Page:Sophocles (Storr 1912) v1.djvu/311



Wrongfully in life oppressed,

Be he now by Justice blessed.

Queen infernal, and thou fell

Watch-dog of the gates of hell,

Who, as legends tell, dost glare,

Gnarling in thy cavernous lair

At all comers, let him go

Scathless to the fields below.

For thy master orders thus,

The son of earth and Tartarus;

In his den the monster keep,

Giver of eternal sleep

Enter.

Friends, countrymen, my tidings are in sum

That Oedipus is gone, but the event

Was not so brief, nor can the tale be brief.

What, has he gone, the unhappy man?

Know well

That he has passed away from life to death.

How? By a god-sent, painless doom, poor soul?

Thy question hits the marvel of the tale.

How he moved hence, you saw him and must know;

Without a friend to lead the way, himself

Guiding us all. So having reached the abrupt 289