Page:Tragedies of Seneca (1907) Miller.djvu/46

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It is the lowing of the altar fires,
It is the brightened muttering of the shrine!
Oedipus: What meaning have these monstrous signs? Declare;
And with no timid ears will I attend. 385
For he who has the dregs of fortune drained
Fears nothing more.
Tiresias: The time will come to thee,
When these thy ills, for which thou sickest aid,
Will blessings stem.
Oedipus: But tell me then, I pray,
The one thing which the gods would have me know:
Whose hands are stained with murder of the king?
Tiresias: Neither the birds can summon up the name, 390
Who cleave the depths of heaven on fleeting wing,
Nor yet the vitals plucked from living breasts.
But we must seek it in another way:
The murdered king himself must be recalled
From realms of everlasting night, that thus,
Released from Erebus, he may declare
His murderer. The earth must be unsealed; 395
The pitiless divinity of Dis
Must be implored, and hither brought the shades
Who live beyond the Styx.
Now do thou tell
To whom thou giv'st the sacred embassy;
For 'tis not right for thee who hold'st the reins
Of government to seek the gloomy shades.
Oedipus: O Creon, thee this task demands, to whom,
As next in power, my kingdom looks for aid. 400
Tiresias: And while we loose the bars of deepest hell,
Do ye the praises of our Bacchus tell.
[Exeunt Creon, Tiresias, and Manto.]
The Chorus [in dithyrambic strain sings in praise of Bacchus]: Bind
ye now your flowing locks with the swaying ivy,
Brandish aloft with your languishing arms the Nysaean thyrsus!
O glorious light of heaven, attend the prayers 405
Which noble Thebes, thy Thebes, O beautiful Bacchus,
With suppliant hands outstretched here offers thee.
Turn hither thy smiling virgin face,