Stroph.
Chor. If rightly I may come with homage due
To Her whom none may see,
And thee, Ο King of those that dwell in night,
Aidoneus, Ο Aidoneus!1560
I supplicate thy aid; Ο grant that he,
The stranger, wend his way,
With no long agony,
No fate of many woes, to that dark land,
The home of all the dead,
Still wrapt in Stygian gloom.
For so, though many woes unmerited
Upon his life have come,
God, the All-just, shall raise him up again.
Antistroph.
Ye Goddess Powers, who in the central dark[1]
Dwell evermore, and thou,
Dread form of mightiest monster, who, they say,
Still find'st thy lair by gates
That turn on well-worn hinge continually,1570
And from thy cavern growl'st,
Watchman of Hades dread;
Bid him, thou Son of Earth and Tartaros,
Bid him, I pray, withdraw,
Leaving an open path,
For him who travels to the fields below,
There where the dead abide:
Thee, I invoke, the Lord of endless sleep!
Enter a Messenger.
Mess. To tell my tale, in fewest words, good sirs,
I need but say that Œdipus is dead;1580
- ↑ The invocation passes from Persephone and Aidoneus (Pluto) to the Erinnyes, daughters of Darkness and Kerberos, and finally to Death himself, the "Son of Earth and Tartaros."
