HUGHES Oedipus Integral

Trustees of Boston University

The Oedipus of Seneca Author(s): Ted Hughes Reviewed work(s): Source: Arion, Vol. 7, No. 3 (Autumn, 1968), pp. 324-371 Published by: Trustees of Boston University Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20163141 . Accessed: 14/02/2013 20:40 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

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OEDIPUS copyright? 1969 by Ted Hughes

ARION, VOL. 7, NO. 3

Copyright ? arion

1969 by arion

is published quarterly by the Dean of the Graduate School, The

University

of Texas.

in U.S. and Canada. $1.50. $5.00 per volume copy: Single The University of Texas be sent to arion, Press, Austin, must Second order. class postage Texas 78712. accompany Payment rates paid at Austin, Texas. 14B Waggener be sent to The Editors, should arion, Hall, Manuscripts cannot be respon 78712. The editors of Texas, Austin The University not be returned which unless will sible for unsolicited manuscripts, Subscription: Orders should

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THE OEDIPUS OF SENECA

adapted by

TED HUGHES

?

1969 by Ted Hughes

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Contents

Autumn

7/3

THE OEDIPUS OF SENECA

1968

324

Ted Hughes RILKE'S BIRTH OF VENUS

372

Middleton

Christopher

AND THE MYSTERIES

DEATH

de Anima,

Plutarch

fragment

392 6, translated

by C. /. Herington

PENGUIN CLASSICS: A REPORT ON TWO DECADES Introduction D.

Homer,

393

395 S. Carne-Ross

400

Herodotus and Thucydides, Adam Parry Greek Tragedy, Hugh Kenner 416 Aristophanes, Cedric Whitman 422 Plato and Aristotle, Thomas Gould 426 Roman Comedy, Douglas Parker 434 Roman Epic, David Armstrong 441 Catullus, Tim Reynolds 453

409

Rorace, James Hynd 466 Roman History, Gareth Morgan 472 477 Propertius and Juvenal, /. P. Sullivan Seneca's Tragedies, C. J. Herington 487 A BETTER TRADITION

491

Henry Ebel SCHOLIA SENECA

OR

SCENARIO?

5OI

Ian Scott-Kilvert FORUM AESCHYLUS

Steven

AT

THE

BILLY

ROSE

512

Shankman

TOWARD A DEPARTMENT OF LITERATURE: A Reply Carne-Ross 515 Wayne A. Rebhorn ANNOUNCEMENT

to D.

522

NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS 524 cover

and

vignettes:

Guy

Davenport

design:

Tom

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Cunningham

S.

In 1967 the National Theatre had contracted to perform a translation of Seneca's Oedipus by David Turner, which Sir Laurence Olivier was going end of

to direct. the

For

year

various

Sir Laurence,

reasons, who

that project had been

hung fire. ill during

Towards the

the

summer,

invited Peter Brook to be guest director at the National Theatre and over

to take

the production

of Oedipus,

with

Geoffrey

Reeves

as co

director.

Peter Brook had clear ideas about the type of production he wanted, and when he found the translation did not quite suit them he invited me

it. The embarrassments in on another mans of starting adapt in this way will be imagined, and after some tentative false easily was the to zo back to the starts, we for me found forward only way a Victorian Seneca, crib, and so make original eking out my Latin with a new David version translation. Turners of the play was completely to the one that first the National Theatre therefore inspired produce I should Seneca. also like to thank Mr. Turner with for his co-operation in to

text

the change of plan when it was decided that I should make an entirely

new

version.

an I the work was very much the moment of began, amalgam own and my Later ideas. on, the Brook's, Reeves', Geoffrey a bit to do with had Richard the shape of the Peaslee, composer, quite one. He the second that together, choruses, pieced early especially From

Peter

out of something originally near a hundred lines long, to fit a wild

one of the most moments orchestration became of voices which exciting in the certain in their parts In the final stages deadlocks production.

were brilliantly solved by Irene Worth (Oedipus).

(Jocasta) and Sir John Gielgud

a text that would to make idea from the start was release still has, with the minimum of inter force this situation or movement. in word, detail ference from surface plot, Sophocles* version would not have served the purposes of this production special so well as Seneca's, is less a which than a series of epic nearly play connected and at times rudimentary descriptions by artificial dialogue. as that of the ritualised It is easier to see the form of the Seneca account Our

whatever

guiding inner

of a sacred event. Out of the possibilities of this, Peter Brook drew the whole style of his production, the limited movement of the actors, the

and the over-all musical impetus. heightened headlong style of delivery, one or two passages I added to Jocasta's part, and in the choruses ran a course to the original, all but the last?I widely parallel touching it here and there, to the way we suited and in a style the deployed over all the theatre. members Otherwise the text comes of the chorus out of the original, with much T. H. little addition. deletion, closely

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show us show us a simple riddle lift everything show us a childish riddle what has four legs at dawn two legs at noon three legs at dusk and is itweakest when it has most? T.will find the answer is that an answer? show us

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aside

Ted Hughes

ACT ONE

CHORUS

but day is reluctant the sun night isfinished out it itself that of cloud up drags filthy stares down

at our sick earth

it

not light

brings

a

gloom

it our streets homes temples gutted with the it's one the new heaps huge plague pit in the spewed up everywhere hardening

beneath plague of dead

sickly daylight OEDIPUS

and Iwas Polybus

a prince as God fear fear

running away from my father happy freedom not exile unafraid wandering

fleeing yes but unaf raid

in heaven

saw me

I stumbled

that came after me Polybus

Delphi

till I stumbled

on this kingdom

it followed me the words of the oracle

some day Iwould killmy father

Iwould kill him

worse and worse that other what can be worse the oracle pronounced it the words stick it is not but possible

the god predicted

die god threatenedme with my

fathers bedchamber bed fouled my mothers desecrated it the god predicted Iwould marry mother murder father first then this my my who could have stayed there waiting for it I left

the kingdom

fast

not as an outlaw I respected that trusting myself

Iwas terrified

itwas the high law of nature to guard that determined removed myself

Iwas so terrified the most impossible it seemed already to have happened

not

disaster but the fear

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327

328

THE OEDIPUSOF SENECA

came with me this throne

me

fear

my shadow and it grew

I stand in it

into this kingdom till now it surrounds

to

like a blind man in

darkness even now

what

I see that

how could I be mistaken about it

this plague matter what me why

is fate preparing

for me

surely

that lives no slaughtering everything men trees flies no matter it spares what final disaster is it saving me for

the whole nation guttering the last dregs of no order left its life horrible deaths ugly in every doorway every you look path wherever funeral after funeral endless terror and sobbing and in the middle of it all I stand here untouched the man marked down by the god for the worst fate

of all

aman hated and accused by the god

still

unsentenced our we lungs scorch gulp for breath but there's no air the heat never moves the sun presses down on us with itswhole the dog star the lion one strength on top of the other a double madness every day closer water has left us the old river courses crack hard greenness has left us grass bleaches and roasts it powders underfoot the corn should be ripe the harvest stands but ruined shrivelled in the ear blasted on the dry straws the river Dirce our strong swift Dirce it has been sealed off its springs dried up it's a bed a of hot stones infernal of string stinking puddles what light there is stifles under this strange fog this hellish strange reek thickening and hanging all day and all night the funeral pyres are stench smoldering of carcasses burning worse stench of unburied carcasses us the stars cannot pierce the rotting through to moon crawls through this fog too close hardly visible heaven's cut off we're buried away here between our walls can escape the plague it fastens on everybody nothing men women children no distinction young old young men in their full strength old diseased men fathers newborn sons the plague heaps everybody together friend and enemy

