Racine: Phaedra

CEDIPUS REX 51
And for the God's, and for this land that pines,
Barren and god-deserted. Wrong 'twould be
E'en if no voice from heaven had urged us on,
That ye should leave the stain of guilt uncleansed.
Your noblest chief, your king himself, being slain.
Yea, rather, seek and find. And since I reign,
Wielding the might his hand did wield before,
Filling his couch, and calling his wife mine.
Yea, and our offspring too, but for the fate
That fell on his, had grown in brotherhood
But now an evil chance on his head swooped
And therefore will I strive my best for him.
As for my father, and will go all lengths
To seek and find the murderer, him who slew
The son of Labdacos, and Polydore,
And earlier Cadmos, and Agenor old ;
And for all those who hearken not, I pray
The gods to give them neither fruit of earth,
Nor seed of woman,^^ but consume their lives
With this dire plague, or evil worse than this.
And for the man who did the guilty deed,
Whether alone he lurks, or leagued with more,
I pray that he may waste his life away.
For vile deeds vilely dying ; and for me,
If in my house, I knowing it, he dwells.
May every curse I spake on my head fall.
And you, the rest, the men from Cadmos sprung,
To whom these words approve themselves as good,
May righteousness befriend you, and the gods.
In full accord, dwell with you evermore.
Chorus.—Since thou hast bound me by a curse, O king,
I will speak thus. I neither slew the man.
Nor know who slew. To say who did the deed
Is quest for Him who sent us on the search.
CEdipus.—Right well thou speak'st, but man's best strength
must fail
To force the Gods to do the things they will not.
" CEdipus, as if identifying himself '' The imprecation agrees almost veralready
with the kingly house, goes bally with the curse of the Amphictyoaic
through the whole genealogy up to the councils against sacrilege,
remote ancestor.
^^