CHORUS. 
Prince of the Powers Unseen, 1
  Durst we with prayers adore
Thee and thy viewless Queen,
  Your aid, Aidoneus, would our lips implore! 
By no harsh-sounding doom
    Let him we love descend,
    With calm and cloudless end,
  In deep Plutonian dwelling evermore
To abide among the people of the tomb! 
Long worn with many an undeserved woe,
Just Gods will give thee glory there below.

Dread Forms, who haunt this floor, 2
  And thou, the Unconquered Beast,
  That hugely liest at rest
By the dim shining adamantine door,
—­Still from thy cavernous lair
  Gnarling, so legends tell,
  A tameless guard of Hell,—­
Mayest thou this once thy vigilance forbear,
And leave large room for him now entering there. 
Hear us, great Son of Darkness and the Deep;
On thee we call, God of the dreamless sleep!

Enter Messenger.

MESS.  Athenian citizens, my briefest tale
Were to say singly, Oedipus is gone;
But to describe the scene enacted yonder
Craves no brief speech, nor was the action brief.

CH.  Then he is gone!  Poor man!

MESS.  Know it once for all,
He hath left eternally the light of day.

CH.  Poor soul!  What?  Ended he with peace divine?

MESS.  Ay, there is the main marvel.  How he moved
From hence, thou knowest, for thou too wert here,
And saw’st that of his friends none guided him,
But he they loved was leader to them all. 
Now, when he came to the steep pavement, rooted
With adamant foundation deep in Earth,
On one of many paths he took his stand
Near the stone basin, where Peirithoues
And Theseus graved their everlasting league. 
There, opposite the mass of Laurian ore,
Turned from the hollow pear-tree and the tomb
Of marble, he sate down, and straight undid
His travel-soiled attire, then called aloud
On both his children, and bade some one fetch
Pure water from a running stream.  And they,
Hasting together to the neighbouring hill
Of green Demeter, goddess of the Spring,
Brought back their sire’s commission speedily,
And bathed, and clothed him with the sacred robe. 
When he was satisfied, and nothing now
Remained undone of all he bade them do,
The God of darkness thundered, and the maids
Stood horror-stricken on hearing; then together
Fell at their father’s knees and wept and wailed
Loudly and long with beating of the breast. 
He, when that sound of sorrow pierced his ear,
Caressed them in his arms and said:—­’My daughters,
From this day forth you have no more a father. 
All that was mine is ended, and no longer
Shall ye continue your hard ministry
Of labour for my life.—­And yet, though hard,
Not unendurable, since all the toil
Was rendered light through love, which ye can never