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Ted Hughes

329

man and wife burn in the one flame nobody weeps there are no tears left the groans are for the living not the dead screaming is not mourning but torment or terror many die of terror from windows leap for terror fathers gulp down poison stab themselves with roasting eyes stoke their son's bodies in the flames mothers between their stagger to and fro like madwomen children's beds and the flames finally throw themselves mourners into the flames fall down beside the pyres and are thrown into the same flames survivors fight for even even fuel snatching burning sticks from pyres throw their own families on top of other people's fires it's enough if the bones are scorched there isn't wood to turn to ashes there enough everything isn't ground enough to bury what's left and prayers are nurse and doctor go useless is useless medicine into the flames hand that's stretched out to every

help

the plague grips it

you high gods let me you decide what

go on living

watch

every

I am kneeling have death

happens

to men

in this

here at your altar beseeching let me go you great powers you listen to me don't make me

don't keep me here alive to

living thing inmy

country die before

I die

listen tome you are too far off and too deaf you have am I the one not put too much onto me only you're going to let die I am you are heaping death onto everybody are you me have you asking for death going to refuse set me apart for else something Oedipus get out of this land get away from these cries this unending funeral this air you've poisoned with the curse you drag everywhere get away run as you should have done run yes even back long ago to your parents JOCASTA Oedipus you are the man we rely on you are the the heavier

King

the strength

the threat the stronger we

ifwe have

strength

should find you to

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330

THE OEDIPUS

OF SENECA

an answer bear the threat for every challenge a his hands King cannot sit wringing the gods weeping like a baby wanting reproaching

to die

OEDIPUS I have proved my courage

often enough JOCASTA

it is no use to us

that was yesterday

today

we need

it

OEDIPUS

the plague ismore something beneath isworse of it

than enough for any King but it under roots the something and for me alone JOCASTA

the dead are burning and rotting the living are in terror and is this your dying pain what could be worse people OEDIPUS

the cause

is worse JOCASTA

a

how can it be for King's fear is a nation's fear a new is alone this riddle you Oedipus OEDIPUS

and what

if the answer

is our final disaster JOCASTA

when

I carried my

sons

I carried them for death I carried

I carried them for the throne

them for final disaster

did I knowwhat was coming

what were

ropes of blood were

hurrying

together

when

I carried my first son

did I know

twisting

together

what

inmy body

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bloody

foot prints

Ted Hughes did I know what past and unfinished me were getting flesh again inside

331

reckonings

did I think that the debts of thepast

were settled before I conceived I knew the thing in my womb I knew

was

going

to pay

for the whole

for him like a greedy

the future was waiting

god

eater

was

going

to ask

for everything

as if no other man existed for pain and for fear for hard sharp metal I carried him for rottenness I carried him but I carried

and

finally life

I carried him for this

of other men and his own cruelty

for disease and to pieces dropping I knew for death bones dust him not only for this I carried him

and my blood didn't pause didn't hesitate inmy womb the futility considering it didn't falter reckoning into him blood from my

in a cave

strength

happiness

for the cruelty

past a man

to be king of

it the odds poured toes my finger ends

this

on

blind blood blood frommy gums and eyelids blood

from the roots of my hair

it flowed into the knot of his bowels the knot of his brain tied everything my womb together

blood

from before

any time began into the knot of his muscles every

corner

of the earth and the heavens

and every trickle of the dead past twisted it all into shape inside me what was he what wasn't he the question was unasked and what was I what cauldron was I what doorway was I what cavemouth what spread my legs and lifted my knees was he to hide squeezing was I to escape running the strength of the whole earth pushed him through my body and out

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33^

THE OEDIPUS

OF SENECA

it split me open and I saw the blood

was Imyself a bag of blood

but was he a bag of death

jump

out after him

a screaming mouth a was it question asking he was a king's son he was aman's shape he was perfect some not something monstrous accident of wrong repulsive limbs and jumbled organs not some freakish half-living blood clot his eyes were perfect feet perfect fingers perfect he lay there in the huge darkness like a new bright weapon he was the warrant of the gods he was their latest attempt to walk on the earth and to Uve he only had to live and what if at that moment after all that

a doubt had turned him back

OEDIPUS

have I turned back whatever there is that frightens men in terror can come whatever this world pain and death shape me it cannot turn me back in not even Fate frightens not even the sphinx twisting me up in her twisted words she did not frighten me she straddled her rock her nest of smashed skulls and bones her face was a gulf her she jerked her wings up and gaze paralysed her victims that tail whipping and writhing she lashed herself she bunched herself up convulsed started to tremble like a fit jaws clashing together biting the air yet I stood there and I asked for the riddle Iwas calm her talons gouged splinters up off the rock saliva poured from her fangs she screamed her whole body shuddering the words came slowly the riddle that monster's justice a which was a death sentence trap of forked meanings a noose of knotted words I undid it I yet I took it solved it that was praying

the time to die all this frenzy now for death it's too late Oedipus

this

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Ted Hughes

333

JOCASTA you wear the crown which was your prize the sceptre's your prize

for killing

that birdwoman

OEDIPUS

as if I'd never solved her riddle yet she's not dead I drove her off the rock she changed she never died rottenness is flying but her and the questions stopped her stench is a fog smothering us as ifwe were living inside her carcass there's one hope

the oracle

left

us can the god direct

CHORUS are finished!

Thebes-you

farmers all dead. The The countryside around is empty?the workers all dead. Their children all dead. The plague owns everything. those brave men of under the finished. gone yours?they've plague?they're They so marched the last frontiers bravely away out?eastward?past rim?leaned victory after victory?right away on to the world's their banners tibe sun's face?the very conquerors? against where are ran from them?the rich nations of the they? Everybody rivers ran? ?the marksmen of the hills?the horsemen?everybody towns are not any more, Thebes. Where empty?scattered away?but What's

armies

happened

now,

Thebes?

and they vanished. Look They're Thebes

to your

They're

Finished.

at the streets?what

All

armies, Thebes?

finished.

