CREON.
Banishment, or the shedding blood for blood.
This stain of blood makes shipwreck of our state.
OEDIPUS.
Whom can he mean, the miscreant thus denounced?
CREON.
Before thou didst assume the helm of State,
The sovereign of this land was Laius.
OEDIPUS.
I heard as much, but never saw the man.
CREON.
He fell; and now the god’s command is plain:
Punish his takers-off, whoe’er they be.
OEDIPUS.
Where are they? Where in the wide world to find
The far, faint traces of a bygone crime?
CREON.
In this land, said the god; “who seeks shall find;
Who sits with folded hands or sleeps is blind.”
OEDIPUS.
Was he within his palace, or afield,
Or traveling, when Laius met his fate?
CREON.
Abroad; he started, so he told us, bound
For Delphi, but he never thence returned.
OEDIPUS.
Came there no news, no fellow-traveler
To give some clue that might be followed up?