believe by Plato to be even yet recoverable. The oracle
which Laïus disobeys in obtaining offspring, points to the
difficulty of surplus population, so unhesitatingly countervailed
throughout Hellas by exposure of the newly-born; and the
consequences of his disobedience seem to embody and exemplar
of the confusions which had ultimately led at Thebes to very
remarkable and exceptional legislation. The so-called Thetic
laws of Thebes were ascribed to a lawgiver who came like
Oedipus from ¹ Corinth. They forbade the exposure or deser-
tion of infants,--the practice which the case of Oedipus ex-
hibits as liable to bring about the pollution of the country,
however unconsciously, by incestuous unions, certain to pro-
voke the direst visitations of the wrath of the gods. The babe
that otherwise would have had to take its chance of death or
of rescue to an unidentified life, was, in accordance with these
enactments, to be brought immediately on birth, and under
heavy penalties, to the authorities, who consigned it to who-
ever offered a price, however small, and was willing to look to
its future services as a slave as remuneration for cost and
tending in the ² meantime.

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