Chorus
But here is Creon in good time to plan and perform that which you request. He alone is left to guard the land in your place.
Oedipus
Ah, me, how will I address him?
[1420]
What claim to credence can be shown on my part? For in the past I proved to be wholly false to him.
Enter Creon.
Creon
I have not come to mock or reproach you with any any past fault.
To the Attendants.
But you, if you no longer respect the children of men,
[1425]
revere at least the all-nurturing flame of our lord the Sun, and don't show so openly such a pollution as this, one which neither earth, nor holy rain, nor the light itself can welcome. Take him into the house as quickly as you can: it best accords with pity that
[1430]
kinfolk alone should see and hear a kinsman's woes.
Oedipus
For the gods' love—since you have done a gentle violence to my prediction and come in a spirit so noble to me, a man most vile—grant me a favor: I will speak for your own good, not mine.
Creon
[1435]
And what do you wish so eagerly to get from me?
Oedipus
Cast me out of this land with all speed, to a place where no mortal shall be found to greet me.
Creon
This I could have done, to be sure, except I craved first to learn from the god all my duty.
Oedipus
[1440]
But his pronouncement has been set forth in full—to let me perish, the parricide, unholy one that I am.
Creon
Thus it was said. But since we have come to such a pass, it is better to learn clearly what should be done.
Oedipus
Will you, then, seek a response on behalf of such a wretch as I?
Creon
[1445]
Yes, for even you yourself will now surely put faith in the god.
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Sophocles. The Oedipus Tyrannus of Sophocles. Edited with introduction and notes by Sir Richard Jebb. Sir Richard Jebb. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press. 1887.
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