compulsion of the Gods, standing at their shields in battle, shall not be
slow to die fighting before the towers for their country; and I, having
betrayed my father, and my brother, and my own city, shall depart
coward-like from out of the land; but wherever I live, I shall appear vile.
No: by that Jove that dwelleth amidst the constellations, and sanguinary
Mars, who set up those sown men, who erst sprung from the earth, to be
kings of this country. But I will depart, and standing on the summit of the
battlements, stabbing myself over the dark deep lair of the dragon, where
the prophet appointed, will give liberty to the country--the word has been
spoken. But I go, by my death about to give no mean gift to the state, and
will rid this land of its affliction. For if every one, seizing what
opportunity he had in his power of doing good, would persist in it, and
bring it forward for his country's weal, states, experiencing fewer
calamities, henceforward might be prosperous.

CHOR. Thou camest forth, thou camest forth, O winged monster, production of
the earth, and the viper of hell, the ravager of the Cadmeans, big with
destruction, big with woes, in form half-virgin, a hostile prodigy, with
thy ravening wings, and thy talons that preyed on raw flesh, who erst from
Dirce's spot bearing aloft the youths, accompanied by an inharmonious lay,
thou broughtest, thou broughtest cruel woes to our country; cruel was he of
the Gods, whoever was the author of these things. And the moans of the
matrons, and the moans of the virgins, resounded in the house, in a voice,
in a strain of misery, they lamented some one thing, some another, in
succession through the city. And the groaning and the noise was like to
thunder, when the winged virgin bore out of sight any man from the city.
But at length came by the mission of the Pythian oracle Oedipus the unhappy
to this land of Thebes, to us then indeed delighted, but again came woes.
For he, wretched man, having gained the glorious victory over the enigmas,
contracts a marriage, an unfortunate marriage with his mother, and pollutes
the city. And fresh woes does the unfortunate man cause to succeed with
slaughter, devoting by curses his sons to the unhallowed contest.--With
admiration, with admiration we look on him, who is gone to kill himself for
the sake of his country's land; to Creon indeed having left lamentations,
but about to make the seven-towered gates of the land greatly victorious.
Thus may we be mothers, thus may we be blest in our children, O dear
Pallas, who destroyedst the blood of the dragon by the hurled stone,
driving the attention of Cadmus to the action, whence with rapine some
fiend of the Gods rushed on this land.

MESSENGER, JOCASTA, CHORUS.

MESS. Ho there! who is at the gate of the palace? Open, conduct Jocasta
from out of the house.--What ho! again--after a long time indeed, but yet
come forth, hear, O renowned wife of Oedipus, ceasing from thy
lamentations, and thy tears of grief.

JOC. O most dear man, surely thou comest bearing the news of some calamity,
of the death of Eteocles, by whose shield thou always didst go, warding off
the weapons of the enemy. What new message, I pray, dost thou come to
deliver? Is my son dead or alive? Tell me.

MESS. He lives, be not alarmed for this, for I will rid thee of this fear.

JOC. But what? In what state are our seven-towered ramparts?

MESS. They stand unshaken, nor is the city destroyed.

JOC. Come they in danger from the spear of Argos?

MESS. To the very extreme of danger; but the arms of Thebes came off
superior to the Mycenaean spear.

JOC. Tell me one thing, by the Gods, whether thou knowest any thing of
Polynices (since this is a concern to me also) whether he sees the light.

MESS. Thus far in the day thy pair of children lives.

JOC. Be thou blest. But how did ye stationed on the towers drive off the
spear of Argos from the gates? Tell me, that I may go and delight the old
blind man in the house with the news of his country's being preserved.

