ARGUMENT OF THE CEDIPUS REX.

EDIPUS was reproached with being the suppositious child of Polybus, the king of Corinth, and in disgust exiled himself, and went to Thebes. Here he solved the riddle of the Sphinx, and as a reward received the kingdom, and the hand of the queen Jocasta in marriage. A long plague ravaged Thebes, and, on Creon being sent to Delphi, the murderer of Laïus, the former king of Thebes, was denounced as the cause of the evil. In his anxiety to discover the murderer, and through the statements of Tiresias, corroborated by those of certain old servants, Edipus made the fearful discovery, that he had been exposed in childhood, to avert an awful prophecy, which he had unwittingly fulfilled in the murder of his father Laïus on his way from Corinth to Thebes, and in his subsequent cohabitation with his mother Jocasta. Jocasta hung herself, and Edipus in despair tore out his eyes. B.

EDIPUS. My children, youthful generation of Cadmus of old, what can be [the meaning of] these sittings ye are thronging hither before me, decorated with suppliant branches? whilst the city is at the same time fraught with incense-offerings, and at the same time with both pæanhymns and wailings. Which things, I thinking it my duty not to hear from others, and those messengers3, my children, have myself come hither; I, Edipus, styled by all the Illustrious. But, O aged man, say, since it naturally becomes thee to speak on behalf of these, in what mood ye stand

1 Arrian, ap. Stob. S. 97. 28. hints that both the Edipi were personated by Polus, a distinguished actor, of whom Gellius makes mention, 7.5.

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2 The word "thronging" takes in both the ideas usually applied to this word. Wunder takes it merely to mean sitting, occupying," and so Buttmann, Lexil. sub voc. Cf. Esch. Suppl. 595. Others render it "hurrying." The word is probably akin to Ooóc. See Erfurdt, and Liddel's Lexicon. B.

3 So Wunder, quoting Eur. Orest. 531, rí μaprúρwv äλλwv åkoúεLV δεῖ μ ̓ ἃ γ ̓ ἐισορᾶν πάρα. This corresponds to the Latin exegetical use of adeo. But perhaps aλλwv is merely redundant in opposition to αὐτός. Β.

4 From the position of Tão it might not be improper to translate "the all-illustrious," with a construction like that of v. 40. See also Ed. Col. 1446. TR.-This verse might more poetically be rendered, "I, Edipus, by all illustrious hight." It is condemned by Wunder as spurious. B.

B

affected; 'fearing, or earnestly seeking; since I would willingly give you every succour; for I were unfeeling not to compassionate a meeting such as this.

PRIEST. But, O Edipus, thou who rulest over my country, us indeed thou beholdest, of what ages are we who sit as suppliants before thine altars here; some of us not yet of strength to wing our flight afar; others priests weighed down with old age, I myself the priest of Jupiter; and these other chosen of the youths: but the rest of the populace decked with branches, is seated in the market-places, and near both the shrines of Pallas, and at Ismenus' ashes of divination3. For the city, as thou thyself behold, is now over-roughly tossing, and from the depths of the bloody surge can no longer lift her head; withering in the ripening husks of the soil, withering in the pasturing herds of kine, and in the yet unborn labours of women: and the fire-bearing god, most hated pestilence, having darted down, ravages the city; by whom the house of Cadmus is made empty, but dark Hades

1 I have preserved the participles, to make the translation of this awkward passage more clear. After the remarks of Wunder, it seems evident that dɛioavres denotes the fear which led these suppliants, orépyev, to seek for assistance. As σrépyev is used to denote a passive content or satisfaction (see Blomf. on Æsch. Prom. ii.), so it may pass to another signification, by which we are said to seek those things which we should be pleased to have. In Ed. C. 518, we find σrépžov explained by Tεílov immediately following, which is just the reverse of the present sense. Otherwise, we might render the passage: are ye fearing an impending, or enduring a present evil ?" (So St. Gregory, Hom. i. in. Ev. §. 1, "Ex quibus profecto omnibus alia jam facta cernimus, alia e proximis ventura formidamus.") Some may regard this as a frigid antithesis, but dipus, like Puff's hero in "The Critic," does not ask for information for himself, but for the benefit of the audience. B.

2 The altars alluded to were of various deities, placed by individuals before their houses, as patriotism or private gratitude might dictate. See the Curculio of Plautus, I. i. 7; Arist. Wasps, 875.

3"Both the shrines." Minerva had a temple at Thebes in virtue of her name Oncæa, and another as Ismenia, which latter name Apollo also bore, and presided over an altar of burnt sacrifices.

