Epeisodion 5
Servant
Alas, why? What do you want to learn?
1155
Oedipus
Did you give this man the child about whom he asks?
Servant
I did. Would that I had perished that day!
Oedipus
Well, you will come to that, unless you tell the honest truth.
Servant
But if I speak I will be destroyed all the more.
Oedipus
This man is bent, I think, on more delays.
1160
Servant
No, no! I said before that I gave it to him.
Oedipus
Where did you get it from? From your own house, or from another?
Servant
It was not my own: I received it from another.
Oedipus
From whom of the citizens here? From what home?
Servant
For the love of the gods, master, ask no more!
1165
Oedipus
You are dead if I have to question you again.
Servant
It was a child, then, of the house of Laius.
Oedipus
A slave? Or one of his own clan?
Servant
Alas! I am on the brink of speaking the dreaded words.
Oedipus
And I of hearing: I must hear nevertheless.
1170
Servant
You must know then, that it was said to be his own child. But your lady within could say best how these matters lie.
Oedipus
How? Did she give it to you?
Oedipus
For what purpose?
Servant
That I should do away with it.
Oedipus
Her own child, the wretched woman?
1175
Servant
Yes, from fear of the evil prophecies.
1175
Servant
The tale ran that he would slay his father.
Oedipus
Why, then, did you give him to this old man?
Servant
Out of pity, master, thinking that he would carry him to another land, from where he himself came. But he saved him for the direst woe.
For if you are what this man says, be certain that you were born ill-fated.
1180
Oedipus
Oh, oh! All brought to pass, all true. Light, may I now look on you for the last time—I who have been found to be accursed in birth,
accursed in wedlock, accursed in the shedding of blood. He rushes into the palace.
1185
