Ye men of Athens, truly count the votes, Strictly observing justice in the tale, For want of caution here will work much woe, While a great house may by one vote be saved. ATHENE. (_To_ ORESTES.) Thou art acquitted of blood-guiltiness, For equal are the numbers of the votes. ORESTES. O Pallas, thou hast saved a royal house! I was an exile; thou hast brought me home. And now shall every son of Hellas say, He is once more an Argive, once more holds. His father's state, for which my gratitude Is due to Pallas and to Loxias, And, lastly, to the all-preserving Zeus, Who, taking pity on my father's fate, Saved me from these my mother's advocates. Now to my home I go; but first I swear To thee and thine an everlasting oath, That never from my land shall chieftain come To lift against this land his martial spear. Ourselves, though then we in our graves shall be, Will on the breakers of our covenant Send such disaster, such perplexity, Such faintness, and such evil auguries, That they shall surely rue their enterprise; But if my people keep the covenant, And ever true allies to thine remain, My spirit shall fight with them from the tomb. Now fare ye well, thou and thy citizens; Still in war's wrestle may your foemen fall, And ever on your spears sit victory. SOPHOCLES OEDIPUS THE KING. Oedipus is the son of Laius, King of Thebes, and Queen Jocasta. It had been prophesied of him, before his birth, that he would kill his father and lie with his mother. To avert this, when born, he is devoted by his mother to death by exposure on a mountain. But he is saved and taken to Polybus, King of Corinth, who adopts him, and whose son he believes himself to be. Having heard of the prophecy concerning himself, he leaves Corinth to avoid its fulfilment; but on his road falls in with Laius, has a quarrel with his attendants, and kills him. He then goes to Thebes, delivers the Thebans from the Sphinx, by guessing her riddle, is rewarded with the kingdom, and marries the widowed Queen Jocasta, his own mother, who bears children to him. The gods, offended by the presence of murder and incest, send a plague on Thebes. Oedipus sends his brother-in-law, Creon, to consult the oracle at Delphi respecting the visitation. The oracle bids the Thebans expel the murderer of Laius. This leads to an inquiry after the murderer, and through successive disclosures, in the management of which the poet exerts his art, to the revelation of the dreadful secret. It is a story of overmastering fate. * * * * * _THE PLAGUE_. The plague sent by the angry gods is raging at Thebes. The people are gathered in supplication round the altars before the palace of Oedipus, who comes forth to them. LINES 1-77. OEDIPUS.