Pan, the mountain-roaming father? Or was it a bride of Loxias that bore you? For dear to him are all the upland pastures.Or perhaps it was Cyllene’s lord, or the Bacchants’ god, dweller on the hill-tops, that received you, a new-born joy, from one of the nymphs of Helicon, with whom he most often sports.

OedipusElders, if it is right for me, who have never met the man, to guess, I think I see the herdsman we have been looking for for a lone time. In his venerable old age he tallies with this stranger’s years, and moreover I recognize those who bring him, I think, as servants of mine.But perhaps you have an advantage in knowledge over me, if you have seen the herdsman before.ChorusYes, I know him, be sure. He was in the service of Laius—trusty as any shepherd.The herdsman is brought in.OedipusI ask you first, Corinthian stranger, if this is the man you mean.MessengerHe is, the one you are looking at.OedipusYou, old man—look this way and answer all that I ask—were you once in the service of Laius?ServantI was—not a bought slave, but reared in his house.OedipusEmployed in what labor, or what way of life?ServantFor the better part of my life I tended the flocks.OedipusAnd what regions did you most frequently haunt?ServantSometimes Cithaeron, sometimes the neighboring ground.OedipusAre you aware of ever having seen this man in these parts?ServantDoing what? What man do you mean?OedipusThis man here. Have you ever met him before?ServantNot so that I could speak at once from memory.MessengerAnd no wonder, master. But I will bring clear recollection to his ignorance. I am sure he knows well of the time we dwelled in the region of Cithaeronfor six month periods, from spring to Arcturus, he with two flocks, and I, his comrade, with one. And then for the winter I used to drive my flock to my own fold, and he took his to the fold of Laius.Did any of this happen as I tell it, or did it not?