_Oedipus:_ By Phoebus' word forewarned, 800 From wedlock with my mother do I flee. _Old Man:_ Then cease thy empty fears, and lay aside Thy base forebodings; for I tell thee here That thou art not the son of Merope. _Oedipus:_ Why did she wish to rear a spurious son? _Old Man:_ Because the proud security of kings Is by a son established. _Oedipus:_ Tell me now. 805 How thou dost know the secrets of the court. _Old Man:_ With my own hands I gave thee to the king. _Oedipus:_ Thou gavest me? But who gave me to thee? _Old Man:_ A shepherd on Cithaeron's snowy slopes. _Oedipus:_ How camest thou within that sacred wood? _Old Man:_ My sheep upon that mountain did I seek. 810 _Oedipus:_ Now on my body name some well-known mark. _Old Man:_ Behold, thy feet in infancy were pierced, And from thy swollen ankles art thou named. _Oedipus:_ Who was the man who gave me as a gift Into thy hands? _Old Man:_ He fed the royal flocks, 815 And under him the hireling shepherds served. _Oedipus:_ But tell his name. _Old Man:_ An old man's memory Grows faint and weakly falters with disuse. _Oedipus:_ But wouldst thou know the features of the man? _Old Man:_ I might recall him, for a slender clue 820 Ofttimes awakens memory of things Long buried and forgot. _Oedipus:_ Then hasten, slaves, Let all the master-shepherds drive their flocks Before the altar here, yea, summon all On whom depends the guidance of the flocks. _Old Man:_ Or chance or providence has kept thy fate 825 In darkness hid. What long hath lain concealed, I bid thee suffer to remain in doubt. For often truth, when brought into the light, Becomes the bane of him who seeks for her. _Oedipus:_ Can any ills be worse than those I fear? _Old Man:_ Oh, be thou sure the truth is big with fate, Whose meaning must be sought with toil and pain. The public weal calls there, and here thine own, 830 And both with equal voice. Direct thy steps Along a middle course! provoke not fate; Permit thy fortune to unfold itself. It profits naught to change a happy state. _Oedipus:_ A change is well when all is at the worst. _Old Man:_ What better canst thou ask than royal birth? 835 No further seek, lest thou thy sire repent. _Oedipus:_ Though I should prove to be of shameful blood, My purpose still is fixed to know the truth. [_Enter_ Phorbas, _the head-shepherd._] But see, the agéd man, old Phorbas, comes, 'Neath whose control the royal flocks are kept. Dost thou remember still his face or name? 840