Dionysus.
Oh, do begin. I mustn't miss those prologues
In all their exquisite exactitude!
Euripides.
"At first was Oedipus in happy state."
Aeschylus.
He wasn't! He was born and bred in misery.
Did not Apollo doom him still unborn
To slay his father? . . .
Dionysus (aside).
His poor unborn father?
Aeschylus.
"A happy state at first," you call it, do you?
Euripides (contemptuously resuming).
"At first was Oedipus in happy state,
Then changed he, and became most desolate."
Aeschylus.
He didn't. He was never anything else!
Why, he was scarcely born when they exposed him
In winter, in a pot, that he might never
Grow up and be his father's murderer.
Then off he crawled to Polybus with sore feet,
Then married an old woman, twice his age,
Who further chanced to be his mother, then
Tore out his eyes: the lucky dog he was!
