OEDIPUS AT COLONUS
Oedipus
Her plight and mine?
Ismene
Ay, and my own no less.
Oedipus
What brought thee, daughter?
Ismene
Father, care for thee.
Oedipus
A daughter’s yearning?
Ismene
Yes, and I had news
I would myself deliver, so I came
With the one thrall who yet is true to me.
Oedipus
Thy valiant brothers, where are they at need?
Ismene
They are—enough, ’tis now their darkest hour.
Oedipus
Out on the twain! Their thoughts and actions all
Are framed and modelled on Egyptian ways.
For there the men sit at the loom indoors
While the wives slave abroad for daily bread.
So you, my children—those whom it behoved
To bear the burden, stay at home like girls,
While in their stead my daughters moil and drudge,
Lightening their father’s misery. The one
Since first she grew from girlish feebleness
To womanhood has been the old man’s guide
And shared my weary wanderings, roaming oft
Hungry and footsore through wild forest ways,
