Page:Tragedies of Sophocles (Jebb 1917).djvu/88

76 . In what conjuncture of events, my child?

. By force of thy wrath, when they take their stand at thy tomb.

. And who hath told thee what thou tellest, my child?

. Sacred envoys, from the Delphian hearth.

. And Phoebus hath indeed spoken thus concerning me?

. So say the men who have come back to Thebes.

. Hath either of my sons, then, heard this?

. Yea, both have heard, and know it well.

. And then those base ones, aware of this, held the kingship dearer than the wish to recall me?

. It grieves me to hear that,—but I must bear it.

. Then may the gods quench not their fated strife, and may it become mine to decide this warfare whereto they are now setting their hands, spear against spear! For then neither should he abide who now holds the sceptre and the throne, nor should the banished one ever return; seeing that when I, their sire, was being thrust so .shamefully from my country, they hindered not, nor defended me; no, they saw me sent forth homeless, they heard my doom of exile cried aloud.

Thou wilt say that it was mine own wish then, and that the city meetly granted me that boon. No, verily: for in that first day, when my soul was seething, and my darling wish was for death, aye, death by stoning, no one was found to help me in that desire: but after a time, when all my anguish was now assuaged, and when I began to feel that my wrath had run too far in punishing those past errors,—then it was that the city,