With our own eyes we fain would see
Our father’s tomb.
That may not be.
What say’st thou, King?
My children, he
Charged me straitly that no mortal
Should approach the sacred portal,
Or greet with funeral litanies
The hidden tomb wherein he lies;
Saying, “If thou keep’st my hest
Thou shalt hold thy realm at rest.”
The God of Oaths this promise heard,
And to Zeus I pledged my word.
Well, if he would have it so,
We must yield. Then let us go
Back to Thebes, if yet we may
Heal this mortal feud and stay
The self-wrought doom
That drives our brothers to their tomb.
Go in peace; nor will I spare
Ought of toil and zealous care,
But on all your needs attend,
Gladdening in his grave my friend.
Wail no more, let sorrow rest,
All is ordered for the best.
Endnotes
-
The Greek text for the passages marked here and later in the text have been lost. ↩
-
To avoid the blessing (see line), still a secret, he resorts to a commonplace; literally, “For what generous man is not (in befriending others) a friend to himself?” ↩
-
Creon desires to bury Oedipus on the confines of Thebes so as to avoid the pollution and yet offer due rites at his tomb. Ismene tells him of the latest oracle and interprets to him its purport, that some day the Theban invaders of Athens will be routed in a battle near the grave of Oedipus. ↩
-
The Thebans sprung from the Dragon’s teeth sown by Cadmus. ↩
Colophon
Oedipus at Colonus
was written in 406 BCE by
Sophocles.
It was translated from Ancient Greek in 1912 by
Francis Storr.
This ebook was produced for
Standard Ebooks
by
Emma Sweeney,
and is based on a transcription produced in 2006 by
An Anonymous Volunteer, David Widger, and The Online Distributed Proofreading Team
for
Project Gutenberg
and on digital scans from the
Internet Archive.
The cover page is adapted from
Oedipus at Colonus,
a painting completed in 1798 by
Fulchran-Jean Harriet.
The cover and title pages feature the
League Spartan and Sorts Mill Goudy
typefaces created in 2014 and 2009 by
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The first edition of this ebook was released on
January 7, 2025, 8:31 p.m.
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Uncopyright
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