Epeisodion 1
Chorus
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.
405
Teiresias
Though you are king, the right of reply must be considered the same for both: over that I have control.
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.
410
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.
415
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
420
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.
425
Oedipus
Are these taunts to be endured from him?
Be gone, to your ruin; be gone this instant! Will you not turn your back and leave this house?
430
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
I was born like this—as you think, a fool, but in the opinion of the parents who bore you, quite sane.
435
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
Are you not the best at unravelling mysteries?
440
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
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.
445
