This very thing, old man, this constantly frightens me.MessengerDo you know, then, that your fears are wholly in vain?OedipusHow so, if I was born of those parents?MessengerBecause you had no blood in common with Polybus.OedipusWhat are you saying? Was Polybus not my father?MessengerJust as much, and no more, than he who speaks to you.OedipusAnd how can my father be equal to him who is as though nothing to me?MessengerBut he did not father you, any more than I did.OedipusHow, then, did he call me his son?MessengerLong ago he received you as a gift from my hands.OedipusAnd yet he loved me so dearly, who came from another’s hand?MessengerHis former childlessness won him over.OedipusAnd had you bought me or found me by chance, when you gave me to him?MessengerI found you in Cithaeron’s winding glens.OedipusAnd why were you roaming those regions?MessengerI was in charge of mountain flocks.OedipusWhat, you were a shepherd—a vagrant hireling?MessengerBut your savior, my son, in that hour.OedipusAnd what was my pain when you took me in your arms?MessengerThe ankles of your feet might bear witness.