OEDIPUS.
Poor children, little needs to tell me that
For which ye come to pray; too well I know
Ye all are sick. And, sick as ye may be,
There is not one whose sickness equals mine.
The grief of each of you touches himself,
And touches none beside: your sovereign's heart
Bears your griefs, and the city's and his own.
Not from a slumber have ye wakened me,
Trust me, I many an anxious tear have shed,
And many a path have tried in wandering thought.
Such remedy as, scanning all, I find
I have applied. Creon, Menoeceus' son
And my Queen's brother, to the Pythian shrine
Of Phoebus I have sent to ask what act
Or word of mine this city will redeem.
And now, as anxiously I mete the time,
My soul is troubled, for, to my surprise,
He has been absent longer than he ought.
But when he comes, a caitiff I shall be
If I do not all that the god ordains.
* * * * *
THE DAWN OF DISCOVERY.
Oedipus, having learned from the oracle that the cause of the wrath of the gods and of the plague is the presence of the murderer of Laius in the land, sends for the blind prophet, Tiresias, to tell him who is the murderer. Tiresias, knowing the secret, is reluctant to reveal it, and an altercation ensues, Oedipus suspecting that Tiresias has been set on by Creon, the Queen's brother, who he thinks is intriguing to supplant him in the monarchy.
LINES 300-462.
OEDIPUS.
Tiresias, thou whose thought embraces all,
Revealed or unrevealed, in heaven or earth,
In how sad plight our city is, thy mind,
If not thy eye, discerns. Prophet, in thee
Resides our sole hope of deliverance.
Phoebus, if thou hast not the tidings heard,
Has to our envoys answered, that the plague
Will never leave this city till we find
The murderers of the late King Laius,
And slay them or expel them from the land.
Then, if a way thou know'st, by augury
Or divination, put forth all thy power,
Save this our commonwealth, thyself and me;
Put from us the pollution of this blood.
To thee alone we look; what gifts one has
To use for good is of all toil the best.
TIRESIAS.
Ah! what an ill possession knowledge is
When ignorance were gain. This well I know,
And yet forgot, else had I not come here.