Page:Tragedies of Sophocles (Jebb 1917).djvu/92

80 and in no wise wanes, I am fain, friend, to hear it aright.

. Woe is me!

. Be content, I pray thee!

. Alas, alas!

. Grant my wish, as I have granted thine in its fulness.

. I have suffered misery, strangers,—suffered it through unwitting deeds, and of those acts—be Heaven my witness!—no part was of mine own choice.

. But in what regard?

. By an evil wedlock, Thebes bound me, all unknowing, to the bride that was my curse

. Can it be, as I hear, that thou madest thy mother the partner of thy bed, for its infamy?

. Woe is me! Cruel as death, strangers, are these words in mine ears;—but those maidens, begotten of me—

. What wilt thou say?—

. —two daughters—two curses—

. O Zeus!

. —sprang from the travail of the womb that bore me.

. These, then, are at once thine offspring, and

. —yea, very sisters of their sire.

. Oh, horror! . Horror indeed—yea, horrors untold sweep back upon my soul!

. Thou hast suffered—. Suffered woes dread to bear.—