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has relinquished his authority to Kreon, repeatedly thanking him, praising him, begging him.
These are the two strongest emotional tableaux we take from the last moments: Oedipus' hugging his broken, defiled family; then Oedipus powerless, and being told he is powerless by Kreon. 5
    Both images are fused as Kreon separates Ismene and Antigone from Oedipus' hands and orders the blind man no longer in power to go inside. Oedipus' love is as palpable to us by the end of the play as his wrath, his intelligence, his energy, his special relation with divinity, and his monumental ill-fatedness. It is a wonderful stroke that this side of his character is uppermost in our minds as we leave the theater. It reminds us of a truth that might be lost in the fury of the drama, that the intensity of his love for his family and his city underlies the intensity of his misery, and is as much its cause as the daimon
    * itself.
I wish to thank Professor Thomas Gould of Yale for the wise comments and suggestions with which he greeted each successive draft
5 Some scholars, Jebb and Knox among them, believe Kreon's ambiguous phrase, ''I never promise when I can't be sure," implies assent to Oedipus' demand for exile; and Oedipus does eventually achieve this wish in most versions of the myth. But Oedipus has asked for immediate exile and Kreon forces Oedipus at least temporarily inside the palace. Knox cites Kreon's problematical yielding as evidence of a larger pattern in which Oedipus, despite his blindness, weakness, and shattered confidence, manages to reassert his moral authority and dominate Kreon during the scene. I agree with Knox that Oedipus is a remarkable character in this final scene, but I do not believe this quality has to do with domination or power. Surely Kreon's words:
You won power, but it did not
stay with you all your life (1523/175152)
are the last words on the subject from the stage, and the final Chorus, if genuine, does not contradict them.

     

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of this work. I am further in Professor Gould's debt for his edition of Oedipus The King , from which I have learned a great deal. I am grateful to both Richard Wilbur and Richard Trousdell who each offered timely encouragement and asked exactly those questions that pointed the way to useful revisions. Pam Campbell of the University of Massachusetts Press substantially improved the introduction, text, and notes by her editorial suggestions. My thanks also to the Department of Theater at the University of Utah, for encouraging this translation when it was hardly begun, and for producing it in August 1980. The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation supported the translation with a Fellowship that enabled me to work without interruption until it was complete. I am grateful also to the American Academy in Rome and its director, who welcomed me as a Visiting Writer to that remarkable institution, whose opportunities for stimulation and productive work are more than equal to the distractions of Rome.
ROBERT BAGG
AUGUST 30, 1981

     

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Oedipus the King

 

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SPEAKING Oedipus, King of Thebes
CHARACTERS Priest of Zeus
Kreon, Jocasta's brother
Chorus of older Theban men
Leader of the Chorus
Tiresias, blind prophet of Apollo
Jocasta, Oedipus' wife
Messenger from Corinth
Herdsman, formerly of Laius' house
Servant, from Oedipus' house
SILENT Delegation of Thebans, mostly young
CHARACTERS Attendants and maids
Boy to lead Tiresias
Antigone and Ismene, Oedipus' daughters
SCENE Before the Royal Palace in Thebes. The palace
has an imposing central double door. Two altars
stand near it; one is to Apollo. The delegation
of Thebans enters carrying olive branches wound
with wool strips and gathers by the altars and stairs
to the palace. The light and atmosphere are oppressive.
Oedipus enters through the great doors.

     

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OEDIPUS My children, the newest to descend
from ancient Kadmos into my care:
why have you rushed here , to these seats,
your