Out on it, lady! why should one regardThe Pythian hearth or birds that scream i' the air?
Did they not point at me as doomed to slay
My father? but he's dead and in his grave
And here am I who ne'er unsheathed a sword; Unless the longing for his absent son
Killed him and so I slew him in a sense. But, as they stand, the oracles are dead-- Dust, ashes, nothing, dead as Polybus.
JOCASTA
Say, did not I foretell this long ago?
OEDIPUS
Thou didst: but I was misled by my fear.
JOCASTA
Then let I no more weigh upon thy soul.
OEDIPUS
Must I not fear my mother's marriage bed.
JOCASTA
Why should a mortal man, the sport of chance,
With no assured foreknowledge, be afraid?
Best live a careless life from hand to mouth.
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This wedlock with thy mother fear not thou. How oft it chances that in dreams a man
Has wed his mother! He who least regards
Such brainsick phantasies lives most at ease.
OEDIPUS
I should have shared in full thy confidence, Were not my mother living; since she lives Though half convinced I still must live in dread.
JOCASTA
And yet thy sire's death lights out darkness much.
OEDIPUS
Much, but my fear is touching her who lives.
MESSENGER
Who may this woman be whom thus you fear?
OEDIPUS
Merope, stranger, wife of Polybus.
MESSENGER
And what of her can cause you any fear?
OEDIPUS
A heaven-sent oracle of dread import.
MESSENGER
A mystery, or may a stranger hear it?
OEDIPUS
Aye, 'tis no secret. Loxias once foretold
That I should mate with mine own mother, and shed With my own hands the blood of my own sire. Hence Corinth was for many a year to me
A home distant; and I trove abroad,
But missed the sweetest sight, my parents' face.
MESSENGER
Was this the fear that exiled thee from home?
OEDIPUS
Yea, and the dread of slaying my own sire.
MESSENGER
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Why, since I came to give thee pleasure, King,
Have I not rid thee of this second fear?
OEDIPUS
Well, thou shalt have due guerdon for thy pains.
MESSENGER
Well, I confess what chiefly made me come
Was hope to profit by thy coming home.
OEDIPUS
Nay, I will ne'er go near my parents more.
MESSENGER
My son, 'tis plain, thou know'st not what thou doest.
OEDIPUS
How so, old man? For heaven's sake tell me all.
MESSENGER
If this is why thou dreadest to return.
OEDIPUS
Yea, lest the god's word be fulfilled in me.
MESSENGER
Lest through thy parents thou shouldst be accursed?
OEDIPUS
This and none other is my constant dread.
MESSENGER
Dost thou not know thy fears are baseless all?
OEDIPUS
How baseless, if I am their very son?
MESSENGER
Since Polybus was naught to thee in blood.
OEDIPUS
What say'st thou? was not Polybus my sire?
MESSENGER
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As much thy sire as I am, and no more.
OEDIPUS
My sire no more to me than one who is naught?
MESSENGER
Since I begat thee not, no more did he.
OEDIPUS
What reason had he then to call me son?
MESSENGER
Know that he took thee from my hands, a gift.
OEDIPUS
Yet, if no child of his, he loved me well.
MESSENGER
A childless man till then, he warmed to thee.
OEDIPUS
A foundling or a purchased slave, this child?
MESSENGER
I found thee in Cithaeron's wooded glens.
OEDIPUS
What led thee to explore those upland glades?
MESSENGER
My business was to tend the mountain flocks.
OEDIPUS