Rubbished are

The

plague

your touched them

into earth.

the crowds

Black pro cessions: to a the and the is fires. Thebes funeral. graves going is choking with corpses. Why don't the crowds move? doing?

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OF SENECA

THE OEDIPUS

334

are too many

Graves

corpses.

can't be dug

fast enough.

There Fire can't

burn

fast enough.

corpses

was

the sheep.

began with

plague

The air was

poison.

suddenly

at the altar?massive

A bull

earth's glutted.

Death's

glutted.

And

rot.

the piles of corpses The

The

It began with

the grass. The grass

stench.

suddenly

animal. The priest

had hoisted

his axe,

his aim?in

steadied

that second,

the axe fell?the

before

bull was

it touched

down. Was I saw a heifer

was by the god? It

touched by the plague.

Her body was

a sackful of tar? filthy

slaughtered.

filthy bubbling tar.

cattle are dead in the fields, dead in their stalls. On Everywhere silent farms there are bones in cloaks, skulls on pillows. Every ditch stinks death. The heat stinks. The silence stinks. A horseman it

breakneck

coming

plague caught him up? tilt? heels?full

over

his horse?mid-stride?head

caught

the

past us?but

down.

The rider beneath

green has withered

Everything ?they're

dusty

iswhite?it Where

it.

the gods?

The

that were sticks.

of brittle

ridges?deserts

crumbles when are

up. The hills

cool with forest The vine's tendril

touch it.

you gods

hate

us. The

have

gods

run

away. The gods have hidden

in holes.

The

gods

are dead

and stink too. There There's

never were something

any gods?there's wrong

with

of the plague? they rot

only death.

the sun?the

light

seems

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to bulge and

Ted Hughes

tear. Death has sickened rooms. Whis in its dead up. Sobbing empty spewing in perings in my own doorway. There's only death. I met myself as if it were

waver ?it's walls. Last

a skin ready

335

night

the earth

shook?it

in a harbour?the

deep water

to

split

turned wells

and

like a man

waking?it heaved like blood. In the

filled with

mountains,

cliffs dropped

away.

I saw my

own dead body

in the gutter.

is a land of death.

Thebes A death

worse

than death.

Limbs

suddenly

head to begins

go numb,

and swells. You pound. Your face flushes?puffs a come ears are into go stupor. Eyes bulging out, ringing?the come stabs and burns? gangrenous up. Every lump lumps It's a fire Ut on your belly, a fire under your chest. Clots of blood come into your mouth, strings of black blood dangle from your to wall. nostrils. You pitch from wall shatter you. Coughs Anything Crowds crying

to be cooled?hug

stones?fling

yourself

Burning. in the river

pools. are at every altar?crowds shivering and groaning? for death. Praying for death. Shouting for death.

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THE OEDIPUSOF SENECA

336

ACT TWO

OEDIPUS who is this coming no is it Creon

so sight

hurridly towards can be trusted

the palace

CHORUS it is Creon has he brought

this is the man we the answer

are

waiting

for

OEDIPUS now

I shall know my

it is

fate for what

nearest to the throne in blood the can the oracle tell us has been long waiting us what is its answer help Creon

CREON as he

not the god at Delphi does speak simply reveals he conceals OEDIPUS

help hidden

from us is no

help

what

is the god's

answer

CREON

difficult

to fathom

a

tangle

a riddle

OEDIPUS

tell us what it is Oedipus

if it'sariddle it is for

CREON

this iswhat the god says

themurder of King

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Ted Hughes Laius must

be atoned

banished then shall we

for

the murderer

must

King Laius must be avenged

337

be

not until

see the sun clear and the air pure

and the plague finished

OEDIPUS who was the King's murderer his throne ismy it is for me to throne and his queen my queen ask Laius who murdered whom does King

the god name

he will

pay the penalty CREON

if it is safe if the god will letme Iwill tell what happened What Iwent through there atDelphi it has altered me I did not know what I feel it now as I speak

you know

the shrine

you know

terror was

the rites

I did

I preparedmyself purified everything prescribed and humbled my thoughts I stepped into the shrine

to the my hands raised in supplication reverently god as I did so the air and the mountain shook and the two peaks of parnassus rumbled like anger avalanches

of snowmuttered

themountain had stirred

was

there

a silence then the god's grove of laurel trees shook drew a deep sudden breath a hiss of leaves a from one end to the other the sacred rushing the spring castalia died back among its wet stones she began priestess of the god was going ahead of me to undo her hair and toss it loose was suddenly she from head to foot lashing her hair this way writhing itwas the and that before god twisting inside her she could reach the cave there came a a crack glare and I was a thunderbolt thought it directly upon us louder than a man can imagine but itwas a voice Good stars shall come again to the Thebes of Cadmus only when that regicide known to the god now and from infancy no longer pollutes Dirce the lovely river murderer you crept back into your mother's benighted womb

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33^

THE OEDIPUSOF SENECA OEDIPUS

it is awarning from the god the burial honours for the dead King's remains they were the neglected succession was left open throne unclaimed the sceptre am I now to for do what any usurper empty you going

failed to do then

man

kings must protect kingship

you all feared hhn

he dies

this

he's forgotten

CREON

we did not forget

terror

stupefied

us

OEDIPUS

what

terror could prevent

you mourning

a

King

CREON terror of the sphinx us

and her threats

her riddle

stupefied

OEDIPUS

the movers the guides the lawgivers are demanding expiation for this murder the King of Thebes where Laius

are above vengeance is the man

they for

you who choose kings from among men you great gods come down and and set them up and keep them in power hear these words you who made this whole Universe and the laws we have to live and die in hear me and you watcher who look after the great burning seasons on this earth who and blood its strength sap give and you who govern who pace out the centuries and you darkness muscle of the earth who move and speak in the winds and inwater and you who the dead be with me now hear these words I manage now speak let no walls hold peace for the man whose hands killed he goes let him be luckless wherever King Laius

hounded by every evil let his genius unprotected let every land reject him desert him let himmarry in shame lethis children be born in shame let his

