Oedipus Tyrannus
Sophocles
Sophocles the plays and fragments, Part 1: The Oedipus Tyrannus. Jebb, Richard Claverhouse, Sir, translator. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1887.
- It was not my own: I received it from another.
- From whom of the citizens here? From what home?
- For the love of the gods, master, ask no more!
- You are dead if I have to question you again.
- It was a child, then, of the house of Laius.
- A slave? Or one of his own clan?
- Alas! I am on the brink of speaking the dreaded words.
- And I of hearing: I must hear nevertheless.
- You must know then, that it was said to be his own child. But your lady within could say best how these matters lie.
- How? Did she give it to you?
- Yes, my lord.
- For what purpose?
- That I should do away with it.
- Her own child, the wretched woman?
- Yes, from fear of the evil prophecies.
- What were they?
- The tale ran that he would slay his father.
- Why, then, did you give him to this old man?
- Out of pity, master, thinking that he would carry him to another land, from where he himself came. But he saved him for the direst woe.
- For if you are what this man says, be certain that you were born ill-fated.