Page:Tragedies of Sophocles (Plumptre 1878).djvu/157

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ŒDIPUS AT COLONOS.




SCENE—Near Athens. The Acropolis in the distance to the right. In the foreground, a grove, fenced by a low stone wall, and on the left an equestrian statue of Colonos.


Enter Œdipus and Antigone.


Œdip. Child of a blind old man, Antigone,
What country reach we? Whose the city near?
Who will receive the wanderer, Œdipus,
And give him, day by day, his scanty needs?
He asks but little; than that little, less
Most times receiving, finding that enough:
For I have learnt contentment; chance and change
Have taught me this, and the long course of time,
And the stout heart within me. But, my child,
If that thou see'st a place where I may sit,
On common ground, or by the groves of Gods, 10
There place me; prop me up, that we may learn
Where now we are. As strangers we have come,
To learn from those that dwell as townsmen here,
And what we hear, in all completeness do.

Antig. My father, woe-worn Œdipus! afar,
If I see right, are towers that shield a town:[1]

  1. The towers of the Acropolis are, as has been said, visible from Colonos.