Page:Tragedies of Seneca (1907) Miller.djvu/42

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And thou thyself be witness to my words,
Who dost inspire the fate revealing lips
Of Cirrha's priestess: so may Polybus, 270
My royal father, spend a quiet age,
And end his days is peace upon the throne;
And so may Merope, my mother, know
The marriage of her Polybus alone,
As from my grasp no favoring power shall snatch
That guilty one, who basely slew the king.
But tell me, where was that foul murder done?
In open fight, or was he basely snared? 275
Creon: ⁠In quest of cool Castalia's sacred fount
And leafy woods, along the way he fared,
On either side with tangled thickets hedged.
'Twas where the road, three-forked, spreads to the plain.
One leads through Phocian land, to Bacchus dear,
Where high Parnassus, by a gentle slope 280
The lowlands leaving, lifts his double peak
Into the heavens; and one leads off to where
Two oceans bathe the land of Sisyphus;
A third path, passing through Olenian fields,
Along a hollow valley's winding way,
Attains the vagrant waters and divides
The chilling current of the Elean stream. 285
'Twas here he journeyed, safe 'mid general peace,
When on a sudden, lo, a robber band
Fell on him with the sword and slew him there.
⁠[Tiresias is seen approaching.]
But in the nick of time, by Phoebus roused,
Tiresias, aged and with trembling limbs,
Hastes to our presence with what speed he may;
And, as his faithful comrade, Manto comes, 290
Her sightless father leading by the hand.
⁠[Enter Tiresias, led by his daughter Manto.]
Oedipus: ⁠O priest of heaven, thou next to Phoebus' self,
Explain the oracle which he hath sent,
And tell on whom the penalty is laid.
Tiresias: ⁠Because my tongue is slow and seeks delay,
Thou shouldst not wonder, great-souled Oedipus;