Page:Oedipus, King of Thebes (Murray 1911).djvu/81

vv. 1098–1120

What Oread mother, unaging, unweeping,

Did bear thee, O Babe, to the Crag-walker Pan;

Or perchance to Apollo? He loveth the leaping

Of herds on the rock-ways unhaunted of man.

Or was it the lord of Cyllênê, who found thee,

Or glad Dionysus, whose home is the height,

Who knew thee his own on the mountain, as round thee

The White Brides of Helicon laughed for delight?

’Tis there, ’tis there,

The joy most liveth of all his dance and prayer.

If I may judge, ye Elders, who have ne’er

Seen him, methinks I see the shepherd there

Whom we have sought so long. His weight of years

Fits well with our Corinthian messenger’s;

And, more, I know the men who guide his way,

Bondsmen of mine own house.

Thou, friend, wilt say

Most surely, who hast known the man of old.

I know him well. A shepherd of the fold

Of Laïus, one he trusted more than all.

[The ''comes in, led by two thralls. He is an old man and seems terrified''.

Thou first, our guest from Corinth: say withal

Is this the man?