After the day of horrors the blind Oedipus is cast forth from Thebes, and becomes a wanderer over the face of the earth, guided and tended by his faithful daughter, Antigone. He comes at last to Colonus, a rural district near Athens, and one of the holy places of Attica. Here he is destined to end his life, to be buried, and by the presence of his remains to confer a blessing on the country which has given him a last resting-place and a tomb. The dark cloud of involuntary guilt, which has hitherto overshadowed him, lifts at the end, and is succeeded by a calm evening light.

* * * * *

OEDIPUS AND ANTIGONE ARRIVE AT COLONUS AND ENTER THE CONSECRATED GROUND.

LINES 1-110

OEDIPUS.

Child of a blind old man, Antigone,
Unto what land, whose city, have we come?
Who is there for this day to entertain
With scanty fare the wanderer, Oedipus,
Who asks but little and still less receives,
Yet with his dole is fain to be content—
For time and suffering and a noble heart
Have taught me how to bear adversity.
But, daughter, if thou seest a resting-place,
Either in common ground or hallowed grove,
There guide me to a seat, that we may ask
What place is this: strangers, we come to learn
Of citizens and what they bid us do.

ANTIGONE.

Oedipus, my unhappy sire, the towers
That fence the city round far off appear.
This seems a holy place; 'tis full of pine,
Of laurel, and of vine under whose leaves
Trills her sweet notes full many a nightingale.
Here rest thee on this unhewn seat of rock;
The journey for thy aged feet was long.

OEDIPUS.

Guide thy old father safely to the seat.

ANTIGONE.

It is a lesson taught me long ago.

OEDIPUS.

Where is it we have halted? canst thou tell?

ANTIGONE.

Athens I know; this spot is strange to me.

OEDIPUS.

That it was Athens every traveller said.

ANTIGONE.

Wouldst thou that I go ask what place it is?

OEDIPUS.

Yea, daughter, if it is inhabited.

ANTIGONE.

Inhabited it is; but I may spare
My pains, for close at hand I see a man.

OEDIPUS.

Bends he his steps in our direction, child?

ANTIGONE.

Yes, and is now at hand.

(Enter STRANGER.)

Whate'er is meet
For thee to say, speak; he is at thy side.

OEDIPUS.

O stranger, listen to this maid who sees
Both for herself and me, since our good luck
Hath sent thee to inform our ignorance.

STRANGER.

Ere thou dost question further, leave that place;
'Tis holy ground whereon thou mayest not tread.

OEDIPUS.

What, then, is the indwelling deity?

STRANGER.

I tell thee it is hallowed; it belongs
To the dread Daughters of the Earth and Night.

OEDIPUS.

What is their name? With reverence I would ask.

STRANGER.

With us, the Eumenides, of sleepless eye;
But different names seem good in different lands.

OEDIPUS.

May they receive the suppliant to their grace,
For I intend no more to leave this ground.

STRANGER.

What means this?

OEDIPUS.

'Tis the token of my doom.

STRANGER.

Myself I dare not thrust thee out until
On my report the State my act approves.

OEDIPUS.

To a poor wanderer, friend, be not unkind,
But what I humbly ask thee deign to tell.

STRANGER.

Speak on, and no unkind refusal fear.

OEDIPUS.

What is the place, then, upon which we stand?

STRANGER.

Thou shalt know all that I can tell. The place
Around is holy, dread Posidon here
Is present, present here the lord of fire,
Titan Prometheus. What thou standest on
Is of this region hight the Brazen Way,
The prop of Athens, while these neighbouring fields
Boast of Colonus, that famed charioteer,
As their first settler; and their denizens
Are proud to bear their founder's sainted name.
Such claims to pious reverence hath this place,
Stranger, which they who dwell here feel the more.

OEDIPUS.

There are then people who inhabit it?

STRANGER.

Yes, people named after their patron god.

OEDIPUS.

Has it a king or do the commons rule?

