HUGHES Oedipus Integral

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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
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OEDIPUS copyright ? 1969 by Ted Hughes
ARION, VOL. 7, NO. 3
Copyright ? arion
University
1969 by arion
is published quarterly by the Dean of the Graduate School, The

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 accompanied by a stamped, sett-addressed envelope.
THE OEDIPUS OF SENECA
adapted by
TED HUGHES
1969 by Ted Hughes
Contents
7/3
324
Autumn
1968
THE OEDIPUS OF SENECA
Ted Hughes
RILKE'S BIRTH OF VENUS Christopher DEATH Plutarch Middleton 392 6, translated 372
AND THE MYSTERIES de Anima, fragment
by C. /. Herington 393
PENGUIN CLASSICS: A REPORT ON TWO DECADES Introduction

Homer, D.
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 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
409
Henry Ebel
SCHOLIA
SENECA OR SCENARIO? 5OI
Ian Scott-Kilvert FORUM

AESCHYLUS AT THE BILLY ROSE 512
Steven
Shankman to D. S.
TOWARD A DEPARTMENT OF LITERATURE: A Reply Carne-Ross 515 Wayne A. Rebhorn ANNOUNCEMENT 522
NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS 524

cover and vignettes: design: Tom
Guy
Davenport
Cunningham
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 take director. to direct. the over year For various Sir Laurence, reasons, who that project had been with
invited Peter Brook to be guest director at the National Theatre and

the production of Oedipus, Geoffrey Reeves as co
hung fire. ill during
Towards the
the
summer,
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 version.
new
the change of plan when it was decided that I should make an entirely
From
Peter
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
were brilliantly solved by Irene Worth (Oedipus).

Our whatever guiding inner
one of the most moments orchestration became of voices which exciting in the certain in their parts In the final stages deadlocks production.
out of something originally near a hundred lines long, to fit a wild (Jocasta) and Sir John Gielgud
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
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
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
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
aside
Ted Hughes
327
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
beneath plague of dead
brings
gloom
it our streets homes temples gutted with the it's one the new heaps huge plague pit in the spewed up everywhere hardening
sickly daylight
OEDIPUS
and Iwas Polybus as God fear fear
a prince
running away from my father happy freedom not exile unafraid wandering
in heaven
fleeing yes but unaf raid

saw me I stumbled
till I stumbled
on this kingdom
that came after me Delphi Polybus
it followed me the words of the oracle
worse and worse that other what can be worse the oracle pronounced it the words stick it is not but possible
some day Iwould killmy father
Iwould kill him
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 god predicted
die god threatenedme with my
the kingdom
fast
Iwas terrified
not as an outlaw I respected that trusting myself
itwas the high law of nature to guard that determined removed myself
not
Iwas so terrified the most impossible it seemed already to have happened
disaster but the fear
328
THE OEDIPUSOF SENECA my shadow and it grew into this kingdom till now it surrounds to
came with me this throne
me
darkness
fear
I stand in it
like a blind man in

for me
even now
what
I see that
this plague matter what me why
how could I be mistaken about it
is fate preparing
surely
that lives no slaughtering everything men trees flies no matter it spares what final disaster is it saving me for
of all
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
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
aman hated and accused by the god
still
Ted Hughes 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
329
help
the plague grips it
you high gods let me you decide what watch
I am kneeling have death to men
go on living
every
happens
here at your altar beseeching let me go you great powers you listen to me don't make me country die before I die
in this
living thing inmy
don't keep me here alive to
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
ifwe have
strength
the threat the stronger we
should find you to
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 OEDIPUS I have proved my courage often enough JOCASTA that was yesterday it is no use to us
OEDIPUS
to die
today
we need
it
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
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 them for death