MESS. After that the son of Creon, he that died for the land, standing on
the summit of the towers, plunged the black-handled sword into his throat,
the salvation of this land, thy son placed seven cohorts, and their leaders
with them, at the seven gates, guards against the Argive spear; and he drew
up the horse ready to support the horse, and the heavy-armed men to
reinforce the shield-bearers, so that to the part of the wall which was in
danger there might be succor at hand. But from the lofty citadel we view
the army of the Argives with their white shields, having quitted Tumessus
and now come near the trench, at full speed they reached the city of the
land of Cadmus. And the paean and the trumpets at the same time from them
resounded, and off the walls from us. And first indeed Parthenopaeus the son
of the huntress (_Atalanta_) led his division horrent with their thick
shields against the Neitan[35] gate, having a family device in the middle
of his shield, Atalanta destroying the AEtolian boar with her
distant-wounding bow. And against the Praetan gate marched the prophet
Amphiaraues, having victims in his car, not bearing an insolent emblem, but
modestly having his arms without a device. But against the Ogygian gate
stood Prince Hippomedon, bearing an emblem in the middle of his shield, the
Argus gazing with his spangled[36] eyes, [some eyes indeed with the rising
of the stars awake,[37] and some with the setting closed, as we had the
opportunity of seeing afterward when he was dead.] But Tydeus was drawn up
at the Homoloian gate, having on his shield a lion's skin rough with his
mane, but in his right hand he bore a torch, as the Titan Prometheus,[38]
intent on firing the city. But thy son Polynices drew up his array at the
Crenean gate; but the swift Potnian mares, the emblem on his shield, were
starting through fright, well circularly[39] grouped within _the orb_ at
the handle of the shield, so that they seemed infuriated. But Capaneus, not
holding less notions than Mars on the approaching battle, drew up his
division against the Electran gate. Upon the iron embossments of his shield
was an earth-born giant bearing upon his shoulders a whole city, which he
had torn up from the foundations with bars, an intimation to us what our
city should suffer. But at the seventh gate was Adrastus, having his shield
filled with a hundred vipers, bearing on his left arm a representation of
the hydra, the boast of Argos, and from the midst of the walls the dragons
were bearing the children of the Thebans in their jaws. But I had the
opportunity of seeing each of these, as I took the word of battle to the
leaders of the divisions. And first indeed we fought with bows, and
javelins, and distant-wounding slings, and fragments of rocks; but when we
were conquering in the fight, Tydeus shouted out, and thy son on a sudden,
"O sons of the Danai, why delay we, ere we are galled with their missile
weapons, to make a rush at the gates all in a body, light-armed men,
horsemen, and those who drive the chariots?" And when they heard the cry,
no one was backward; but many fell, their heads besmeared with blood; of us
also you might have seen before the walls frequent divers toppling to the
ground; and they moistened the parched earth with streams of blood. But the
Arcadian, no Argive, the son of Atalanta, as some whirlwind falling on the
gates, calls out for fire and a spade, as though he would dig up the city.
But Periclymenus the son of the God of the Ocean stopped him in his raging,
hurling at his head a stone, a wagon-load, a pinnacle[40] _rent_ from the
battlement; and dashed in pieces his head with its auburn hair, and crushed
the suture of the bones, and besmeared with blood his lately blooming
cheeks; nor shall he carry back his living form to his mother, glorious in
her bow, the daughter of Maenalus. But when thy son saw this gate was in a
state of safety, he went to another, and I followed. But I see Tydeus, and
many armed with shields around him, darting with their AEtolian lances at
the highest battlements of the towers, so that our men put to flight
quitted the heights of the ramparts; but thy son, as a hunter, collects
them together again; and posted them a second time on the towers; and we
hasten on to another gate, having relieved the distress in this quarter.
But Capaneus, how can I express the measure of his rage! For he came
bearing the ranges of a long-reaching ladder, and made this high boast,
"That not even the hallowed fire of Jove should hinder him from taking the
city from its highest turrets." And these things soon as he had proclaimed,
though assailed with stones, he clambered up, having contracted his body
under his shield, climbing the slippery footing of the bars[41] of the
ladder: but when he was now mounting the battlements of the walls Jupiter
strikes him with his thunder; and the earth resounded, insomuch that all
trembled; and his limbs were hurled, as it were by a sling, from the ladder
separately from one another, his hair to heaven, and his blood to the
ground, and his limbs, like the whirling of Ixion on his wheel, were
carried round; and his scorched body falls to the earth. But when Adrastus
saw that Jove was hostile to his army, he stationed the host of the Argives
without the trench. But ours on the contrary, when they saw the auspicious
sign from Jove, drove out their chariots, horsemen and heavy-armed, and
rushing into the midst of the Argive arms engaged in fight: and there were
all the sorts of misery together: they died, they fell from their chariots,
and the wheels leaped up and axles upon axles: and corses were heaped
together with corses.--We have preserved then our towers from being
overthrown to this present day; but whether for the future this land will
be prosperous, rests with the Gods.

