OEDIPUS.
What say’st thou? was not Polybus my sire?
MESSENGER.
As much thy sire as I am, and no more.
OEDIPUS.
My sire no more to me than one who is naught?
MESSENGER.
Since I begat thee not, no more did he.
OEDIPUS.
What reason had he then to call me son?
MESSENGER.
Know that he took thee from my hands, a gift.
OEDIPUS.
Yet, if no child of his, he loved me well.
MESSENGER.
A childless man till then, he warmed to thee.
OEDIPUS.
A foundling or a purchased slave, this child?
MESSENGER.
I found thee in Cithaeron’s wooded glens.