I carried what were
I carried my
sons
I carried them for the throne

when
them for final disaster twisting
did I knowwhat was coming

ropes of blood were together
did I know
together
I carried my first son what bloody foot prints
hurrying
inmy body
Ted Hughes did I know what past and unfinished me were getting flesh again inside were settled before I conceived I knew the thing in my womb I knew was the future was waiting to ask reckonings
331
did I think that the debts of thepast

was going to pay for the whole god past a man
in a cave
for him like a greedy happiness
eater
going
for everything
strength
and
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
I carried him for this for the cruelty
finally life
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
to be king of
this
blind blood blood frommy gums and eyelids

blood from the roots of my hair blood it flowed into the knot of his bowels the knot of his brain tied everything my womb together
and my blood didn't pause didn't hesitate inmy womb the futility considering it didn't falter reckoning into him blood from my
it the odds poured toes my finger ends
on
any time began into the knot of his muscles every corner of the earth and the heavens
from before
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
33^
THE OEDIPUS
OF SENECA
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
was Imyself a bag of blood
it split me open and I saw the blood
but was he a bag of death
jump
out after him
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
Ted Hughes JOCASTA you wear the crown which was your prize the sceptre's your prize that birdwoman
333
for killing
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 left the oracle CHORUS Thebes-you are finished! us can the god direct
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 happened to your armies, Thebes? All armies now, Thebes? They're finished. The plague your touched them
and they vanished. Look They're Thebes
Finished.
Rubbished are
into earth. doing?
at the streets?what
Black pro cessions: to a the and the is fires. Thebes funeral. graves going is choking with corpses. Why don't the crowds move?
the crowds
334
THE OEDIPUS
OF SENECA
are too many burn corpses
corpses.
Graves The
can't be dug earth's glutted.
fast enough. Death's
There Fire
can't
fast enough. rot.
glutted.
And
the piles of corpses The was plague suddenly
began with poison.
the sheep.
It began with suddenly stench.
the grass. The grass had hoisted his

axe,
The air was
A bull steadied
at the altar?massive his aim?in it touched
animal. The priest before
that second,
the axe fell?the
bull
was
down. Was I saw a heifer
was by the god? It Her body was
touched by the plague. a sackful of tar? filthy
filthy bubbling tar.
slaughtered.
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 caught coming breakneck past us?but over the plague caught him up? tilt? heels?full
down.
his horse?mid-stride?head it.
The rider beneath Everything ?they're iswhite?it Where are
green has withered dusty ridges?deserts you
up. The hills of brittle touch it. hate gods
that were sticks.
cool with forest The vine's tendril run
crumbles when the gods? The
gods The
us. The are dead
gods
have
away. The gods have hidden and stink too. There There's never were something any gods?there's wrong with only death. light seems to bulge and in holes. of the plague? they rot
the sun?the
Ted Hughes waver ?it's walls. Last as if it were a skin ready to split and
335
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 night the earth shook?it turned wells like a man waking?it heaved like blood. In the
mountains,
deep water cliffs dropped Thebes A death
in a harbour?the away. I saw my
filled with
own dead body
in the gutter.
is a land of death. worse than death. Limbs suddenly go numb, head to begins
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.
336
THE OEDIPUSOF SENECA
ACT TWO
OEDIPUS who is this coming no is it Creon so sight hurridly towards can be trusted CHORUS it is Creon has he brought this is the man we the answer are waiting for the palace
OEDIPUS now Creon I shall know my fate for what it is
nearest to the throne in blood the can the oracle tell us has been long waiting us what is its answer help CREON not the god at Delphi does speak simply reveals he conceals
OEDIPUS
as he
help hidden
answer
from us is no
help
what
is the god's
CREON
difficult
to fathom
tangle
OEDIPUS
a riddle
tell us what it is Oedipus
if it'sariddle it is for
CREON
this iswhat the god says
themurder of King
Ted Hughes Laius must be atoned for the murderer must be
337
banished
then shall we
King Laius must be avenged
not until
and the plague finished
see the sun clear and the air pure 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 he will pay the penalty CREON
the god
name
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 the shrine you know terror was
you know
the rites
I did
of snowmuttered
was
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
I preparedmyself purified everything prescribed and humbled my thoughts I stepped into the shrine
themountain had stirred
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
33^

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
you all feared hhn
kings must protect kingship

he dies
CREON
this
he's forgotten
we did not forget
terror
stupefied
OEDIPUS
us
what
terror could prevent
you mourning CREON
King
stupefied
terror of the sphinx us
and her threats
her riddle
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
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
339
dealt with Laius
let him suffer to the last
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 rule
you voice of the oracle
by you highest god of the light beams

by the kingdom which I now
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 his living body tell it again did it happen
by the gods of thehome I left
Imake
criminal only if I fail to tear the full penalty out of

only where if I fail to avenge Laius did the murder happen open combat treachery
CREON
how tell it
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
TIRESIAS
explain the words the life of aman
if I am slow to speakOedipus
patient a blind man misses
if I ask for time

much
be
the god's servant
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 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
intomy body he spoke directly out ofmy mouth
inhis
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
in
MANTO I have piled the incense on the hearth

