In general, both in lyrics and in dialogue, I believe I have allowed myself rather less freedom than in translating Euripides. This is partly because the writing of Euripides, being less business-like and more penetrated by philosophic reflections and by subtleties of technique, actually needs more thorough re-casting to express it at all adequately; partly because there is in Sophocles, amid all his passion and all his naturalness, a certain severe and classic reticence, which, though impossible really to reproduce by any method, is less misrepresented by occasional insufficiency than by habitual redundance. I have asked pardon for an ill deed done twelve years ago. I should like to end by speaking of a benefit older still, and express something of the gratitude I feel to my old master, Francis Storr, whose teaching is still vivid in my mind and who first opened my eyes to the grandeur of the _Oedipus_. G. M. CHARACTERS IN THE PLAY OEDIPUS, _supposed son of Polybus, King of Corinth; now elected King of Thebes._ JOCASTA, _Queen of Thebes; widow of Laius, the late King, and now wife to Oedipus._ CREON, _a Prince of Thebes, brother to Jocasta._ TIRESIAS, _an old blind seer._ PRIEST OF ZEUS. A STRANGER _from Corinth._ A SHEPHERD _of King Laius._ A MESSENGER _from the Palace._ CHORUS of the Elders of Thebes. A Crowd of Suppliants, men, women, and children. The following do not appear in the play but are frequently mentioned:-- LAIUS (_pronounced as three syllables, La-i-us_), _the last King of Thebes before Oedipus._ CADMUS, _the founder of Thebes; son of Agenor, King of Sidon._ POLYBUS AND MEROPE, _King and Queen of Corinth, supposed to be the father and mother of Oedipus._ APOLLO, _the God specially presiding over the oracle of Delphi and the island Delos: he is also called_ PHOEBUS, _the pure;_ LOXIAS, _supposed to mean "He of the Crooked Words"; and_ LYKEIOS, _supposed to mean "Wolf-God." He is also the great Averter of Evil, and has names from the cries "I-e" (pronounced "Ee-ay") and "Paian," cries for healing or for the frightening away of evil influences._ KITHAIRON, _a mass of wild mountain south-west of Thebes._ ARGUMENT While Thebes was under the rule of LAIUS and JOCASTA there appeared a strange and monstrous creature, "the riddling Sphinx," "the She-Wolf of the woven song," who in some unexplained way sang riddles of death and slew the people of Thebes. LAIUS went to ask aid of the oracle of Delphi, but was slain mysteriously on the road. Soon afterwards there came to Thebes a young Prince of Corinth, OEDIPUS, who had left his home and was wandering. He faced the Sphinx and read her riddle, whereupon she flung herself from her rock and died. The throne being vacant was offered to OEDIPUS, and with it the hand of the Queen, JOCASTA. Some ten or twelve years afterwards a pestilence has fallen on Thebes. At this point the play begins.