CHOR. To conquer is glorious; but if the Gods have the better intent, may I
be fortunate!

JOC. Well are the ways of the Gods, and of fortune; for my children live,
and my country has escaped; but the unhappy Creon seems to feel the effects
of my marriage, and of Oedipus's misfortunes, being deprived of his child;
for the state indeed, happily, but individually, to his misery: but recount
to me again, what after this did my two sons purpose to do?

MESS. Forbear the rest; for in every circumstance hitherto thou art
fortunate.

JOC. This hast thou said so as to raise suspicion; I must not forbear.

MESS. Dost thou want any thing more than that thy sons are safe?

JOC. In what follows also I would hear if I am fortunate.

MESS. Let me go: thy son is deprived of his armor-bearer.

JOC. Thou concealest some ill and coverest it in obscurity.

MESS. I can not speak thy ills after thy happiness.

JOC. _But thou shalt_, unless fleeing from me thou fleest through the air.

MESS. Alas! alas! Why dost thou not suffer me to depart after a message of
glad tidings, but forcest me to tell calamities?--Thy sons are intent on
most shameful deeds of boldness--to engage in single combat apart from the
whole army, having addressed to the Argives and Thebans in common a speech,
such as they never ought to have spoken. But Eteocles began, standing on
the lofty turret, having commanded to proclaim silence to the army. And he
said, "O generals of the Grecian land, and chieftains of the Danai, who
have come hither, and O people of Cadmus, neither for the sake of Polynices
barter your lives, nor for my cause. For I myself, taking this danger on
myself, alone will enter the lists with my brother; and if indeed I slay
him, I will dwell in the palace alone; but should I be subdued, I will give
it up to him alone. But you, ceasing from the combat, O Argives, shall
return to your land, not leaving your lives here; [of the Theban people
also there is enough that lieth dead,"] Thus much he spake; but thy son
Polynices rushed from the ranks, and approved his words. But all the
Argives murmured their applause, and the people of Cadmus, as thinking this
plan just. And after this the generals made a truce, and in the space
between the two armies pledged an oath to abide by it. And now the two sons
of the aged Oedipus clad their bodies in an entire suit of brazen armor.
And their friends adorned them, the champion of this land indeed the
chieftains of the Thebans; and him the principal men of the Danai. And they
stood resplendent, and they changed not their color, raging to let forth
their spears at each other. But their friends on either side as they passed
by encouraging them with words, thus spoke. "Polynices, it rests with thee
to erect the statue of Jove, emblem of victory, and to confer a glorious
fame on Argos." But to Eteocles on the other hand; "Now thou fightest for
the state, now if thou come off victorious, thou art in possession of the
sceptre." These things they said exhorting them to the combat. But the
seers sacrificed the sheep, and scrutinized the shooting of the flames, and
the bursting _of the gall_, the moisture adverse[42] _to the fire_, and the
extremity of the flame, which bears a two-fold import, both the sign of
victory,[43] and the sign of being defeated.[44] But if thou hast any
power, or words of wisdom, or the soothing charms of incantation, go, stay
thy children from the fearful combat, since great the danger, [and dreadful
will be the sequel of the contest, _namely_, tears for thee, deprived this
day of thy two children.]

