Oedipus.

Break what break will! My mind abideth strong

To know the roots, how low soe’er they be,

Which grew to Oedipus. This woman, she

Is proud, methinks, and fears my birth and name

Will mar her nobleness. But I, no shame

Can ever touch me. I am Fortune’s child,

Not man’s; her mother face hath ever smiled

Above me, and my brethren of the sky,

The changing Moons, have changed me low and high.

There is my lineage true, which none shall wrest

From me; who then am I to fear this quest?

Chorus.

[They sing of Oedipus as the foundling of their own Theban mountain, Kithairon, and doubtless of divine birth.

[Strophe.

If I, O Kithairon, some vision can borrow17

From seercraft, if still there is wit in the old,

Long, long, through the deep-orbèd Moon of the morrow—

So hear me, Olympus!—thy tale shall be told.

O mountain of Thebes, a new Theban shall praise thee,

One born of thy bosom, one nursed at thy springs;

And the old men shall dance to thy glory, and raise thee

To worship, O bearer of joy to my kings.

And thou, we pray,

Look down in peace, O Apollo; I-ê, I-ê!

[Antistrophe.

What Oread mother, unaging, unweeping,

Did bear thee, O Babe, to the Crag-walker Pan;

Or perchance to Apollo? He loveth the leaping

Of herds on the rock-ways unhaunted of man.

Or was it the lord of Cyllênê, who found thee,

Or glad Dionysus, whose home is the height,

Who knew thee his own on the mountain, as round thee

The White Brides of Helicon laughed for delight?

’Tis there, ’tis there,

The joy most liveth of all his dance and prayer.

Oedipus.

If I may judge, ye Elders, who have ne’er

Seen him, methinks I see the shepherd there

Whom we have sought so long. His weight of years

Fits well with our Corinthian messenger’s;

And, more, I know the men who guide his way,

Bondsmen of mine own house.

Thou, friend, wilt say

Most surely, who hast known the man of old.

Leader.

I know him well. A shepherd of the fold

Of Laïus, one he trusted more than all.

[The Shepherd comes in, led by two thralls. He is an old man and seems terrified.

Oedipus.

Thou first, our guest from Corinth: say withal

Is this the man?

Stranger.

This is the man, O King.

Oedipus.

[Addressing the Shepherd.

Old man! Look up, and answer everything18

I ask thee.—Thou wast Laïus’ man of old?

Shepherd.

Born in his house I was, not bought with gold.

Oedipus.

What kind of work, what way of life, was thine?

Shepherd.

Most of my days I tended sheep or kine.

Oedipus.

What was thy camping ground at midsummer?

Shepherd.

Sometimes Kithairon, sometimes mountains near.

Oedipus.

Saw’st ever there this man thou seëst now?

Shepherd.

There, Lord? What doing?—What man meanest thou?

Oedipus.