Even now is gone to face Mycenæ's might;
But to me gave in charge to inquire of thee
What deeds of ours shall best deliver Thebes.
Teiresias.
For Eteokles sealed my lips had been,865
The oracles withheld:—since thou wouldst know,
I tell thee. Kreon, long this land hath ailed
Since Laïus in heaven's despite begat
Oedipus, his own mother's wretched spouse.
Yea, and the gory ruin of his eyes870
Was heaven's device, for warning unto Greece.
And Oedipus' sons, who fain had cloaked it o'er
With time, as though they could outrun the Gods,
In folly erred: vouchsafing to their sire
Nor honour nor free air, they stung to fury875
His misery: dread malison he breathed
Against them, suffering and shamed withal.
What did I not? What warnings spake I not?—
And had for guerdon hate of Oedipus' sons.
But nigh them, Kreon, mutual slaughter looms;880
And corpses many upon corpses piled—
Shafts Argive and Kadmean all confused—
With bitter wails shall dower the Theban land.
Thou, hapless town, art made a ruin-heap—
Except unto my bodings one give heed!885
This thing were best, that none of Oedipus' line
Remain in Thebes, nor citizen nor king:
They are fiend-possessed and doomed to wreck the state.
But, seeing the evil hath o'erborne the good,
One other way of safety yet remains.890
But this to tell, for me were all unsafe,
