Realize that once more now you are poised on fortune’s
razor-edge.CreonWhat do you mean? I shudder to hear you!TeiresiasYou will understand, when you hear the signs revealed by my
art. As I took my place on my old seat of augury where all birds regularly gather for me, I heard an
unintelligible voice among them: they were screaming in dire frenzy that
made their language foreign to me. I realized that they were ripping
each other with their talons, murderously—the rush of their wings did
not lack meaning. Quickly, in fear, I tried burnt-sacrifice on a
duly-kindled altar, but from my offerings Hephaestus did not blaze.
Instead juice that had sweated from the thigh-flesh trickled out onto
the embers and smoked and sputtered; the gall was scattered high up in the air; and the
streaming thighs lay bared of the fat that had been wrapped around them.
Such was the failure of the rites that yielded no sign, as I learned
from this boy. For he is my guide, as I am guide to others. And it is your will that is the source of the sickness
now afflicting the city. For the altars of our city and our hearths have
one and all been tainted by the birds and dogs with the carrion taken
from the sadly fallen son of Oedipus. And so the gods no more accept
prayer and sacrifice at our hands,