Page:Tragedies of Sophocles (Plumptre 1878).djvu/159

Rh Œdip. What solemn name should I invoke them with?

''Ath. Str''. Eumenides, the Gentle Ones, all seeing,—

They call them here. It may be, other names

Befit them elsewhere.

Œdip. May they then receive me,

Their suppliant, gently: thus I need not go,

Nor ever quit my station on their ground!

''Ath. Str''. What means this?

Œdip. 'Tis the omen of my fate.

''Ath. Str''. And I, too, dare not move thee from thy seat,

Without the state's command, before I tell

My tale, and learn what it is meet to do.

Œdip. By all the Gods, I charge thee scorn me not,

Poor wanderer though I be! But what I ask

I pray thee tell.

''Ath. Str''. Speak, then, thou shalt not meet,

As far as my will goes, with scorn or shame.

Œdip. And what, then, is this place to which we've come?

''Ath. Str''. All that I know thou too shalt hear and learn:

The ground all round is sacred, and the dread

Poseidon claims it, and the God of fire,

Titan Prometheus; and the place thou tread'st on

Is called the brass-paved threshold of our land,