TIRESIAS
of the altar
now describe the flames how does it eat
you have
fed the fire
but
manto
it flared up tall and fierce to nothing back
then suddenly died
TIRESIAS
did the flame
did itpoint cleanly straight up
stand up clear
what was
its colour
like a blade
Ted Hughes or was it broken crooked in any way it or in any way describe smoky 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 was it ragged
341
begin with
flecked with yellows

till itwas
it reached up
red
and shook turning red
all blood
suddenly itblackened and guttered

TIRESIAS
now
look
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
what does itmean the smoke oily heavy smoke is reaching out towards the King it is and looping
the altarfire isbelching black smoke
thickening round theKing's head

face out now it
it'sblotted the
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
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

or does
does
it ooze
the blood spout from the wounds reluctant to come out 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
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
343
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
it's groaning
the calf s kicking inside thebag

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
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 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
King himself
Laius himself dead beneath the earth he
Creon
second
in line to the throne TIRESIAS
this is for you
while we reach into death and call out the dead men let them sing against the dead sing
CHORUS TO BACCHUS
let the
OOO?AI?EE.KA
(3 times) (3 times) DANCE DEATH INTO ITSHOLE DANCE DEATH INTO ITSHOLE INTO ITSHOLE ITSHOLE ITSHOLE ITSHOLE HOLE LET IT CLIMB
CHANT REPLY
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
(2 times)
(repeat)
YOU YOU
UNDER BLOOD UNDER THE EARTH YOU
346
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 to speak fear forbids me
OEDIPUS
to speak
when Thebes is down this royal house your own house I command you to down speak CREON you command me to speak you will
OEDIPUS
is
pray
you were
deaf
ignorance speak
cures nothing you can cure it
this whole
nation
is sick
CREON the cure can be so drastic men

OEDIPUS
prefer
the sickness
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
OEDIPUS
of the tortured
you shall go back
to the underworld
in your own
Ted Hughes blood like the cattle a cheap sacrifice tell us what these rites have revealed CREON a King cannot grant a man less than his silence
OEDIPUS
347
unless you
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
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
is a clump of black hollies
in the thickof it a
in a narrow valley
34$
TOE OEDIPUSOF SENECA
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 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
now
of burning flesh fill thewood
I saw theplague of this city
bloated
blood oozing
it
the ghosts
he carried straight on
he began to call for
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 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 faced pressed this creature that
349
twitterings
beating up at the light
swirling
them laidhold of the roots and clung there

into the earth commanding it Tiresias called to come up our
his
to again and
again he called and at last it looked up

its face and I recognised Laius
it lifted
Laius itwas him he pulled himself up his whole body was plastered with blood his hair
beard face aU one terrible wound a mash of
King
mud brains blood
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
hismouth lay open and the
the throne
of
Thebes
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
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 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
togetherwith awhiplash
I shall disembowel your
airwill sweep through the land

the deathpains to get away fast
will all follow his footsteps

hell want
pestilence
the horror
and the grief the

the death
they
but I shall stophim and shackle his feet
I shallblock his path I shall break his heart

over darkened
he'll
roads suddenly
go away from you groping an old man
Thebes take the earth from him light"

OEDIPUS
his fatherwill take the
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
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
and the end of thiswill be to

Creon
CREON
to you
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
urge him the same you Oedipus to choose you can do longer free nothing else
OEDIPUS
free to choose
Iwould
but you are no
that is the right mask for ambition who missed the throne
CREON
the right mask
for one
me let these long years of loyalty argue for

