y entreated the help of the king, who was regarded by his
subjects as a special favourite of the gods. Oedipus consulted an oracle,
and the response was that the pestilence would continue to rage until the
land was purified of the blood of king Laius, whose murderer was living
unpunished at Thebes.

The king now invoked the most solemn imprecations on the head of the
murderer, and offered a reward for any information concerning him. He then
sent for the blind old seer Tiresias, and implored him, by means of his
prophetic powers, to reveal to him the author of the crime. Tiresias at
first hesitated, but yielding to the earnest solicitations of the king, the
old prophet thus addressed him: "Thou thyself art the murderer of the old
king Laius, who was thy father; and thou art wedded to his widow, thine own
mother." In order to convince Oedipus of the truth of his words, he brought
forward the old servant who had exposed him as a babe on Mount Cithaeron,
and the shepherd who had conveyed him to king Polybus. Horrified at this
awful revelation Oedipus, in a fit of despair, deprived himself of sight,
and the unfortunate Jocaste, unable to survive her disgrace, hanged
herself.

Accompanied by his faithful and devoted daughter Antigone, Oedipus quitted
Thebes and became a miserable and homeless outcast, begging his bread from
place to place. At length, after a long and painful pilgrimage, he found a
place of refuge in the grove of the Eumenides (at Colonus, near Athens),
where his last moments were soothed and tended by the care and devotion of
the faithful Antigone.

{272}

THE SEVEN AGAINST THEBES.

After the voluntary abdication of Oedipus, his two sons, Eteocles and
Polynices, took possession of the crown and reigned over the city of
Thebes. But Eteocles, being an ambitious prince, soon seized the reins of
government himself, and expelled his brother from the throne.

Polynices now repaired to Argos, where he arrived in the dead of night.
Outside the gates of the royal palace he encountered Tydeus, the son of
Oeneus, king of Calydon. Having accidentally killed a relative in the
chase, Tydeus was also a fugitive; but being mistaken by Polynices in the
darkness for an enemy, a quarrel ensued, which might have ended fatally,
had not king Adrastus, aroused by the clamour, appeared on the scene and
parted the combatants.

By the light of the torches borne by his attendants Adrastus observed, to
his surprise, that on the