4 I have here followed Wunder. укάρжоι must mean the corn just ripened, but blighted at the very moment of bursting, περì σírov iкßoλyv, in Thucyd. iv. 1. Soon after the epithet άyóvois does not mean "abortive," but "unborn," owing to the strength of the mothers failing. Wunder appositely compares Herodot. vi. 139. Compare also Seneca, Edip. Act i. sc. 2, v. 33, nay, the whole description. B.

grows rich with wailings and groans. Now I and these youths here are seated petitioners by the house, deeming thee not equal to the gods, but of men the first, whether for the casualties of life, or the interventions of the gods. Who indeed, when thou wast come to Cadmus' capital, didst put an end to the tribute of the stern chauntress, which we were furnishing: and this too neither knowing nor taught by us, any strange knowledge; but by the prompting of god thou art reputed and believed to have righted our condition. Now too, O head of Edipus, owned most potent by all, we implore thee, all prostrate here before thee, to find some help for us, whether thou, by hearing the voice of any god, or from any human source, knowest such: since to the experienced I observe even the issues of their counsels to be the most flourishing. Go, best of mortals, re-establish the state, go, take good counsel; since at present indeed this our land celebrates thee as its preserver for thy former zeal and may we in no wise remember thy reign for our having both regained our footing and afterwards fallen; but raise up this our city in safety. For as with propitious augury thou didst render to us the former lucky service, so in the present instance be equal [to thyself]. Since if in sooth thou wilt govern this our land, as thou dost sway it, it is a fairer thing to rule it with its men, than desolate. For neither tower nor ship is aught, if destitute of men dwelling therein.

ED. My children, objects of my pity, you have come wishing for things known, and not unknown to me; for well am I aware that ye are all sickening2, and sickening though ye be, there is not one of you who sicken equally with me.

1 Tλέov cannot mean "anything further," i. e., than the bare fact of the riddle proposed, as the translators have supposed: but πλέov ɛidévai is a form peculiarly applied to the possession of occult knowledge. So in Nicolaus Damascenus, from a M.S. in the Escurial, fol. 3 A, & Baßvλwνιος, εἰ δή τι πλεῖον τὰ θεῖα εἰδὼς, συμβάλλει τὴν τοῦ ὀνείρου φήμην. And of Joseph's skill in dreams, Clemens Alexandr. Strom. V. p. 245, 38. νέον τοῦτον ζηλώσαντες οἱ ἀδελφοὶ, πλεῖόν τι προορώμενον κατα τὴν γνῶσιν. Β.

2 Diseased" is certainly literal, but an equivocal term is required to express the bodily disease of the people, and the "hearts' aching" of Edipus in his despair. I think "sicken" better expresses this double sense of voosiv than "disease." Others render it by "being distressed." B.

For your affliction falls on one alone, in his own person and on none other; while my soul sighs at once both for the city and for myself and for you. So that ye awake me not indeed slumbering in repose, but know that I already have shed many tears, have traversed many paths in the wanderings of thought; and that only mode of cure which I had discovered by careful scrutiny, that have I put in execution. For Creon, the son of Menaceus, my kinsman by marriage, I despatched to the Pythian shrine of Apollo, to enquire by what deed or word I might deliver this city. And the day being already commensurate with the time [for his return], pains me for his fate, since beyond reasonable expectation he is away a longer than the due period. But whenever he shall have arrived, that instant I were a villain not to perform to the full all that the god may reveal.

PR. Nay, thou hast both well said, and these too just now signify to me that Creon is approaching.

ED. Hear, king Apollo, for O that he may have come with some saviour fortune at least, even as he is sparkling

of eye.

PR. If one may guess, however, he is welcome; else would he not be coming hither, his head thus amply wreathed with all-fruitful laurel1.

ED. Quickly shall we know, for he is within reach of hearing us. Prince, my relation, son of Menaceus, what report from the god comest thou bringing to us?

CREON. Good: for I assert that even our grievances, should they chance to have their issues aright, might be altogether fortunate2.

ED. But of what purport is the oracles? For I am neither

1 The laurel crown, say the commentators, was the privilege of those "quibus lætæ sortes obtigerant." Chremylus in the Plutus, however, will hardly allow the "læta sortes" to be his lot, though his slave wears the chaplet.

2 A purposely dark answer, breathing the true Loxian spirit.

3 GR. OTIV de πоTOV Tоνπоç; Quid hoc sermonis est? Br. "What mean thy words?" Dale. "Eroç is emphatically an oracle, and morever the expression Tử ye vũv dóyw would be a mere repetition, if Brunck's translation were correct. In the same passage the opposition of Opaous to προδείσας gives confirmation to the distinction made between θράσος and Oάpoos, audacia and fiducia. Tк.-I prefer "emboldened" to "rashly sanguine." B.