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1–20 |
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1-99 162-190 280-283 332-364 441-457 1155-1171 |
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1-41 |
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1-39 |
Athene
[1] Always, son of Laertes, have I observed you prowling to seize some opportunity against your enemies; and now at the hut of Ajax by the ships, where he holds the last position, I see you have long been questing about and measuring his newly imprinted tracks, to see whether he is inside or not inside. And your steps lead you well to your goal, like that of a keen-scented Laconian hound; for the man happens to be inside even now, dripping with sweat from his head and from hands that have slain with the sword. There is no further need for you to peer inside this gate, but to tell me for what reason you have shown such eagerness, so that you may learn from her who knows.
Odysseus
[14] Voice of Athena, dearest of the gods to me, how well-known is the speech of yours that I hear and seize with my mind, even though you are out of my sight, as [sc. the sound of] a Tyrrhenian trumpet with brazen mouth. And now you have rightly guessed that I am circling round on the steps of a foeman, Ajax the shieldbearer. For it is him, and none other, that I have long been tracking down.
Antigone
[1] Sister Ismene, my own dear sister, do you know of any ill, of all those derived from Oedipus, that Zeus does not fulfil for us two while we live? For there is nothing painful, nothing fraught with ruin, nothing shameful, nothing dishonourable, that I have not seen as being in the number of our woes. And now what new edict is this of which men speak, that our captain has just published to the whole body of the city? Have you any knowledge of it? Have you heard? or does it escape you that evils belonging to our enemies are marching upon our friends?
Ismene
[11] To me indeed, Antigone, no word of friends has come, pleasant or painful, since we two sisters were bereft of our two brothers, killed in a single day by each other's hand; and since the Argive host is fled and gone, this night past, I know nothing further, whether my fortune is fairer or in greater distress.
Antigone
I know it well, and for this reason I sought to bring you forth beyond the court gates, that you might hear alone.
Ismene
What is it? For it is plain that you are darkly troubled by some tidings.
Antigone
[21] What? has not Creon deemed one of our two brothers worthy of a tomb, preferring in honour the one and holding in dishonour the other? Eteocles, as they say, with due usage of right and custom, he has laid in the earth, honoured among the dead below. But as for the corpse of the pitifully slain Polyneices, they say it has been publicly proclaimed to the citizens that he should not be accorded a burial and that none should mourn, but leave him unwept, unburied, a welcome treasure-store to the birds, when they look upon him, for their feeding pleasure. Such, men say, the good Creon has proclaimed for you and for me - yes, I say for me; and they say that he is coming here to publish this abroad and in unambiguous terms for the sake of those who do not know it, and that he does not count the matter light, but whoever does any of this, for him, they say, is prescribed death by stoning in the city. This is how things stand for you, and presently you will show whether you are nobly bred or the base offspring of good stock.
Ismene
[38] My poor sister, if this is how things stand, what should I be profited by seeking to loosen or to tighten the knot?
Antigone
Consider whether you will cooperate and help to accomplish the deed.
Ismene
What manner of hazard? What ever is your meaning?
Antigone
Consider whether you will aid this hand of mine to lift the dead [for burial].
Ismene
Are you really thinking of burying him, when it is forbidden to the city?
Antigone
I will certainly bury my brother, and yours too, if you will not; for I shall never be found to have been his betrayer.
Ismene
Overbold! when Creon has forbidden it?
Antigone
Yet he has no right to keep me from my own.
Ismene
[49] Ah me! think, sister, how our father died, hateful [to mankind] and inglorious, moved by self-detected offences to strike both eyes, of his own free will and with hand turned against himself; then the mother and wife, a two-fold name, with twisted noose made ruin of her own life; and last, our two brothers in one day - luckless men, each himself the slayer of the other - wrought with mutual hands their common doom. And now we in our turn - we two left all alone - consider how most miserably we shall perish, if in defiance of the law we transgress against the edict of a king, or offend against his powers. Yet we must bear in mind, on the one hand, that we were born women, showing that we were not meant to strive with men; and then on the other hand that we are ruled of the stronger, so that we should hearken both in regard to these things, and things still more painful than these. I therefore shall ask the gods below to pardon, seeing that I am constrained in these matters, and shall hearken to those who are in office; for there is no sense in being overbusy.
Antigone
[69] I would not urge you, nor, even if you were willing to act hereafter, would you do so with agreement on my part. But be such as seems good to you, I will bury him; 'tis well for me to die in doing so. Beloved by him shall I lie with him, with him whom I have loved, I who have dared a righteous crime; since it is a longer time that I must spend pleasing those below than those here. For there shall I abide forever. If it seems right to you, be guilty of dishonouring the honoured things of the gods.
