1. Ch. Lady, why dost thou delay to take yon man into the house?
Io. I will do so, when I have learned what hath chanced.680
Ch. Blind suspicion, bred of talk, arose; and, on the other part, injustice wounds.
Io. It was on both sides?
Ch. Aye.
Io. And what was the story?
Ch. Enough, methinks, enough—when our land is already vexed—that the matter should rest where it ceased.
Oe. Seest thou to what thou hast come, for all thy honest purpose, in seeking to slack and blunt my zeal?
ant. 2. Ch. King, I have said it not once alone—be sure that I should have been shown a madman,690 bankrupt in sane counsel, if I put thee away—thee, who gavest a true course to my beloved country when distraught by troubles—thee, who now also art like to prove our prospering guide.
Io. In the name of the gods, tell me also, O king, on what account thou hast conceived this steadfast wrath.
Oe. That will I;700 for I honour thee, lady, above yonder men:—the cause is Creon, and the plots that he hath laid against me.
Io. Speak on—if thou canst tell clearly how the feud began.
Oe. He says that I stand guilty of the blood of Laïus.
Io. As on his own knowledge? Or on hearsay from another?
Oe. Nay, he hath made a rascal seer his mouthpiece; as for himself, he keeps his lips wholly pure.
Io. Then absolve thyself of the things whereof thou speakest; hearken to me, and learn for thy comfort that nought of mortal birth is a sharer in the science of the seer, I will give thee pithy proof of that.710
An oracle came to Laïus once—I will not say from Phoebus himself, but from his ministers—that the doom should overtake him to die by the hand of his child, who should spring from him and me.
Now Laïus,—as, at least, the rumour saith,—was murdered one day by foreign robbers at a place where three highways meet. And the child's birth was not three days past, when Laïus pinned its ankles together, and had it thrown, by others' hands, on a trackless mountain.
So, in that case, Apollo brought it not to pass that720 the babe should become the slayer of his sire, or that Laïus should die—the dread thing which he feared—by his child's hand. Thus did the messages of seer-craft map out the future. Regard them, thou, not at all. Whatsoever needful things the god seeks, he himself will easily bring to light.
Oe. What restlessness of soul, lady, what tumult of the mind hath just come upon me since I heard thee speak!
Io. What anxiety hath startled thee, that thou sayest this?
Oe. Methought I heard this from thee,—that Laïus was slain where three highways meet.730
Io. Yea, that was the story; nor hath it ceased yet.
Oe. And where is the place where this befell?
Io. The land is called Phocis; and branching roads lead to the same spot from Delphi and from Daulia.
Oe. And what is the time that hath passed since these things were?
Io. The news was published to the town shortly before thou wast first seen in power over this land.
Oe. O Zeus, what hast thou decreed to do unto me?
Io. And wherefore, Oedipus, doth this thing weigh upon thy soul?
Oe. Ask me not yet;740 but say what was the stature of Laïus, and how ripe his manhood.
Io. He was tall,—the silver just lightly strewn among his hair; and his form was not greatly unlike to thine.
Oe. Unhappy that I am! Methinks I have been laying myself even now under a dread curse, and knew it not.
Io. How sayest thou? I tremble when I look on thee, my king.
Oe. Dread misgivings have I that the seer can see. But thou wilt show better if thou wilt tell me one thing more.
Io. Indeed—though I tremble—I will answer all thou askest, when I hear it.
Oe. Went he in small force,750 or with many armed followers, like a chieftain?
Io. Five they were in all,—a herald one of them; and there was one carriage, which bore Laïus.
Oe. Alas! 'Tis now clear indeed.—Who was he who gave you these tidings, lady?
Io. A servant—the sole survivor who came home.
Oe. Is he haply at hand in the house now?
Io. No, truly; so soon as he came thence, and found thee reigning in the stead of Laïus, he supplicated me, with hand laid on mine,760 that I would send him to the fields, to the pastures of the flocks, that he might be far from the sight of this town. And I sent him; he was worthy, for a slave, to win e'en a larger boon than that.
Oe. Would, then, that he could return to us without delay!
Io. It is easy: but wherefore dost thou enjoin this?
Oe. I fear, lady, that mine own lips have been unguarded; and therefore am I fain to behold him.
Io. Nay, he shall come. But I too, methinks, have a claim to learn what lies heavy on thy heart, my king.770
Oe. Yea, and it shall not be kept from thee, now that my forebodings have advanced so far. Who, indeed, is more to me than thou, to whom I should speak in passing through such a fortune as this?
My father was Polybus of Corinth,—my mother, the Dorian Meropè; and I was held the first of all the folk in that town, until a chance befell me, worthy, indeed, of wonder, though not worthy of mine own heat concerning it. At a banquet, a man full of wine cast it at me in his cups that I was not the true son of my sire.780 And I, vexed, restrained myself for that day as best I might; but on the next I went to my mother and father, and questioned them; and they were wroth for the taunt with him who had let that word fly. So on their part I had comfort; yet was this thing ever rankling in my heart; for it still crept abroad with strong rumour. And, unknown to mother or father, I went to Delphi; and Phoebus sent me forth disappointed of that knowledge for which I came, but in his response set forth other things, full of sorrow and terror and woe;790 even that I was fated to defile my mother's bed; and that I should show unto men a brood which they could not endure to behold; and that I should be the slayer of the sire who begat me.
And I, when I had listened to this, turned to flight from the land of Corinth, thenceforth wotting of its region by the stars alone, to some spot where I should never see fulfilment of the infamies foretold in mine evil doom. And on my way I came to the regions in which thou sayest that this prince perished.800 Now, lady, I will tell thee the truth. When in my journey I was near to those three roads, there met me a herald, and a man seated in a carriage drawn by colts, as thou hast described; and he who was in front, and the old man himself, were for thrusting me rudely from the path. Then,
