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45—69] for nevermore will I depart from my rest in this land.

. What means this? . 'Tis the watchword of my fate.

. Nay, for my part, I dare not remove thee without warrant from the city, ere I report what I am doing.

. Now for the gods' love, stranger, refuse me not, hapless wanderer that I am, the knowledge for which I sue to thee.

. Speak, and from me thou shalt find no refusal.

. What, then, is the place that we have entered?

. All that I know, thou shalt learn from my mouth. This whole place is sacred; awful Poseidon holds it, and therein is the fire-fraught god, the Titan Prometheus; but as for the spot whereon thou treadest, 'tis called the Brazen Threshold of this land, the stay of Athens; and the neighbouring fields claim yon knight Colonus for their primal lord, and all the people bear his name in common for their own. Such, thou mayest know, stranger, are these haunts, not honoured in story, but rather in the life that loves them.

. Are there indeed dwellers in this region?

. Yea, surely, the namesakes of yonder god.

. Have they a king? Or doth speech rest with the folk?

. These parts are ruled by the king in the city.

. And who is thus sovereign in counsel and in might?

. Theseus he is called, son of Aegeus who was before him.