Page:Tragedies of Sophocles (Plumptre 1878).djvu/119

Rh As champion of the old Labdakid race,

For deaths obscure and dark!

For Zeus and King Apollo, they are wise,

And know the hearts of men:

But that a seer excelleth me in skill,

This is no judgment true;

And one man may another's wisdom pass,

By wisdom higher still.

I, for my part, before the word is plain,

Will ne'er assent in blame.

Full clear, the wingèd Maiden-monster came

Against him, and he proved,

By sharpest test, that he was wise indeed,

By all the land beloved,

And never, from my heart at least, shall come

Words that accuse of guilt.

Creon. I come, ye citizens, as having learnt

Our sovereign, Œdipus, accuses me

Of dreadful things I cannot bear to hear.

For if, in these calamities of ours,

He thinks he suffers wrongly at my hands,

In word or deed, aught tending to his hurt,

I set no value on a life prolonged,

While this reproach hangs on me; for its harm

Affects not slightly, but is direst shame,

If through the town my name as villain rings,

By thee and by my friends a villain called.

Chorus. But this reproach, it may be, came from wrath

All hasty, rather than from calm, clear mind.

Creon. And who informed him that the seer, seduced

By my devices, spoke his lying words?