The Seven Plays in English Verse

Sophocles · Between c. 445 and 406 B.C. (composed for the separate tragedies); includes Oedipus at Colonos (possibly composed earlier than its posthumous production) primary

passage 74 of 165 · SCENE. Before the Cadmean Palace at Thebes. > SCENE. Before the Royal Palace in the Cadmean citadel of Thebes. (23/23)

↪ you wandered here via “choregi selection chorus members” — the connecting lines are tinted below

in brief

Oedipus yields to Creon's command to go inside, and the Chorus reflects that no mortal should be called happy until life ends without sorrow, as Oedipus’ fortunes reverse in anguish.

CR. Thou wilt sooner gain that boon.

OED. Then consent.

CR. 'Tis not my wont to venture promises too soon.

OED. Lead me now within the palace.

CR. Come, but leave thy children.

OED. Nay! Tear not these from my embraces!

CR. Hope not for perpetual sway: Since the power thou once obtainedst ruling with unquestioned might Ebbing from thy life hath vanished ere the falling of the night.

LEADER OF CHORUS. Dwellers in our native Thebe, fix on Oedipus your eyes. Who resolved the dark enigma, noblest champion and most wise. Like a star his envied fortune mounted beaming[6] far and wide: Now he sinks in seas of anguish, whelmed beneath a raging tide. Therefore, with the old-world sages, waiting for that final day, I will call no mortal happy, while he holds his house of clay, Till without one pang of sorrow, all his hours have passed away.

ELECTRA

THE PERSONS

An Old Man, formerly one of the retainers of Agamemnon. ORESTES, son of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra. ELECTRA, sister of Orestes. CHORUS of Argive Women. CHRYSOTHEMIS, sister of Orestes and Electra. CLYTEMNESTRA. AEGISTHUS.

PYLADES appears with ORESTES, but does not speak.

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topics: fate, destiny, and necessity · mourning and grief · rank, class, and social order

The Seven Plays in English Verse · Sophocles · 445–406 BCE