JOC. O my child, Antigone, come forth from before the palace; the state of
thy fortune suits not now the dance, nor the virgin's chamber, but it is
thy duty, in conjunction with thy mother, to hinder two excellent men, and
thy brothers verging toward death from falling by each other's hands.

ANTIGONE, JOCASTA, CHORUS.

ANT. With what new horrors, O mother of my being, dost thou call out to thy
friends before the house?

JOC. O my daughter, the life of thy brothers is gone from them.

ANT. How sayest thou?

JOC. They are drawn out in single combat.

ANT. Alas me! what wilt thou say, my mother?

JOC. Nothing of pleasant import; but follow.

ANT. Whither? leaving my virgin chamber.

JOC. To the army.

ANT. I am ashamed to go among the crowd.

JOC. Thy present state admits not bashfulness.

ANT. But what shall I do then?

JOC. Thou shalt quell the strife of the brothers.

ANT. Doing what, my mother.

JOC. Falling before them with me.

ANT. Lead to the space between the armies; we must not delay.

JOC. Haste, daughter, haste, since, if indeed I reach my sons before they
engage, I still exist in heaven's fair light, but if they die, I shall lie
dead with them.

CHORUS.

Alas! alas! shuddering with horror, shuddering is my breast; and through my
flesh came pity, pity for the unhappy mother, on account of her two
children, whether of them then will distain with blood the other (alas me
for my sufferings, O Jove, O earth), the own brother's neck, the own
brother's life, in arms, in slaughter? Wretched, wretched I, over which
corse then shall I raise the lamentation for the dead? O earth, earth, the
two beasts of prey, blood-thirsty souls, brandishing the spear, will
quickly distain with blood the fallen, fallen enemy. Wretches, that they
ever came to the thought of a single combat! In a foreign strain will I
mourn with tears my elegy of groans due to the dead. Destiny is at
hand--death is near; this day will decide the event. Ill-fated, ill-fated
murder because of the Furies! But I see Creon here with clouded brow
advancing toward the house, I will cease therefore from the groans I am
uttering.

CREON, CHORUS.

CRE. Ah me! what shall I do? whether am I to groan in weeping myself, or
the city, which a cloud of such magnitude encircles as to cast us amidst
the gloom of Acheron? For my son has perished having died for the city,
having achieved a glorious name, but to me a name of sorrow. Him having
taken just now from the dragon's den, stabbed by his own hand, I wretched
bore in my arms; and the whole house resounds with shrieks; but I, myself
aged, am come after my aged sister Jocasta, that she may wash and lay out
my son now no more. For it behooves the living well to revere the God below
by paying honors to the dead.

CHOR. Thy sister is gone out of the house, O Creon, and the girl Antigone
attending the steps of her mother.

CRE. Whither? and for what hap? tell me.

CHOR. She heard that her sons were about to come to a contest in single
battle for the royal palace.

CRE. How sayest thou? whilst I was fondly attending to my son's corse, I
arrived not so far _in knowledge_, as to be acquainted with this also.

CHOR. But thy sister has indeed been gone some time; but I think, O Creon,
that the contest, in which their lives are at stake, has already been
concluded by the sons of Oedipus.

CRE. Ah me! I see indeed this signal, the downcast eye and countenance of
the approaching messenger, who will relate every thing that has taken
place.

MESSENGER, CREON, CHORUS.

MESS. O wretched me! what language or what words can I utter? we are
undone--

CRE. Thou beginnest thy speech with no promising prelude.

MESS. Oh wretched me! doubly do I lament, for I hear great calamities.

CRE. In addition to the calamities that have happened dost thou still speak
of others?

MESS. Thy sister's sons, O Creon, no longer behold the light.

CRE. Ah! alas! thou utterest great ills to me and to the state.

MESS. O mansions of Oedipus, do ye hear these things of thy children who
have perished by similar fates?

