Let no man in this land, whereof I hold
The sovereign rule, harbor or speak to him;
Give him no part in prayer or sacrifice
Or lustral rites, but hound him from your homes. 
For this is our defilement, so the god
Hath lately shown to me by oracles. 
Thus as their champion I maintain the cause
Both of the god and of the murdered King. 
And on the murderer this curse I lay
(On him and all the partners in his guilt):—­
Wretch, may he pine in utter wretchedness! 
And for myself, if with my privity
He gain admittance to my hearth, I pray
The curse I laid on others fall on me. 
See that ye give effect to all my hest,
For my sake and the god’s and for our land,
A desert blasted by the wrath of heaven. 
For, let alone the god’s express command,
It were a scandal ye should leave unpurged
The murder of a great man and your king,
Nor track it home.  And now that I am lord,
Successor to his throne, his bed, his wife,
(And had he not been frustrate in the hope
Of issue, common children of one womb
Had forced a closer bond twixt him and me,
But Fate swooped down upon him), therefore I
His blood-avenger will maintain his cause
As though he were my sire, and leave no stone
Unturned to track the assassin or avenge
The son of Labdacus, of Polydore,
Of Cadmus, and Agenor first of the race. 
And for the disobedient thus I pray: 
May the gods send them neither timely fruits
Of earth, nor teeming increase of the womb,
But may they waste and pine, as now they waste,
Aye and worse stricken; but to all of you,
My loyal subjects who approve my acts,
May Justice, our ally, and all the gods
Be gracious and attend you evermore.

Chorus
The oath thou profferest, sire, I take and swear. 
I slew him not myself, nor can I name
The slayer.  For the quest, ’twere well, methinks
That Phoebus, who proposed the riddle, himself
Should give the answer—­who the murderer was.

Oedipus
Well argued; but no living man can hope
To force the gods to speak against their will.

Chorus
May I then say what seems next best to me?

Oedipus
Aye, if there be a third best, tell it too.

Chorus
My liege, if any man sees eye to eye
With our lord Phoebus, ’tis our prophet, lord
Teiresias; he of all men best might guide
A searcher of this matter to the light.

Oedipus
Here too my zeal has nothing lagged, for twice
At Creon’s instance have I sent to fetch him,
And long I marvel why he is not here.

Chorus
I mind me too of rumors long ago—­
Mere gossip.

Oedipus
               Tell them, I would fain know all.

Chorus
’Twas said he fell by travelers.

Oedipus
                                   So I heard,
But none has seen the man who saw him fall.