and in no wise wanes, I am fain, friend, to hear it aright.
Oe. Woe is me!
Ch. Be content, I pray thee!
Oe. Alas, alas!
Ch. Grant my wish, as I have granted thine in its fulness.520
ant. 1. Oe. I have suffered misery, strangers,—suffered it through unwitting deeds, and of those acts—be Heaven my witness!—no part was of mine own choice.
Ch. But in what regard?
Oe. By an evil wedlock, Thebes bound me, all unknowing, to the bride that was my curse. . . . . .
Ch. Can it be, as I hear, that thou madest thy mother the partner of thy bed, for its infamy?
Oe. Woe is me! Cruel as death, strangers, are these words in mine ears;—but those maidens, begotten of me—530
Ch. What wilt thou say?—
Oe. —two daughters—two curses—
Ch. O Zeus!
Oe. —sprang from the travail of the womb that bore me.
str. 2. Ch. These, then, are at once thine offspring, and. . . . . .
Oe. —yea, very sisters of their sire.
Ch. Oh, horror! Oe. Horror indeed—yea, horrors untold sweep back upon my soul!
Ch. Thou hast suffered— Oe. Suffered woes dread to bear.—
