OEDIPUS AT COLONUS
Come, answer me one question, if thou canst:
If one should presently attempt thy life,
Would’st thou, O man of justice, first enquire
If the assassin was perchance thy sire,
Or turn upon him? As thou lov’st thy life,
On thy aggressor thou would’st turn, nor stay
Debating, if the law would bear thee out.
Such was my case, and such the pass whereto
The gods reduced me; and methinks my sire,
Could he come back to life, would not dissent.
Yet thou, for just thou art not, but a man
Who sticks at nothing, if it serve his plea,
Reproachest me with this before these men.
It serves thy turn to laud great Theseus’ name,
And Athens as a wisely governed State;
Yet in thy flatteries one thing is to seek:
If any land knows how to pay the gods
Their proper rites, ’tis Athens most of all.
This is the land whence thou wast fain to steal
Their aged suppliant and hast carried off
My daughters. Therefore to yon goddesses,
I turn, adjure them and invoke their aid
To champion my cause, that thou mayst learn
What is the breed of men who guard this State.
Chorus
An honest man, my liege, one sore bestead
By fortune, and so worthy our support.
Theseus
Enough of words; the captors speed amain,
While we the victims stand debating here.
Creon
What would’st thou? What can I, a feeble man?
