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CH.
My lord, the stranger deserves well. His fate
Is grievous, but the more demands our aid.

THE.
Enough of words. The captors and their prey
Are hasting;–we, they have wronged, are standing still.

CR.
I am powerless here. What dost thou bid me do?

THE.
Lead us the way they are gone. I too must be
Thine escort, that if hereabout thou hast
Our maidens, thou mayest show them to my sight.
But if men flee and bear them, we may spare
Superfluous labour. Others hotly urge
That business, whom those robbers shall not boast
Before their Gods to have ‘scaped out of this land.
Come, be our guide! Thou hast and hast not. Fortune
Hath seized thee seizing on thy prey. So quickly
Passes the gain that’s got by wrongful guile.
Nay, thou shalt have no helper. Well I wot
Thou flew’st not to this pitch of truculent pride
Alone, or unsupported by intrigue;
But thy bold act hath some confederate here.
This I must look into, nor let great Athens
Prove herself weaker than one single man.
Hast caught my drift? Or is my voice as vain
Now, as you thought it when you planned this thing?

CR.
I will gainsay nought of what thou utterest here.
But once in Thebes, I too shall know my course.

THE.
Threaten, but go! Thou, Oedipus, remain
In quietness and perfect trust that I,
If death do not prevent me, will not rest
Till I restore thy children to thy hand.

CHORUS.
Soon shall the wheeling foes
Clash with the din of brazen-throated War.
Would I were there to see them close,
Be the onset near or far!
Whether at Daphne’s gorge to Phoebus dear,
Or by the torch-lit shore
Where kind maternal powers for evermore
Guard golden mysteries of holy fear
To nourish mortal souls
Whose voice the seal of silent awe controls
Imprinted by the Eumolpid minister.
There, on that sacred way,
Shall the divinest head
Of royal THESEUS, rouser of the fray,
And those free maids, in their two squadrons led,
Meet in the valorous fight
That conquers for the right.

Else, by the snow-capped rock,
Passing to westward, they are drawing nigh
The tract beyond the pasture high
Where Oea feeds her flock.
The riders ride, the rattling chariots flee
At racing speed.–‘Tis done!
He shall be vanquished. Our land’s chivalry
Are valiant, valiant every warrior son
Of THESEUS.–On they run?
Frontlet and bridle glancing to the light,
Forward each steed is straining to the fight,
Forward each eye and hand
Of all that mounted band,
Athena’s knighthood, champions of her name
And his who doth the mighty waters tame,
Rhea’s son that from of old
Doth the Earth with seas enfold.

Strive they? Or is the battle still to be?
An eager thought in me
Is pleading, ‘Soon must they restore
The enduring maid, whose kinsmen vex her sore!’
To-day shall Zeus perform his will.
The noble cause wins my prophetic skill.
Oh! had I wings, and like a storm-swift dove
Poised on some aery cloud might there descry
The conflict from above,
Scouring the region with mine eye!

Sovran of Heaven, all-seeing Zeus, afford
Unto this nation’s lord
Puissance to crown the fair emprise,
Thou, and all-knowing Pallas, thy dread child!
Apollo, huntsman of the wild,
–Thou and thy sister, who doth still pursue
Swift many-spotted stags,–arise, arise,
With love we pray you, be our champions true!
Yea, both together come
To aid our people and our home!