Ever since he, overcome by the thoughtlessness of his longing, fathered his own death, the parricide Oedipus, who sowed his mother’s sacred field, where he was nurtured,and endured a bloody crop. Madness united the frenzied bridal pair.

ChorusNow it is as if a sea of evils pushes its swell onward. As one wave sinks, the sea raises up another,triple-crested, which crashes around the city’s stern. In between a narrow defense stretches—no wider than a wall. I fear that the city will be overthrown along with its kings.