O Œdipus, O rashly engendered son of drunkenness!

EURIPIDES:

PHŒNICIANS

(Œdipus and Creon come downstage, in conver-
sation.)

CREON: If we were not so unlike each other, we should
take less pleasure in our conversations. If I enjoy
talking to you, dear brother-in-law, it is because
you allow me to glimpse things that I should
never have remarked for myself. Where you are
all for novelty and experiment, I myself am bound
by the past. Tradition I respect, and custom, and
established law. But do you not agree that some-
body in a state should stand for those things, and
that I represent, vis-à-vis your spirit of initiative,
a desirable counterpoise? I keep you from going
too fast, I act as a brake on those over-venture-
some projects of yours--they could often put the
social system out of joint, you know, if I wasn't
there to clog you and weigh you down. . . .

ŒDIPUS: (absent-mindedly): Perhaps.

CREON: Family feeling runs especially strong in me.
You are one of my family, after all, and I am as

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