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Well, rest assured, his tale ran thus at first,

Nor can he now retract what then he said;

Not I alone but all our townsfolk heard it.

E’en should he vary somewhat in his story,

He cannot make the death of Laius

In any wise jump with the oracle.

For Loxias said expressly he was doomed

To die by my child’s hand, but he, poor babe,

He shed no blood, but perished first himself.

So much for divination. Henceforth I

Will look for signs neither to right nor left.

Thou reasonest well. Still I would have thee send

And fetch the bondsman hither. See to it.

That will I straightway. Come, let us within.

I would do nothing that my lord mislikes.

The life of innocence and fly

Irreverence in word or deed,

To follow still those laws ordained on high

Whose birthplace is the bright ethereal sky.

No mortal birth they own,

Olympus their progenitor alone:

Ne’er shall they slumber in oblivion cold,

The god in them is strong and grows not old.

Of insolence is bred

The tyrant; insolence full blown,

With empty riches surfeited,