Jocasta. Yet your father’s death is a sign that all is well.
Oedipus. I know that: but I fear because of her who lives.
Messenger. Who is this woman who makes you afraid?
Oedipus. Merope, old man, the wife of Polybius.
Messenger. What is there in her to make you afraid?
Oedipus. A dreadful oracle sent from Heaven, stranger.
Messenger. Is it a Secret, or can you speak it out?
Oedipus. Loxius said that I was doomed to marry my own mother, and to shed my father’s blood. For that reason I fled from my house in Corinth; and I did right though there is great comfort in familiar faces.
Messenger. Was it indeed for that reason that you went into exile?
Oedipus. I did not wish, old man, to shed my father’s blood.
Messenger. King, have I not freed you from that fear?
Oedipus. You shall be fittingly rewarded.
Messenger. Indeed, to tell the truth, it was for that I came; to bring you home and be the better for it———
Oedipus. No! I will never go to my parents’ home.