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Ted Hughes a a rack of shame and let bed be a torture pit and as he him deal as bloodily with his own father

let him suffer to the last

dealt with Laius

and nothing could be worse than wrench everything I have escaped for that this that everything man no exists forgiveness longer sea you who guard my homeland by the power of the

on every side

by you highest god of the light beams

you voice of the oracle

rule

by the kingdom which

by the gods of thehome I left

I now

Imake

an oath let my father live to enjoy his old age and his throne in peace let my mother never marry if I to dig out this husband fail other any only

criminal only if I fail to tear the full penalty out of

his living body tell it again did it happen

only

if I fail to avenge Laius

where

did the murder happen open combat treachery

how tell it

CREON

a hard to the oracle the King was going to Delphi road broken country at a certain three ways point the road forks Laius before lay he expected a pleasant journey at the cross but there through friendly people in the thick of the scrub forest roads bandits an awkward met him the place trapped between saw the dense thickets nobody fight just as we need him here is Tiresias the

oracle's

roused

him

OEDIPUS

Tiresias the god's chosen mouth seem to demand of the oracle they name him

explain the words the life of aman

TIRESIAS

if I am slow to speakOedipus patient

a blind man misses

if I ask for time much

be

the god's servant

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339

340

THE OEDIPUS

OF SENECA

I am here to search this thing my country's servant to the bottom when Iwas came down into me young when my blood was hot the god

intomy body he spoke directly out ofmy mouth

inhis

we must look at the omens own words a pure white bull also the to altars bring a heifer that has never been yoked MANTO they

are here TIRESIAS

I need more help yet you must guide me my daughter as we sacrifice these beasts you describe this too the describe every token tome signs MANTO the victims

are

perfect

and prepared TIRESIAS

now recite the prayers burn the incense

summon

the holy presences

MANTO I have piled

the incense on the hearth

of the altar

TIRESIAS

now describe the flames how does it eat

you have

fed the fire

manto

it flared up tall and fierce to nothing back

then suddenly died

TIRESIAS

did the flame

stand up clear

did itpoint cleanly straight up

what was

its colour

like a blade

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but

in

Ted Hughes was

or was it broken crooked in any way it or in any way describe smoky

it ragged

MANTO itwas every colour together all twisting changed a full rainbow but clouded not easy together dark and purplish to to say what was not there it

flecked with yellows

begin with

till itwas

and shook turning red

suddenly itblackened and guttered

it reached up

all blood

red

now

look

TIRESIAS

describe

everything MANTO

it's splitting into the flame is climbing up again two horns itself father the wine from splitting we it it's for the is blood become libations poured

blood

the altarfire isbelching black smoke

what does itmean the smoke oily heavy smoke is reaching out towards the King it is and looping

thickening round theKing's head face out

it'sblotted the

now it

King's over covering everything a not moving canopy does itmean

it's spreading spreads blackish everything hanging it'smade a what gloom TIRESIAS

voices voice against voice fighting voices voices are tearing me voices but not words nothing is steady this is impossible to hold whirling terrible hidden when the gods something something are enraged they speak out clearly you hear them but now they can't speak clearly they are trying to drag into the light something too horrible for are ashamed of the light what is they something it put the salt meal quickly offer them the animals on their necks are how do they take they calm describe them your touching everything

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341

34^

THE OEDIPUS

OF SENECA

MANTO the bull tosses his head he's frightened he seems afraid of the sun he keeps wheeling his head away from the sun he's shining with sweat and shivering TIRESIAS

do they go down at the first stroke MANTO

the heifer surged with her whole weight against the a blade and stab she's down not the bull single the bull's lurching about the sword's gone in twice but he's still up to the full depth staggering about hither and thither trying to get he's down he heaves shudders a little away now he's still TIRESIAS

what about the blood

tell about the blood

the blood spout from the wounds reluctant to come out

or does

does it ooze

MANTO the heifer's blood is coming in a river the bull's are as wounds big but they're bloodless they're instead blood's just holes ripped in the red meat black bursting from his eyes and out of his mouth torrents is it his black of blood lumpy TIRESIAS

this sacrifice is evil my whole body freezes as I listen to you but go deeper lift out the entrails describe all that you see MANTO

no membrane iswrong to contain the entrails something and the intestines quake father what can this mean

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Ted Hughes a little but these are twisting usually they quiver look how they shake my arm as if they had shuddering much of much seems to be missing separate life the heart ismissing no here is the the intestines

heart shrivelledwithered up diseased black buried

down here far from its natural position what does it mean father is reversed the lungs are everything over to the far here with blood squeezed right gorged how did they breathe the liver is rotten breaks inmy

hand oozing black bitter gall

look

this liver is

the left wing swollen twice its proper double-headed size knotted with great veins the right wing is but the finger of it deathly white fungus rotten is enormous stiff black with blood that is a fatal omen

every position iswrong how did nature survive in this what is this thick lump here deep down here a foetus an unborn calf this father?horrible heifer was never mated but here is a calf and how

did thewomb get here jerking for life is everywhere the bull is getting carcass is getting hooks priests it that noise altar fire the

the calf s kicking inside thebag

it's groaning

inside the bag blood

a disembowelled and the heifer up it at the up onto its legs lunges with its horns entrails dragging after is the fire that is the bellowing altar itself is bellowing JOCASTA

what does all this

this sacrifice mean

what

is hidden

under

OEDIPUS

my ear is not afraid of speak plainly tome Tiresias the truth whatever it is when the worst is certain men become calm TIRESIAS

you shall live to envy this torment Oedipus

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343

344

THE OEDIPUS

OF SENECA

OEDIPUS one the gods are trying to make me understand thing tell me that one who murdered Laius thing King TIRESIAS

birds far up in the depths of the sky organs pulled alive from deep in the bodies of animals how bleeding can such things out a name for the name Oedipus spell we need other methods for the name we need the dead

King himself

Laius himself dead beneath the earth he

must be out of that darkness Laius must brought back name the murderer himself we must open the earth have talk with death open the ears of the dead open their mouths a it cannot be Oedipus who performs this yourself King's are must this world for be well clear of eyes they kept the fouling shadows of that other world OEDIPUS

Creon

second

in line to the throne

this is for you

TIRESIAS while we reach into death and call out the dead men let them sing against the dead sing CHORUS

let the

TO BACCHUS

OOO?AI?EE.KA

CHANT REPLY

(3 times) (3 times) DANCE DEATH INTO ITSHOLE DANCE DEATH INTO ITSHOLE INTO ITSHOLE ITSHOLE ITSHOLE ITSHOLE HOLE LET IT CLIMB

