Racine: Phaedra

CEDIPUS REX
SCENE.—THEBES
In the background, the palace of CEdipus; in front, the altar
of Zeus, priests and boys round it in the attitude of sup-
pliants.
Enter CEdipus.
CEdipus.—Why sit ye here, my children, youngest brood
Of Cadmos famed of old, in solemn state,
Your hands thus wreathed with the suppliants* boughs ?
And all the city reeks with incense smoke,
And all re-echoes with your hymns and groans;
And I, my children, counting it unmeet
To hear report from others, I have come
Myself, whom all name CEdipus the Great.
Do thou, then, aged Sire, since thine the right
To speak for these, tell clearly how ye stand,
In terror or submission ; speak to me
As willing helper. Heartless should I be
To see you prostrate thus, and feel no ruth.
Priest.—Yea, CEdipus, thou ruler of my land.
Thou seest our age, who sit as suppliants, bowed
Around thine altars ; some as yet too weak
For distant flight, and some weighed down with age,
Priest, I, of Zeus, and these the chosen youth
And in the market-places of the town
The people sit and wail, with wreath in hand,
By the two shrines of Pallas,^ or the grave,
Where still the seer Ismenos prophesies.
* Probably, as at Athens Athena had dedicated to her under different names,
two temples as Polias and Parthenos, as Onkaea and Ismenia.
•o also at Thebes there were two shrines
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