THE PHŒNICIAN MAIDENS.
Enter Jocasta.
Jocasta.
O thou from who cleav'st thy path mid heaven's stars,
Who ridest on thy chariot golden-clamped,
Sun, whirling on with flying steeds thy fire,
What beams accurst on that day sheddest thou
O'er Thebes, when Kadmus came to this our land,5
Leaving Phœnicia's sea-fringed realm afar!
He took to wife Harmonia, Kypris' child,
And begat Polydore, of whom, men say,
Sprang Labdakus, and Laïus of him.
I, daughter of Menoikeus am I named;10
My brother Kreon the selfsame mother bare.
Jocasta men call me: this name my sire
Gave; Laïus wedded me. But when long years
Of wedlock brought no child our halls within,
He went and questioned Phœbus, craved withal15
For me, for him, male heirs unto his house.
The God spake: "King of chariot-glorious Thebes,
Beget not seed of sons in Heaven's despite.
If so thou do, thee shall thine issue slay,
And all thine house shall wade through seas of blood."20
Yet he, to passion yielding, flushed with wine,
Begat a son; and when our babe was born,
