With good omen you provided us that past happiness: show yourself the same now too, since if you are to rule this land just as you do now, it is better to be lord of men than of a wasteland. [55] Neither walled town nor ship is anything, if it is empty and no men dwell within.

Oedipus
My piteous children, I know quite well the desires with which you have come: I know well that [60] you all are sick, and though you are sick I know well that there is not one of you who is as sick as I. Your pain comes on each of you for himself alone, and for no other, but my soul is in pain at once for the city, for myself, and for you. [65] Thus you are not awakening me from sleep: no, be sure that I have wept many tears, wandered far and wide in my thought. I have made use of the only remedy which I could find after close consideration: I sent my relative [70] Creon, Menoeceus' son, to Apollo's Pythian residence to learn what we might do or say to protect this city. And now, when the lapse of days is reckoned, I am troubled about what he is doing, for he has been away an unreasonably long time [75] beyond what is fitting. But when he arrives, I would be no true man if did not perform all that the god reveals.

Priest
You have spoken opportunely, since at this time these people here indicate that Creon is drawing near.

Oedipus
[80] Lord Apollo, may he come to us in the brightness of saving fortune, even as his face is bright!

Priest
He seems to bring comfort, since otherwise he would not be coming crowned so thickly with berry-laden bay.

Oedipus
We will soon know: he is within hearing-range.

To Creon.
[85] Prince, my kinsman, child of Menoeceus, what news have you brought us from the god?

Creon
Good news. I tell you that even troubles hard to bear will end in perfect peace if they find the right issue.

Oedipus
But what is the oracle ? So far, your words [90] neither encourage nor frighten me.

Creon
If you want to hear in the presence of these people, I am ready to speak: otherwise we can go inside.

Oedipus
Speak to all. The sorrow that I bear for these is more than for my own life.

Creon
I will tell you what I heard from the god. [95] Phoebus our lord clearly commands us to drive out the defilement which he said was harbored in this land, and not to nourish it so that it cannot be healed.

Oedipus
With what sort of purification? What is the manner of the misfortune?

Creon
[100] By banishing the man, or by paying back bloodshed with bloodshed, since it is this blood which brings the tempest on our city.

Oedipus
And who is the man whose fate he thus reveals?

Creon
Laius, my lord, was the leader of our land before you assumed control of this state.

Oedipus
[105] I know it well—by hearsay, for I never saw him.

Creon
He was slain, and the god now bids us to take vengeance on his murderers, whoever they are.

Oedipus
Where on earth are they? Where shall the dim track of this old crime be found?

Creon
[110] In this land, the god said. What is sought for can be caught; only that which is not watched escapes.

Oedipus
Was it in the house, or in the field, or on foreign soil that Laius met his bloody end?

Creon
He left our land, as he said, on a mission to Delphi. [115] And once he had set forth, he never again returned.

Oedipus
And was there none to tell? Was there no travelling companion who saw the deed, from whom tidings might have been gained, and used?

Creon
All perished, save one who fled in fear, and he could tell with assurance only one thing of all that he saw.

Oedipus
[120] And what was that? One thing might hold the clue to many, if we could only get a small beginning for hope.

Creon
He said that robbers fell upon them, not one man alone, but with a great force.

Oedipus
How then, unless some intrigue had been worked with bribes [125] from here in Thebes, would the robbers have been so bold?

Creon
Such things were surmised. But once Laius was slain no avenger arose in the midst of our troubles.

Oedipus
But when royalty had fallen in this way, what trouble prevented a full search?

Creon
[130] The riddling Sphinx had forced us to let things that were obscure go, and to investigate the pressing trouble.

Oedipus
I will start afresh, and once more make dark things plain. Worthily has Phoebus Apollo—and worthily have you—bestowed this care on behalf of the dead. And so, as is fitting, you will find me allied with you [135] in seeking vengeance for this land, and for the god as well. I will dispel this taint not on behalf of far-off friends, but for my own benefit. For whoever killed Laius [140] might wish to take vengeance on me also with a hand as fierce. Avenging Laius, therefore, I serve myself. Come, my children, as quickly as possible rise from the altar-steps, and lift these suppliant boughs. Let someone summon here Cadmus' people, warning them that I will leave nothing untried. [145] For with the god's help our good fortune—or our ruin—will be made certain.

Priest
My children, let us rise. What we came to seek, this man promises of his own accord. And may Phoebus, who sent these oracles, [150] come to us as savior and deliverer from the pestilence.

Chorus
O sweetly-speaking message of Zeus, in what spirit have you come to glorious Thebes from golden Pytho? I am on the rack, terror shakes my soul, O Delian healer to whom wild cries rise, [155] in holy fear of you, wondering what debt you will extract from me, perhaps unknown before, perhaps renewed with the revolving years. Tell me, immortal Voice, child of golden Hope.

