Nor children from the womb, but that they perish

By this fate present, and yet worse than this;

While you, the other Cadmeans, who approve,

May succouring Justice and all Gods in heaven

Accompany for good for evermore!

1 SENATOR

Even as thou didst adjure me, so, my king,

I will reply. I neither murdered him,

Nor can point out the murderer. For the quest—

To tell us who on earth has done this deed

Belonged to Phoebus, by whose word it came.

OEDIPUS

Your words are just; but to constrain the Gods

To what they will not, passes all men’s power.

1 SENATOR

I would say something which appears to me

The second chance to this.

OEDIPUS

And your third, also—

If such you have—by all means tell it.

1 SENATOR

Sir,

Tiresias above all men, I am sure,

Ranks as a seer next Phoebus, king with king;

Of him we might enquire and learn the truth

With all assurance.

OEDIPUS

That is what I did;

And with no slackness; for by Creon’s advice

I sent, twice over; and for some time, now,

’Tis strange he is not here.

1 SENATOR

Then all the rest

Are but stale words and dumb.

OEDIPUS

What sort of words?

I am weighing every utterance.

1 SENATOR

He was said

To have been killed by footpads.

OEDIPUS

So I heard;

But he who saw it is himself unseen.

1 SENATOR

Well, if his bosom holds a grain of fear,

Curses like yours he never will abide!

OEDIPUS

Whom the doing awes not, speaking cannot scare.

1 SENATOR

Then there is one to expose him: here they come,

Bringing the godlike seer, the only man

Who has in him the tongue that cannot lie.

Enter TIRESIAS, led by a boy.

OEDIPUS

Tiresias, thou who searchest everything,

Communicable or nameless, both in heaven

And on the earth—thou canst not see the city,

But knowest no less what pestilence visits it,

Wherefrom our only saviour and defence

We find, sir king, in thee. For Phoebus—if

Thou dost not know it from the messengers—

To us, who sent to ask him, sent word back,

That from this sickness no release should come,

Till we had found and slain the men who slew

Laius, or driven them, banished, from the land.

Wherefore do thou—not sparing augury,

Either through birds, or any other way

Thou hast of divination—save thyself,

And save the city, and me; save the whole mass

By this dead corpse infected; for in thee

Stands our existence; and for men, to help

With might and main is of all tasks the highest.

TIRESIAS

Alas! How terrible it is to know,

Where no good comes of knowing! Of these matters

I was full well aware, but let them slip me;

Else I had not come hither.

OEDIPUS

But what is it?

How out of heart thou hast come!

TIRESIAS

Let me go home;

So shalt thou bear thy load most easily—

If thou wilt take my counsel—and I mine.