give you every succour; for I were lost to sympathy, not to compassionate a meeting such as this.

PRIEST.

But, O Edipus, present sovereign of my country, us indeed thou beholdest, of what ages we are who sit as suppliants before thine altars here"; some of us not yet of strength to wing our flight afar; others priests weighed down with old age, myself the priest of Jupiter; and others here the chosen of the youths: but the rest of the populace decked with branches, is seated in the market-places, and near both the shrines of Pallas, and at Ismenus' ashes of divination. For the city, even as thou thyself beholdest, is now overroughly tossing on the surge, and from the abysses of that ensanguined surge is no longer able freely to lift her head; withering in the husks that envelope the fruits of the soil, withering in the pasturing herds of kine, and in the abortive labours of women: whilst therewithal the fire-wielding god, most hated pestilence, has darted on and ravages the city: by whom the house of Cadmus is made empty, but dark Hades rich with wailings deep and loud. Now I and these my sons here are

d The altars alluded to were of various deities, placed by individuals before their houses, as patriotism or private gratitude might dictate. See the Curculio of Plautus, I, i, 7; Arist. Wasps, 875.

eBoth the shrines." Minerva had a temple at Thebes in virtue of her name Oncæa, and another as Ismenia, which latter name Apollo also bore, and presided over an altar of burnt sacrifices.

f The punctuation in Hermann's last edition (1825) after kεvouraι seems to weaken the force of contrast in this passage. It is here translated as if the stop were a comma.

seated petitioners by the hearth, judging thee not equal with the gods, but of men the first, whether for the common casualties of life, or the interventions of higher powers. Who at least, though a visitor to Cadmus' capital, hast abolished the tribute of the stern chauntress, which we were furnishing: and this too neither acquainted by us with anything further, nor instructed of us: no; by the prompting of god thou art reputed and believed to have righted our condition. Now too, O majesty of Edipus, owned paramount by all, we implore thee, all prostrate here before thee, to find some help for us, whether by hearing the voice of any god, or from any human source, thou knowest such: since to the experienced I observe even the issues of their counsels to be the most flourishing. Go, best of mortals, reestablish the state, go, look well to it; since at present indeed this our land celebrates thee as its preserver for thy former zeal-but O! may we in no wise remember thy reign in particular for our having both regained our footing and afterwards fallen: no; in unrelapsing strength restore our country. For as with propitious augury thou didst render to us the former lucky service, so in the present instance be equal [to thyself]. Since if in sooth thou wilt govern this our realm, as surely thou dost sway it, it is more noble to sway it with a people, than desolate. For neither tower nor ship is aught, if destitute of men associating therein ".

"Further," that is, than the bare fact of the riddle proposed, and the penalty exacted by the Sphinx.

"Ceterum similiter, homines, non muros, esse urbes, dixerat Themis

ED. My children, objects of my pity, you have come to me with wishes known, yes, not unknown to me; for well am I aware that ye are all diseased, and diseased though ye be, there is not one of you who is equally diseased with me. For your affliction falls on one alone, in his own person, and on none other; while my soul sighs at once both for my state and myself and thee. So that ye awake me not slumbering in sleep at least, but know that I already have shed many tears, have traversed many paths in the wanderings of thought: and that only mode of cure which I had discovered by careful scrutiny, that have I put in execution. For I despatched to the Pythian mansions of Apollo, Creon, the son of Menaceus, my kinsman by marriage, to enquire by what deed or word I might deliver this my city. And the day being already correspondent by calculation to his time, pains me for his fate [as to how he fares], since beyond reasonable expectation he is away a longer than the due period. But whenever he shall have arrived, that instant I were a villain not to perform to the full all that heaven may reveal.

PR. Nay, both thou hast well said, and these too just now signify to me that Creon is walking towards

us.

ED. Hear, king Apollo, for O that he may have come with some saviour fortune at least, even as he is sparkling of eye.

PR. If one may guess, however, he is welcome; else

tocles." Erfurdt. This article of political belief was

forcibly expressed

by Themistocles; it was still more strikingly acted on by Lycurgus; for the former rebuilt the walls of Athens, the latter left Sparta unwalled.

would he not have been proceeding hither, his head thus amply-wreathed with all-fruitful laurel'.

ED. Quickly shall we know, for he is within reach of hearing us. Prince, my relation, son of Menœceus, what report from the god comest thou bringing to us?

CREON.

Good: for I assert that even our grievances, should they chance to have their issues aright, might be altogether fortunate *.

ED. But of what purport is the oracle1? For I am neither rashly sanguine, nor yet however prematurely alarmed at thy present speech at least.

CR. If thou choosest to hear while these are by, I am ready to tell thee, or if [thou choosest] to retire within doors.

ED. Speak openly to all, for I make more account of the sorrows of these my people than of even mine own life.

CR. I will say what kind of answer I heard from the god. King Phoebus openly enjoins us to expel

The laurel crown, say the commentators, was the privilege of those "quibus lætæ sortes obtigerant." Chremylus in the Plutus, however, will hardly allow the "læta sortes to be his lot, though his slave wears the chaplet.

* A purposely dark answer, breathing the true Loxian spirit.

I GR. čσtiv de поĩоν тоνπо; Quid hoc sermonis est? BR. What mean thy words?" Dale. "Erog is emphatically an oracle, and moreover the expression T ye võv Xóyw would be a mere repetition, if Brunck's translation were correct. In the same passage the opposition of Oparis to podeioag gives confirmation to the distinction made between Opárog and Oάpoos, audacia and fiducia.

from the country a pollution, as having been bred in this our land, nor to foster what is incurable.

ED. By what kind of purification? What is the nature of the evil?

CR. By banishing, or requiting death with death, since the following bloodshed troubles the state".

CED. Why of what manner of man does he indicate this fate?

CR. We had once, O king, Laïus as the sovereign of this land, ere thou didst regulate [the helm of] this

state.

ED. I knew him by hearsay, for I never as yet at least saw him.

CR. This man having perished, Apollo now clearly gives us orders to punish certain his actual assassins.

ED. But where on earth are these same? Where shall be discovered this vestige hard to conjecture of an ancient crime?

CR. In this land, he told me. But what is searched for, is to be got at, while that which is unregarded

escapes.

ED. But is it in the house, or in the field, or in another land, that Laïus encounters this bloody death?

CR. Quitting home, as he told us, on a visit to the

m τόδ' αἷμα χειμάζον πόλιν. Although the translator has not ventured to render this otherwise than Erfurdt, Hermann, and Elmsley have given it, i. e. as an accusative absolute, and with the word róde referring to something subsequent, he has still a doubt whether ori might not be understood, and the passage construed thus: "Since this is a case of bloodshed troubling the city." The answer of Edipus will then run thus: "How so? for of what manner of man," etc.: but it hardly seems natural that dipus should interrupt one who indicated (as is done by róde, according to the critics) his purpose of immediately proceeding to specify the murder.