Stasimon 2
[Choral 1]
Consent, reflect, listen, my king, I beg you.
Oedipus
What would you have me grant you?
650
Chorus
Respect him who was in the past not foolish, and who now is strong in his oath.
Oedipus
Do you understand what you crave?
Oedipus
Tell me, then, what you mean.
655
Chorus
That you should never use an unproved rumor to cast a dishonoring charge on the friend who has bound himself with a curse.
Oedipus
Then be quite aware that when you seek this you are seeking death or exile from this land for me.
[Choral 2]
No, by the god that stands at the head of all the host of the gods, no, by the sun. Unblest, unbefriended, may I die the worst possible death, if I have this thought!
660
Chorus
But my unhappy soul is worn by the withering of the land, as well as by the thought that our old sorrows should be crowned by new ones arising from the two of you.
665
Oedipus
Then let him go, though I am surely doomed to be killed
or thrust dishonored from the land. Your words, not his, move me to compassion; but he, wherever he be, shall be hated.
670
Creon
You are truly sullen in yielding, as you are vehement in the excesses of your wrath. But such natures are
justly most difficult for themselves to bear.
675
Oedipus
Will you not be gone and leave me in peace?
Creon
I will go on my way. I have found you undiscerning, but in the view of these men I am just. He exits.
[Choral 1]
Lady, why do you hesitate to take this man into the house?
Iocasta
I will, when I have learned what has happened.
680
Chorus
Blind suspicion, bred of talk, arose, and injustice inflicts wounds.
Iocasta
And what was the story?
Chorus
It is enough, I think, enough, when our land is already vexed, that the matter should rest where it stopped.
685
Oedipus
Do you see to what you have come, for all your noble intent, in seeking to slacken and blunt my zeal?
[Choral 2]
King, I have said it more than once—
Chorus
be sure that I would have proved myself a madman, bankrupt in sane counsel, if I forsook you—you, who gave a true course to my beloved country when it was
690
distraught with troubles, and who now are likely to prove our prospering guide.
695
Iocasta
In the name of the gods, tell me, king, the reason that you have conceived this steadfast wrath.