STRANGER.

The King of yonder city is its lord.

OEDIPUS.

And who now fills the seat of royalty?

STRANGER.

Theseus, the son of Aegeus, is his name.

OEDIPUS.

Would one of you my envoy be to him?

STRANGER.

To tell him aught, or bid him come to thee?

OEDIPUS.

To show him how small cost may bring great gain.

STRANGER.

And wherein can the blind advantage him?

OEDIPUS.

My eyes are blind, but when I speak I see.

STRANGER.

Attend my words if thou'rt an honest man,
And honest though ill-starred thou seemst to me.
Stir not from off this spot where thou dost stand,
Till to this township's rural denizens
I have recounted all. They will decide
Whether thou may'st remain or must depart.

(Exit STRANGER.)

OEDIPUS.

My daughter, has the stranger gone from us?

ANTIGONE.

He has, my father; all is still around.
Thou mayst speak freely for I only hear.

OEDIPUS.

Dread goddesses, of awful countenance,
Since in your holy precincts first I rest,
Be merciful to Phoebus and to me;
For Phoebus, when he all my woes foretold,
Promised me peace at last, then to be mine
When at my wandering's limit I should find
A shrine and hostel of the powers of awe.
Here of my misery was to be the goal,
And I was to bring blessings to my hosts,
And curses upon them that drove me out.
Tokens of this he pledged his word to send,
An earthquake, lightning, or a thunder peal.
Sure then I am that auguries from you,
Who cannot lie, my wandering feet have led
Unto this grove. How should the wayfarer
Else have on you first lighted, like himself,
Untasting of the wine-cup, and have found
This sacred seat unhewn? O goddesses,
Fulfil Apollo's oracles, and grant
Some termination of this weary life,
Unless my sum of pain seems incomplete,
When long unbroken sufferings I have borne.
O daughters dear of immemorial night,
Athens, of cities most illustrious,
That art to the great Pallas dedicate,
Take pity on this ghost of Oedipus;
Once I was not the thing that now I am.

* * * * *

THE PRAISES OF COLONUS AND ATHENS.

LINES 668-719.

CHORUS.

Of this land of chivalry
Thou the garden here dost see,
White Colonus, in whose glade,
Underneath the greenwood shade,
Her loved haunt, the nightingale
Poureth oft her luscious wail.
Glossy-dark the ivy creeps;
Flourishes along the steeps
With berries store, scorched by no ray,
Rent by no storm, the sacred bay.
Here loves the jolly god to rove
With merry nymphs that round him move.
Here many a flower, heaven-watered, blows,
Worthy to bind immortal brows.
Narcissus waves its clusters gay,
And crocus gleams with golden ray.
Nor do the springs that feed thy flow,
Cephisus, intermission know:
Day after day their crystal stream
Makes the rich loam with plenty teem.
Nor do the muses keep afar,
Nor Aphrodite's golden car.
Here grows, what neither Asia's coast
Nor Pelops' Dorian Isle can boast,
The tree that Nature's bounty rears,
The tree that mocks the foeman's spears,
That nowhere blooms so fair and free
And rich—our own grey olive tree,
Of which no chieftain, old or young,
Shall rob the land from which it sprung.
Blue-eyed Athene is its guard,
And Morian Zeus its sleepless ward.
And loftier still the note of praise
That by the grace of heaven we raise
To this our motherland, for she
Is Queen of steeds, Queen of the sea.
Poseidon, son of Saturn, thou
Didst set this crown upon her brow,
When first upon Athenian course
Thou taughtst to curb the fiery horse.
The dashing oar our seamen ply,
Light o'er the wave our galleys fly,
Keeping the sea-nymphs company.

* * * * *

LENGTH OF DAYS.

LINES 1211-1238.

CHORUS.

Little wisdom hath the man
That would over-live his span.
Length of days brings many a moan
When life's prime is past and gone;
But of pleasures, never a one.
Then all alike from dole to save,
Comes the dark and cheerless grave.

