Not that we count thee as the peer of Heaven,

I, nor these children, seat us at thy hearth;

But as of men found foremost in affairs,

Chances of life and shifts of Providence;

Whose coming to our Cadmean town released

The toll we paid, of a hard Sorceress,***

And that, without instruction or advice

Of our imparting; but of Heaven it came

Thou art named, and known, our life’s establisher.

Thee therefore, Oedipus, the mightiest head

Among us all, all we thy supplicants

Implore to find some way to succour us,

Whether thou knowest it through some voice from heaven,

Or, haply of some man; for I perceive

In men experienced that their counsels best

Find correspondence in things actual.

Haste thee, most absolute sir, be the states builder!

Haste thee, look to it; doth not our country now

Call thee deliverer, for thy zeal of yore?

Never let us remember of thy rule

That we stood once erectly, and then fell;

But build this city in stability!

With a fair augury didst thou shape for us

Our fortune then; like be thy prowess now!

If thou wilt rule this land (which thou art lord of),

It were a fairer lordship filled with folk

Than empty; towers and ships are nothingness,

Void of our fellow men to inhabit them.

OEDIPUS

Ah my poor children, what you come to seek

Is known already—not unknown to me.

You are all sick, I know it; and in your sickness

There is not one of you so sick as I.

For in your case his own particular pain

Comes to each singly; but my heart at once

Groans for the city, and for myself, and you.

Not therefore as one taking rest in sleep

Do you uprouse me; rather deem of me

As one that wept often, and often came

By many ways through labyrinths of care;

And the one remedy that I could find

By careful seeking—I supplied it. Creon,

Menoeceus’ son, the brother of my queen,

I sent to Pytho, to Apollo’s house,

To ask him by what act or word of mine

I might redeem this city; and the hours

Already measured even with today

Make me solicitous how he has sped;

For he is longer absent than the time

Sufficient, which is strange. When he shall come,

I were a wretch did I not then do all

As the God shews.

PRIEST

In happy time thou speak’st;

As these, who tell me Creon is at hand.

OEDIPUS

Ah King Apollo, might he but bring grace,

Radiant in fortune, as he is in face!

PRIEST

I think he comes with cheer; he would not, else,

Thus be approaching us with crown on brow,

All berries of the bay.

OEDIPUS

We shall know soon;

He is within hearing.

Enter CREON, attended.

My good lord and cousin,

Son of Menoeceus,

What answer of the God have you brought home?

CREON

Favourable; I mean, even what sounds ominously,

If it have issue in the way forthright,