If sin like this to honor can aspire,

Why dance I still and lead the sacred choir?
(Ant. 2)

No more I'll seek earth's central oracle,
Or Abae's hallowed cell,

Nor to Olympia bring
My votive offering.

If before all God's truth be not bade plain.
O Zeus, reveal thy might,

King, if thou'rt named aright
Omnipotent, all-seeing, as of old;

For Laius is forgot;
His weird, men heed it not;

Apollo is forsook and faith grows cold.
[Enter JOCASTA.]

JOCASTA
My lords, ye look amazed to see your queen

With wreaths and gifts of incense in her hands.
I had a mind to visit the high shrines,

For Oedipus is overwrought, alarmed
With terrors manifold. He will not use

His past experience, like a man of sense,
To judge the present need, but lends an ear

To any croaker if he augurs ill.
Since then my counsels naught avail, I turn

To thee, our present help in time of trouble,
Apollo, Lord Lycean, and to thee

My prayers and supplications here I bring.
Lighten us, lord, and cleanse us from this curse!

For now we all are cowed like mariners
Who see their helmsman dumbstruck in the storm.

[Enter Corinthian MESSENGER.]
MESSENGER

My masters, tell me where the palace is
Of Oedipus; or better, where's the king.

CHORUS
Here is the palace and he bides within;

This is his queen the mother of his children.
MESSENGER

All happiness attend her and the house,
Blessed is her husband and her marriage-bed.

JOCASTA
My greetings to thee, stranger; thy fair words

Deserve a like response. But tell me why
Thou comest--what thy need or what thy news.

MESSENGER
Good for thy consort and the royal house.

JOCASTA
What may it be? Whose messenger art thou?

MESSENGER
The Isthmian commons have resolved to make

Thy husband king--so 'twas reported there.
JOCASTA

What! is not aged Polybus still king?
MESSENGER

No, verily; he's dead and in his grave.
JOCASTA

What! is he dead, the sire of Oedipus?
MESSENGER

If I speak falsely, may I die myself.
JOCASTA

Quick, maiden, bear these tidings to my lord.
Ye god-sent oracles, where stand ye now!

This is the man whom Oedipus long shunned,
In dread to prove his murderer; and now

He dies in nature's course, not by his hand.
[Enter OEDIPUS.]

OEDIPUS
My wife, my queen, Jocasta, why hast thou

Summoned me from my palace?
JOCASTA

Hear this man,
And as thou hearest judge what has become

Of all those awe-inspiring oracles.
OEDIPUS

Who is this man, and what his news for me?
JOCASTA

He comes from Corinth and his message this:
Thy father Polybus hath passed away.

OEDIPUS
What? let me have it, stranger, from thy mouth.

MESSENGER
If I must first make plain beyond a doubt

My message, know that Polybus is dead.
OEDIPUS

By treachery, or by sickness visited?
MESSENGER

One touch will send an old man to his rest.
OEDIPUS

So of some malady he died, poor man.
MESSENGER

Yes, having measured the full span of years.
OEDIPUS

Out on it, lady! why should one regard
The Pythian hearth or birds that scream i' the air?

Did they not point at me as doomed to slay
My father? but he's dead and in his grave

And here am I who ne'er unsheathed a sword;
Unless the longing for his absent son

Killed him and so _I_ slew him in a sense.
But, as they stand, the oracles are dead--

Dust, ashes, nothing, dead as Polybus.
JOCASTA

Say, did not I foretell this long ago?
OEDIPUS

Thou didst: but I was misled by my fear.
JOCASTA

Then let I no more weigh upon thy soul.
OEDIPUS

Must I not fear my mother's marriage bed.
JOCASTA

Why should a mortal man, the sport of chance,
With no assured foreknowledge, be afraid?

Best live a careless life from hand to mouth.
This wedlock with thy mother fear not thou.

How oft it chances that in dreams a man
Has wed his mother! He who least regards

Such brainsick phantasies lives most at ease.
OEDIPUS

I should have shared in full thy confidence,
Were not my mother living; since she lives

Though half convinced I still must live in dread.
JOCASTA

And yet thy sire's death lights out darkness much.
OEDIPUS

Much, but my fear is touching her who lives.
MESSENGER

Who may this woman be whom thus you fear?
OEDIPUS

Merope, stranger, wife of Polybus.
MESSENGER

And what of her can cause you any fear?
OEDIPUS

A heaven-sent oracle of dread import.
MESSENGER

A mystery, or may a stranger hear it?
OEDIPUS

Aye, 'tis no secret. Loxias once foretold
That I should mate with mine own mother, and shed

With my own hands the blood of my own sire.
Hence Corinth was for many a year to me

A home distant; and I trove abroad,
But missed the sweetest sight, my parents' face.

