yet my feet
Are turning from your paths,--we part for aye.
Farewell! and waft me kindly on my way,
O Lemnian earth enclosed by circling seas,
To sail, where mighty Fate my course decrees,
And friendly voices point me, and the will
Of that heroic power, who doth this act fulfil.

CH. Come now all in one strong band;
Then, ere loosing from the land,
Pray we to the nymphs of sea
Kind protectresses to be,
Till we touch the Trojan strand.

* * * * *

OEDIPUS AT COLONOS

THE PERSONS

OEDIPUS, _old and blind._
ANTIGONE, _his daughter, a young girl._
ISMENE, _his daughter, a young girl._
CHORUS _of Village Guardians._
_An Athenian._
THESEUS, _King of Athens._
CREON, _Envoy from Thebes._
POLYNICES, _the elder son of Oedipus._
_Messenger._

SCENE. Colonos.

Oedipus had remained at Thebes for some time after his fall. But he
was afterwards banished by the command of Creon, with the consent of
his own sons. Their intention at first was to lay no claim to the
throne. But by-and-by ambition prevailed with Eteocles, the younger-
born, and he persuaded Creon and the citizens to banish his elder
brother. Polynices took refuge at Argos, where he married the daughter
of Adrastus, and levied an army of auxiliaries to support his
pretensions to the throne of Thebes. Before going into exile Oedipus
had cursed his sons.

Antigone after a while fled forth to join her father and support him
in his wanderings. Ismene also once brought him secret intelligence.

Years have now elapsed, and the Delphian oracle proclaims that if
Oedipus dies in a foreign land the enemies of Thebes shall overcome
her.

In ignorance of this fact, Oedipus, now aged as well as blind, and led
by his daughter Antigone, appears before the grove of the Eumenides,
at Colonos, in the neighbourhood of Athens. He has felt an inward
intimation, which is strengthened by some words of the oracle received
by him long since at Delphi, that his involuntary crimes have been
atoned for, and that the Avenging Deities will now receive him kindly
and make his cause their own.

After some natural hesitation on the part of the village-councillors
of Colonos, Oedipus is received with princely magnanimity by Theseus,
who takes him under the protection of Athens, and defends him against
the machinations of Creon.

Thu