Messenger: Cease to fear vain things and lay down your base fears: Merope was not your true parent.
§803Quod subditi vi praemium gnati petit?
Oedipus: What reward does she seek by the fraud of a substituted son?
§804Regum superbam liberi astringunt fidem.
Children bind the proud pledge of kings.
§805Secreta thalami fare quo excipias modo.
Messenger: Speak, in what manner did you receive the secrets of the bedchamber.
§806Hae te parenti parvulum tradunt manus.
These hands delivered you as a little child to your parent.
§807Tu me parenti tradis; at quis me tibi?
Oedipus: You delivered me to my parent; but who delivered me to you?
§808Pastor nivoso sub Cithaeronis iugo.
Messenger: A shepherd under the snowy ridge of Cithaeron.
§809In illa temet nemora quis casus tulit?
Oedipus: What chance brought you into those groves?
§810Illo sequebar monte cornigeros greges.
Messenger: On that mountain I was following horned flocks.
§811Nunc adice certas corporis nostri notas.
Oedipus: Now add certain marks of our body.
Messenger: You bore feet pierced with iron, having obtained your name from the swelling and the defect of your feet.
Oedipus: I ask who he was who gave my body as a gift.
Messenger: He pastured the royal flocks; under him was a lesser crowd of shepherds.
§817Eloquere nomen.
Oedipus: Speak out his name.
Messenger: The primary memory of old men grows faint, slipping away weary under long disuse.
§819Potesne facie noscere ac vultu virum?
Oedipus: Can you recognize the man by his face and countenance?
Messenger: Perhaps I might: often a slight mark recalls an obsolete memory, buried by time.
§822Ad sacra et aras omne compulsum pecus §823duces sequantur; ite, propere accersite, §824famuli, penes quos summa consistit gregum.
Oedipus: Let all the flock driven to the sacrifices and altars be followed by their leaders; go, quickly fetch them, servants, in whose hands lies the chief charge of the flocks.
§825Sive ista ratio sive fortuna occulit, §826latere semper patere quod latuit diu: §827saepe eruentis veritas patuit malo.
Jocasta: Whether reason or fortune hides those things, suffer that to remain hidden forever which has been hidden long: often truth has opened to the hurt of him who digs it out.
§828Malum timeri maius bis aliquod potest?
Oedipus: Can any greater evil be feared twice?
§829Magnum esse magna mole quod petitur scias, §830concurrit illinc publica, hinc regis salus: §831utrimque paria; contine medias manus,
Jocasta: Know that what is sought with great effort is great; on that side the public safety, on this side the king's safety run together: on both sides they are equal; hold back your intervening hands, provoke nothing, let the fates unfold themselves.
§832nihil lacessas, ipsa se fata explicent. §833Non expedit concutere felicem statum: §834tuto movetur quicquid extremo in loco est.
Jocasta: It is not expedient to shake a happy state: whatever is in the extreme position is moved safely.
§835Nobilius aliquid genere regali appetis?
Oedipus: Do you seek something more noble than royal birth?
§836ne te parentis pigeat inventi vide.
See to it that you are not ashamed of the parent who is found.
Jocasta: I will seek the proof even of a bloodline to be repented of, if my resolve to know is fixed.
ecce grandaevus senex, §839arbitria sub quo regii fuerant gregis, §840Phorbas. refersne nomen aut vultum senis?
Behold, the aged old man, under whom was the management of the royal flock, Phorbas. (To Messenger): Do you recall the name or the face of the old man?
Messenger: His form strikes my mind; neither is he well enough known, nor on the other hand is that face unknown to me.
Oedipus: When Laius held the kingdom, did you, as a servant, drive the rich flocks under the tract of Cithaeron?
Phorbas: Joyful Cithaeron, always with fresh pasture, yields its summer meadows to our flock.
§847SEN, Noscisne memet?
Messenger: Do you know me?
§847bDubitat anceps memoria.
Phorbas: My wavering memory doubts.
§848Huic aliquis a te traditur quondam puer?
Oedipus: Was some boy once delivered by you to this man?
§849effare.
Speak out.
dubitas? cur genas mutat color?
Do you hesitate? Why does color change on your cheeks?
§850quid verba quaeris? veritas odit moras.
Why do you search for words? Truth hates delays.
§851Obducta longo temporum tractu moves.
Phorbas: You stir up things covered by a long tract of time.
§852Fatere, ne te. cogat ad verum dolor.
Oedipus: Confess, lest pain compel you to the truth.
Phorbas: I gave him the useless gift of an infant: he could not enjoy the light, nor the heaven.
§855Procul sit omen.
Messenger: Far be the omen!
vivit et vivat precor.
He lives, and may he live, I pray.
§856Superesse quare traditum infantem negas?
Oedipus: Why do you deny that the delivered infant survived?
§857Ferrum per ambos tenue transactum pedes §858ligabat artus, vulneri innatus tumor §859puerile foeda corpus urebat lue.
Phorbas: A thin iron driven through both feet bound his limbs; a swelling born in the wound vexed the boyish body with a foul plague.
§860Quid quaeris ultra? fata iam accedunt prope.
Oedipus: What do you seek further? The fates now approach close.
§861quis fuerit infans edoce.
Teach me who that infant was.
§861bProhibet fides.
Phorbas: My pledge of silence forbids.
§862Huc aliquis ignem! flamma iam excutiet fidem.
Oedipus: Someone bring fire here! Flame will soon shake out his pledge.
§863Per tam cruentas vera quaerentur vias?
Phorbas: Shall the truth be sought by such bloody ways?
§864ignosce quaeso.
Forgive, I pray.
§864bSi ferus videor tibi §865et impotens, parata vindicta in manu est: §866dic vera: quisnam? quove generatus patre?
Oedipus: If I seem savage to you and uncontrolled, the vengeance is ready in hand: tell the truth: who is he? Begotten of what father?
§867qua matre genitus?
Born of what mother?
§867bconiuge est genitus tua.
Phorbas: He was born of your wife.
§868Dehisce, tellus, tuque tenebrarum potens, §869m Tartara ima, rector umbrarum, rape §870retro reversus generis ac stirpis vices.
Oedipus: Gape open, earth, and you, lord of darkness, ruler of shadows, drag me to lowest Tartarus, reversing the turns of my birth and race.
§871congerite, cives, saxa in infandum caput, §872mactate telis: me petat ferro parens, §873me gnatus, in me coniuges arment manus §874fratresque, et aeger populus ereptos rogis
Heap stones, citizens, upon this unspeakable head, slaughter me with weapons: let my father attack me with iron, my son, let my wives arm their hands against me and my brothers, and let the sick people throw fires snatched from the funeral pyres.
§875iaculetur ignes, saeculi crimen vagor, §876odium deorum, iuris exitium sacri, §877qua luce primum spiritus hausi rudes
I wander, the crime of the age, the hatred of the gods, the ruin of sacred law, who from the first light I drew my untaught breath was already worthy of death.
Now return, fierce spirits; now dare something worthy of your crimes.
Go, proceed, seek the palace with hasty step: congratulate your mother on a house increased by children.