Chorus
First I call on you, daughter of Zeus, immortal Athena, [160] and on your sister, Artemis, guardian of our earth, who sits on her glorious throne above the circle of our market-place, and on far-shooting Apollo: oh shine forth for me, my three-fold help against death! [165] If ever before you drove a fiery pest from our borders to stop ruin rushing upon our city, come now also!

Chorus
Alas, countless are the sorrows I bear. [170] A plague is on all our people, and thought can find no weapon for defense. The fruits of the glorious earth do not grow; by no birth of offspring do women surmount the pangs in which they shriek. [175] You can see life after life speed away, like a bird on the wing, swifter than irresistible fire, to the shore of the western god.

Chorus
With such deaths, past numbering, the city perishes. [180] Unpitied, her children lie on the ground, spreading pestilence, with no one to mourn them. Meanwhile young wives and grey-haired mothers raise a wail at the steps of the altars, some here, some there, [185] and groan in supplication for their terrible woes. The prayers to the Healer ring clear, and with them the voice of lamentation. For which things, golden daughter of Zeus, send us the bright face of comfort.

Chorus
[190] Grant that the fierce god of death, who now without the bronze of shields, though among cries like those of battle, wraps me in the flames of his onset, may turn his back in speedy flight from our land, borne by a favorable wind to the great chamber of Amphitrite, [195] or to the Thracian waves, those waters where none find haven. For if night leaves anything undone in the working of destruction, day follows to accomplish it. You who wield the [200] powers of fiery lightning, Zeus our father, slay him beneath your thunder-bolt.

Chorus
Lycean Lord, would that the shafts from your bent bow's string of woven gold might [205] go forth in their might, our champions in the face of the foe, and the flashing fires of Artemis too, with which she darts through the Lycian hills. I call him whose locks are bound with gold, [210] who is named with the name of this land, ruddy Bacchus to whom Bacchants cry, to draw near with the blaze of his shining torch, [215] our ally against the god unhonored among the gods.

Oedipus
You pray. And in answer to your prayer, if you will give a loyal reception to my words and minister to your own disease, you may hope to find help and relief from woes. These words I will speak publicly, as one who was a stranger to the report, [220] a stranger to the deed. I would not go far on the trail if I were tracing it alone, without a clue. But as it is—since it was only after the event that I was counted a Theban among Thebans—to you, Cadmeans all, I do thus proclaim:

Whoever knows [225] by whom Laius son of Labdacus was slain, I order him to declare all to me. And if he is afraid, I order him to remove the danger of indictment from his path by denouncing himself: he will suffer no other punishment, but will only leave this land, unhurt. [230] If anyone knows the assassin to be an alien, from another land, let him not keep silent. I will reward him, and my thanks shall rest with him besides. But if he keeps silent, if anyone, through fear, seeks to screen himself or a friend from my orders, [235] then hear what I shall do: I charge you that no resident of this land, which I rule, give shelter to or address that murderer, whoever he is, or make him a partner in prayer or sacrifice, [240] or give him a share of the lustral rite. Ban him from your houses, all of you, knowing that this is the defilement, as the oracle of the Pythian god has recently shown to me. In this way [245] I am an ally both to the god and to the dead man. And I pray solemnly that the slayer, whoever he is, whether he alone is guilty or he has partners, may, in the horrible way he deserves, wear out his unblest life. And for myself I pray that if he should, [250] with my knowledge, become a resident of my house, I may suffer the same things which I have just called down on others. And I order you to make all these words good, for my sake, for the sake of the god, and for the sake of our land, thus rendered unfruitful and ungodly.

For even if the matter had not been urged upon us by a god, [255] it still would not have been fit that you should leave the guilt unpunished as it is, when one so noble—and he your king—had perished. You should have searched it out. But now, since I hold the powers which he once held, [260] possessing his bed and the wife who bore his children, and since, had his hope of offspring not been unsuccessful, children born of one mother would have tied us with a common bond—as it was, fate swooped upon his head—I will uphold this cause, as though it were that of my own father, [265] and will leave no stone unturned in my search for the one who shed the blood, for the honor of the son of Labdacus and of Polydorus and the elder Cadmus and Agenor of old.

And for those who do not obey me, I pray that the gods [270] send them neither harvest of the earth nor fruit of the womb, but that they perish with the present fate, or one still worse. But to all you, the loyal Cadmeans who are satisfied by these things, may justice, our ally, [275] and all the gods be gracious always.

