Oedipus Teiresias, whose soul grasps all things, both that which may be told and that which is unspeakable, the Olympian secrets and the affairs of the earth, you feel, though you cannot see, what a huge plague haunts our state. From which, great prophet, we find you to be our protector and only savior. Now, Phoebus—if indeed you have not already heard the news—sent answer to our question that the only way to rid ourselves of this pest that afflicts us is to discover the slayers of Laius, and then to slay them or banish them from our land. So do not begrudge us the voice of the birds or any other path of prophecy, but save yourself and your state, save me, save all that is defiled by the dead. We are in your hands, and man’s noblest task is to help others to the best of his means and powers.
Teiresias Alas, how terrible it is to have wisdom when it does not benefit those who have it. I knew this well, but let it slip from my mind: otherwise I would not have come here.
Oedipus What now? How disheartened you have come!
Teiresias Let me go home. For you will bear your own burden to the end, and I will bear mine, if you consent.
Oedipus Your words are strange and unkind to the state which nurtured you, since you withhold this response.
Teiresias I see that you, for your part, speak inappropriately. Therefore do not speak, so I will not suffer the same.
Oedipus For the love of the gods, do not turn away, if you have knowledge: all we suppliants implore you on our knees.
Teiresias For all of you are without knowledge. But never will I reveal my troubles—not to call them yours.
Oedipus What are you saying? Do you know the secret and refuse to tell it? Will you betray and destroy the state?
Teiresias I will grieve neither myself nor you. Why do you ask these things in vain? You will not learn the answers from me.
Oedipus Will you not, basest of the base— you would anger a stone—speak out? can nothing touch you? Will you never make an end?
Teiresias You blame my anger, but do not perceive your own: no, you blame me.
Oedipus Who would not be angry hearing such words, with which you now are slighting the city?
Teiresias The future will come of itself, though I shroud it in silence.
Oedipus Since it must come anyway, it is right that you tell it to me.
Teiresias I will speak no further: rage, if you wish, with the fiercest wrath your heart knows.
Oedipus In my anger I will not spare to speak all my thoughts. Know that you seem to me to have helped in plotting the deed, and to have done it, short of performing the actual murder with your own hands: if you had eyesight, I would have said that you had done even this by yourself.
Teiresias In truth? I order you to abide by you own decree, and from this day forth not to speak to these men or to me: you are the accursed defiler of this land.
Oedipus So brazen with your blustering taunt? Where do you think to escape to?
Teiresias I have escaped. There is strength in my truth.
Oedipus Who taught you this? Not your skill, at any rate.
Teiresias You yourself. For you spurred me on to speak against my will.
Oedipus What did you say? Speak again, so I may learn it better.
Teiresias Did you not understand before, or are you talking to test me?
Oedipus I cannot say I understood fully. Tell me again.
Teiresias I say that you are the killer of the man whose slayer you seek.
Oedipus Now you will regret that you have said such dire words twice.
Teiresias Should I tell you more, that you might get more angry?
Oedipus Say as much as you want: it will be said in vain.
Teiresias I say that you have been living in unguessed shame with your closest kin, and do not see into what woe you have fallen.
Oedipus Do you think that you will always be able to speak like this without smarting for it?
Teiresias Yes, if indeed there is any strength in truth.
Oedipus But there is, except not for you. You do not have that strength, since you are maimed in your ears, in your wit, and in your eyes.
Teiresias And you are a poor wretch to utter taunts that every man here will soon hurl at you.
Oedipus Night, endless night has you in her keeping, so that you can never hurt me, or any man that sees the light of the sun.
Teiresias No, it is not your fate to fall at my hands, since Apollo, to whom this matter is a concern, is sufficient.
Oedipus Are these Creon’s devices, or your own?
Teiresias Creon is no trouble for you: you are your own.
Oedipus
O wealth, and empire, and skill surpassing skill in life’s keen rivalries, how great is the envy in your keeping, if for the sake of this office which the city has entrusted to me, a gift unsought, Creon the trustworthy, Creon, my old friend, has crept upon me by stealth, yearning to overthrow me, and has suborned such a scheming juggler as this, a tricky quack, who has eyes only for profit, but is blind in his art! Come, tell me, where have you proved yourself a seer? Why, when the watchful dog who wove dark song was here, did you say nothing to free the people? Yet the riddle, at least, was not for the first comer to read: there was need of a seer’s help, and you were discovered not to have this art, either from birds, or known from some god. But rather I, Oedipus the ignorant, stopped her, having attained the answer through my wit alone, untaught by birds. It is I whom you are trying to oust, assuming that you will have great influence in Creon’s court. But I think that you and the one who plotted these things will rue your zeal to purge the land: if you did not seem to be an old man, you would have learned to your cost how haughty you are.
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