Phoenissae
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Original / primary: Perseus Eng2
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Curses on them! whether the sword or strife or your father that is to blame, or heaven’s visitation that has burst riotously upon the house of Oedipus; for on me has come all the anguish of these evils.
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Chorus Leader
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Their offspring are a wonderful thing to women; all of them have some love for their children.
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Polyneices
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Mother, I have come among enemies wisely or foolishly; but all men must love their native land; whoever says otherwise
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is pleased to say so, but his thoughts are turned elsewhere. I was so fearful and in such terror, lest my brother should kill me by treachery, that I came through the city sword in hand, looking all round. I had one advantage,
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the truce and your word, which brought me to to the paternal walls; and I arrived here weeping, to see after a long time my home and the altars of the gods, the training ground, scene of my childhood, and the water of Dirce, from which I was unjustly driven to live in a foreign city,
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a stream of tears flowing from my eyes. Now, grief upon grief, I see you with hair cut short and in black robes, alas for my sorrows!
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What a terrible thing, mother, is hatred between dear friends.
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and how hard it makes reconciliation
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What is my old father doing within the house, looking on darkness? What of my two sisters? Surely the unhappy ones lament my exile?
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Jocasta
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Some god with evil intent is destroying the race of Oedipus.
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So it began, my childbearing was unholy, and in an evil hour I married your father and you were born. But why repeat these horrors? What the gods send we have to bear. I am afraid to ask you what I would, for fear of stinging your heart; yet I long to.
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Polyneices
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No, question me, leave out nothing; for your will, mother, is my pleasure too.
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Jocasta
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Well then, first I ask you what I long to have answered. What is it, to be deprived of one’s country? Is it a great evil?
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Polyneices
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The greatest; harder to bear than tell.
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Jocasta
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What is it like? What annoys the exile?
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Polyneices
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One thing most of all; he cannot speak his mind.
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Jocasta
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This is a slave’s lot you speak of, not to say what one thinks.
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Polyneices
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The follies of the rulers must be borne.
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Jocasta
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That too is painful, to join in the folly of fools.
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Polyneices
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Yet to gain our ends we must serve against our nature.
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Jocasta
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Hope, they say, is the exile’s food.
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Polyneices
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Yes, hope that looks so fair; but always in the future.
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Jocasta
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But doesn’t time expose its emptiness?
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Polyneices
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It has a certain winsome charm in misfortune.
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Jocasta
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Where did you get your living, before your marriage found it for you?
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Polyneices
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Sometimes I would have enough for the day, and sometimes not.
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Jocasta
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Didn’t your father’s friends and guests assist you?
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Polyneices
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Seek to be prosperous; friends are nothing in misfortune.
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Jocasta
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Didn’t your noble breeding lead you to the heights?
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Polyneices
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Poverty is a curse; breeding did not find me food.
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Jocasta
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Man’s dearest treasure, it seems, is his country.
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Polyneices
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You could not name how dear it is!
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Jocasta
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How did you come to Argos? What was your scheme?
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Polyneices
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Loxias gave Adrastus an oracle.
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Jocasta
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What was it? What are you saying? I cannot guess.
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Polyneices
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That he should marry his daughters to a boar and a lion.
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Jocasta
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What did you, my son, have to do with the name of beasts?
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Polyneices
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I don’t know; the deity summoned me there to my destiny.
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Jocasta
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Yes, for the god is wise; but how did you win your wife?
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Polyneices
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It was night when I reached the porch of Adrastus.
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Jocasta
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In search of a resting-place, because you were in exile?
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Polyneices
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Yes; and then another exile came there.
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Jocasta
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Who was he? He too was in trouble, surely.
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Polyneices
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Tydeus; they say that Oineus is his father.
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Jocasta
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But why did Adrastus compare you to wild beasts?
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Polyneices
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Because we came to blows about our bed.
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Jocasta
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Was it then that the son of Talaus understood the oracle?
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Polyneices
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Yes, and he gave the two of us his two daughters.
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Jocasta
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Are you blessed or cursed in your marriage?
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Polyneices
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As yet I have no fault to find with it.
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Jocasta
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How did you persuade an army to follow you here?
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Polyneices
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Adrastus swore an oath to his two sons-in-law, Tydeus and myself; for he is my relative by marriage that he would restore us both to our country, me first.
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So many Danaan and Mycenaean chiefs have joined me, doing me a bitter though needful service, for it is against my own city I am marching. Now I call the gods to witness, that it is not willingly I have raised the spear against my willing friends.
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But it belongs to you, mother, to dissolve this unhappy feud, and, by reconciling loving brothers, to end the trouble for me and you and the whole city. It has been said for a long time, but I will say it anyway: wealth is most valued by men,
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and of all things in the world it has the greatest power. This I have come to secure at the head of my great army; for a man well-born but poor is worth nothing.
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Chorus Leader
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And see, Eteocles comes here to discuss the truce. It is your task, mother Jocasta, to speak
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such words as may reconcile your sons.
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Eteocles
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Mother, I am here; I have come to do you a favor. What am I to do? Let some one begin the conference; for I stopped marshalling the citizens in pairs of companies around the walls, so that I might hear your
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arbitration between us, by which you persuaded me to admit this man under truce within the walls.
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Jocasta
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Wait; haste does not carry justice with it; but slow deliberation often attains a wise result. Restrain the fierceness of your look and panting rage;
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for this is not the Gorgon’s severed head but your own brother whom you see has come. You too, Polyneices, turn and face your brother; for if you look at him, you will speak and listen to him the better.
