OEDIPUS AT COLONUS
Chorus
In his ancestral seat; a messenger,
The same who sent us here, is gone for him.
Oedipus
And think you he will have such care or thought
For the blind stranger as to come himself?
Chorus
Ay, that he will, when once he learns thy name.
Oedipus
But who will bear him word!
Chorus
The way is long,
And many travellers pass to speed the news.
Be sure he’ll hear and hasten, never fear;
So wide and far thy name is noised abroad,
That, were he ne’er so spent and loth to move,
He would bestir him when he hears of thee.
Oedipus
Well, may he come with blessing to his State
And me! Who serves his neighbour serves himself.[1]
Antigone
Zeus! What is this? What can I say or think?
Oedipus
W hat now, Antigone?
Antigone
I see a woman
Hiding upon a colt of Aetna’s breed;
She wears for headgear a Thessalian hat
To shade her from the sun. Who can it be?
- ↑ To avoid explaining the blessing (see l. 288), still a secret, he resorts to a commonplace; literally, “For what a generous man is not (in befriending others) a friend to himself?”
