shrine, and to the altars of Phoebus, in the mean time the
Argives marched against the city. But do thou in turn answer me, who thou
art, who hast come to this bulwark of the Theban land with its seven gates?

POL. My father is Oedipus the son of Laius; Jocasta daughter of Menoeceus
brought me forth; the Theban people call me Polynices.

CHOR. O thou allied to the sons of Agenor, my lords, by whom I was sent, I
fall at thy knees in lowly posture, O king, preserving my country's custom.
Thou hast come, thou hast come, after a length of time, to thy paternal
land. O venerable matron, come forth quickly, open the doors; dost thou
hear, O mother, that producedst this hero? why dost thou delay to leave thy
lofty mansion, and to embrace thy child with thine arms?

JOCASTA, POLYNICES, CHORUS.

JOC. Hearing the Phoenician tongue, ye virgins, within this mansion, I drag
my steps trembling with age. Ah! my son, after length of time, after
numberless days, I behold thy countenance; clasp thy mother's bosom in
thine arms, throw around her[20] thy kisses, and the dark ringlets of thy
clustering hair, shading my neck. Ah! scarce possible is it that thou
appearest in thy mother's arms so unhoped for, and so unexpected. How shall
I address thee? how shall I perform all? how shall I, walking in rapture
around thee on that side and this, both with my hands and words, reap the
varied pleasure, the delight of my former joys? O my son, thou hast left
thy father's house deserted, sent away an exile by wrongful treatment from
thy brother. How longed for by thy friends! how longed for by Thebes! From
which time I am both shorn of my hoary locks, letting them fall with tears,
with wailing;[21] deprived, my child, of the white robes, I receive in
exchange around me these dark and dismal weeds. But the old man in the
palace deprived of sight, always preserving with tears regret for the
unanimity of the brothers which is separated from the family, has madly
rushed on self-destruction with the sword and with the noose above the
beams of the house, bewailing the curse imprecated on his children; and
with cries of woe he is always hidden in darkness. But thou, my child, I
hear, art both joined in marriage, and hast the joys of love in a foreign
family, and cherishest a foreign alliance; intolerable to this thy mother
and to the aged Laius, the woe of a foreign marriage brought upon us. But
neither did I light the torch of fire for you, as is customa