Oedipus: Act V

Messenger: When Oedipus his impious race perceived,And saw the warning fates had been fulfilled;When on a hideous charge he stood condemned;Then, with a deadly purpose in his breast,Did he approach his palace, and in hasteBeneath those hated battlements he went.And as a lion rages o'er the sands,And, threat'ning, tosses back his tawny mane;So Oedipus advanced with blazing eyes,And stern, mad face, while hollow groans burst forth,And from his limbs there dripped a chilling sweat.He foams and vents a stream of threat'ning words,And from his heart his mighty grief o'erflows.He in his madness seeks against himselfSome heavy penalty and like his fate."Why do I wait for punishment?" he cries;"Let my guilty heart with hostile sword be pierced,Or overwhelmed with flames or crushing rocks!Oh, for a tiger or some bird of prey,To rend my tender flesh! Do thou thyself,Who hast beheld full many deeds of blood,O cursed Cithaeron, from thy forests sendThy wild beasts 'gainst me or thy greedy dogs.Oh, that Agave were returned to earth!But thou, my soul, why dost thou shrink from death?For death alone can make thee innocent."So spake he, and his impious hand he laidUpon the hilt and drew his glittering sword."And dost thou, then, with this brief punishmentExpect to pay thy mighty debt of guilt,And with one blow wilt balance all thy sins?Thy death would satisfy thy murdered sire;But what to appease thy mother wilt thou do,And those thy children, shamefully begot?What recompense canst make unto thy land,Which for thy sin is smit with pestilence?Such debts as these thou canst not pay by death.Let Nature, who, in Oedipus alone,Strange births devising, hath her laws o'erturned,Subvert herself again to punish him.Let it be mine, in never-ending round,To live and die, and to be born again,That for my crimes by never-ending painI may atone. Now use thy wit, poor soul.Since by repeated death thou canst not die,Choose then some form of lingering death in life,Some way by which, not numbered with the dead,Nor yet the living, thou mayst linger on.So die, that in thy death thou mayst remainWithout the land wherein thy father dwells.O soul, why dost thou hesitate?" And thenA sudden stream of tears o'erspread his face,And wet his cheeks. "And can my tears suffice?Too long my eyes these useless showers have poured;Nay, let them follow where the tears have flowed,From out their sockets driven. O gods of wedlock,Is this enough? These eyes must be removed."He spoke with frenzied rage; and all the whileHis cheeks were flaming with a dangerous light,And his starting eyeballs strained to leave their seats.His face was full of passion, fierce resolve.Groaning he thrust his hands into his eyes;And those fierce eyes stood forth to meet his hands,And eager followed of their own accordTheir kindred hands, as courting that deep wound.Deep in with hookéd fingers he explores,And rends his eyeballs from their deepest roots.Still stays his hands within those empty seats,And tears the hollow sockets with his nails,With savage joy, with vain and endless rage;So great his fear and hatred of the light.He lifts his head, and with those empty eyesThe heavens surveying, tests his darkened sight.Whatever from his mangled eyes still hangs,He tears away, and now in triumph criesTo all the gods: "Oh, spare my country now,I pray; for I have done what must be done,And I have paid the penalty I owed.Now have I found at last a fitting nightTo match my impious wedlock." As he speaks,His face is watered by a hideous shower,As the blood flows streaming from his ruptured veins.

Chorus: By fate we're driven; then yield to fate.No anxious, brooding care can changeThe thread of destiny that fallsFrom that grim spindle of the Fates.Whate'er we mortals suffer here,Whate'er we do, all hath its birthIn that deep realm of mystery.Stern Lachesis her distaff whirls,Spinning the threads of mortal men,But with no backward-turning hand.All things in ordered pathways go;And on our natal day was fixedOur day of death. Not God himselfCan change the current of our lives,Which bears its own compelling forceWithin itself. Each life goes onIn order fixed and absolute,Unmoved by prayer. Nay fear itselfHas been by many found a bane;For, while they sought to shun their fate,They came upon it in their flight.But now the palace gates resound, and see,The sightless king himself, with none to guide,Takes hitherward his blind and groping way.

Oedipus: Now all is well and finished; to my sireI've paid the debt I owed. How sweet these shades!What god, at length appeased, hath wrapped my headIn a pall of darkness, and my crimes forgiven?Now have I 'scaped the conscious eye of day;And nothing dost thou owe, O parricide,To thine avenging hand. Thy sight is gone,And such a countenance becomes thee well.

Chorus: See where with hurried step Jocasta comes,Beside herself and overcome with grief;As when in maddened rage that Theban dameHer son's head tore away and realizedWhat she had done. She wavers, longs to speakTo that afflicted one, and fears to speak.Now shame at last has yielded to her grief,And with a faltering tongue she speaks to him.

Jocasta: What shall I call thee? Son? Dost shun that name?Thou art my son; thy shame confesseth it.And yet, O son, though all unwilling, speak.Why dost thou turn away thy sightless face?

Oedipus: Who now forbids me to enjoy my night?Who gives me back mine eyes? My mother's voice!Oh, awful sound! Now is my labor vain.Stay where thou art! Each step is impious.Let boundless seas our guilty souls divide,And lands remote; and if beneath this landSome other hangs, beholding other stars,May that far country one of us receive.

Jocasta: What thou deplorest is the fault of fate.A fated crime can leave no stain of sin.

Oedipus: Now cease thy words, O mother, spare my ears,By these poor remnants of my mangled form,By that unhallowed offspring of my blood,And all that in the double names we bearIs right and wrong!

Jocasta [to herself]: Why art thou listless now,O soul of mine? Since thou hast shared his guilt,Why hesitate to share his punishment?The beauty of all human intercourseHas fallen into ruin for thy sake,Confused and lost, O wretch incestuous.Not if the father of the gods himselfShould hurl at me his glittering thunderbolts,Could I for my foul crimes atonement make,Since I the name of mother have profaned.Now death is welcome, but the way of deathMust I consider.Come, thou parricide,And lift thy hand against thy mother too.This act is wanting to complete thy work.Now let the sword be drawn. By this good bladeWas Laius, my husband, slain--not so;My husband's father, by his rightful name!Shall I this weapon plunge into my breast,Or thrust it deep within my waiting neck?Nay, nay: thou know'st not how to choose a place.Strike here, O hand, through this capacious womb,Which (horrible!) the son and husband bore.

Chorus: She lies in death, her failing hand relaxed;And spouting streams of blood drive out the sword.

Oedipus: O fate-revealer, thee do I upbraid,Thou god and guardian of the oracles.My father only was I doomed to slay;But now, twice parricide and past my fears,Have I been guilty, and my mother slain.For 'tis by sin of mine that she is dead.O lying Phoebus, now have I outdoneThe impious fates.With apprehensive feetLet me go out upon my darkened way,Planting my footsteps with a faltering tread,And through the darkness grope with trembling hands.Stay not thy flight, speed thy uncertain steps--But hold! lest on thy mother's corse thou tread.O Thebans, weak and smitten sore with ills,Whose hearts are fainting in your breasts, behold,I flee, I go: lift up your drooping heads.A milder sky and sweeter air shall comeWhen I am gone. Whoever still retainsHis feeble life may now inhale the airIn deep, life-giving draughts. Go, lend your aidTo those who were to certain death resigned;For with me in my exile do I bearAll pestilential humors of the land.Then come, ye blasting Fates and mad Despair,Thou deadly Pestilence, come, come with me;With such a company 'tis sweet to flee!