O thou that cuttest thy path through the constellations[1] of heaven, and
art mounted on thy golden-joined seats, thou sun, whirling thy flame
with[2] thy swift steeds, how inauspicious didst thou dart thy ray on that
day when Cadmus came to this land having left the sea-washed coast of
Phœnicia; who in former time having married Harmonia, daughter of Venus,
begat Polydorus; from him they say sprung Labdacus, and from him Laius. But
I am[3] the daughter of Menœceus, and Creon my brother was born of the same
mother; me they call Jocasta (for this name[4] my father gave me), and
Laius takes me for his wife; but after that he was childless, for a long
time sharing my bed in the palace, he went and inquired of Apollo, and at
the same time demands the mutual offspring of male children in his family;
but the God said, "O king of Thebes renowned for its chariots, sow not for
such a harvest of children against the will of the Gods, for if thou shalt
beget a son, he that is born shall slay thee, and the whole of thy house
shall wade through blood." But having yielded to pleasure, and having
fallen into inebriety, he begot to us a son, and having begot him, feeling
conscious of his error and the command of the God, gives the babe to some
herdsmen to expose at the meads of Juno and the rock of Cithæron, having
bored sharp-pointed iron through the middle of his ankles, from which
circumstance Greece gave him the name of Œdipus. But him the grooms who
attend the steeds of Polybus find and carry home, and placed him in the
arms of their mistress. But she rested beneath her bosom him that gave me a
mother's pangs, and persuades her husband that she had brought forth. But
now my son showing signs of manhood in his darkening cheek, either having
suspected it by instinct, or having learned it from some one, went to the
temple of Apollo, desirous of discovering his parents; at the same time
went Laius my husband, seeking to gain intelligence of his son who had been
exposed, if he were no longer living; and both met at the same point of the
road at Phocis where it divides itself; and the charioteer of Laius
commands him, "Stranger, withdraw out of the way of princes;" but he moved
slowly, in silence, with haughty spirit; but the steeds with their hoof
dyed with blood the tendons of his feet. At this (but why need I relate
each horrid circumstance besides the deed itself?) the son kills his
father, and having taken the chariot, sends it as a present to his
foster-father Polybus. Now at this time the sphinx preyed vulture-like[5]
upon the city with rapacity, my husband now no more, Creon my brother
proclaims that he will give my bed as a reward to him who would solve the
enigma of the crafty virgin. But by some chance or other Œdipus my son
happens to discover the riddle of the sphinx, [and he receives as a prize
the sceptre of this land,][5a] and marries me, his mother, wretched he not
knowing it, nor knew his mother that she was lying down with her son. And I
bear children to my child, two sons, Eteocles and the illustrious
Polynices, and two daughters, one her father named Ismene, the elder I
called Antigone. But Œdipus, after having gone through all sufferings,
having discovered in my bed the marriage with his mother, he perpetrated a
deed of horror on his own eyes, having drenched in blood their pupils with
his golden buckles. But after that the cheek of my children grows dark with
manly down, they hid their father confined with bolts that his sad fortune
might be forgotten, which indeed required the greatest policy. He is still
living in the palace, but sick in mind through his misfortunes he
imprecates the most unhallowed curses on his children, that they may share
this house with the sharpened sword. But these two, dreading lest the Gods
should bring to completion these curses,[6] should they dwell together, in
friendly compact determined that Polynices the younger son should first go
a willing exile from this land, but that Eteocles remaining here should
hold the sceptre for a year, changing in his turn; but after that he sat on
the throne of power, he moves not from his seat, but drives Polynices an
exile from this land. But he having fled to Argos, and having contracted an
alliance with Adrastus, assembles together and leads a vast army of
Argives; and having marched to these very walls with seven gates he demands
his father's sceptre and his share of the land. But I to quell this strife
persuaded my son to come to his brother, confiding in a truce before he
grasped the spear. And the messenger who was sent declares that he will
come. But, O thou that inhabitest the shining clouds of heaven, Jove,
preserve us, give reconciliation to my children; it becomes thee, if thou
art wise, not to suffer the same man always to be unfortunate.