Chorus
As you have put me under oath, on my oath, my king, I will speak. I am not the slayer, nor can I reveal him. As for the investigation, it was for Phoebus, who enjoined it, to tell us who did the deed.

Oedipus
[280] Justly said. But no man on earth can force the gods to do what they do not want.

Chorus
I would like to say what seems to me the next best course.

Oedipus
And if there is a third course, do not hesitate to reveal it too.

Chorus
I know that our lord Teiresias is the seer most like our [285] lord Apollo: from him, my king, an investigator might learn most clearly about these affairs.

Oedipus
Not even this have I neglected. On Creon's suggestion, I sent a man twice to bring him. And I have been wondering for some time why he is not here.

Chorus
[290] Indeed—his skill apart—the rumors are but faint and old.

Oedipus
What are the rumors? I am investigating every tale.

Chorus
He was said to have been killed by some wayfarers.

Oedipus
I too have heard that. But no one sees the one who saw it.

Chorus
If he knows what fear is, he will not hesitate to come forward when he [295] hears your curses, so dire are they.

Oedipus
When a man does not shrink from a deed, he is not scared by a word.

Chorus
But there is no one to convict him. But here they bring at last the godlike prophet, the only man in whom truth lives.

Teiresias enters, led by a boy.

Oedipus
[300] Teiresias, whose soul grasps all things, both that which may be told and that which is unspeakable, the Olympian secrets and the affairs of the earth, you feel, though you cannot see, what a huge plague haunts our state. From which, great prophet, we find you to be our protector and only savior. [305] Now, Phoebus—if indeed you have not already heard the news—sent answer to our question that the only way to rid ourselves of this pest that afflicts us is to discover the slayers of Laius, and then to slay them or banish them from our land. [310] So do not begrudge us the voice of the birds or any other path of prophecy, but save yourself and your state, save me, save all that is defiled by the dead. We are in your hands, and man's noblest task is to help others [315] to the best of his means and powers.

Teiresias
Alas, how terrible it is to have wisdom when it does not benefit those who have it. I knew this well, but let it slip from my mind: otherwise I would not have come here.

Oedipus
What now? How disheartened you have come!

Teiresias
[320] Let me go home. For you will bear your own burden to the end, and I will bear mine, if you consent.

Oedipus
Your words are strange and unkind to the state which nurtured you, since you withhold this response.

Teiresias
I see that you, for your part, speak inappropriately. [325] Therefore do not speak, so I will not suffer the same.

Oedipus
For the love of the gods, do not turn away, if you have knowledge: all we suppliants implore you on our knees.

Teiresias
For all of you are without knowledge. But never will I reveal my troubles—not to call them yours.

Oedipus
[330] What are you saying? Do you know the secret and refuse to tell it? Will you betray and destroy the state?

Teiresias
I will grieve neither myself nor you. Why do you ask these things in vain? You will not learn the answers from me.

Oedipus
Will you not, basest of the base— [335] you would anger a stone—speak out? can nothing touch you? Will you never make an end?

Teiresias
You blame my anger, but do not perceive your own: no, you blame me.

Oedipus
Who would not be angry hearing such words, [340] with which you now are slighting the city?

Teiresias
The future will come of itself, though I shroud it in silence.

Oedipus
Since it must come anyway, it is right that you tell it to me.

Teiresias
I will speak no further: rage, if you wish, with the fiercest wrath your heart knows.

Oedipus
[345] In my anger I will not spare to speak all my thoughts. Know that you seem to me to have helped in plotting the deed, and to have done it, short of performing the actual murder with your own hands: if you had eyesight, I would have said that you had done even this by yourself.

Teiresias
[350] In truth? I order you to abide by you own decree, and from this day forth not to speak to these men or to me: you are the accursed defiler of this land.

Oedipus
So brazen with your blustering taunt? [355] Where do you think to escape to?

Teiresias
I have escaped. There is strength in my truth.

Oedipus
Who taught you this? Not your skill, at any rate.

Teiresias
You yourself. For you spurred me on to speak against my will.

Oedipus
What did you say? Speak again, so I may learn it better.

Teiresias
[360] Did you not understand before, or are you talking to test me?

Oedipus
I cannot say I understood fully. Tell me again.

Teiresias
I say that you are the killer of the man whose slayer you seek.

Oedipus
Now you will regret that you have said such dire words twice.

Teiresias
[365] Should I tell you more, that you might get more angry?

Oedipus
Say as much as you want: it will be said in vain.

Teiresias
I say that you have been living in unguessed shame with your closest kin, and do not see into what woe you have fallen.

Oedipus
Do you think that you will always be able to speak like this without smarting for it?

Teiresias
Yes, if indeed there is any strength in truth.

