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18 even with blindness—that thou hast sight, yet seest not in what misery thou art, nor where thou dwellest, nor with whom. Dost thou know of what stock thou art? And thou hast been an unwitting foe to thine own kin, in the shades, and on the earth above; and the double lash of thy mother's and thy father's curse shall one day drive thee from this land in dreadful haste, with darkness then on the eyes that now see true.

And what place shall not be harbour to thy shriek, what of all Cithaeron shall not ring with it soon, when thou hast learnt the meaning of the nuptials in which, within that house, thou didst find a fatal haven, after a voyage so fair? And a throng of other ills thou guessest not, which shall make thee level with thy true self and with thine own brood.

Therefore heap thy scorns on Creon and on my message: for no one among men shall ever be crushed more miserably than thou.

. Are these taunts to be indeed borne from him?— Hence, ruin take thee! Hence, this instant! Back!—away!—avaunt thee from these doors!

. I had never come, not I, hadst thou not called me.

. I knew not that thou wast about to speak folly, or it had been long ere I had sent for thee to my house.

. Such am I,—as thou thinkest, a fool; but for the parents who begat thee, sane.

. What parents? Stay…and who of men is my sire?

. This day shall show thy birth and shall bring thy ruin.