Io. A servant—the sole survivor who came home.
Oe. Is he haply at hand in the house now?
Io. No, truly; so soon as he came thence, and found thee reigning in the stead of Laïus, he supplicated me, with hand laid on mine,760 that I would send him to the fields, to the pastures of the flocks, that he might be far from the sight of this town. And I sent him; he was worthy, for a slave, to win e'en a larger boon than that.
Oe. Would, then, that he could return to us without delay!
Io. It is easy: but wherefore dost thou enjoin this?
Oe. I fear, lady, that mine own lips have been unguarded; and therefore am I fain to behold him.
Io. Nay, he shall come. But I too, methinks, have a claim to learn what lies heavy on thy heart, my king.770
Oe. Yea, and it shall not be kept from thee, now that my forebodings have advanced so far. Who, indeed, is more to me than thou, to whom I should speak in passing through such a fortune as this?
My father was Polybus of Corinth,—my mother, the Dorian Meropè; and I was held the first of all the folk in that town, until a chance befell me, worthy, indeed, of wonder, though not worthy of mine own heat concerning it. At a banquet, a man full of wine cast it at me in his cups that I was not the true son of my sire.780 And I, vexed, restrained myself for that day as best I might; but on the next I went to my mother and father, and questioned them; and they were wroth for the taunt with him who had let that word fly. So on their part I had comfort; yet was this thing ever rankling in