CHOR. Ay, so that, had they but sense, they would weep.

CRE. O most heavy misery! Oh me wretched with woes! alas! unhappy me!

MESS. If that thou knewest the evils yet in addition to these.

CRE. And how can there be more fatal ills than these?

MESS. Thy sister is dead with her two children.

CHOR. Raise, raise the cry of woe, and smite your heads with the blows of
your white hands.

CRE. Oh unhappy Jocasta, what an end of thy life and of thy marriage hast
thou endured in the riddles of the Sphinx![45] But how took place the
slaughter of her two sons, and the combat arising from the curse of
Oedipus? tell me.

MESS. The success of the country before the towers indeed thou knowest; for
the circuit of the wall is not of such vast extent, but that thou must know
all that has taken place. But after that the sons of the aged Oedipus had
clad their limbs in brazen armor, they came and stood in the midst of the
plain between the two armies, ready for the contest, and the fierceness of
the single battle. And having cast a look toward Argos, Polynices uttered
his prayer; "O venerable Juno (for I am thine, since in marriage I joined
myself with the daughter of Adrastus, and dwell in that land), grant me to
slay my brother, and to cover with blood my hostile hand bearing the
victory." And Eteocles looking at the temple of Pallas, glorious in her
golden shield, prayed; "O Daughter of Jove, grant me with my hand to hurl
my victorious spear from this arm home to the breast of my brother, [and
slay him who came to lay waste my country."] And when the sound of the
Tuscan trumpet was raised, as the torch, the signal for the fierce battle,
they sped with dreadful rush toward each other; and like wild boars
whetting their savage tusks, they met, their cheeks all moist with foam;
and they rushed forward with their lances; but they couched beneath the
orbs of their shields, in order that the steel might fall harmless. But if
either perceived the other's eye raised above the verge, he drove the lance
at his face, intent to be beforehand with him: but dexterously they shifted
their eyes to the open ornaments of their shields, so that the spear was
made of none effect. And more sweat trickled down the spectators than the
combatants, through the fear of their friends. But Eteocles, stumbling with
his foot against a stone, which rolled under his tread,[46] places his limb
without the shield. But Polynices ran up with his spear, when he saw a
stroke open to his steel, and the Argive spear passed through the shank.
And all the host of the Danai shouted for joy. And the hero who first was
wounded, when he perceived his shoulder exposed in this effort, pierced the
breast of Polynices with his lance, and gave joy to the citizens of Cadmus,
but he broke the point of his spear. But being come to a strait for a
spear, he retreated backward on his leg, and taking a stone of marble, he
hurled it and crashed _his antagonist's_ spear in the middle: and the
battle was on equal terms, both being deprived of the spear in their hands.
Then seizing the handles of their swords they met at close quarters, and,
as they clashed their shields together, raised a great tumult of battle
around them. And Eteocles having a sort of idea of its success, made use of
a Thessalian stratagem, _which he had learned_ from his connection with
that country. For giving up his present mode of attack, he brings his left
foot behind, protecting well the pit of his own stomach; and stepping
forward his right leg, he plunged the sword through the navel, and drove it
to the vertebrae. But the unhappy Polynices bending together his side and
his bowels falls weltering in blood. But the other, as he were now the
victor, and had subdued him in the fight, casting his sword on the ground,
went to spoil him, not fixing his attention on himself, but on that his
purpose. Which thing also deceived him; for Polynices, he that fell first,
still breathing a little, preserving his sword e'en in his deathly fall,
with difficulty indeed, but he did stretch his sword to the heart of
Eteocles. And holding the dust in their gripe they both fall near one
another, and determined not the victory.

CHOR. Alas! alas! to what degree, O Oedipus, do I groan for thy
misfortunes! but the God seems to have fulfilled thy imprecations.