Oedipus
[370] But there is, except not for you. You do not have that strength, since you are maimed in your ears, in your wit, and in your eyes.

Teiresias
And you are a poor wretch to utter taunts that every man here will soon hurl at you.

Oedipus
Night, endless night has you in her keeping, so that you can never hurt me, [375] or any man that sees the light of the sun.

Teiresias
No, it is not your fate to fall at my hands, since Apollo, to whom this matter is a concern, is sufficient.

Oedipus
Are these Creon's devices, or your own?

Teiresias
Creon is no trouble for you: you are your own.

Oedipus
[380] O wealth, and empire, and skill surpassing skill in life's keen rivalries, how great is the envy in your keeping, if for the sake of this office which the city has entrusted to me, a gift unsought, [385] Creon the trustworthy, Creon, my old friend, has crept upon me by stealth, yearning to overthrow me, and has suborned such a scheming juggler as this, a tricky quack, who has eyes only for profit, but is blind in his art! [390]

Come, tell me, where have you proved yourself a seer? Why, when the watchful dog who wove dark song was here, did you say nothing to free the people? Yet the riddle, at least, was not for the first comer to read: there was need of a seer's help, [395] and you were discovered not to have this art, either from birds, or known from some god. But rather I, Oedipus the ignorant, stopped her, having attained the answer through my wit alone, untaught by birds. It is I whom you are trying to oust, assuming that [400] you will have great influence in Creon's court. But I think that you and the one who plotted these things will rue your zeal to purge the land: if you did not seem to be an old man, you would have learned to your cost how haughty you are.

Chorus
To our way of thinking, these words, both his and yours, Oedipus, [405] have been said in anger. We have no need of this, but rather we must seek how we shall best discharge the mandates of the god.

Teiresias
Though you are king, the right of reply must be considered the same for both: over that I have control. [410] For I do not live as your slave, but as Loxias'. I will not stand enrolled as Creon's client. And I tell you, since you have taunted my blindness, that though you have sight, you do not see what a state of misery you are in, or where you dwell, or with whom. [415] Do you know who your parents are? You have been an unwitting enemy to your own kin, both in the Underworld and on the earth above, and the double lash of your mother's and your father's curse will one day drive you from this land in dreadful haste, with darkness upon those eyes of yours which now can see. [420] What place will be harbor to your cries, what part of all Cithaeron will not ring with them soon, when you have learned the meaning of the nuptials in which, within that house, you found a fatal haven, after a voyage so fair? And you have not guessed at a throng of other ills [425] which will bring you level with your true self and with your own children. Therefore heap your scorn upon Creon and upon my message: for no man will ever be crushed more miserably than you.

Oedipus
Are these taunts to be endured from him? [430] Be gone, to your ruin; be gone this instant! Will you not turn your back and leave this house?

Teiresias
I would not have come if you had not called me.

Oedipus
I did not know you would speak foolishly, for otherwise it would have been a long time before I summoned you to my home.

Teiresias
[435] I was born like this—as you think, a fool, but in the opinion of the parents who bore you, quite sane.

Oedipus
What parents? Wait. What man is my father?

Teiresias
This day will reveal your birth and bring your ruin.

Oedipus
What riddles, what dark words you always say.

Teiresias
[440] Are you not the best at unravelling mysteries?

Oedipus
Reproach me in what you will find me to be great.

Teiresias
Yet it was just that fortune that undid you.

Oedipus
But if it saved this city I care not.

Teiresias
I will take my leave. You, boy, lead me.

Oedipus
[445] Yes, let him take you: while here, you are a hindrance, a source of trouble. When you have gone, you will vex me no more.

Teiresias
I will go when I have performed the errand for which I came, fearless of your frown: you can never destroy me. I tell you: the man whom you have been seeking this long while, [450] uttering threats and proclaiming a search into the murder of Laius, is here, ostensibly an alien sojourner, but soon to be found a native of Thebes; nor will he enjoy his fortune. A blind man, though now he sees, [455] a beggar, though now rich, he will make his way to a foreign land, feeling the ground before him with his staff. And he will be discovered to be at once brother and father of the children with whom he consorts; son and husband of the woman who bore him; [460] heir to his father's bed, shedder of his father's blood. So go in and evaluate this, and if you find that I am wrong, say then that I have no wit in prophecy.

Chorus
Who is he of whom the divine voice from the Delphian rock has said [465] to have wrought with blood-red hands horrors that no tongue can tell? It is time that he ply in flight a foot stronger than the feet of storm-swift steeds. [470] The son of Zeus is springing upon him with fiery lightning, and with him come the dread unerring Fates.

Chorus