Racine: Phaedra

64
SOPHOCLES
Piercing his ankles, on a lonely hill.
Here, then, Apollo failed to make the boy
His father's murderer ; nor by his son's hands.
Doom that he dreaded, did our Laios die
Such things divining oracles proclaimed
Therefore regard them not. Whate'er the God
Desires to search He will himself declare.
CEdipus [trembling].—Ah, as but now I heard thee speak,
my queen.
Strange whirl of soul, and rush of thoughts o'ercome me.
JocASTA.—What vexing care bespeaks this sudden change ?
CEdipus.—I thought I heard thee say that Laios fell,
Smitten to death, where meet the three great roads.
JocASTA.—So was it said, and still the rumors hold.
CEj)ipus.—Where was the spot in which this matter passed ?
JocASTA.—They call the country Phocis, and the roads "
From Delphi and from Daulia there converge.
CEdipus.—And what the interval of time since then?
JocASTA.—But just before thou earnest to possess
And rule this land the tidings reached our city.
CEdipus.—Great Zeus ! what fate hast thou decreed for me ?
JocASTA.—What thought is this, my CEdipus, of thine?
CEdipus.—Ask me not yet, but Laios . . . tell of him.
His build, his features, and his years of life.
JocASTA.—Tall was he, and the white hairs snowed his head,
And in his form not much unlike to thee.
CEdipus.—Woe, woe is me ! so seems it I have plunged
All blindly into curses terrible.
JocASTA.—What sayest thou ? I fear to look at thee.
CEdipus.—I tremble lest the seer has seen indeed
But thou can'st clear it, answering yet once more,
JocASTA.—And I too fear, yet what thou ask'st I'll tell.
CEdipus.—Went he in humble guise, or with a troop
Of spearmen, as becomes a man that rules?
JocASTA.—Five were they altogether, and of them
One was a herald, and one chariot bore him.
CEdipus.—Woe ! woe ! 'tis all too clear. And who was he
That told these tidings to thee, O my queen ?
"The meeting place of the three Turkish village, the Stavrodrom o!
roads is now the site of a decayed Mparpanas.