Why seek for words? The truth no respite needs.850
Phorbas: Thou speak'st of things long buried and forgot.
Oedipus: But speak, or pain shall drive thee to confess.
Phorbas: I gave a boy to him, a useless gift;
He never could have lived or known the light.
Old Man: The gods forbid! The child is living still;855
And may his life be long on earth, I pray.
Oedipus: Why dost thou think the child did not survive?
Phorbas: A slender rod of iron his ankles pierced,
And bound his limbs. This wound produced a sore,