[260] Ovid, Metam. 2, 555; Apollodorus, 3, 14, § 1; Pausanias; and Hyginus, Fab. 48. [261] Ovid, Metam. 2, 554; 6, 676; Homer, Iliad, 2, 547; Odyssey, 7, 81; Hyginus, Poet. Astr. 2, 13. [262] For Ruskin's interpretation, see Queen of the Air, § 38. [263] Hyginus, Fab. 45; Apollodorus, 3, 14, § 8; Ovid, Metam. 6, 412-676. See Commentary. [264] Ovid, Metam. 7, 350-424; Plutarch, Theseus. [265] § 167. [266] Odyssey, 11, 321; Plutarch, Theseus; Catullus, LXIV. [267] Catullus, LXIV. From The Wedding of Peleus and Thetis. A Translation in Hexameters, by Charles Mills Gayley. [268] Catullus, LXIV (Charles Mills Gayley's translation). CHAPTER XIX THE HOUSE OF LABDACUS [Illustration: FIG. 146. [OE]DIPUS AND THE SPHINX] =182. The Misfortunes of Thebes.= Returning to the descendants of Inachus, we find that the curse which fell upon Cadmus when he slew the dragon of Mars followed nearly every scion of his house. His daughters, Semele, Ino, Autonoë, Agave,--his grandsons, Melicertes, Actæon, Pentheus,--lived sorrowful lives or suffered violent deaths. The misfortunes of one branch of his family, sprung from his son Polydorus, remain to be told. The curse seems to have spared Polydorus himself. His son Labdacus, also, lived a quiet life as king of Thebes and left a son, Laïus, upon the throne. But erelong Laïus was warned by an oracle that there was danger to his throne and life if his son, new-born, should reach man's estate. He, therefore, committed the child to a herdsman with orders for its destruction; but the herdsman, moved with pity yet not daring entirely to disobey, pierced the child's feet, purposing to expose him to the elements on Mount Cithæron. =183. [OE]dipus and the Sphinx.=[269] In this plight the infant was given to a tender-hearted fellow-shepherd, who carried him to King Polybus of Corinth and his queen, by whom he was adopted and called [OE]dipus, or Swollen-foot. Many years afterward, [OE]dipus, learning from an oracle that he was destined to be the death of his father, left the realm of his reputed sire, Polybus. It happened, however, that Laïus was then driving to Delphi, accompanied only by one attendant. In a narrow road he met [OE]dipus, also in a chariot. On the refusal of the youthful stranger to leave the way at their command, the attendant killed one of his horses. [OE]dipus, consumed with rage, slew both Laïus and the attendant, and thus unknowingly fulfilled both oracles.