| Sophocles Index |
JOCASTA
'Tis for thy sake I advise thee for the best.
OEDIPUS
I grow impatient of this best advice.
JOCASTA
Ah mayst thou ne'er discover who thou art!
OEDIPUS
Go, fetch me here the herd, and leave yon woman
To glory in her pride of ancestry.
JOCASTA
O woe is thee, poor wretch! With that last word
I leave thee, henceforth silent evermore.
Exit JOCASTA.
CHORUS
Why, Oedipus, why stung with passionate grief
Hath the queen thus departed? Much I fear
From this dead calm will burst a storm of woes.
OEDIPUS
Let the storm burst, my fixed resolve still holds,
To learn my lineage, be it ne'er so low.
It may be she with all a woman's pride
Thinks scorn of my base parentage. But I
Who rank myself as Fortune's favorite child,
The giver of good gifts, shall not be shamed.
She is my mother and the changing moons
My brethren, and with them I wax and wane.
Thus sprung why should I fear to trace my birth?
Nothing can make me other than I am.
CHORUS
strophe
If my soul prophetic err not, if my wisdom aught avail,
Thee, Cithaeron, I shall hail,
As the nurse and foster-mother of our Oedipus shall greet
Ere tomorrow's full moon rises, and exalt thee as is meet.
Dance and song shall hymn thy praises, lover of our royal race.
Phoebus, may my words find grace!
antistrophe
Child, who bare thee, nymph or goddess? sure thy sure was more than man,
Haply the hill-roamer Pan.
Of did Loxias beget thee, for he haunts the upland wold;
Or Cyllene's lord, or Bacchus, dweller on the hilltops cold?
Did some Heliconian Oread give him thee, a new-born joy?
Nymphs with whom he love to toy?
OEDIPUS
Elders, if I, who never yet before
Have met the man, may make a guess, methinks
I see the herdsman who we long have sought;
His time-worn aspect matches with the years
Of yonder aged messenger; besides
I seem to recognize the men who bring him
As servants of my own. But you, perchance,
Having in past days known or seen the herd,
May better by sure knowledge my surmise.
CHORUS
I recognize him; one of Laius' house;
A simple hind, but true as any man.
Enter HERDSMAN.
OEDIPUS
Corinthian, stranger, I address thee first,
Is this the man thou meanest!
MESSENGER
This is he.
OEDIPUS
And now old man, look up and answer all
I ask thee. Wast thou once of Laius' house?
HERDSMAN
I was, a thrall, not purchased but home-bred.
OEDIPUS
What was thy business? how wast thou employed?
HERDSMAN
The best part of my life I tended sheep.
OEDIPUS
What were the pastures thou didst most frequent?
HERDSMAN
Cithaeron and the neighboring alps.
OEDIPUS
Then there
Thou must have known yon man, at least by fame?
HERDSMAN
Yon man? in what way? what man dost thou mean?
OEDIPUS
The man here, having met him in past times...
HERDSMAN
Off-hand I cannot call him well to mind.
MESSENGER
No wonder, master. But I will revive
His blunted memories. Sure he can recall
What time together both we drove our flocks,
He two, I one, on the Cithaeron range,
For three long summers; I his mate from spring
Till rose Arcturus; then in winter time
I led mine home, he his to Laius' folds.
Did these things happen as I say, or no?
HERDSMAN
'Tis long ago, but all thou say'st is true.
MESSENGER
Well, thou mast then remember giving me
A child to rear as my own foster-son?
HERDSMAN
Why dost thou ask this question? What of that?
MESSENGER
Friend, he that stands before thee was that child.
HERDSMAN
A plague upon thee! Hold thy wanton tongue!
OEDIPUS
Softly, old man, rebuke him not; thy words
Are more deserving chastisement than his.
HERDSMAN
O best of masters, what is my offense?
OEDIPUS
Not answering what he asks about the child.
HERDSMAN
He speaks at random, babbles like a fool.
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