OEDIPUS
the
a traitor has a purpose loyalty of
352
THE OEDIPUS
OF SENECA
CREON what could Iwant I have every advantage of a king none of a house
backbrealdng load
dawns but it brings
the noblest of the city crowd tomy

in some overwhelming
king's
me for their safety

I am envied enough
their food
what could
the very clothes they

Iwant more
not a day an army of gift thank dependents stand in
OEDIPUS what you haven t yet got 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 Cadmus began it Cadmus killed a god's serpent
the gods are punishing this city us they will not spare Thebes
what jumped out of the furrows a maniac army an army of madmen each started other butchering they
he sowed its fangs in a ploughed field
Ted Hughes and that was gods hate the beginning of this noble city which the
353
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
of blood
Oedipus
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 a black hole of hounds rending the curse of Thebes
has come under
354
ACT FOUR
OEDIPUS
before
have I been
itwas fear
trapped
but now
is it certainty
how
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 Laius
betterthananyghost
is nowhere
m my conscience
better than the god atDelphi knowsme

something
Laius murdered
if I could remember two strangers both
if I could go back
two men only
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
Ted Hughes
355
what can come out hell cannot be opened safely more misfortune more confusion more and of it only pain and more death OEDIPUS
show himself still indeath agony
leave him alone
was
Jocasta
he
tellme this
when Laius died
how old
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
OEDIPUS
ahead alone
the King was
alone JOCASTA
when he arrived at the crossroads the driver of his chariot
he was alone
with
OEDIPUS the driver was also killed
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 when did it happen
JOCASTA let it lie Oedipus Imake adjusted it happened can alter what has happened that death was waiting for no man
no secret of it to you the balance when
Laius
he fell to the earth
he owed me
fate only 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 strength
finishwith riddles
in that darkness
only
burrowing can save us
cannot
forget
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 OEDIPUS
throne
how did my father die
Ted Hughes
MESSENGER
357
asleep
smiling
in peace
OEDIPUS
my father
is dead
without
hurt
from any man
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
OEDIPUS
fear nothing
me from one only running thing keeps strength

MESSENGER
towards
itwith
all my
what
is that Oedipus OEDIPUS
my mother MESSENGER your mother

come
why
fear her
she is
longing
for you to
impatient
for you to come

OEDIPUS
her love iswhat
I fear
MESSENGER
can you leave her a widow

OEDIPUS
your words
go too deep
358
THE OEDIPUSOF SENECA MESSENGER
what
is tormenting you what is your secret tell me me before even with their have trusted Kings greatest secrets 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
stranger
MESSENGER an heir to the throne forestalls many OEDIPUS who shared such a secret with you troubles
MESSENGER itwas these hands these very hands when you were a
whimpering baby
these
handed you toMerope
OEDIPUS
you gave me to my mother gave me to you
then where
did I begin
who
MESSENGER a shepherd on mount Cithaeron OEDIPUS how did you come to be on that mountain MESSENGER
with my flock
Iwas also a shepherd
Ted Hughes
OEDIPUS
359
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
to you
tell me
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
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 CHORUS
why
do you
you were born to the throne look any deeper Oedipus
isn't that enough
don't
Ted Hughes
OEDIPUS
361
what blood am I
here
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
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
362
THE OEDIPUS
OF SENECA
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 why could it never have lived PHORBAS that iron through its feet those cruel wires that knot of
filthy iron festering
thewound was putrid burning

OEDIPUS
it stank
thewhole body
child
it's enough
who was it
PHORBAS
my
fate has found me
at last
who was
this
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 itsmother
you only need to speak the only man who knows
who was that its who was father
PHORBAS
its mother
Ted Hughes OEDEPUS who was its mother PHORBAS itsmother was your wife OEDEPUS
363
birth
birthbed
blood
take this
open the earth bury

I am not puta
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
nothing
I am the
cancer
plague
I am the monster Creon saw in hell

and in your blood
I am the
I should have died in thewomb drowned inmy mother's blood before anything Oedipus
at the roots of this city
and in the air
inside there suffocated come out dead thatfirst day
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
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
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
happened
tell us
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 muttering a wounded
like
lion
that's going to die killing his eyes bulged demented
blazing with all that torment

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
of
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
asony
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

why be afraid of death keep aman it's
send her
am I afraid
lovely grass
Agave
death
can
it's only death

innocent"
nothing
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
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" a death among the living torment
can come only once
shouted eyeballs
suddenly itwas sobbing