MESSENGER
Was this the fear that exiled thee from home?

OEDIPUS
Yea, and the dread of slaying my own sire.

MESSENGER
Why, since I came to give thee pleasure, King,

Have I not rid thee of this second fear?
OEDIPUS

Well, thou shalt have due guerdon for thy pains.
MESSENGER

Well, I confess what chiefly made me come
Was hope to profit by thy coming home.

OEDIPUS
Nay, I will ne'er go near my parents more.

MESSENGER
My son, 'tis plain, thou know'st not what thou doest.

OEDIPUS
How so, old man? For heaven's sake tell me all.

MESSENGER
If this is why thou dreadest to return.

OEDIPUS
Yea, lest the god's word be fulfilled in me.

MESSENGER
Lest through thy parents thou shouldst be accursed?

OEDIPUS
This and none other is my constant dread.

MESSENGER
Dost thou not know thy fears are baseless all?

OEDIPUS
How baseless, if I am their very son?

MESSENGER
Since Polybus was naught to thee in blood.

OEDIPUS
What say'st thou? was not Polybus my sire?

MESSENGER
As much thy sire as I am, and no more.

OEDIPUS
My sire no more to me than one who is naught?

MESSENGER
Since I begat thee not, no more did he.

OEDIPUS
What reason had he then to call me son?

MESSENGER
Know that he took thee from my hands, a gift.

OEDIPUS
Yet, if no child of his, he loved me well.

MESSENGER
A childless man till then, he warmed to thee.

OEDIPUS
A foundling or a purchased slave, this child?

MESSENGER
I found thee in Cithaeron's wooded glens.

OEDIPUS
What led thee to explore those upland glades?

MESSENGER
My business was to tend the mountain flocks.

OEDIPUS
A vagrantshepherd journeying for hire?

• sacred [´seikrid] a.神圣的；庄严的 (初中英语单词)
• messenger [´mesindʒə] n.使者；送信人 (初中英语单词)
• maiden [´meidn] n.少女 a.未婚的 (初中英语单词)
• sickness [´siknis] n.生病；呕吐，恶心 (初中英语单词)
• scream [skri:m] v.&n.尖叫(声) (初中英语单词)
• absent [´æbsənt, əb´sent] a.不在的 vt.使缺席 (初中英语单词)
• careless [´keəlis] a.粗心的；草率的 (初中英语单词)
• mystery [´mistəri] n.神秘；秘密；故弄玄虚 (初中英语单词)
• confess [kən´fes] vt.供认；坦白；承认 (初中英语单词)
• chiefly [´tʃi:fli] ad.主要地；尤其 (初中英语单词)
• constant [´kɔnstənt] a.坚定的；坚贞的 (初中英语单词)
• shepherd [´ʃepəd] n.牧羊人 vt.带领 (初中英语单词)
• incense [´insens, in´sens] n.香(气) vt.激怒 (高中英语单词)
• naught [nɔ:t] n.无；零 (高中英语单词)
• cleanse [klenz] vt.使清洁；净化 (高中英语单词)
• response [ri´spɔns] n.回答；响应 (高中英语单词)
• tidings [´taidiŋz] n.消息，音信 (高中英语单词)
• murderer [´mə:dərə] n.杀人犯，凶手 (高中英语单词)
• treachery [´tretʃəri] n.背叛；背信弃义 (高中英语单词)
• hearth [hɑ:θ] n.炉边；家庭(生活) (高中英语单词)
• longing [´lɔŋiŋ] n.&a.渴望(的) (高中英语单词)
• mortal [´mɔ:tl] a.致命的 n.凡人 (高中英语单词)
• oracle [´ɔrəkl] n.预言(者)；圣理名言 (高中英语单词)
• explore [ik´splɔ:] v.勘探；探索；探查 (高中英语单词)
• hallowed [´hæləud] a.神圣的，崇高的 (英语四级单词)
• manifold [´mænifəuld] a.多样的；多种特征的 (英语四级单词)
• consort [´kɔnsɔ:t] n.&v.配偶；合作；一致 (英语四级单词)
• resolved [ri´zɔlvd] a.决心的；坚定的 (英语四级单词)
• verily [´verili] ad.真实的；肯定地 (英语四级单词)
• touching [´tʌtʃiŋ] a.动人的 prep.提到 (英语四级单词)
• wooded [´wudid] a.多树林的 (英语四级单词)
• forsook [fə´suk] forsake的过去式 (英语六级单词)
• malady [´mælədi] n.疾病；不正之风 (英语六级单词)
• assured [ə´ʃuəd] a.确实的 n.被保险人 (英语六级单词)
• upland [´ʌplənd] n.高地；山地 (英语六级单词)
• vagrant [´veigrənt] n.流浪者 a.流浪的 (英语六级单词)