Sophocles, Oedipus Tyrannus
Sir Richard Jebb, Ed.

Oedipus
So brazen with your blustering taunt? [355] Where do you think to escape to?

Teiresias
I have escaped. There is strength in my truth.

Oedipus
Who taught you this? Not your skill, at any rate.

Teiresias
You yourself. For you spurred me on to speak against my will.

Oedipus
What did you say? Speak again, so I may learn it better.

Teiresias
[360] Did you not understand before, or are you talking to test me?

Oedipus
I cannot say I understood fully. Tell me again.

Teiresias
I say that you are the killer of the man whose slayer you seek.

Oedipus
Now you will regret that you have said such dire words twice.

Teiresias
[365] Should I tell you more, that you might get more angry?

Oedipus
Say as much as you want: it will be said in vain.

Teiresias
I say that you have been living in unguessed shame with your closest kin, and do not see into what woe you have fallen.

Oedipus
Do you think that you will always be able to speak like this without smarting for it?

Teiresias
Yes, if indeed there is any strength in truth.

Oedipus
[370] But there is, except not for you. You do not have that strength, since you are maimed in your ears, in your wit, and in your eyes.

Teiresias
And you are a poor wretch to utter taunts that every man here will soon hurl at you.

Oedipus
Night, endless night has you in her keeping, so that you can never hurt me, [375] or any man that sees the light of the sun.

Teiresias
No, it is not your fate to fall at my hands, since Apollo, to whom this matter is a concern, is sufficient.

Oedipus
Are these Creon's devices, or your own?

Teiresias
Creon is no trouble for you: you are your own.