Ne'er would it be, for well I know my fates,

Except for harmful ends. Nature herself

Has changed her laws: now shall the stream, reversed,85

Bear back its whirling waters to their source;

The torch of Phoebus shall bring in the night,

And day be heralded by Hesperus;

And, that I may but add unto my woe,

I, too, shall pious be. Not to be saved—

This is for Oedipus the only cure.

Let me avenge my father, unavenged90