Page:Sophocles (Storr 1912) v1.djvu/211

 Death, even death by stoning, none appeared

To further that wild longing, but anon,

When time had numbed my anguish and I felt

My wrath had all outrun those errors past,

Then, then it was the city went about

By force to oust me, respited for years;

And they my sons, who should as sons have helped,

Did nothing: and, one little word from them

Was all I needed, and they spoke no word,

But let me wander on for evermore,

A banished man, a beggar. These two maids

Their sisters, girls, gave all their sex could give,

Food and safe harbourage and filial care;

While their two brethren sacrificed their sire

For lust of power and sceptred sovereignty.

No! me they ne’er shall win for an ally,

Nor will this Theban kingship bring them gain;

That know I from this maiden’s oracles,

And those old prophecies concerning me,

Which Phoebus now at length has brought to pass.

Come Creon then, come ail the mightiest

In Thebes to seek me; for if ye my friends,

Championed by those dread Powers indigenous,

Espouse my cause; then for the State ye gain

A great deliverer, for my foemen bane.

Our pity, Oedipus, thou needs must move,

Thou and these maidens; and the stronger plea 189