To haunt within the borders of your realm.
We have seen that in international Greek law exile was not permitted for wilful parricide or, more generally, for wilful kin-slaying, and therefore no State could open its doors to such slayers. But for involuntary or extenuated kin-slaying exile was recognised by law, and therefore whenever a foreign kin-slayer applied to be admitted as an exile into any State it was necessary to hold an inquiry, in order to discover whether his deed of blood was voluntary or involuntary, before admitting him to civic and religious communion. The attitude of Kreon in the last speech is, we believe, a rhetorical exaggeration, for it implies that in his opinion Oedipus was a wilful kin-slayer of full guilt, and it is legally incompatible with his previous proposal to escort Oedipus to his home. Polyneices, the son of Oedipus, promises[65] the same boon, if Oedipus will only forgive him and help him in his conflict with Eteocles. But Oedipus refuses to forgive his unfilial son and launches his curse against him, because he and his brother and his uncle are the cause of his continued exile[66]:
’Tis thou hast girt me round with misery;
’Tis thou didst drive me forth, and driven by thee
I beg my bread, a wandering sojourner.
Thus, if we make due allowances for rhetorical deceptions, we may conclude that, except in the mind of Oedipus himself, his act was regarded as voluntary rather than as involuntary: the oracle of Apollo took, on the whole, the same view, but made some allowance for the element of provocation in the act. Long before, it had foretold that Oedipus would not return to reign in Thebes or to die there, but that in Athens he would find rest and asylum. Oedipus quotes the oracle[67]:
When I should reach my bourne,
And find repose and refuge with the Powers
Of reverend name, my troubled life should end
With blessing to the men who sheltered me