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Ted Hughes

345

LET IT CLIMB UP LET IT CLIMB UP LET IT CLIMB LET IT LIVE OPEN THE GATE OPEN THE GATE LET IT LIVE TEAR THE BLOOD OPEN ITSMOUTH LET IT CRY WHILE THE WIND CROSSES THE STONES WHILE THE STARSTURN WHILE THE MOON TURNS WHILE THE SEA TURNS WHILE THE SUN STANDS AT THE DOORWAY YOU YOU YOU YOU UNDER THE YOU UNDER THE UNDER THE LEAF YOU UNDER THE STONE YOU UNDERTHESEA YOU UNDERBLOOD UNDER THE EARTH YOU UNDER THE LEAF UNDERTHE STONE UNDER BLOOD UNDER THE SEA UNDER THE EARTH YOU YOU

YOU YOU

YOU YOU

(repeat)

YOU YOU

UNDER BLOOD UNDER THE EARTH YOU

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(2 times)

346

THE OEDIPUSOF SENECA

ACT THREE

OEDIPUS in your face Creon I see only horror whose life do the gods demand from us this whole dying city is to hear you waiting CREON you want me

fear forbids me

to speak

to speak

OEDIPUS

when Thebes is down this royal house your own house I command you to down speak

is

CREON you

command

me

to

you will

speak

pray

you were

OEDIPUS

ignorance speak

cures nothing you can cure it

this whole

nation

is sick

CREON the cure can be so drastic

men

prefer

the sickness

OEDIPUS

when torture has crushed you will you fear the anger of the crown when will you speak CREON crowns have been

crushed

by the words

of the tortured

OEDIPUS

you shall go back

to the underworld

in your own

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deaf

Ted Hughes blood like the cattle a cheap sacrifice tell us what these rites have revealed

unless you

CREON a

King

cannot grant a man

less than his silence OEDIPUS

the silence the speech

in a kingdom

can be deadlier

than

CREON

if silence is forbidden

freedom isfinished OEDIPUS

power

to command

finished

the throne

is finished

the kingdom finished CREON

prepare

yourself

Oedipus

at the source of the river Dirce

is a clump of black hollies

in a narrow valley

in the thickof it a

over the whole wood gigantic cypress reaching out a an oak shadow huge imprisoning everything tree ancient and massive has died there laurels all for the myrtles and alders struggling light but the place in belongs to the cypress right a its roots wells among up spring freezingly it is almost dark in there cold underfoot quagmire a stinking slime as soon as the old he priest arrived he started didn't need to wait for the in that night gloom they a trench into that they threw dug burning wood the priest begins brought from the funeral pyres tomake movements with sprays broken from the cypress to and fro black robe trailing behind twisted black yew twigs round his head and white hair oxen are and sheep and black dragged backwards toppled alive into the burning trench the does bellowing not last long flames leap up smoke and the stench

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347

34$

TOE OEDIPUSOF SENECA

of burning flesh fill thewood

now

the priest begins to call up the things of the he calls to death itself over and over underworld into an ecstasy face contorted himself foam working he argues with round his mouth the dead thickening screams mutters he cajoles and threatens sings now more blood onto the altars and whispers more the trench living animals into the flames new blood too milk and wine with swamped and that left his hand incantation from poured over and over bowed to the ground stamping voice the dead up convulsed not human any more bringing then we felt the ground shaking we felt the earth lift under us and the wood shook suddenly dogs were a hellish itwas of baying belling dogs shaking the and Tiresias was shouting "they earth coming up are have heard I have opened death they Coming" trees dust and rained down great twigs split from as the earth top to bottom and lifted their roots began to tear open I saw things in the darkness many moving I saw dark rivers and pale masks lifted and sinking I saw writhing marshes things I could hear human voices and the screeching and that were never on earth I heard laughing of mouths on earth than sobbing deeper anything I saw every disease I knew their faces I heard them I saw every torment every and knew their voices injury and shadows like flames horror every spinning sickening forms faces mouths towards us reaching up clutching and crying

I saw theplague of this city

bloated

blood oozing

on a from every orifice grinning up sliding mountain of corpses the roaring of dogs' voices screams jabbering as if the groans indescribable laughter all erupting is earth were crammed, splitting with it Manto to the old man's miracles but she stood accustomed us could move petrified too none of only Tiresias seemed in control of himself but he could see none of

it

he carried straight on

the ghosts

he began to call for

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Ted Hughes a a and they came growing sound humming like a vast flock seemed to silence everything of autumn starlings a wind of rushing gloomy

twitterings

beating up at the light

349

that

swirling

back and round and round in the pit grabbing at the earth the tree roots at our clothes all crying in their thin bodiless voices till at last one of

them laidhold of the roots and clung there

faced pressed this creature

into the earth commanding

it

again he called and at last it looked up its face and I recognised

his

Tiresias called to come up

Laius

to again and

it lifted

our

King

Laius itwas him he pulled himself up his whole body was plastered with blood his hair beard face

aU one terrible wound

mud brains blood

a mash

of

hismouth lay open and the

he tongue inside it began to move and quiver began to speak 'you insane family of Cadmus each other you will never stop slaughtering finish it now children with your own your rip hands put an end to your blood now because worse is coming an evil too detestable on to name is squatting

the throne

but it isn't the gods my country rots a son and a mother it is this a son and a mother knotted and twisted together a of bodies coupling vipers twisting together blood flowing back together ?i the one sewer it isn't the wind fevers from the south or your the drought and its dried-out earth scorching dust those things are innocent it is your King blinded in the wrong that got him his throne blinded to his own origins, blind to the fixed gods the loathed son of that same queen who now swells under him worse the Queen than him the Queen yes her womb that chamber of hell which began it all he pushed his way back there where he began than an animal he buried his head in there there

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of

Thebes

and worse

350

E OEDIPUS

OF SENECA

and brought new where he first came screaming out brothers for himself out of his own mother's body a bloodier of evil horrible tentacles tangle than his own sphinx that sceptre which does not belong you clutching I am the man you murdered to you for it your but 111 bring a bridesmaid f ather still not avenged a to your marriage fury to bind you and your mother

togetherwith awhiplash

I shall disembowel your

I shall start your sons butchering each other city infernal lineage out by the roots I shall rip your whole men of Thebes drive get rid of this monster no matter where him him away let go quickly only then let him take that deadly shadow of his elsewhere and the roots will revive your streams will recover a pure and blossom come again and the fruit swell

airwill sweep through the land

pestilence

the deathpains

hell want

to get away

and the grief the

the horror

the death

they

will all follow his footsteps but I shall stophim and shackle his feet

fast

I shallblock his path I shall break his heart

go away from you groping an old man

over darkened

Thebes take the earth from him

he'll roads suddenly

his fatherwill take the

light" OEDIPUS

in this world the thing I most dreaded I'm this thing I've run from and accused of having done it hidden from and guarded myself against the thought of it horror of itwith me every second to dreading sleep afraid of the dreams of it waking shouting from the I'm finally accused of having done it of it nightmare is still the wife of Polybus my father Merope my mother what ismy crime there is alive and strong him how have Imurdered Polybus are there both them what of my parents happy together have I done wrong and Laius

