Theseus: If there be no compulsion, then methinks To rest in banishment befits not thee.
Oedipus: Nay, when I wished it they would not consent.
Theseus: For shame! such temper misbecomes the fallen.
Oedipus: Chide if thou wilt, but first attend my plea.
Theseus: Say on, I wait full knowledge ere I judge.
Oedipus: O Theseus, I have suffered wrongs on wrongs.
Theseus: Would’st tell the old misfortune of thy race?
Oedipus: No, that has grown a byword throughout Greece.
Theseus: What then can be this more than mortal grief?
Oedipus: My case stands thus; by my own flesh and blood I was expelled my country, and can ne’er Thither return again, a parricide.
Theseus: Why fetch thee home if thou must dwell apart?
Oedipus: The god has spoken; they must needs obey.
Theseus: What are they threatened by the oracle?
Oedipus: Destruction that awaits them in this land.
Theseus: What can beget ill blood ’twixt them and me?
Oedipus: Dear son of Aegeus, to the gods alone Is given immunity from eld and death; But nothing else escapes all-ruinous time. Earth’s might decays, the might of men decays, Honour grows cold, dishonour flourishes, There is no constancy ’twixt friend and friend, Or city and city; be it soon or late, Sweet turns to bitter, hate once more to love. If now ’tis sunshine betwixt Thebes and thee
And not a cloud, Time in his endless course Gives birth to endless days and nights, wherein The merest nothing shall suffice to cut With serried spears your bonds of amity. Then shall my slumbering and buried corpse In its cold grave drink their warm life-blood up, If Zeus be Zeus and Phoebus still speak true. No more: ’tis ill to tear aside the veil Of mysteries; let me cease as I began:
Enough if thou wilt keep thy plighted troth, Then shalt thou ne’er complain that Oedipus Proved an unprofitable and thankless guest, Except the gods themselves shall play me false.
Chorus: The man, my lord, has from the very first Declared his power to offer to our land These and like benefits.
Theseus: Who could reject The proffered amity of such a friend? First, he can claim the hospitality To which by mutual contract we stand pledged: Next, coming here, a suppliant to the gods, He pays full tribute to the State and me; His favours therefore never will I spurn, But grant him the full rights of citizen; And, if it suits the stranger here to bide, I place him in your charge, or if he please Rather to come with me—choose, Oedipus, Which of the two thou wilt. Thy choice is mine.
Oedipus: Zeus, may the blessing fall on men like these!
Theseus: What dost thou then decide—to come with me?
Oedipus: Yea, were it lawful—but ’tis rather here—
Theseus: What would’st thou here? I shall not thwart thy wish.
Oedipus: Here shall I vanquish those who cast me forth.