Sophocles' OEDIPUS THE KING Complete

Translated by F. Storr. From the Loeb Library Edition, Originally published by Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA and William Heinemann Ltd, London. First published in 1912.

Sophocles Bilingual Anthology  Studies  Sophocles in Print

99 Pages

Page 5

Oedipus: Ah! my poor children, known, ah, known too well,
The quest that brings you hither and your need.
Ye sicken all, well wot I, yet my pain,
How great soever yours, outtops it all.
Your sorrow touches each man severally,
Him and none other, but I grieve at once
Both for the general and myself and you.
Therefore ye rouse no sluggard from day-dreams.
Many, my children, are the tears I've wept,
And threaded many a maze of weary thought.
Thus pondering one clue of hope I caught,
And tracked it up; I have sent Menoeceus' son,
Creon, my consort's brother, to inquire
Of Pythian Phoebus at his Delphic shrine,
How I might save the State by act or word.
And now I reckon up the tale of days
Since he set forth, and marvel how he fares.
'Tis strange, this endless tarrying, passing strange.
But when he comes, then I were base indeed,
If I perform not all the god declares.

Priest: Thy words are well timed; even as thou speakest
That shouting tells me Creon is at hand.

Previous Page / First / Next Page of Oedipus the King

Sophocles Home Page ||| Elpenor's Free Greek Lessons
Aeschylus ||| Euripides

Reference address : https://www.ellopos.net/elpenor/greek-texts/ancient-greece/sophocles/oedipus-king.asp?pg=5