Page:Tragedies of Seneca (1907) Miller.djvu/43

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Oedipus
25

Much truth is bidden when the eye is dimmed. 295
But when my country, when Apollo calls,
I will obey. Then let me search the fates.
If in my veins still flowed the blood of youth,
I would myself sustain the god and speak.
Now to the altar drive a pure-white bull,
A heifer, too, upon whose tender neck 300
The curved yoke of toil hath never pressed.
And thou, my child, who guid'st my darkened steps,
Describe the omens which Apollo sends.
[The victims are stationed before the altar as directed.]
Manto: A perfect victim at the altar stands.
Tiresias: With prayer invoke the presence of the gods,
And heap the altar high with frankincense. 305
Manto: Lo, on the sacred fire the spice is heaped.
Tiresias: What of the flame? Did it with vigor seize
The generous feast?
Manto: With sudden gleam it leaped
Into the air, and quickly fell again.
Tiresias: And did the sacred fire burn bright and clear,
And point its gleaming summit straight to heaven, 310
And, spreading outward, to the breeze unfold;
Or crawl, with course uncertain, near the ground,
And, flickering, die away in gloomy smoke?
Manto: Not one appearance only had the flame.
As when the tempest-bringing Iris spreads
Her varying colors on the vault of heaven, 315
And with her painted bow adorns the sky;
So to the sacred fire thou wouldst not tell
What hue is wanting there and what prevails.
Dark blue it flickered first, with yellow spots;
Then bloody red, and then it vanished quite. 320
But see! the flame is rent in rival parts,
And the glowing embers of one sacred pile
Are cleft in double heaps and fall apart!
O father, horror fills me as I gaze;
For, as I pour the sacred liquid forth,
It changes straight to blood—Oh, horrible! 325
And stifling smoke surrounds the royal head.