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I want to give you both one piece of good counsel; when a man that is angry with his friend confronts him face to face, he ought only to keep in view the object of his coming, forgetting all previous quarrels.
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My son Polyneices, speak first, for you have come at the head of a Danaid army, alleging wrongful treatment; may some god be the judge and reconciler of the troubles.
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Polyneices
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The words of truth are naturally simple,
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and justice needs no subtle interpretations, for it has a fitness in itself; but the words of injustice, being sick in themselves, require clever treatment. I provided for his interests and mine in our father’s house, being anxious to escape the curse
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which Oedipus once uttered against us; of my own free-will I left this land, allowing him to rule the country for one full year, on condition that I should then take up the rule in turn, instead of plunging into deadly enmity with this man,
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doing others harm and suffering it myself, as is now the case. But he, after consenting to this and calling the gods to witness his oath, has performed none of his promises, but is still keeping the sovereignty in his own hands together with my share of our heritage.
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And now I am ready to take my own
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and dismiss the army from this land, receiving my house in turn to dwell in, and once more restore it to him for an equal period, instead of ravaging our country and bringing scaling-ladders against the towers,
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as I shall attempt to do if I do not get my rights. I call the gods to witness that spite of my just dealing in everything I am being unjustly robbed of my country, a most unholy act. I have made my points, mother, without stringing together
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words to entangle you, but urging a fair case, I think, in the judgment of the wise and the simple.
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Chorus Leader
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To me, although I was not born and bred in Hellas, your words seem full of sense.
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Eteocles
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If all were unanimous in their ideas of honor and wisdom,
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there would be no strife to make men disagree; but, as it is, fairness and equality have no existence in this world beyond the name; there is really no such thing. I will tell you this, mother, without any concealment: I would go to the rising of the stars and the sun,
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or beneath the earth, if I were able so to do, to win Tyranny, the greatest of the gods. Therefore, mother, I will not yield this blessing to another rather than keep it for myself; for it is cowardly to lose the greater
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and to win the less. Besides, I am ashamed to think that he should gain his object by coming with arms and ravaging the land; for this would be a disgrace to Thebes, if I should yield my scepter up to him for fear of Mycenaean might.
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He ought not to have attempted reconcilement by armed force, mother, for words accomplish everything that even the sword of an enemy might effect. Still, if on any other terms he cares to dwell here, he may; but that I shall never willingly let go.
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Shall I become his slave, when I can rule? Therefore come fire, come sword! Harness your horses, fill the plains with chariots, for I will not give up my tyranny to him. For if we must do wrong, to do so for tyranny
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is the fairest cause, but in all else piety should be our aim.
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Chorus Leader
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One should not speak well on deeds that are not good; for that is not good, but bitter to justice.
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Jocasta
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Eteocles, my child, it is not all evil that attends old age; but experience
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has something to say wiser than youth. Why, my son, do you so long for Ambition, that worst of deities? Oh, do not; the goddess is unjust; many are the homes and cities once prosperous that she has entered and left, to the ruin of her worshippers;
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and she is the one you are mad for. It is better, my son, to honor Equality, who always joins friend to friend, city to city, allies to allies; for Equality is naturally lasting among men; but the less is always in opposition to the greater,
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and begins the dawn of hatred. For it is Equality that has set up for man measures and divisions of weights, and has determined numbers; night’s sightless eye, and radiant sun proceed upon their yearly course on equal terms,
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and neither of them is envious when it has to yield. Though both sun and night are servants for mortals, you will not be content with your fair share of your heritage and give the same to him? Then where is justice?
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Why do you honor to excess tyranny, a prosperous injustice,
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why do you think so much of it? Admiring glances are to be prized? No, that is an empty pleasure. Or do you want to have many troubles from the many riches in your house? What advantage is it? The name only; for the wise find what suffices to be enough.
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Mortals indeed have no possessions of their own; we hold the management of the gods’ property; and when they will, they take it back again. Prosperity is not secure, but as transient as the day.
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Come, suppose I put before you two alternatives, and ask you
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whether you wish to rule or save your city? Will you say you wish to rule?
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Again, if this man conquers you and his Argive warriors take the army of Cadmus, you will see this city of Thebes conquered, and you will see many captured maidens
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brutally dishonored by men of the enemy. Then that wealth you seek to have will become grievous to Thebes; but still ambition fills you.
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That I say to you; and this to you, Polyneices; Adrastus has conferred a foolish favor on you;
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and you too have shown little sense in coming to lay your city waste. Suppose you conquer this land—may it not happen!—tell me, by the gods, how will you set up a trophy to Zeus? How will you begin the sacrifice after your country’s conquest or inscribe the spoils at the streams of Inachus:
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Polyneices after giving Thebes to the flames dedicated these shields to the gods? O my son, may you never win such fame from Hellas! If, on the other hand, you are beaten and your brother’s cause prevails, how will you return to Argos, leaving countless dead behind?
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Some one will be sure to say: Adrastus, you made an evil betrothal; we are ruined by the marriage of one bride.
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You are eager for two evils, my son, the loss of those there and ruin in the midst of your efforts here.
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Lay aside your violence, my sons, lay it aside; two men’s follies,
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once they meet, result in very deadly mischief.
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Chorus Leader
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O gods, avert these troubles and reconcile the sons of Oedipus!