Ware of his sin, remembering the God's word,
He gave the babe to herdmen to cast forth
In Hera's Mead upon Kithairon's ridge,25
His ankles pierced clear through with iron spikes,
Whence Hellas named him Swoln-foot—Oedipus.
But Polybus' horse-tenders found him there,
And bare him home, and in their mistress' hands
Laid. To my travail's fruit she gave her breast,30
Telling her lord herself had borne the babe.
Now, grown to man with golden-bearded cheeks,
My son, divining, or of some one told,
Journeyed, resolved to find his parents forth,
To Phœbus' fane. Now Laïus my lord,35
Seeking assurance of the babe exposed,
If dead he were, fared thither. And they met,
These twain, where parts the highway Phocis-ward.
Then Laïus' charioteer commanded him—
"Stand clear, man, from the pathway of a prince!"40
Proudly he strode on, answering not. The steeds
Spurned with their hoofs his ankles, drawing blood.
Then—why tell aught beyond the sad event?—
Son slayeth father, takes the car, and gives
To Polybus, his fosterer. While the Sphinx45
Was ravaging Thebes, when now my lord was not,
Kreon my brother published that the man,
Whoso should read the riddle of that witch-maid,
Even he should wed me. Strangely it befell—
Oedipus, my son, read the Sphinx's song,[1]50
- ↑ The Sphinx, couched on a rock commanding the entrance to Thebes, proposed this riddle to all who attempted to pass:—
"There's a thing two-footed on earth,—four-footed,—three-footed; yet one
