where the prophet appointed, will give liberty to the country—­the word has been spoken.  But I go, by my death about to give no mean gift to the state, and will rid this land of its affliction.  For if every one, seizing what opportunity he had in his power of doing good, would persist in it, and bring it forward for his country’s weal, states, experiencing fewer calamities, henceforward might be prosperous.

CHOR.  Thou camest forth, thou camest forth, O winged monster, production of the earth, and the viper of hell, the ravager of the Cadmeans, big with destruction, big with woes, in form half-virgin, a hostile prodigy, with thy ravening wings, and thy talons that preyed on raw flesh, who erst from Dirce’s spot bearing aloft the youths, accompanied by an inharmonious lay, thou broughtest, thou broughtest cruel woes to our country; cruel was he of the Gods, whoever was the author of these things.  And the moans of the matrons, and the moans of the virgins, resounded in the house, in a voice, in a strain of misery, they lamented some one thing, some another, in succession through the city.  And the groaning and the noise was like to thunder, when the winged virgin bore out of sight any man from the city.  But at length came by the mission of the Pythian oracle Oedipus the unhappy to this land of Thebes, to us then indeed delighted, but again came woes.  For he, wretched man, having gained the glorious victory over the enigmas, contracts a marriage, an unfortunate marriage with his mother, and pollutes the city.  And fresh woes does the unfortunate man cause to succeed with slaughter, devoting by curses his sons to the unhallowed contest.—­With admiration, with admiration we look on him, who is gone to kill himself for the sake of his country’s land; to Creon indeed having left lamentations, but about to make the seven-towered gates of the land greatly victorious.  Thus may we be mothers, thus may we be blest in our children, O dear Pallas, who destroyedst the blood of the dragon by the hurled stone, driving the attention of Cadmus to the action, whence with rapine some fiend of the Gods rushed on this land.

MESSENGER, JOCASTA, CHORUS.

MESS.  Ho there! who is at the gate of the palace?  Open, conduct Jocasta from out of the house.—­What ho! again—­after a long time indeed, but yet come forth, hear, O renowned wife of Oedipus, ceasing from thy lamentations, and thy tears of grief.

JOC.  O most dear man, surely thou comest bearing the news of some calamity, of the death of Eteocles, by whose shield thou always didst go, warding off the weapons of the enemy.  What new message, I pray, dost thou come to deliver?  Is my son dead or alive?  Tell me.

MESS.  He lives, be not alarmed for this, for I will rid thee of this fear.

JOC.  But what?  In what state are our seven-towered ramparts?

MESS.  They stand unshaken, nor is the city destroyed.

JOC.  Come they in danger from the spear of Argos?