Nay, I said at first I gave it. OEDIPUS. In what way Came it to thee? Was it thine own child, or Another's? SHEPHERD. Nay, it never crossed my door: Another's. OEDIPUS. Whose? What man, what house, of these About thee? SHEPHERD. In the name of God who sees, Ask me no more! OEDIPUS. If once I ask again, Thou diest. SHEPHERD. From the folk of Laius, then, It came. [Sidenote: vv. 1168-1176] OEDIPUS. A slave, or born of Laius' blood? SHEPHERD. There comes the word I dread to speak, O God! OEDIPUS. And I to hear: yet heard it needs must be. SHEPHERD. Know then, they said 'twas Laius' child. But she Within, thy wife, best knows its fathering. OEDIPUS. 'Twas she that gave it? SHEPHERD. It was she, O King. OEDIPUS. And bade you ... what? SHEPHERD. Destroy it. OEDIPUS. Her own child?... Cruel! SHEPHERD. Dark words of God had made her wild. OEDIPUS. What words? [Sidenote: vv. 1176-1192] SHEPHERD. The babe must slay his father; so 'Twas written. OEDIPUS. Why didst thou, then, let him go With this old man? SHEPHERD. O King, I pitied him. I thought the man would save him to some dim And distant land, beyond all fear.... And he, To worse than death, did save him!... Verily, If thou art he whom this man telleth of, To sore affliction thou art born. OEDIPUS. Enough! All, all, shall be fulfilled.... Oh, on these eyes Shed light no more, ye everlasting skies That know my sin! I have sinned in birth and breath. I have sinned with Woman. I have sinned with Death. [_He rushes into the Palace. The_ SHEPHERD _is led away by the thralls._ CHORUS. [_Strophe._ Nothingness, nothingness, Ye Children of Man, and less I count you, waking or dreaming! And none among mortals, none, Seeking to live, hath won More than to seem, and to cease Again from his seeming. [Sidenote: vv. 1193-1212] While ever before mine eyes One fate, one ensample, lies-- Thine, thine, O Oedipus, sore Of God oppressed-- What thing that is human more Dare I call blessed? [_Antistrophe._ Straight his archery flew To the heart of living; he knew Joy and the fulness of power, O Zeus, when the riddling breath Was stayed and the Maid of Death Slain, and we saw him through The death-cloud, a tower!