CH. Alas for me wretched! I am a prophetess of horrors.
MES. Stretched in the dust are they beyond all dispute.
CH. Came they even to that? bitter then are thy tidings, yet speak them.
MES. Even thus [too surely] were they destroyed by brotherly hands.
CH. Even thus was the demon at once impartial to both.
MES. And he himself, to be sure of this, is cutting off the ill-fated
race.
CH. Over such events one may both rejoice and weep--[rejoice] at the
success of our city--but [mourn because][166] our princes, the two
generals, have portioned out the whole possession of their substance
with the hammer-wrought Scythian steel, and they will possess of land
just as much as they receive at their burial, carried off according to
the unhappy imprecations of their sire.
MES. The city is rescued, but earth hath drank the blood of the brother
princes through their slaughter of each other.
[_Exit_ MESSENGER.[167]
CH. Oh mighty Jove! and tutelary divinities of our city! ye that do in
very deed protect these towers of Cadmus, am I to rejoice and raise a
joyous hymn to the savior of our city, the averter of mischief, or shall
I bewail the miserable and ill-fated childless[168] commanders, who, in
very truth, correctly, according to their name,[169] full of rancor,
have perished in impious purpose? Oh dark and fatal curse of the race
and of OEdipus, what horrible chill is this that is falling upon my
heart?[170] I, like a Thyiad, have framed a dirge for the tomb, hearing
of the dead, dabbled in blood, that perished haplessly--verily this
meeting of spears was ill-omened. The imprecation of the father hath
taken full effect, and hath not failed: and the unbelieving schemes of
Laius have lasted even until now; and care is through our city, and the
divine declarations lose not their edge--Alas! worthy of many a sigh, ye
have accomplished this horror surpassing credence; and lamentable
sufferings have come indeed. This is self-evident, the tale of the
messenger is before my eyes--Double are our sorrows, double are the
horrors of them that have fallen by mutual slaughter; doubly shared are
these consummated sufferings. What shall I say? What, but that of a
certainty troubles on troubles are constant inmates of this house? But,
my friends, ply the speeding stroke of your hands about your heads,
before the gale of sighs, which ever wafts on its passage the bark, on
which no sighs are heard, with sable sails, the freighted with the dead,
untrodden for Apollo, the sunless, across Acheron, and to the invisible
all-receiving shore.[171]
But [enough]! for here are coming to this bitter office both Antigone
and Ismene. I am assured beyond all doubt that they will send forth a
fitting wail from their lovely deep-cinctured bosoms. And right it is
that we, before the sound of their wailing reach us, both ejaculate the
dismal-sounding chaunt of Erinnys, and sing a hateful paean to Pluto.
Alas! ye that are the most hapless in your sisterhood of all women that
fling the zone around their robes, I weep, I mourn, and there is no
guile about so as not to be truly wailing from my very soul.
SEMI-CHORUS. Alas! alas! ye frantic youths, distrustful of friends, and
unsubdued by troubles, have wretched seized on your paternal dwelling
with the spear.
SEMI-CH. Wretched in sooth were they who found a wretched death to the
bane of their houses.
SEMI-CH. Alas! alas! ye that overthrew the walls of your palace, and
having cast an eye on bitter monarchy, how have ye now settled your
claims with the steel?
SEMI-CH. And too truly hath awful Erinnys brought [the curses] of their
father OEdipus to a consummation.
SEMI-CH. Smitten through your left--Smitten in very truth, and through
sides that sprung from a common womb.
SEMI-CH. Alas for them, wretched! Alas! for the imprecations of death
which avenged murder by murder.
SEMI-CH. Thou speakest of the stroke that pierced through and through
those that were smitten in their houses and in their persons with
speechless rage, and the doom of discord brought upon them by the curses
of their father.
SEMI-CH. And moreover, sighing pervades the city, the towers sigh, the
land that loved her heroes sighs; and for posterity remains the
substance by reason of which, by reason of which,[172] contention came
upon them whom evil destiny, and the issue of death.
SEMI-CH. In the fierceness of their hearts they divided between them
the possessions, so as to have an equal share; but the arbiter[173]
escapes not censure from their friends, and joyless was their warfare.
SEMI-CH. Smitten by the steel, here they lie; and smitten by the
steel[174] there await them--one may perchance ask what?--the
inheritance of the tombs of their fathers.
SEMI-CH. From the house the piercing groan sends forth its sound loudly
over them, mourning with a sorrow sufferings as o'er its own,
melancholy, a foe to mirth, sincerely weeping from the very soul, which
is worn down while I wail for these two princes.
SEMI-CH. We may say too of these happy men that they both wrought many
mischiefs to their countrymen, and to the ranks of all the strangers,
that perished in great numbers in battle.
SEMI-CH. Ill-fated was she that bare them before all women, as many as
are mothers of children. Having taken to herself her own son for a
husband, she brought forth these, and they have ended their existence
thus by fraternal hands that dealt mutual slaughter.
SEMI-CH. Fraternal in very truth! and utterly undone were they by a
severing in no wise amicable, by frenzied strife at the consummation of
their feud.
SEMI-CH. But their emnity is terminated; and in the reeking earth is
their life-blood mingled, and truly are they of the same blood. A bitter
arbiter of strife is the stranger from beyond the sea, the whetted steel
that bounded forth from the fire; and bitter is the horrible distributer
of their substance, Mars, who hath brought the curse of their father
truly to its consummation.
SEMI-CH. Hapless youths! They have obtained their portion of
heaven-awarded woes, and beneath their bodies shall be a fathomless
wealth of earth.[175] Alas! ye that have made your houses bloom with
many troubles! And at its fall these Curses raised the shout of triumph
in shrill strain, when the race had been put to flight in total rout; a
trophy of Ate has been reared at the gate at which they smote each
other, and, having overcome both, the demon rested.
_Enter_ ANTIGONE _and_ ISMENE.