My eyes are blind, but when I speak I see. STRANGER. Attend my words if thou'rt an honest man, And honest though ill-starred thou seemst to me. Stir not from off this spot where thou dost stand, Till to this township's rural denizens I have recounted all. They will decide Whether thou may'st remain or must depart. (_Exit_ STRANGER.) OEDIPUS. My daughter, has the stranger gone from us? ANTIGONE. He has, my father; all is still around. Thou mayst speak freely for I only hear. OEDIPUS. Dread goddesses, of awful countenance, Since in your holy precincts first I rest, Be merciful to Phoebus and to me; For Phoebus, when he all my woes foretold, Promised me peace at last, then to be mine When at my wandering's limit I should find A shrine and hostel of the powers of awe. Here of my misery was to be the goal, And I was to bring blessings to my hosts, And curses upon them that drove me out. Tokens of this he pledged his word to send, An earthquake, lightning, or a thunder peal. Sure then I am that auguries from you, Who cannot lie, my wandering feet have led Unto this grove. How should the wayfarer Else have on you first lighted, like himself, Untasting of the wine-cup, and have found This sacred seat unhewn? O goddesses, Fulfil Apollo's oracles, and grant Some termination of this weary life, Unless my sum of pain seems incomplete, When long unbroken sufferings I have borne. O daughters dear of immemorial night, Athens, of cities most illustrious, That art to the great Pallas dedicate, Take pity on this ghost of Oedipus; Once I was not the thing that now I am. * * * * * _THE PRAISES OF COLONUS AND ATHENS_. LINES 668-719. CHORUS.