the reins and the old man himself would not give

me room, but thought to force me from the path,

and I struck the driver in my anger. The old man,

seeing what I had done, waited till I was passing

him and then struck me upon the head. I paid him

back in full, for I knocked him out of the carriage

with a blow of my stick. He rolled on his back, and

after that I killed them all. If this stranger were

indeed Laius, is there a more miserable man in the

world than the man before you? Is there a man more

hated of Heaven? No stranger, no citizen, may re-

ceive him into his house, not a soul may speak to

him, and no mouth but my own mouth has laid this

curse upon me. Am I not wretched? May I be swept

from this world before I have endured this doom!

A Messenger comes to tell Oedipus that Polybus, his father – or at least, the man he thought was his father – has died. His conversation with Oedipus is revelatory.

OEDIPUS. I am afraid lest Phoebus has spoken true.

MESSENGER. You are afraid of being made guilty through

Merope?

OEDIPUS. That is my constant fear.

MESSENGER. A vain fear.

OEDIPUS. How so, if I was born of that father and

mother?

MESSENGER. Because they were nothing to you in blood.

OEDIPUS. What do you say. Was Polybus not my father?

MESSENGER. No more or less than myself.

OEDIPUS. How can my father be no more to me than

you who are nothing to me?

MESSENGER. He did not beget you any more than I.

OEDIPUS. No? Then why did he call me his son?

MESSENGER. He took you as a gift from these hands of

mine.

OEDIPUS. How could he love so dearly what came from

another’s hands?

MESSENGER. He had been childless.

OEDIPUS. If I am not your son, where did you get me?

MESSENGER. In a wooded valley of Cithaeron.

OEDIPUS. What brought you wandering there?

MESSENGER. I was in charge of mountain sheep.

OEDIPUS. A shepherd—a wandering, hired man.

MESSENGER. A hired man who came just in time.

OEDIPUS. Just in time—had it come to that?

MESSENGER. Have not the cords left their marks upon

your ankles?

OEDIPUS. Yes, that is an old trouble.

MESSENGER. I took your feet out of the spancel.

OEDIPUS. I have had those marks from the cradle.

MESSENGER. They have given you the name you bear.

OEDIPUS. Tell me, for God’s sake, was that deed my

mother’s or my father’s?

MESSENGER. I do not know—he who gave you to me

knows more of that than I.

OEDIPUS. What? You had me from another? You did

not chance on me yourself?

MESSENGER. No. Another shepherd gave you to me.

OEDIPUS. Who was he? Can you tell me who he was?