[Textpart 3]
If I cannot make you go away, I shall go away myself: for really, upon my faith, there’s need of an Oedipus Need of an Oedipus: Juno, in her displeasure against the city of Thebes, sent the Sphinx, in order to wreak her vengeance against the inhabitants. This was a monster with the face and speech of a woman, the wings of a bird, and the rest of the body resembling that of a dog or a lion. The monster proposed enigmatical questions to all with whom it met, and those who could not explain them it devoured. On the Oracle being consulted, they were informed that they would not get rid of the monster unless they could find out the meaning of a certain enigma, which was, What is that animal that has four feet in the morning, two at noon, and three at night? Oedipus, at length, explained this as meaning a man, who crawls on all-fours during infancy, during manhood stands on two legs, and, when old, makes use of a stick as a third leg to support him. On hearing this, the monster, in despair, knocked out its brains against a rock. as a diviner for this speech of yours, him who was the interpreter to the Sphinx.
AGORASTOCLES
He has gone off in a passion; now must I beware, lest, through my own fault, I place an impediment in the way of my love. I’ll go and fetch the witnesses, since love commands me, a free man, to be obedient to my own slave.
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