Racine: Phaedra

78
SOPHOCLES
And so thou king art named.
With highest glory crowned,
Ruling in mighty Thebes.
Strophe II.
And now, who lives than thou more miserable?
,Who equals thee in wild woes manifold,
In shifting turns of life?
Ah, noble one, our CEdipus
For whom the same wide harbor
Sufficed for sire and son.
In marriage rites to enter:
Ah how, ah, wretched one.
How could thy father's bed
Receive thee, and so long,
Even till now, be dumb ?
Antistrophe II.
Time, who sees all things, he hath found thee out.
Against thy will, and long ago condemned
The wedlock none may wed.
Begetter and begotten.
Ah, child of Laios ! would
I ne'er had seen thy face
I mourn with wailing lips.
Mourn sore exceedingly.
'Tis simplest truth to say.
By thee from death I rose.
By thee in death I sleep.
Enter Second Messenger, i
Second Messenger.—Ye chieftains, honored most in this our
land,
What deeds ye now will hear of, what will see,
How great a wailing will ye raise, if still
Ye truly love the house of Labdacos
For sure I think that neither Istros' stream
Nor Phasis' floods could purify this house,^^
*i Istros as the great river of Europe, Phasis of Asia.