Chorus
O thy despair well suits thy desperate case.
Would I had never looked upon thy face!
Oedipus
My curse on him whoe’er unrived
The waif’s fell fetters and my life revived!
He meant me well, yet had he left me there,
He had saved my friends and me a world of care.
Chorus
I too had wished it so.
Oedipus
My father’s blood nor climbed my mother’s bed;
The monstrous offspring of a womb defiled,
Co-mate of him who gendered me, and child.
Was ever man before afflicted thus,
Like Oedipus.