Page:Tragedies of Euripides (Way 1898) v3.djvu/77

Rh Even now is gone to face Mycenæ's might;

But to me gave in charge to inquire of thee

What deeds of ours shall best deliver Thebes.

For Eteokles sealed my lips had been,

The oracles withheld:—since thou wouldst know,

I tell thee. Kreon, long this land hath ailed

Since Laïus in heaven's despite begat

Oedipus, his own mother's wretched spouse.

Yea, and the gory ruin of his eyes

Was heaven's device, for warning unto Greece.

And Oedipus' sons, who fain had cloaked it o'er

With time, as though they could outrun the Gods,

In folly erred: vouchsafing to their sire

Nor honour nor free air, they stung to fury

His misery: dread malison he breathed

Against them, suffering and shamed withal.

What did I not? What warnings spake I not?—

And had for guerdon hate of Oedipus' sons.

But nigh them, Kreon, mutual slaughter looms;

And corpses many upon corpses piled—

Shafts Argive and Kadmean all confused—

With bitter wails shall dower the Theban land.

Thou, hapless town, art made a ruin-heap—

Except unto my bodings one give heed!

This thing were best, that none of Oedipus' line

Remain in Thebes, nor citizen nor king:

They are fiend-possessed and doomed to wreck the state.

But, seeing the evil hath o'erborne the good,

One other way of safety yet remains.

But this to tell, for me were all unsafe,