Translated by F. Storr. From the Loeb Library Edition, Originally published by Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA and William Heinemann Ltd, London. First published in 1912.
Jocasta:
Why should a mortal man, the sport of chance,
With no assured foreknowledge, be afraid?
Best live a careless life from hand to mouth.
This wedlock with thy mother fear not thou.
How oft it chances that in dreams a man
Has wed his mother! He who least regards
Such brainsick phantasies lives most at ease.
Oedipus:
I should have shared in full thy confidence,
Were not my mother living; since she lives
Though half convinced I still must live in dread.
Jocasta:
And yet thy sire's death lights out darkness much.
Oedipus:
Much, but my fear is touching her who lives.
Messenger:
Who may this woman be whom thus you fear?
Studies
