short speeches which were considered to hint at his rebellion against priestcraft. They were so accepted by his enemies at the time, and his later writings lent to them fresh significance. Philoctetes makes Œdipus understand how dangerous is the enmity of the priesthood:—
"If kings had been your only enemies,
Then under you had Philoctetes fought;
But when a weapon bears a sacred name,
All the more fatal is the stab it deals.
Strongly upborne by his vain oracles,
A priest is oft to rulers terrible;
And a besotted people, fired by zeal,
Making an idol of its stupid creed,
In pious disregard of higher laws,
Honours its gods by treason to its kings."
Jocasta thus questions the authority of the oracle:—
"Can it not err, this organ of the gods?
A holy tie priests to the altar binds,
Yet, commercing with gods, they are but men.
Think you, indeed, the award of fate can hang
Upon their seeking, or the flight of birds?
That oxen, groaning under sacred steel,
To curious eyes unveil our destinies?
And that these victims, all in garlands decked,
Within their entrails bear the doom of men!
Not so. To seek in this way hidden truth
Is to usurp the rights of power divine.
Our priests, far other than dull crowds believe,
Owe all their lore to our credulity."
These two last lines have often been quoted as indicating the revolt against religious belief which was then stirring in the mind of the dramatist. But what they
