Epeisodion 3
Oedipus
That I will do, for I honor you, lady, above these men. Creon is the cause, and the plots he has laid against me.
700
Iocasta
Come, tell me how the argument began.
Oedipus
He says that I stand guilty of Laius’ blood.
Iocasta
On his own knowledge or on hearsay from another?
Oedipus
He has made a rascal seer his mouth piece: as for himself, he keeps his lips wholly pure.
705
Iocasta
Then absolve yourself of the things about which you are speaking. Listen to me, and take comfort in learning that nothing of mortal birth shares in the science of the seer.
I will give you a pithy proof of this. An oracle came to Laius once—I will not say from Phoebus himself, but from his ministers—saying that he would suffer his doom at the hands of the child to be born to him and me.
710
And Laius—as, at least, the rumor goes—was murdered one day by foreign robbers at a place
where the three highways meet. And the child’s birth was not yet three days
past, when Laius pinned his ankles together and had him thrown, by others’
hands, on a remote mountain.
715
So, in that case, Apollo did not bring it to pass that the child should become the slayer
of his father, or that Laius should suffer that which he feared, death at the
hands of his child: thus the messages of the seer’s art had mapped out the
future. Pay them no regard. Whatever necessary event
720
the god seeks, he himself will easily bring to light.
725
Oedipus
What restlessness of soul, lady, what tumult has come upon me since I heard you speak!
Iocasta
What anxiety has startled you, that you say this?
Oedipus
I thought that I heard this from you—that Laius
was slain where the three roads meet.
730
Icasta
Yes, that was the report, and so it is still thought.
Oedipus
And where is the place where this occurred?
Iocasta
The land is called Phocis; the branching forks lead to the same spot from Delphi and from Daulia.
Oedipus
And how much time has passed since these events took place?
735
Iocasta
The news was announced to the town shortly before you first attained power over this land.
Oedipus
O Zeus, what have you decreed for me?
Iocasta
Why, Oedipus, does this matter weigh upon your heart?
Oedipus
Do not ask me yet. Tell me rather what stature Laius had, and how ripe his manhood was.
740
Iocasta
He was tall—the silver just lightly strewn among his hair—and his form was not greatly unlike your own.
Oedipus
Unhappy that I am! I think that I have
laid myself under a terrible curse without realizing it.
745
Iocasta
How do you mean? I tremble when I look at you, my lord.
Oedipus
I have dread fears that the seer can see. But you will reveal the matter better if you tell me one thing more.
Iocasta
Indeed, though I tremble, I will hear and answer all that you ask.
Oedipus
Did he go with a small force, or like a chieftain, with many armed followers?
750
Iocasta
Five they were in all—a herald among them—and there was one carriage which bore Laius.