Ismene
I do them no dishonour, but as for acting against the will of the citizens, I am incapable of it.
Antigone
You may make these excuses; but now I will go to raise a burial mound for a brother most dear.
Ismene
Alas for you, unhappy one! How I fear for you!
Antigone
Fear not for me; guide your own fate aright.
Ismene
Well, at least disclose this plan to none, but hide it closely, and so too will I.
Antigone
Oh, denounce it! You will be far more hateful by keeping silent, if you do not proclaim these things to all.
Ismene
You have a hot heart for chilling deeds.
Antigone
But I know that I am pleasing those whom I am most bound to please.
Ismene
Yes, if you shall also have the power; but you have a desire for what is impracticable.
Antigone
Well then, so soon as I no longer have the strength, I will cease forthwith.
Ismene
It is not fitting to chase after things which are incapable of achievement in to begin with.
Antigone
If this is what you will say, you will have hatred on my part, and you will justly be subject to the lasting enmity of the dead. But let me and the folly on my part suffer this dread thing; for I shall suffer nothing so dreadful as not dying well.
Ismene
Well, if you are determined, proceed; and know this, that you are going on a foolish errand, but that you are truly dear to your friends.
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Creon
[162] Sirs, the gods have once again safely righted the vessel of our state, after shaking it with much tossing; by messengers I have caused you to set forth, out of all the folk, so that you should come here, apart from them; because I knew, in the first place, how constant was your reverence for the powers belonging to Laius' throne; and then again, when Oedipus was ruler of our city, and when he had perished, how you still kept yourself about those men's offspring with steadfast sentiments. Since then those sons fell in the course of a single day by a twofold doom, each of them both striking and being smitten by the stain of a kinsman's blood, I now possess the throne and all its power, by virtue of my nearness of kinship to the dead.
[175] Now it is impossible fully to know the soul and spirit and mind of any man, until he be found versed in duties-of-administration and laws. For whoever guides the whole city and cleaves not to the best counsels, but from some fear keeps his mouth shut, seems now and has always seemed to me to be most base; and whoever considers a friend as more important than his own country, I reckon that man of no account. For I – may Zeus know, who sees all things always – would not remain silent if I saw ruin, instead of safety, coming to the citizens; nor would I ever hold an enemy of the land as a friend to myself; knowing this, that she [= our country] is the one who bears us safe, and it is only while she remains upright, as we sail on her, that we make the friends [whom we really make].
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Creon
[280] Cease, before you quite fill me with anger by your words, lest you be found both foolish and old at once. For you say what is not to be borne, when you say that the gods take thought for this corpse.
Chorus
[334] Wonders are many, and yet none is more wonderful than man; this [wondrous power of man] also crosses to the other side of the hoary sea, driven by the wintry south-wind, passing under swelling waters that threaten to engulf him; and the eldest of the gods, Earth the imperishable, the unwearied, does he work to his advantage, as the ploughs move to and fro from year to year, while he turns up the soil with the offspring of horses.
[343] And the race of light-hearted birds he snares in the coils of woven nets, and the tribes of savage beasts, and the sea-brood of the deep - he drives them captive, man excellent in wit. And he masters by his art the mountain-roaming beast whose lair is in the wild; and he tames the horse of shaggy mane, putting the yoke about his neck, and the untiring mountain bull.
[354] And speech, and wind-swift thoughts, and the feelings of social life, he has taught himself, and how to flee the shafts of inhospitable frosts out in the open, and the shafts of winter storms, resourceful that he is; he approaches nothing that might occur resourceless; the only thing he will not procure is a means of escape from death; but from baffling ailments he has devised escapes.
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Creon
[441] You! You who are bending your head to the ground, do you confirm or do you deny that you did this deed?
Antigone
[443] I do confirm that I did it, and I make no denial.
Creon
[444] [to Guard] You may betake yourself where you will, clear of a heavy charge and free. [to Antigone] Now you tell me, not at length but succinctly, did you know that it had been proclaimed not to do this?
Antigone
[448] I knew it. How could I not? For it was public.
Creon
[449] And then you had the audacity to transgress that law?
Antigone
[450] Yes, for as far as I am concerned, Zeus was not the one who published it, nor did she who dwells with the gods below, Justice, establish such laws among men; nor did I imagine that your decrees were so strong that you, who are mortal, could override the unwritten and unfailing statutes of the gods. For these are not of today or yesterday, but they live for all time, and nobody knows from when they [first] appeared.