MESS. Hear now then woes even in addition to these--For when her sons
having fallen were breathing their last, at this moment the wretched mother
rushes before them, and when she perceived them stricken with mortal wounds
she shrieked out, "Oh my sons, I am come too late a succor:" and throwing
herself by the side of her children in turn, she wept, she lamented with
moans her long anxiety in suckling them _now lost_: and their sister, who
accompanied to stand by her in her misery, at the same time _broke forth_;
"O supporters of my mother's age! Oh ye that have betrayed my hopes of
marriage, my dearest brothers!"--But king Eteocles heaving from his breast
his gasping breath, heard his mother, and putting out his cold clammy hand,
sent not forth indeed a voice; but from his eyes spoke her in tears to
signify affection. But Polynices, who yet breathed, looking at his sister
and his aged mother, thus spoke: "We perish, O my mother; but I grieve for
thee, and for this my sister, and my brother who lies dead, for being my
friend, he became my enemy, but still my friend.--But bury me, O mother of
my being, and thou my sister, in my native land, and pacify the exasperated
city, that I may obtain thus much at least of my country's land, although I
have lost the palace. And close my eyelids with thy hand, my mother" (and
he places it himself upon his eyes), "and fare ye well! for now darkness
surroundeth me." And both breathed out their lives together. And the
mother, when she saw what had taken place, beyond endurance grieving,
snatched the sword from the dead body, and perpetrated a deed of horror;
for she drove the steel through the middle of her throat, and lies dead on
those most dear to her, having each in her arms embraced. But the people
rose up hastily to a strife of opinions; we indeed, as holding, that my
master was victorious; but they, that the other was; and there was also a
contention between the generals, those on the other side _contended_, that
Polynices first struck with the spear, but those on ours that there was no
victory where the combatants died. [And in the mean time Antigone withdrew
from the army;] but they rushed to arms; but fortunately by a sort of
foresight the people of Cadmus had sat upon their shields: and we gained
the advantage of falling on the Argives not yet accoutred in their arms.
And no one made a stand, but flying they covered the plain; and immense
quantities of blood were spilt of the corses that fell, but when we were
victorious in the fight, some indeed raised the image of Jove emblem of
victory, but some of us stripping the shields from the Argive corses sent
the spoils within the city. But others with Antigone are bearing hither the
dead for their friends to lament over. But these contests have in some
respect turned out most happy for this state, but in other respect most
unhappy.

CHOR. No longer the misfortunes of the house come to our ears, we may also
see before the palace these three fallen corses, who have shared the dark
realms by a united death.

[_The dead bodies borne_.]

ANTIGONE, CREON, CHORUS.

ANT. Not veiling the softness of my cheek on which my ringlets fall, nor
caring for the purple glow of virginity under my lids, the blush of my
countenance, I am borne along the bacchanal of the dead, rending the fillet
from my hair, rejecting the saffron robe of delicateness, having the
mournful office of conducting the dead. Alas! alas! woe is me! Oh
Polynices, thou well answeredst to thy name! Alas me! Oh Thebes! but thy
strife, no strife, but murder consummated with murder,[47] hath destroyed
the house of Oedipus with dreadful, with mournful blood. But what groan
responsive to my sufferings, or what lament of music shall I invoke to my
tears, to my tears, O house, O house, bearing these three kindred bodies,
my mother, and her children, the joy of the fury? who destroyed the entire
house of Oedipus, what time intelligently[48] he unfolded the difficult
song of the fierce monster, having thereby slain the body of the fierce
musical Sphinx. Alas me! my father; what Grecian, or what Barbarian, or
what other of the noble in birth, of mortal blood, in time of old ever bore
such manifest sufferings of so many ills? Wretched I, how do I lament! What
bird, sitting on the highest boughs of the oak or pine, will sing
responsive to my lamentations, who have lost my mother? who weep the strain
of grief in addition to these moans _for my brothers_, about to pass my
long life in floods of tears.--Which shall I bewail? On which first shall I
scatter the first offerings rent from my hair? On my mother's two breasts
of milk, or upon the death-wounds of my two brothers? Alas! alas! Leave
thine house, bringing thy sightless eye, O aged father, Oedipus, show thy
wretched age, who within thy palace having poured the gloomy darkness over
thine eyes, draggest on a long[49] life. Dost thou hear wandering in the
hall,--resting thy aged foot upon the couch in a state of misery?

