Monologue

Oedipus Monologue from Oedipus at Colonus

From Oedipus at Colonus by Sophocles

male · philosophical · 1:34 min

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Destruction that awaits them in this land. (THESEUS: What can beget ill blood ’twixt them and me?) Dear son of Aegeus, to the gods alone Is given immunity from eld and death; But nothing else escapes all-ruinous time. Earth’s might decays, the might of men decays, Honor grows cold, dishonor flourishes, There is no constancy ’twixt friend and friend, Or city and city; be it soon or late, Sweet turns to bitter, hate once more to love. If now ’tis sunshine betwixt Thebes and thee And not a cloud, Time in his endless course Gives birth to endless days and nights, wherein The merest nothing shall suffice to cut With serried spears your bonds of amity. Then shall my slumbering and buried corpse In its cold grave drink their warm life-blood up, If Zeus be Zeus and Phoebus still speak true. No more: ’tis ill to tear aside the veil Of mysteries; let me cease as I began: Enough if thou wilt keep thy plighted troth, Then shall thou ne’er complain that Oedipus Proved an unprofitable and thankless guest, Except the gods themselves shall play me false.

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60 and up · despair · fate · death · honor · betrayal

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