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Messenger
[1155] Dwellers by the house of Cadmus and of Amphion, there is no kind of human life that I would ever praise, or complain of, as being fixed. For fortune makes to rise and makes to fall both the fortunate and the unfortunate, and there is no prophet among men about what is established. For Creon was blest once, as I count bliss, having saved this land of Cadmus from its foes, and taking complete sovereignty of the land, he governed it, fruitful in the noble offspring of children; and now all has been lost. For when men forfeit their pleasure, I count this man not as living, but I consider him a living corpse. Accumulate wealth in your house exceedingly, if you will, and live with the pomp of a king; but if gladness is wanting in these things, I would not buy the rest from a man for a shadow of smoke, in comparison with pleasure.
Oedipus
[1] Antigone, daughter of a blind old man, to
what region have we come, or what city of men? Who will entertain the wandering
Oedipus this day with scanty gifts? Little do I ask, still less than little do
I get - and this is enough for me. For my sufferings and the attendant length
of years, and nobility last but not least, teaches me to be content. But, my
child, if you see any resting-place, whether on unhallowed ground or by the
groves of the gods, halt me and show me to a seat, that we may find out where
we are; for we stand in need to learn, as strangers of townsfolk, and to
perform whatever we hear we must do.
Antigone
[14] Father, toil-worn Oedipus, the towers which
protect the city, to judge from sight, are far off; and this place is sacred,
as one may plainly guess, teeming with laurel, olive, vine; and thick-feathered
nightingales [multitudinous] sing sweetly in the heart of it. Rest your limbs
here on this unhewn rock; for you have advanced a long way for an old man.
Oedipus
[21] Seat me then, and watch over the blind.
Antigone
As for this [if time can teach], I do not need to learn that.
Oedipus
Can you tell me now where we have arrived?
Antigone
Athens at any rate I know, but not this place.
Oedipus
Yes, this much every wayfarer told us.
Antigone
Well, shall I go and find out what the spot is called?
Oedipus
Yes, child, if indeed it is habitable.
Antigone
Nay, but it is inhabited, and I do not think it is necessary,
for I see a man near us here.
Oedipus
Is he coming this way and setting out [from the abodes]?
Antigone
Actually he is already at our side; and whatever the moment
prompts you to say, speak it, as the man is here.
Oedipus
Stranger, hearing from this maiden, who has sight both for herself
and for me, that you have approached us as an opportune enquirer into matters
about which we are unclear, so as to explain -
Stranger
Now before you question me on the details, quit this seat; for
you are occupying ground which it is not lawful to tread.
Oedipus
And what is this ground? To which of the gods is it deemed to
belong?
Stranger
Ground inviolable and uninhabited; for the dread godesses hold
it, the daughters of Earth and Darkness.
Oedipus
Whose august name am I to hear and invoke?
Oedipus
[1] My Children, late brood of Cadmus of yore, why pray are you seated here like this, bearing the garlanded branches of supplication? The city is filled at once with incense, and with prayers-for-health and cries-of-woe; I thinking it right, my children, not to hear these things from messengers, at second hand, have come here myself, called Oedipus famous in the sight of all.
[9] Tell me then, old man, since you are clearly the person to speak on behalf of these, in what mood do you stand here, having conceived what fear or what desire? Be sure that I would gladly offer all help. For hard-hearted would I be if did not pity such a supplication.
Priest
[14] Nay, Oedipus, ruler of my land, you see of what years we are who beset your altars, some not yet strong to fly a long way, some heavy with age, priests, as I of Zeus, and these, the chosen youth. The rest of the people sit with wreathed branches in the marketplaces, and at the two temples of Pallas, and at the oracular ashes of Ismenus [= where Ismenus gives answer by fire]. For the city, as you yourself see, is now too tempest-tossed and can no longer lift her head from the depths of the deadly tempest-tossing, wasting away in the fruitful buds of the land, wasting away in the herds at pasture and in the barren pangs of women; and withal the flaming god, the hateful plague, has swooped on us and persecutes the city; by him the house of Cadmus is made waste, and black Hades is made rich in groans and lamentations. [31] It is not as deeming you ranked with gods that I, or these children, are sitting-as-suppliants at your hearth, but as deeming you first of men, both in the ordinary chances of life, and in the interchanges (of men) with deities; seeing that you released us, when you came to the town of Cadmus, from the tax that we rendered to the hard songstress; and that too, though you knew nothing more from us and had not been instructed, but by a god’s aid you are reputed and deemed to have restored our life.
Odysseus
[1] Here is the shore of the sea-girt land of Lemnos, untrodden of men and uninhabited, where, O Neoptolemus, true bred son of your father Achilles, noblest of the Greeks, I abandoned the Malian son of Poeas once, instructed to do this by my masters, as he had a foot running with a devouring sore; because we could touch [=attempt] neither drink- offering nor sacrifice in peace, but with his fierce ill-omened howls he stopped the entire army [from sacrificing], shrieking, moaning. But what need is there to speak of that?