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Oedipus
Bless you, and for this errand may the god prove a kinder guardian to you than he has to me. [1480] My children, where are you? Come, here, here to the hands of the one whose mother was your own, the hands that have made your father's once bright eyes to be such orbs as these—his, who seeing nothing, knowing nothing, [1485] became your father by her from whom he was born! For you also do I weep, though I cannot see you, when I think of the bitter life that men will make you live in days to come. To what company of the citizens will you go, to what festival, [1490] from which you will not return home in tears, not sharing in the holiday? But when you reach a ripe age for marriage, who shall he be, who shall be the man, my daughters, to risk taking upon himself the reproaches [1495] that will certainly be baneful to my offspring and yours? What misery is lacking? Your father killed his own father, and bore you from the source of his own being! [1500] Such are the taunts that will be cast at you. And who then will wed you? The man does not live, no, it cannot be, my children, but you will wither in barren maidenhood. Son of Menoeceus, hear me: since you are the only father left to them—we, their parents, are both gone— [1505] do not allow them to wander poor and unwed, for they are your own kin, nor abase them to the level of my woes. Pity them, seeing them deprived of everything but you at such an age. [1510] Promise, noble man, and touch them with your hand. To you, children, I would have given much counsel, if your minds were mature. But now pray that you may live where occasion allows, and that the life which is your lot may be happier than your father's.

Creon
[1515] Your grief has had a sufficient scope: move on into the house.

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  • Cross-references to this page (4):
    • Herbert Weir Smyth, A Greek Grammar for Colleges, PARTICLES
    • Raphael Kühner, Bernhard Gerth, Ausführliche Grammatik der griechischen Sprache, KG 1.3.1
    • Raphael Kühner, Bernhard Gerth, Ausführliche Grammatik der griechischen Sprache, KG 1.4.1
    • Raphael Kühner, Bernhard Gerth, Ausführliche Grammatik der griechischen Sprache, KG 3.1.2
  • Cross-references in general dictionaries to this page (2):
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