OEDIPUS, CREON, ANTIGONE, CHORUS.

OED. Why, O virgin, hast thou with the most doleful tears called me forth
leaning on the support of a blind foot[50] to the light, a bed-ridden man
from his darksome chamber, gray-headed, an obscure phantom of air--a dead
body beneath the earth--a flitting dream?

ANT. O father, thou shalt receive words of unhappy tidings; no longer do
thy children behold the light, nor thy wife, who ever was employed in
attending as a staff on thy blind foot, my father: alas me!

OED. Alas me, for my sufferings! for well may I groan and vociferate these
things. The three souls, tell me, my child, by what fate, how quitted they
this light?

ANT. Not for the sake of reproaching thee, nor exulting over thee, but for
grief I speak: thy evil genius, heavy with swords, and fire, and wretched
combats, has rushed down upon thy children, O my father.

OED. Alas me! ah! ah!

ANT. Why dost thou thus groan?

OED. Alas me! my children!

ANT. Thou wouldest grieve indeed, if looking on the chariot of the sun
drawn by its four steeds, thou couldest direct the sight of thine eyes to
these bodies of the dead.

OED. The evil of my sons indeed is manifest; but my wretched wife, by what
fate, O my child, did she perish?

ANT. Causing to all tears of grief they could not contain, to her children
she bared her breast, a suppliant she bared it, holding it up in
supplication. But the mother found her children at the Electran gate, in
the mead where the lotus abounds, contending with their lances in the
common war, as lions bred in the same cave, with the blood-wounds now a
cold, a gory libation, which Plato received, and Mars gave. And having
seized the brazen-wrought sword from the dead she plunged it into her
flesh, but with grief for her children she fell amidst her children. But
all these sufferings, O my father, has the God heaped this day upon our
house, whoever he be, that adds this consummation.

CHOR. This day hath been the beginning of many woes to the house of
Oedipus; but may life be more fortunate!

CRE. Now indeed cease from your grief, for it is time to think of the
sepulture. But hear these words, O Oedipus; Eteocles, thy son, hath given
to me the dominion of this land, giving them as a marriage portion to
Haemon, and _with them_ the bed of thy daughter Antigone. I therefore will
not suffer thee any longer to dwell in this land. For clearly did Tiresias
say, that never, whilst thou dost inhabit this land, will the state be
prosperous. But depart; and this I say not from insolence, nor being thine
enemy, but on account of thy evil genius, fearing lest the country suffer
any harm.

OED. O Fate, from the beginning how wretched [and unhappy] didst thou form
me, [if ever other man was formed!] whom, even before I came into the light
from my mother's womb, when yet unborn Apollo foretold that I should be the
murderer of my father Laius, alas! wretch that I am! And when I was born,
again my father who gave me life, seeks to take my life, considering that I
was born his enemy: for it was fated that he should die by my hands, and he
sends me, poor wretch, as I craved the breast, a prey for the wild beasts:
where I was preserved--for would that Cithaeron, it ought, had sunk to the
bottomless chasms of Tartarus, for that it did not destroy me; but the God
fixed it my lot to serve under Polybus my master: but I unhappy man, having
slain my own father, ascended the bed of my wretched mother, and begat
children, my brothers, whom I destroyed, having received down the curse
from Laius, and given it to my sons. For I was not by nature so utterly
devoid of understanding, as to have devised such things against my eyes,
and against the life of my children, without the interference of some of
the Gods. Well!--what then shall I ill-fated do? who will accompany me the
guide of my dark steps? She that lies here dead! living, well know I, she
would. But my noble pair of sons? I have no sons.--But still in my vigor
can I myself procure my sustenance? Whence?--Why, O Creon, dost thou thus
utterly kill me? for kill me thou wilt, if thou shalt cast me out of the
land. Yet will I not appear base, stretching my hands around thy knees, for
I can not belie my former nobleness, not even though my plight is
miserable.

