[347] "Of all discoveries, the best is that which arises from the action itself, and in which a striking effect is produced by probable incidents. Such is that in the Oedipus of Sophocles."--Aristot. de Poet., Twining's translation. [348] But the spot consecrated to those deities which men "tremble to name," presents all the features of outward loveliness that contrast and refine, as it were, the metaphysical terror of the associations. And the beautiful description of Coloneus itself, which is the passage that Sophocles is said to have read to his judges, before whom he was accused of dotage, seems to paint a home more fit for the graces than the furies. The chorus inform the stranger that he has come to "the white Coloneus;" "Where ever and aye, through the greenest vale Gush the wailing notes of the nightingale From her home where the dark-hued ivy weaves With the grove of the god a night of leaves; And the vines blossom out from the lonely glade, And the suns of the summer are dim in the shade, And the storms of the winter have never a breeze, That can shiver a leaf from the charmed trees; For there, oh ever there, With that fair mountain throng, Who his sweet nurses were, [the nymphs of Nisa] Wild Bacchus holds his court, the conscious woods among! Daintily, ever there, Crown of the mighty goddesses of old, Clustering Narcissus with his glorious hues Springs from his bath of heaven's delicious dews, And the gay crocus sheds his rays of gold. And wandering there for ever The fountains are at play, And Cephisus feeds his river From their sweet urns, day by day. The river knows no dearth; Adown the vale the lapsing waters glide, And the pure rain of that pellucid tide Calls the rife beauty from the heart of earth. While by the banks the muses' choral train Are duly heard--and there, Love checks her golden rein." [349] Geronta dorthoun, phlauron, os neos pesae. Oedip. Col., 396. Thus, though his daughter had only grown up from childhood to early womanhood, Oedipus has passed from youth to age since the date of the Oedipus Tyrannus. [350] See his self-justification, 960-1000. [351] As each poet had but three actors allowed him, the song of the chorus probably gave time for the representative of Theseus to change his dress, and reappear as Polynices. [352] The imagery in the last two lines has been amplified from the original in order to bring before the reader what the representation would have brought before the spectator. [353] Mercury. [354] Proserpine. [355] Autonamos.--Antig., 821. [356] Ou toi synechthein, alla symphilein ephun. Antig., 523. [357] Ceres.