OEDIPUS AT COLONUS
Oedipus
And who hath told thee what thou tell’st me, child?
Ismene
Envoys who visited the Delphic hearth.
Oedipus
Hath Phoebus spoken thus concerning me?
Ismene
So say the envoys who returned to Thebes.
Oedipus
And can a son of mine have heard of this?
Ismene
Yea, both alike, and know its import well.
Oedipus
They knew it, yet the ignoble greed of rule
Outweighed all longing for their sire’s return.
Ismene
Grievous thy words, yet I must own them true.
Oedipus
Then may the gods ne’er quench their fatal feud,
And mine be the arbitrament of the fight,
For which they now are arming, spear to spear;
That neither he who holds the sceptre now
May keep his throne, nor he who fled the realm
Return again. They never raised a hand,
When I their sire was thrust from hearth and home;
When I was banned and banished, what recked they?
Say you ’twas done at my desire, a grace
Which the State, yielding to my wish, allowed?
Not so; for, mark you, on that very day
When in the tempest of my soul I craved
