Chorus: Antistrophe 2
Halt! Go no further than that rocky floor.
Oedipus: Stay where I now am?
Chorus: Yes, advance no more.
Oedipus: May I sit down?
Chorus: Move sideways towards the ledge, And sit thee crouching on the scarped edge.
Antigone: This is my office, father, O incline—
Oedipus: Ah me! ah me!
Antigone: Thy steps to my steps, lean thine aged frame on mine.
Oedipus: Woe on my fate unblest!
Chorus: Wanderer, now thou art at rest, Tell me of thy birth and home, From what far country art thou come, Led on thy weary way, declare!
Oedipus: Strangers, I have no country. O forbear—
Chorus: What is it, old man, that thou would’st conceal?
Oedipus: Forbear, nor urge me further to reveal—
Chorus: Why this reluctance?
Oedipus: Dread my lineage.
Chorus: Say!
Oedipus: What must I answer, child, ah welladay!
Chorus: Say of what stock thou comest, what man’s son—
Oedipus: Ah me, my daughter, now we are undone!
Antigone: Speak, for thou standest on the slippery verge.
Oedipus: I will; no plea for silence can I urge.
Chorus: Will neither speak? Come, Sir, why dally thus!
Oedipus: Know’st one of Laius’—
Chorus: Ha! Who!