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Oedipus
[1110] Elders, if it is right for me, who have never met the man, to guess, I think I see the herdsman we have been looking for for a lone time. In his venerable old age he tallies with this stranger's years, and moreover I recognize those who bring him, I think, as servants of mine. [1115] But perhaps you have an advantage in knowledge over me, if you have seen the herdsman before.

Chorus
Yes, I know him, be sure. He was in the service of Laius—trusty as any shepherd.

The herdsman is brought in.

Oedipus
I ask you first, Corinthian stranger, if this is the man you mean.

Messenger
[1120] He is, the one you are looking at.

Oedipus
You, old man—look this way and answer all that I ask—were you once in the service of Laius?

Servant
I was—not a bought slave, but reared in his house.

Oedipus
Employed in what labor, or what way of life?

Servant
[1125] For the better part of my life I tended the flocks.

Oedipus
And what regions did you most frequently haunt?

Servant
Sometimes Cithaeron, sometimes the neighboring ground.

Oedipus
Are you aware of ever having seen this man in these parts?

Servant
Doing what? What man do you mean?

Oedipus
[1130] This man here. Have you ever met him before?

Servant
Not so that I could speak at once from memory.

Messenger
And no wonder, master. But I will bring clear recollection to his ignorance. I am sure he knows well of the time we dwelled in the region of Cithaeron [1135] for six month periods, from spring to Arcturus, he with two flocks, and I, his comrade, with one. And then for the winter I used to drive my flock to my own fold, and he took his to the fold of Laius. [1140] Did any of this happen as I tell it, or did it not?

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    • Sir Richard C. Jebb, Commentary on Sophocles: Electra, 338
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