Some god with evil intent is destroying the race of Oedipus.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.PolyneicesNo, question me, leave out nothing; for your will, mother, is my pleasure too.JocastaWell 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?PolyneicesThe greatest; harder to bear than tell.JocastaWhat is it like? What annoys the exile?PolyneicesOne thing most of all; he cannot speak his mind.JocastaThis is a slave’s lot you speak of, not to say what one thinks.PolyneicesThe follies of the rulers must be borne.JocastaThat too is painful, to join in the folly of fools.PolyneicesYet to gain our ends we must serve against our nature.JocastaHope, they say, is the exile’s food.PolyneicesYes, hope that looks so fair; but always in the future.JocastaBut doesn’t time expose its emptiness?PolyneicesIt has a certain winsome charm in misfortune.JocastaWhere did you get your living, before your marriage found it for you?PolyneicesSometimes I would have enough for the day, and sometimes not.JocastaDidn’t your father’s friends and guests assist you?PolyneicesSeek to be prosperous; friends are nothing in misfortune.JocastaDidn’t your noble breeding lead you to the heights?PolyneicesPoverty is a curse; breeding did not find me food.JocastaMan’s dearest treasure, it seems, is his country.PolyneicesYou could not name how dear it is!JocastaHow did you come to Argos? What was your scheme?PolyneicesLoxias gave Adrastus an oracle.JocastaWhat was it? What are you saying? I cannot guess.PolyneicesThat he should marry his daughters to a boar and a lion.JocastaWhat did you, my son, have to do with the name of beasts?PolyneicesI don’t know; the deity summoned me there to my destiny.JocastaYes, for the god is wise; but how did you win your wife?