Read Oedipus the King for Free Online Page B

me ?
OEDIPUS Who wouldn't be enraged at the words
you're using to insult Thebes?
TIRESIAS Truth will come. My silence can't hide it.
OEDIPUS Must it come? Good reason to speak it now.
TIRESIAS I prefer not to speak. Rage at that, if you like,
420 with the most savage fury your heart knows.
OEDIPUS I'm angry enough now to speak my mind.
I think you helped plot the murder. No,
you can't have struck the blow itself.
Had you eyes, though, I would have said
you alone were the killer.
TIRESIAS That's your truth? Hear mine: I say
honor the curse your own mouth spoke.
From today, don't you speak to me,
or to your people here. You are the plague.
430 You ruin your own land.
OEDIPUS So the appalling charge has been at last
flushed out, into the open.
Now where will you run?
TIRESIAS Where you can't reach. To truth, where I'm strong.
OEDIPUS Who put this truth in your mouth? Not your prophet's trade.
TIRESIAS You did. By forcing me to speak.
OEDIPUS Speak what? Repeat it so I understand.
TIRESIAS I made no sense the first time?
Are you provoking me to use the word?
440 OEDIPUS You made no sense at any time. Try once more.
TIRESIAS I say: you are the killer you would find.

     

page_32
Page 32
OEDIPUS The second time is even more outrageous.
You'll wish you'd never spoken.
TIRESIAS Shall I feed your fury with more words?
OEDIPUS Say anything. It's all the same worthless noise.
TIRESIAS I say that you are living unaware
in the most hideous intimacy
with your nearest and most loving kin.
You have arrived at evilwhich you cannot see.
450 OEDIPUS You think you can savage me? Forever? Unscathed?
TIRESIAS Forever. Truth lasts.
OEDIPUS Truth lasts for some, but your ''truth" won't
you have blind eyes, blind ears, and a blind brain.
TIRESIAS And you're a wretched fool, lashing me with taunts
every man here will soon aim at you.
OEDIPUS You survive in the care of black
unbroken night! You can't hurt me
or any man who sees the sunlight.
TIRESIAS It isn't I who will cause your fall.
460 Apollo is enough. You're his concern.
OEDIPUS Did you invent these lies? Or did Kreon?
TIRESIAS Kreon is not your disease. You are.
OEDIPUS Wealth, and a king's power,
the skill that wins every time
how much envious malice they provoke!
To rob me of powerpower I didn't want,
but which this city thrust into my hands
my oldest friend here, loyal Kreon, worked
quietly against meaching to steal my throne.
470 He hired for the purpose this fortuneteller
conniving bogus beggar-priest!
who sees the main chance clearly
but is a blind groper in his art.
Tell us now, where did you ever
prove your claim to a seer's power?
Whywhen the Sphinx who barked black songs
was hounding uswhy wasn't it your answer
that freed the city? Her riddle wasn't the sort
just anyone who happened by could solve:

     

page_33
Page 33
480 prophetic skill was needed then,
the kind you didn't have, skill learned
from birds or from a god. Yet it was Oedipus,
who knew nothing, that silenced her,
because my wit seized the answer,
needing no help from birds.
Now it is I, this same man, for whom you plot
disgrace and exile, thinking you will
maneuver close to Kreon's throne.
But your scheme to rid Thebes of this plague
490 will destroy only youand the man who planned it.
You look now so near deathotherwise I'd make you
the first victim of your own plot.
LEADER He spoke in anger, Oedipus
but so did you, if you'll hear what we think.
We don't need angry words, we need insight
how best to manage what the god commands.
TIRESIAS You may be king, but my right
to answer makes me your equal.
In this respect, I am as much
500 my own master as you are.
You do not own my life.
Apollo does. Nor am I Kreon's man.
Hear me out.
Since you have thrown my blindness at me
I will tell you what your eyes don't see:
the evil you are mired in.
You don't see
where you live or who shares your house.
Do you know your parents?
510 You are their enemy
in this life and down there with the dead.
And soon their double curse
your