Page:Tragedies of Sophocles (Jebb 1917).djvu/52

40 . What sayest thou? Was Polybus not my sire?

. No more than he who speaks to thee, but just so much.

. And how can my sire be level with him who is as nought to me?

. Nay, he begat thee not, any more than I.

. Nay, wherefore, then, called he me his son?

. Know that he had received thee as a gift from my hands of yore.

. And yet he loved me so dearly, who came from another's hand?

. Yea, his former childlessness won him thereto.

. And thou—hadst thou bought me or found me by chance, when thou gavest me to him?

. Found thee in Cithaeron's winding glens.

. And wherefore wast thou roaming in those regions?

. I was there in charge of mountain flocks.

. What, thou wast a shepherd—a vagrant hireling?

. But thy preserver, my son, in that hour.

. And what pain was mine when thou didst take me in thine arms?

. The ankles of thy feet might witness.

. Ah me, why dost thou speak of that old trouble?

. I freed thee when thou hadst thine ankles pinned together.

. Aye, 'twas a dread brand of shame that I took from my cradle.