f Juno and the rock of Cithaeron, having
bored sharp-pointed iron through the middle of his ankles, from which
circumstance Greece gave him the name of Oedipus. But him the grooms who
attend the steeds of Polybus find and carry home, and placed him in the
arms of their mistress. But she rested beneath her bosom him that gave me a
mother's pangs, and persuades her husband that she had brought forth. But
now my son showing signs of manhood in his darkening cheek, either having
suspected it by instinct, or having learned it from some one, went to the
temple of Apollo, desirous of discovering his parents; at the same time
went Laius my husband, seeking to gain intelligence of his son who had been
exposed, if he were no longer living; and both met at the same point of the
road at Phocis where it divides itself; and the charioteer of Laius
commands him, "Stranger, withdraw out of the way of princes;" but he moved
slowly, in silence, with haughty spirit; but the steeds with their hoof
dyed with blood the tendons of his feet. At this (but why need I relate
each horrid circumstance besides the deed itself?) the son kills his
father, and having taken the chariot, sends it as a present to his
foster-father Polybus. Now at this time the sphinx preyed vulture-like[5]
upon the city with rapacity, my husband now no more, Creon my brother
proclaims that he will give my bed as a reward to him who would solve the
enigma of the crafty virgin. But by some chance or other Oedipus my son
happens to discover the riddle of the sphinx, [and he receives as a prize
the sceptre of this land,][5a] and marries me, his mother, wretched he not
knowing it, nor knew his mother that she was lying down with her son. And I
bear children to my child, two sons, Eteocles and the illustrious
Polynices, and two daughters, one her father named Ismene, the elder I
called Antigone. But Oedipus, after having gone through all sufferings,
having discovered in my bed the marriage with his mother, he perpetrated a
deed of horror on his own eyes, having drenched in blood their pupils with
his golden buckles. But after that the cheek of my children grows dark with
manly down, they hid their father confined with bolts that his sad fortune
might be forgotten, which indeed required the greatest policy. He is still
living in the palace, but sick in mind through his misfortunes he
imprecates the most unhallowed curses on his children, that they may share
this house with the shar