Page:Sophocles' King Oedipus.pdf/43

Rh. Yet your father’s death is a sign that all is well.

. I know that: but I fear because of her who lives.

. Who is this woman who makes you afraid?

. Merope, old man, the wife of Polybius.

. What is there in her to make you afraid?

. A dreadful oracle sent from Heaven, stranger.

. Is it a Secret, or can you speak it out?

. Loxius said that I was doomed to marry my own mother, and to shed my father’s blood. For that reason I fled from my house in Corinth; and I did right though there is great comfort in familiar faces.

. Was it indeed for that reason that you went into exile?

. I did not wish, old man, to shed my father’s blood.

. King, have I not freed you from that fear?

. You shall be fittingly rewarded.

. Indeed, to tell the truth, it was for that I came; to bring you home and be the better for it

. No! I will never go to my parents’ home.