Not to be is happiest;
Next with speed to part is best.
Bloodshed, battle, hatred, strife,
Youth with all these ills is rife.
Then comes the last, the dreariest stage,
Sour, companionless old age.

* * * * *

THE END OF OEDIPUS.

LINES 1579-1667.

MESSENGER. (To the CHORUS.)

Brief is the speech, my fellow-citizens,
Needed to tell that Oedipus is dead;
But a brief speech will not suffice to give
A full account of all that there befell.

CHORUS.

His life of sorrow then has found its end.

MESSENGER.

He is where he will never sorrow more.

CHORUS.

Died he by act of heaven and painlessly?

MESSENGER.

Herein consists the wonder of my tale.
When from this place he went, as thou didst see,
No longer guided by a friendly hand,
But himself acting as the guide of all,
Having arrived at the descending stair,
With brazen steps fast rooted in the earth,
He halted upon one of many paths,
Hard by the basin wherein treasured lie
Pledges of Theseus and Pirithous.
Midway from this to the Thorician rock,
The hollow pear-tree and the marble tomb,
He took his seat and disarrayed himself
Of his soiled weeds; then to his daughters called
Water to bring that he might cleanse himself.
They to a knoll that rose above the fane
Of boon Demeter, hastening, did with speed
That which their sire commanded,—bathed his limbs,
And in new garments seemly him arrayed.
When thus his heart's desire had been fulfilled,
And none of his behests remained undone,
Thunder beneath the earth was heard, whereat
The maidens quaked, and on their father's knees
They laid them down and wept, nor ceased to beat
Their breasts and to pour forth the long-drawn wail.
He, hearing all at once their bitter cry,
Folded his hands over their heads, and said,
"Daughters, this day your father is no more,
For now my course is ended and your life
Of travel sore in tending me is done.
Hard was that life, my daughters, well I know,
And yet a single word makes up for all.
Love did ye never meet at any hand
Greater than his, of whom henceforth bereft,
Ye must drag out whate'er remains of life."
Thus folded each in other's last embrace,
They sobbed and wailed. When they at last had done
Their weeping and their cry arose no more,
A silence followed; all at once a voice
Called him, and made the hair of each of us
That heard it stand on end with sudden fear.
Repeatedly it called, that mystic voice,
"Oedipus, linger thou no more," it said,
"Thine hour is come; too long is thy delay."
He, hearing the celestial summons, called
For our King Theseus to draw near to him;
And when the King drew near, he said, "Dear Prince,
Pledge to my daughters troth by your right hand,
As they will pledge their troth to thee, and swear
That thou wilt not desert them, but whate'er
Thou mayst do thou wilt do it for their good."
Theseus, with noble soul, calm and unmoved,
Swore to fulfil his stranger friend's request.
Which being ended, straightway Oedipus,
With his blind hands touching his daughters, said,
"Children, ye now must bear up gallantly
And from this spot depart, nor seek to see
Or hear that which may not be seen or heard.
Tarry no longer; what is now to come
Theseus alone may lawfully behold."
These words of his all that were present heard.
So we departed, and with streaming eyes
Walked by the maidens. Having gone some way
We turned, looked back, and saw that Oedipus
Had vanished, nor did trace of him appear,
While the King stood alone, holding his hand
Before his eyes as though some awful form,
Some overpowering vision had appeared.
And no long time had passed, when he was seen
Falling upon his knees and worshipping
At once the Earth and all the Olympian gods.
But in what way Oedipus left this life
Theseus alone of human kind can tell.
There flashed from heaven no lightning in that hour
To strike him dead; there came not from the sea
A tempest with its blast to sweep him off.
Some envoy from the gods was sent to him,
Or opening earth engulfed him painlessly.
The old man died without disease or pang
To make us grieve for him; by miracle,
If ever man so died. Thinkst thou I dream?
I know not how to show thee that I wake.