More: if he ever tread my hearth and I

Know it, be every curse upon my head

That I have spoke this day.

All I have said

I charge ye strictly to fulfil and make

Perfect, for my sake, for Apollo's sake,

And this land's sake, deserted of her fruit

And cast out from her gods. Nay, were all mute

At Delphi, still 'twere strange to leave the thing

Unfollowed, when a true man and a King

Lay murdered. All should search. But I, as now

Our fortunes fall—his crown is on my brow,

His wife lies in my arms, and common fate,

Had but his issue been more fortunate,

Might well have joined our children—since this red

Chance hath so stamped its heel on Laïus' head,

I am his champion left, and, as I would

For mine own father, choose for ill or good

This quest, to find the man who slew of yore

Labdacus' son, the son of Polydore,

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