he was

dead

long before

I came here

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Ted Hughes

351

I only came here because he was dead because I had killed that iswhat won me the kingdom that riddling monster were this empty throne the widow queen waiting they to be won Iwon them or is it is this old priest tome something lying the this is a plot whole country supernatural maddening a is it this surely plot priest and the gods and the dead and the rest they're

all part of the trick hand

the sceptre

to you

and the end of thiswill be to Creon CREON

would I drive my sister off the throne I am happy with what I have and ifmy blood loyalty weren't enough a to keep me as I am Iwill tell you king's position me it terrifies me that lonely height appalls crown down to still time that have Oedipus you lay now while it is safe don't wait to be quietly now are while crushed by it still free go you to find some place less elevated safer OEDIPUS

you urge me

to abandon

the throne CREON

any man

free to choose

Iwould

urge him the same you Oedipus to choose you can do longer free nothing else

but you are no

OEDIPUS

that is the right mask for ambition who missed the throne

the right mask

CREON

me let these long years of loyalty argue for OEDIPUS

the

a traitor has a purpose loyalty of

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for one

352

OF SENECA

THE OEDIPUS

CREON what

could Iwant

I have

backbrealdng load

me for their safety

of a king none of a

the noblest of the city crowd tomy

king's

not a day an army of gift thank dependents house

in some overwhelming

dawns but it brings

I am envied

every advantage

the very clothes they

their food

stand what

enough

could

in

Iwant more

OEDIPUS what

t yet got

you haven

CREON convicted

without

defence OEDIPUS

who

rules when

I go CREON

what

if I am innocent OEDIPUS

this man

is guilty

take him to the prison

in the rock guard him

CHORUS

the gods hate Thebes they have always detested

the gods are punishing this city us they will not spare Thebes

Cadmus began it Cadmus killed a god's serpent

he sowed its fangs in a ploughed field

what jumped out of the furrows a maniac army an army of madmen each started other butchering they

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Ted Hughes and that was gods hate

the beginning

of this noble city

which

the

to Thebes the gods sent Oedipus was their answer Oedipus

dragging theplague as he dragged his foot

now he comes under the curse of Thebes like Actaeon before him the hunter who looked too close at the wrong woman at the forbidden peered through the leaves body of the woman own hounds turned in the pool Actaeon's against as the him gods have turned against us deaf to his voice they turned against him and he ran from the their eyes had changed yelling of his own hounds he ran as a dumb stag driven like a stag in a circle sick with the terrors of a stag bowels emptying and heart broken till he saw in that same lungs torn and blood in his mouth

pool

he was a stag and he was dragged down as a stag torn to pieces as a stag in a ring of his own blood-covered hounds the pool where the woman had lifted her was a wallow thigh

of blood

a black hole of hounds Oedipus

rending

has come under

the curse of Thebes

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353

354

THE OEDIPUSOF SENECA

ACT FOUR

OEDIPUS

itwas fear

before have

I been

but now

is it certainty

how

trapped

I killed Laius

the voice of the oracle accuses me his own ghost points at me and accuses me me but my conscience acquits I know myself

better than the god atDelphi knowsme

betterthananyghost

Laius

is nowhere

m my conscience

Laius murdered

if I could remember

if I could go back two men

only

two strangers

something

both

together long ago I see it I see myself shoved to the roadside shoved into the thorns me the horses driven straight at me to trample to go over me with the wheels the lathered horses that arrogant screaming old man and the driver shouting trying to run me down with the chariot itwas one half self-defence what I did I put my spear into the driver and he fell out backwards as the chariot man slashed at me with his sword the old passed I drove the spear through him and he fell between the horses ran on and they dragged him tangled in the reins under the chariot as itwas all done in a moment me they passed a a time ago at a crossroads way away long long JOCASTA

leave the dead alone Oedipus stop these diggings into the past bringingmy dead husband back

to show his wounds

and

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Ted Hughes

leave him alone

show himself still indeath agony

what can come out hell cannot be opened safely more misfortune more confusion more and of it only pain and more death OEDIPUS

tellme this

Jocasta

was

when Laius died

how old

he

JOCASTA at the end of middle

age OEDIPUS

on that last ride how many

rode with him

JOCASTA but the roads to Delphi are broken many set out and Laius was a hard traveller the country difficult OEDIPUS how many

stayed with him JOCASTA

he outstripped

them all

he went

ahead alone

OEDIPUS

the King was

alone JOCASTA

when he arrived at the crossroads the driver of his chariot

he was alone

OEDIPUS the driver was also killed

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with

355

THE OEDIPUSOF SENECA

356

JOCASTA the driver fell there at the crossroads the horses dragged the body of Laius on towards Delphi were found saw the so they nobody fight OEDIPUS there is no escaping

this

did it happen

when

JOCASTA it happened

let it lie Oedipus Imake

no secret of it to you the balance when

adjusted

no man

can alter what has happened that death was waiting for

Laius

fate only

he owed me

he fell to the earth

a life

I bore him a boy and before my milk had entered its mouth he snatched it away never things I have spoken a crime I shall not were tangled in those dig up reins that dragged his dead body away from the crossroads aman of stone broken by stones

forget him Oedipus the oracle

only

strength

burrowing can save us

finishwith riddles in that darkness

forget

cannot

save us

OEDIPUS

when was Laius killed

how long ago JOCASTA

this is the tenth summer MESSENGER

the men Polybus

of Corinth call you to your father's has gone to his last rest

throne

OEDIPUS

how did my father die

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Ted Hughes

357

MESSENGER

asleep

in peace

smiling

OEDIPUS

my father

without

is dead

from any man

hurt

no

murder can raise to innocent I witness them the hands my light my hands cannot be accused the worse half of my destiny the but something is left half I fear most that still remains MESSENGER

in your father's kingdom

you need

fear nothing

OEDIPUS

me from one only running thing keeps strength

towards

itwith

all my

MESSENGER

what

is that Oedipus OEDIPUS

my mother MESSENGER your mother

why

fear her

she is

longing

for you to

come

for you to come

impatient

OEDIPUS

her love iswhat

I fear MESSENGER

can you leave her a widow OEDIPUS

your words

go too deep

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358

THE OEDIPUSOF SENECA MESSENGER

is tormenting you what is your secret tell me me before even with their have trusted Kings greatest secrets

what

OEDIPUS long ago the oracle

told me

this: I shall marry my mother MESSENGER

then you can forget the oracle this fear is unreal your are was never your mother empty Merope speculations OEDIPUS

why

should

the King

of Corinth

adopt

a

stranger

MESSENGER an heir to the throne forestalls many

troubles

OEDIPUS who

shared such a secret with

you

MESSENGER itwas

these hands

whimpering baby

these very hands

these

when

you were

a

handed you toMerope

OEDIPUS

you gave me to my mother gave me to you

then where

did I begin

MESSENGER a

shepherd

on mount

Cithaeron OEDIPUS

how did you come to be on that mountain MESSENGER

with my flock

Iwas also a shepherd

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who

Ted Hughes

359

OEDIPUS

there's a strange mark on my body

what

do you know about

it

MESSENGER

to and hobble cripple through your heels to die infected meant the wounds were and that scar must and so you are called Oedipus swollen be still on your feet sharp iron hooked you you were

