Epeisodion 4
Oedipus
Fearing indeed lest Apollo’s prophecy come true in me.
Messenger
Lest you acquire some pollution from your parents?
Oedipus
This very thing, old man, this constantly frightens me.
Messenger
Do you know, then, that your fears are wholly in vain?
Oedipus
How so, if I was born of those parents?
1015
Messenger
Because you had no blood in common with Polybus.
Oedipus
What are you saying? Was Polybus not my father?
Messenger
Just as much, and no more, than he who speaks to you.
Oedipus
And how can my father be equal to him who is as though nothing to me?
Messenger
But he did not father you, any more than I did.
1020
Oedipus
How, then, did he call me his son?
Messenger
Long ago he received you as a gift from my hands.
Oedipus
And yet he loved me so dearly, who came from another’s hand?
Messenger
His former childlessness won him over.
Oedipus
And had you bought me or found me by chance, when you gave me to him?
1025
Messenger
I found you in Cithaeron’s winding glens.
Oedipus
And why were you roaming those regions?
Messenger
I was in charge of mountain flocks.
Oedipus
What, you were a shepherd—a vagrant hireling?
Messenger
But your savior, my son, in that hour.
1030