"is weeping too
suddenly
he began
to weep
give anymore
let them go with their tears

out
all I can give
it shook hiswhole body and he

can't my is this enough
everything
that had been eyes
let them go
for you
everything
Ted Hughes you frozen gods of marriage eyes enough" he was raging as he spoke is it sufficient are my dark red
367
his face throbbed
his eyeballs seemed to be jumping in their sockets

out from the skull
forced
Oedipus
contorted
his face was no longer the face of
a to scream bellowing his throat tearing
like a rabid dog

anger
he had begun
agony
animal
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?
368
THE OEDIPUSOF SENECA long ago elsewhere
it has all been decided
not a single man can alter it all he can do is let it happen 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
it is destiny
the good luck the bad luck everything that happens
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
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
I Eke this darkness Iwonder which god it is that I've of them has forgivenme for all which finally pleased
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 darkness is nearly swamping her
she hardly
there he stands
blasted
his blind mask turned to the sky
Ted Hughes
369
to speak
she's afraid of him she's stepping
she comes towards him
she wants closer her grief stronger
than everything
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 go away the greatest not to cleanse be between under there JOCASTA you were my husband sons nothing you are my us we must deepest them not meet oceans should be washing can cleanse them
forcing
me
to see again
between
our bodies
some other
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
can be blamed
there is no road away from it

OEDEPUS
son you killed my husband I bore your has that everything is here happened
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
370
THE OEDIPUS
OF SENECA
JOCASTA nothing 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 lives in you whole universe nothing would onto me be enough to punish it if god smashed a mother
a morass
inme moves
can I not feel
hell that
his
itwouldn't
be enough
all Iwant is death

you killed your father
find it
finish it the same hand your mother
finish it is this the sword that killed him

and my husband's father with a
is this it that killed my

stab where have
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
CHORUS
look squeezes
her hand
slackens
from the sword
the whelm
of
blood
the sword out
OEDEPUS
you god of the oracle as you said only my
you deceived father's
me
lied to me was
death
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
it has not turned out it was required
dead by my fate
Ted Hughes it ismore than Iwas promised I am content
371
now go
the dark road
quickly
quickly begin do not

stumble on the the disease your spirits broken curse off you
body of your mother you people of Thebes look hope I am going again now away now
crushed with
I am taking my you will see your
lookup
sun sky alter your alter your grass
you can
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 lead me
blackness
despair
welcome
come with me you are my guides
(The chorus
celebrate
the departure
of oedipus with
a dance

HUGHES Oedipus Integral

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HUGHES Oedipus Integral

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Trustees of Boston University

OEDIPUS copyright ? 1969 by Ted Hughes

ARION, VOL. 7, NO. 3

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

THE OEDIPUS OF SENECA

1969 by Ted Hughes

THE OEDIPUS OF SENECA

AND THE MYSTERIES de Anima, fragment

PENGUIN CLASSICS: A REPORT ON TWO DECADES Introduction

Ian Scott-Kilvert FORUM

NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS 524

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

hung fire. ill during

were brilliantly solved by Irene Worth (Oedipus).

and Iwas Polybus as God fear fear

fleeing yes but unaf raid

that came after me Delphi Polybus

it followed me the words of the oracle

some day Iwould killmy father

Iwould kill him

the god predicted

die god threatenedme with my

not as an outlaw I respected that trusting myself

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

disaster but the fear

came with me this throne

like a blind man in

how could I be mistaken about it

aman hated and accused by the god

the plague grips it

you high gods let me you decide what watch

I am kneeling have death to men

living thing inmy

don't keep me here alive to

the threat the stronger we

should find you to

the plague ismore something beneath isworse of it

is our final disaster JOCASTA

I carried them for death

I carried them for the throne

them for final disaster twisting

did I knowwhat was coming

I carried my first son what bloody foot prints

did I think that the debts of thepast

for him like a greedy happiness

I carried him for this for the cruelty

of other men and his own cruelty

blind blood blood frommy gums and eyelids

it the odds poured toes my finger ends

was Imyself a bag of blood

it split me open and I saw the blood

but was he a bag of death

out after him

a doubt had turned him back

and they vanished. Look They're Thebes

into earth. doing?

are too many burn corpses

can't be dug earth's glutted.

fast enough. Death's

fast enough. rot.

the piles of corpses The was plague suddenly

began with poison.

It began with suddenly stench.

the grass. The grass had hoisted his