OEDIPUS

who

gave me

tell me

to you

that

JOCASTA the dead man will never be listen to my warning Oedipus not until you are dead and under the satisfied ground to with him the dead hate the living they only want turn your eyes towards the murder the living living give darkness is too deep you will never your strength to us see to the bottom of it the dead will rob you of everything CHORUS

listen to theQueen Oedipus OEDIPUS

who

gave me

to you MESSENGER

the master

of the King's flocks OEDIPUS

what

was

the man's

name

MESSENGER

I am old

thatwas long ago

ithas been too long buried

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360

THE OEDIPUS

OF SENECA

OEDIPUS

his face

could you recognise

that

MESSENGER

perhaps

OEDIPUS

let them drive all theirbeasts call in the shepherds head shepherds bring the to the altars bring them

to me here

JOCASTA Oedipus

listen to your wife CHORUS

listen to her Oedipus JOCASTA the truth is not human it has no mercy why rush into the mouth of it you have a kingdom to protect OEDIPUS

I am enmeshed

in amystery

worse

than any death

CHORUS you want to satisfy yourself?but your people will have to to it is not chance that have will your Queen pay pay leave things as hides these things and keeps them hidden are do not let fate unfold at its leisure they force it OEDIPUS

if itwere endurable all warn me back

I would endure it what is the truth

why

do you

CHORUS you were born to the throne look any deeper Oedipus

isn't that enough

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don't

Ted Hughes

361

OEDIPUS

what blood am I

I shall find it out

whatever itmeans

is Phorbas this ancient man was once master of the Phorbas do you remember the name King's flocks the face do you remember here

MESSENGER

I have seen that face before the man is familiar in the days of King Laius did your flocks graze Mount Cithaeron PHORBAS

the rich grass of lovely Cithaeron we were there every pasture

that was our summer summer

MESSENGER

do you recognise me OEDIPUS

that you handed to this man do you remember a baby a boy one on the iron day long ago slope of Mount Cithaeron was twisted were meant ankles his to you through for the wild beasts expose him on the mountain I see your face you are searching for words change too carefully PHORBAS

you are digging

too deep OEDIPUS

the truth is as it is

let it come out as it is PHORBAS

it is all too long ago OEDEPUS

speak

or I shall torture you till you speak

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OF SENECA

THE OEDIPUS

362

PHORBAS on a boy

I handed this man a crippled baby yes day long ago it could never have itwas hopeless we were too late

lived

OEDIPUS could

why

it never have

lived PHORBAS

its feet

that iron through

filthy iron festering

those cruel wires

thewound was putrid burning

it stank

that knot of

thewhole body

OEDIPUS it's enough

child

my

fate has found me

at last

who was

this

who was it PHORBAS

I swore never

to

speak OEDEPUS

I shall burn that oath out of you PHORBAS

will

you destroy

a man

for one little fact

OEDIPUS

I am not amadman child you are who was

you only need to speak the only man who knows

who was that its who was father

itsmother PHORBAS

its mother

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Ted Hughes

363

OEDEPUS who was

its mother PHORBAS

itsmother

was your wife OEDEPUS

birth

take this

blood

birthbed

open the earth bury

under everything it bottom of the darkness now Thebans your stones fit for the light on me hack me to pieces mountain on me make blame me pile the plague fires me where I know me ashes finish me put

plague

I am not

puta

nothing

I am the monster Creon saw in hell

I am the

I am the cancer

at the roots of this city

and in your blood

I should have died in thewomb drowned inmy mother's blood before anything

and in the air

inside there suffocated come out dead thatfirst day

Oedipus

now I need that wait wait something to fit strength out root it and the of this error something drag up for me alone first I shall go to the palace quickly seek out my mother and present her with her son my mother CHORUS see me on if only our fate were ours to choose you would a full sail but a are the airs waters where quiet gentle no more than a breath that is easy voyage light wind no blast no smashed no best into downwind rigging flogging no under surge cliffs in nothing recovered vanishing mid-ocean

a neither under cliffs nor too far out give me quiet voyage on the black water where the the middle course depth opens on is the safe one to a calm end the only life easily surrounded by gains

foolish Icarus

he thought he could fly

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364

THE OEDIPUS

OF SENECA

it was a dream tried to crawl across the stars his crazy paraphernalia loaded with his crazy dream the wings the wax and the feathers up and up and up saw his enormous shadow on the saw eagles beneath him clouds beneath him met the sun face to face

fell was wiser he flew lower his father Daedalus in the shadow of the clouds he kept under clouds the same crazy equipment but the dream different till Icarus dropped past him, out of the belly of a cloud past him down through emptiness a cry dwindling a tiny in the middle splash

of the vast sea

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Ted Hughes

365

ACT FIVE

CHORUS it is one of the who is that beating king's slaves his head with his fists what something has happened

has

tell us

happened

SLAVE

when

Oedipus grasped his fate where he had lost himself wrong now he's condemned himself

and saw the full depth of the oracle he understood

he hurried straight back to the palace a his stride was savage and heavy, like beast purposeful never paused went in under that terrible roof face deathly he was groaning he was a crazed beast he was

like

that's going to die killing his eyes bulged demented

blazing with all that torment

muttering a wounded

lion

inside him

mad grimaces his face kept wrenching sweat on his and neck poured temples froth stood round his mouth his hands kept gripping at his stomach he was trying to tear himself open to gouge out the bowels and liver and heart

,

the whole mass

c

he was toiling for something some action something unthinkable something to answer all that has happened he began to shout "why delay it I should be stabbed smashed under a rock I should be burned alive there should be animals me to ripping pieces tigers eagles ripping me with their hooks

