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Creon
So those two staffs will never again support your path. [850] But since you wish to overcome your country and your friends, whose will I, though tyrant as well, am here discharging, then I wish you victory. For in time, I am sure, you will come to recognize all this, that now too as in time past, it is you who have done yourself no good, by indulging your anger despite your friends. [855] This has always been your ruin.

Chorus
Stop there, stranger!

Creon
Hands off, I say!

Chorus
I will not let go, unless you give back the maidens.

Creon
Then you will soon give the city a more valuable prize, for I will lay hands on more than those two girls.

Chorus
[860] What! What do you intend?

Creon
This man here will be my captive.

Chorus
A valiant threat!

Creon
Straightaway it will be done.

Chorus
Indeed, unless the ruler of this realm prevents you.

Oedipus
Voice of shamelessness! Will you really lay hands on me?

Creon
Shut up, I say!

Oedipus
[865] No! May the powers of this place grant me to utter this further curse! Most evil of men, when these eyes were dark, you wrenched from me the helpless one who was my eyesight and made off with her by force. Therefore to you and to your race may the Sun, the god who sees all things, [870] grant in time an old age such as mine!

Creon
Do you see this, people of the land?

Oedipus
They see both you and me. They know that I have suffered in deeds, and my defense is mere words.

Creon
I will not check my anger. Though I am alone [875] and slow with age, I will take this man by force.

Oedipus
Ah, my wretchedness!

Chorus
What arrogance you have come with, stranger, if you think you will achieve this!

Creon
I will.

Chorus
Then I think this city no longer exists.

Creon
[880] For men who are just, you see, the weak vanquishes the strong.

Oedipus
Do you hear his words?

Chorus
Yes, but he will not achieve them.

Creon
Zeus knows perhaps, but you do not.

Chorus
This is an outrage!

Creon
An outrage which you must bear.

Chorus
Hear people, hear rulers of the land! Come quickly, come! [885] These men are on their way to cross our borders!

Enter Theseus.

Theseus
What is this shout? What is the trouble? What fear has moved you to stop my sacrifice at the altar to the sea-god, the lord of your Colonus? Speak, so that I may know the situation; for that is why I have sped [890] here more swiftly than was pleasant.

Oedipus
Dearest of men! I know your voice. Terrible are the things I have just suffered at the hands of this man here.

Theseus
What things are these? And who has pained you? Speak!

Oedipus
Creon, whom you see here, [895] has torn from me my children—my only two.

Theseus
What is that you say?

Oedipus
You have heard my wrongs.

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hide References (6 total)
  • Commentary references to this page (1):
    • Sir Richard C. Jebb, Commentary on Sophocles: Electra, 331
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    • Sir Richard C. Jebb, Commentary on Sophocles: Oedipus at Colonus, 4
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