ŒD. 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!
ŒD. 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.
ŒD. Alas me! ah! ah!
ANT. Why dost thou thus groan?
ŒD. 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.
ŒD. 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 Œdipus;
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 Œdipus; Eteocles, thy son, hath given to
me the dominion of this land, giving them as a marriage portion to Hæmon,
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.
ŒD. 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 Laïus, 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 Cithæron, 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 Laïus, 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 Hæmon 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 Danaïdæ.
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.