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,

of

asony

THE OEDIPUSOF SENECA

366

you mountain it carcass all it's your you began slopes should have had my it's your wild dogs should have cracked my riddles for me where are your wolves and that woman who wrenched her husband's head off on your Cithaeron

wrenched it off and ranwith it be afraid of death

why

death can

keep

it's

it's only death

aman

send her

nothing

am I afraid

lovely grass

Agave

innocent"

then he pulled out his sword and he was going to kill himself but he stopped he began to reason a few seconds of death in "one little jab of pain my eyes and in my mouth can that pay for a lifetime like mine can one stroke cut all my debts off one death that's for your father that's good but what about your mother and what about that doubled blood in your children what about their shame what about Thebes all the dead all those living with their deaths on them they are doing your penance for you Oedipus and you cannot pay you cannot possibly pay

not in this lifetime

suffer for you need to be born again again everything over and over and die again lifetime after lifetime every lifetime a new sentence and length of penalties think

death

can come only once

think this death has to last has to be slow find a death some death find a death that can still feel a life in death and go on feeling are you why hesitating Oedipus" suddenly

he began

to weep

suddenly itwas sobbing

shouted

"is weeping

give anymore eyeballs

too

a death

everything

that had been

torment

it shook hiswhole body and he

all I can give

can't my

let them go with their tears

everything

the living

among

out

eyes

let them go

is this enough

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for you

Ted Hughes

he was

raging

as he spoke

are my

is it sufficient

you frozen gods of marriage eyes enough"

his face throbbed

dark red

his eyeballs seemed to be jumping in their sockets out from the skull

Oedipus

367

forced

his face was no longer the face of

contorted

a to scream bellowing his throat tearing

like a rabid dog

animal

anger

he had begun agony

his hands his fingers had stabbed deep intohis eyesockets and he the hooked twisting tugged gripped eyeballs and he till they gave way dragging with all his strength his fingers dug back intohis sockets flung them from him insane with he was gibbering and moaning he could not stop his nails with his fury against himself gouging, scrabbling in those huge holes in his face the terrors of the light are finished for Oedipus he lifted his face with its raw horrible gaps he tested the darkness there were rags of flesh, strings and nerve ends

still trailing over his cheeks he fumbled for them last shred them off every snapping then he let out a roar

half screamed

"you gods now will you I've I've and I've

stop torturing my country I've punished and look found the murderer forced him to pay the debt his marriage?I've found the darkness for it found it the night it deserves"

him

as he was screaming his face seemed to blacken suddenly the blood vessels had burst inside his torn eyepits the blood came spewing out over his face and beard in a moment he was drenched CHORUS

fate is the master of eveiything it is vain to fight to the end the road is fate the from against beginning laid down worries are futile human scheming is futile prayers are futile sometimes a man wins sometimes he loses who decides whether he loses or wins?

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368

THE OEDIPUSOF SENECA

it has all been decided

it is destiny

long ago elsewhere

not a single man can alter it all he can do is let it happen

the good luck the bad luck everything that happens

that seems to toss our days up and down everything it is all there from the first moment it is all there in the knotted mesh of causes tangled to itself helpless change even the great god lies there entangled causes helpless in the mesh of and the last day lies there tangled with the first a man's life is a like a maze pattern on the floor it is all fixed in the pattern he wanders no prayer can alter it or to escape it help him nothing then fear can be the end of him a man's fear of his fate is often his fate

leaping to avoid it

he meets it OEDEPUS

all iswell I have corrected all the mistakes was owed father has been my payed what he

and

I Eke this darkness Iwonder which god it is that I've of them has forgivenme for all which finally pleased

he's given me this dark veil for my head that awful eye the that never let me pleasant light rest and followed me everywhere peering through every at last you've it crack you haven't driven it escaped away you haven't killed that as you killed your father it's abandoned you left you to yourself simply it's left you to your new face the true face of Oedipus that I did

CHORUS

look frantic going Jocasta coming out of the palace out of her mind look at Jocasta look at her she's staring at her son why has she stopped knows what's

happening

there he stands

blasted

darkness

is

she hardly

nearly

swamping

her

his blind mask turned to the sky

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Ted Hughes

to speak

than everything

she's stepping

she wants closer her grief stronger

she comes

she's afraid of him

369

towards him

JOCASTA what can I call you now what shall I call you? you're my son shall I call you my son are you ashamed I lost you you are my son alive I've found you you're me speak to show me your face turn your head towards me show me your face OEDEPUS

you are making all my pains useless you are spoiling my comfortable darkness we must

go away the greatest

deepest

forcing

not meet oceans should be washing

me

to see again

between

our bodies

not to cleanse be between under

them

us

some other

can cleanse

them

crags chasms deserts should if another world somewhere far under hangs this one sun and lost away among other stars one of us nothing

should be

there JOCASTA you were my husband sons

nothing

you are my

can be blamed

there is no road away from it

son you killed my husband I bore your has that everything is here happened

OEDEPUS

no more words mother I beg you all our in names that is by right and wrong let there be no more words between us two

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370

OF SENECA

THE OEDIPUS

JOCASTA inme moves

can I not feel

I shared the wrong how do I share I am the I'm at the root of it the punishment it'sme root my your womb raving godless blood the dark twisted root darkness so die out this let all and distinction order swallowing

nothing

hell that

lives in you whole

universe

nothing would onto me

be enough

itwouldn't

to

punish

be enough

it if god smashed a mother

his

a morass

all Iwant is death

find it

you killed your father

it

finish

finish it is this the sword that killed him

the same hand your mother

is this it that killed my

husband shall I single the second across or this stab this point under my breast long edge my throat this it's here the place the don't you know the place gods hate where everything began the son the husband up here and my husband's

father with

a

stab

where have

CHORUS

her hand

look

slackens

from the sword

the whelm

of

blood squeezes

the sword out OEDEPUS

you god of the oracle as you

said

only

you deceived my

father's

me

death

lied to me was

it has not turned out it was required

ithas enough been doubled and the blame has been doubled mother my death

comes

from me

both my

father

is dead and her are and my mother

dead by my fate

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Ted Hughes it ismore

now go

body of your mother you people of Thebes look hope

I am content

than Iwas promised

the dark road

away

now

now

again

quickly begin do not

quickly

crushed with

I am going

371

stumble

the disease

I am taking my

your spirits broken curse off you

lookup

you will

on the

see your

you can

sun sky alter your alter your grass

now everything will change out for death your faces pressed hoping only to your graves if you can move at all now look up you can breathe suck in the new it will cure all the sickness and air go bury your dead now without is leaving your land I am taking fear because the contagion itwith me I am taking it away fate remorseless my enemy you are the friend I come with me choose ulcerous agony consumption pestilence blasting plague and your air all you stretched

terror

plague

blackness

despair

welcome

lead me (The chorus

celebrate

the departure

come with me you are my guides

of oedipus with

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a dance

)