CRE. Well has it been spoken by thee, that thou wilt not touch my knees,
but I can not permit thee to dwell in the land. But of these corses, the
one we must even now bear to the house; but the body of Polynices cast out
unburied beyond the borders of this land. And these things shall be
proclaimed to all the Thebans: "whoever shall be found either crowning the
corse, or covering it with earth, shall receive death for his offense." But
thou, ceasing from the groans for the three dead, retire, Antigone, within
the house, and behave as beseems a virgin, expecting the approaching day in
which the bed of Haemon awaits thee.

ANT. Oh father, in what a state of woes do we miserable beings lie! How do
I lament for thee! more than for the dead! For it is not that one of thy
ills is heavy, and the other not heavy, but thou art in all things unhappy,
my father.--But thee I ask, our new lord, [wherefore dost thou insult my
father here, banishing him from his country?] Why make thy laws against an
unhappy corse?

CRE. The determination of Eteocles this, not mine.

ANT. It is absurd, and thou a fool to enforce it.

CRE. How so? Is it not just to execute injunctions?

ANT. No, if they are base, at least, and spoken with ill intent.

CRE. What! will he not with justice be given to the dogs?

ANT. _No_, for thus do ye not demand of him lawful justice.

CRE. _We do_; since he was the enemy of the state, who least ought to be an
enemy.

ANT. Hath he not paid then his life to fortune?

CRE. And in his burial too let him now satisfy vengeance.

ANT. What outrage having committed, if he came after his share of the
kingdom?

CRE. This man, that you may know once for all, shall be unburied.

ANT. I will bury him; even though the city forbid it.

CRE. Thyself then wilt thou at the same time bury near the corse.

ANT. But that is a glorious thing, for two friends to lie near.

CRE. Lay hold of her, and bear her to the house.

ANT. By no means--for I will not let go this body.

CRE. The God has decreed it, O virgin, not as thou wilt.

ANT. And this too is decreed--that the dead be not insulted.

CRE. Around him none shall place the moist dust.

ANT. Nay, by his mother here Jocasta, I entreat thee, Creon.

CRE. Thou laborest in vain, for thou canst not obtain this.

ANT. But suffer thou me at any rate to bathe the body.

CRE. This would be one of the things forbidden by the state.

ANT. But let me put bandages round his cruel wounds.

CRE. In no way shalt thou show respect to this corse.

ANT. Oh most dear, but I will at least kiss thy lips.

CRE. Thou shalt not prepare calamity against thy wedding by thy
lamentations.

ANT. What! while I live shall I ever marry thy son?

CRE. There is strong necessity for thee, for by what means wilt thou escape
the marriage?

ANT. That night then shall find me one of the Danaidae.

CRE. Dost mark with what audacity she hath insulted us?

ANT. The steel be witness, and the sword, by which I swear.

CRE. But why art thou so eager to get rid of this marriage?

ANT. I will take my flight with my most wretched father here.

CRE. There is nobleness in thee; but there is some degree of folly.

ANT. And I will die with him too, that thou mayest farther know.

CRE. Go--thou shalt not slay my son--quit the land.

OEDIPUS, ANTIGONE, CHORUS.

OED. O daughter, I praise thee indeed for thy zealous intentions.

ANT. But if I were to marry, and thou suffer banishment alone, my father?

OED. Stay and be happy; I will bear with content mine own ills.

ANT. And who will minister to thee, blind as thou art, my father?

OED. Falling wherever it shall be my fate, I will lie on the ground.

ANT. But Oedipus, where is he? and the renowned Enigmas?

OED. Perished! one day blest me, and one day destroyed.

ANT. Ought not I then to have a share in thy woes?