First, child of Zeus, Pallas, to thee appealing, I 2
Then to sweet Artemis, thy sister, kneeling,
        Who with benignant hand
        Still guards our sacred land,
Throned o’er the circling mart that hears her praise,
        And thou, whose rays
Pierce evil from afar, ho! come and save,
Ye mighty three! if e’er before ye drave
The threatening fire of woe from Thebe, come to day!

  For ah! the griefs that on me weigh II 1
  Are numberless; weak are my helpers all,
  And thought finds not a sword to fray
  This hated pestilence from hearth or hall. 
        Earth’s blossoms blasted fall: 
        Nor can our women rise
        From childbed after pangs and cries;
        But flocking more and more
        Toward the western shore,
Soul after soul is known to wing her flight,
Swifter than quenchless flame, to the far realm of Night.

      So deaths innumerable abound.  II 2
  My city’s sons unpitied lie around
  Over the plague-encumbered ground
  And wives and matrons old on every hand
        Along the altar-strand
        Groaning in saddest grief
        Pour supplication for relief. 
        Loud hymns are sounding clear
        With wailing voices near. 
Then, golden daughter of the heavenly sire,
Send bright-eyed Succour forth to drive away this fire.

And swiftly speed afar, III 1
Windborne on backward car,
The viewless fiend who scares me with wild cries,
To oarless Thracian tide,
Of ocean-chambers wide,
About the bed where Amphitrite lies. 
Day blights what night hath spared.  O thou whose hand Wields lightning, blast him with thy thundrous brand.

Shower from the golden string III 2
Thine arrows Lycian King! 
O Phoebus, let thy fiery lances fly
Resistless, as they rove
Through Xanthus’ mountain-grove! 
O Thoeban Bacchus of the lustrous eye,
With torch and trooping Maenads and bright crown
Blaze on thee god whom all in Heaven disown.
[OEDIPUS has entered during the Choral song

OED. Your prayers are answered.  Succour and relief
Are yours, if ye will heed my voice and yield
What help the plague requires.  Hear it from me,
Who am hitherto a stranger to the tale,
As to the crime.  Being nought concerned therewith,
I could not of myself divine the truth. 
But now, as one adopted to your state,
To all of you Cadmeans I speak this: 
Whoe’er among you knoweth the murderer
Of Laius, son of royal Labdacus,
Let him declare the deed in full to me. 
First, if the man himself be touched with fear,
Let him depart, carrying the guilt away;
No harm shall follow him:—­he shall go free. 
Or if there be who knows another here,
Come from some other country, to have wrought