Racine: Phaedra

CEDIPUS REX 75
Or was it He who rules
Kyllene's height ; or did the Bacchic god,
Whose dweUing is upon the mountain peaks.
Receive thee, gift of HeUconian nymphs,
With whom He loves to sport?
CEdipus.— If I must needs conjecture, who as yet
Ne'er met the man, I think I see the shepherd,
Whom this long while we sought for. In his age
He this man matches. And I see besides,
My servants bring him. Thou perchance can'st speak
From former knowledge yet more certainly.
Chorus.— I know him, king, be sure ; for this man stood.
If any, known as Laios' herdsman true.
Enter Shepherd.
CEdipus.—Thee first I ask, Corinthian stranger, say,
Is this the man ?
Messenger.— The very man thou seek'st.
CEdipus.—Ho there ! old man. Come hither, look on me.
And tell me all. Did Laios own thee once?
Shepherd.—His slave I was, not bought, but reared at home.
CEdipus.—What was thy work, or what thy mode of life ?
Shepherd.—Near all my life I followed with the flock.
CEdipus.—And in what regions didst thou chiefly dwell?
Shepherd.—Now 'twas Kithaeron, now on neighboring fields.
CEdipus.—Know'st thou this man? Didst ever see him there?
Shepherd.—What did he do? Of what man speakest thou?
CEdipus.—This man now present. Did ye ever meet?
Shepherd.-—I cannot say oflF-hand from memory.
Messenger.—No wonder that, my lord. But I'll remind him
Right well of things forgotten. Well I know
He needs must know when on Kithaeron's fields,
He with a double flock, and I with one,
I was his neighbor during three half years.
From springtide till Arcturos rose ; and I
In winter to mine own fold drove my flocks.
And he to those of Laios. [To Shepherd.] Answer me,
Speak I, or speak I not, the thing that was ?
Shepherd.—Thou speak'st the truth, although long years have
passed.