KREON.

Be then his thoughts and actions more than mortal.
He shall not quit from death these maidens two.

CHORUS.

And hast thou doomed them both to instant death?

KREON.

Not her who touched him not.-Thou sayest well.

CHORUS.

And for the other, what the mode of death?

KREON.

Where mortal feet have never stept I'll take her,
And there entomb her in a rocky chamber,
Alive, with so much food before her set
As may suffice to expiate the curse,
That so the general city 'scape pollution.
And there, beseeching Hades, whom alone
Of all the Gods she worships, let her gain,
If gain she can, a license not to die:

Or, come what will, she then at least will learn
'Tis wasted toil to reverence the dead.

VIII. THIRD STASIMON.

CHORUS.

STROPHE.

LOVE in the fight invincible:

Love! whose attacks at once enslave:

Who on the young maid's delicate cheeks thy nightly

vigils keepest:

Who roamest o'er the main and mid the rustic cots !

None can escape thee,-neither Gods immortal,

Nor men whose lives are fleeting as the day:

He raves whom thou possessest.

σὺ καὶ δικαίων ἀδίκους

ἀντιστ

φρένας παρασπᾷς ἐπὶ λώβᾳ· σὺ καὶ τόδε νεῖκος ἀν

δρῶν ξύναιμον ἔχεις ταράξας·

*

νικᾷ δ ̓ ἐναργὴς βλεφάρων ἵμερος εὐλέκτρου νύμφας, τῶν μεγάλων * παιδὶ πάρεδρος θεσμῶν· ἄμαχος γὰρ ἐμπαίζει θεὸς Ἀφροδίτα.

780

νῦν δ' ἤδη 'γω καὐτὸς θεσμῶν ἔξω φέρομαι τάδ' ὁρῶν, ἴσχειν δ'

οὐκ ἔτι πηγὰς δύναμαι δακρύων, τὸν παγκοίταν ὅθ ̓ ὁρῶ θάλαμον τήνδ' Αντιγόνην ἀνύτουσαν.

σύστημα.

785

Θ. ΕΠΕΙΣΟΔΙΟΝ ΤΕΤΑΡΤΟΝ ΚΑΙ ΚΟΜΜΟΣ ΠΡΩΤΟΣ.

ΑΝΤΙΓΟΝΗ.

782

ΟΡΑΤ' ἔμ ̓, ὦ γας πατρίας πολῖται,

τὰν νεάταν ὁδὸν

στείχουσαν, νέατον δὲ φέγγος

στρ. ά.

790

λεύσσουσαν ἀελίου, κού ποτ ̓ αὖθις· ἀλλά μ' ό παγ

γρ. μεγ. πάρεδρος ἐν ἀρχαῖς.

796

γρ. ἐπινυμφίδιος.

ANTISTROPHE.

Thou too the upright mind to wrong pervertest,

Till mischief comes.

Thou too hast stirred this strife of kindred men.

Love, that was learnéd in the lustrous eyes

Of her whose bridal bed he coveted,

A son constrains,

Benching for him, with equal voice,

Beside the holiest laws: for there resistless
The goddess Aphrodite holds her revels.

(Antigone is led forth by the guards.)

(Anapastic Movement.)

I, even I, from the bondage of laws am
Carried away, as this spectacle greets me!
Fountains of tears no longer I check when I
See Antigone bound for the chamber where
All men are destined to slumber.

IX. FOURTH EPISODE AND FIRST KOMMOS.

ANTIGONE.

SEE me, ye citizens of my father-land,

Treading the last of paths,-the latest sun-light
Beholding now, and ne'er again. But Hades,

Who lays all men to rest, leads me still living
To the banks of Acheron ;

The Hymenæal strain denied me,

Nor hath any bridal hymn

Hymned me as yet; but Acheron will wed me.

805

τὰν Φρυγίαν ξέναν

Ταντάλου, Σιπύλῳ πρὸς ἄκρῳ·

τὰν, κισσὸς ὡς ἀτενὴς, πετραία βλάστα δάμασεν

καί νιν

†ὄμβροι τακομέναν,

ὡς φάτις ἀνδρῶν,

χιών τ ̓ οὐδαμὰ λείπει,

τέγγει †δ ̓ ὑπ ̓ ὀφρύσι παγκλαύτοις δειράδας ᾧ με

δαίμων ὁμοιοτάταν κατευνάζει.

ΧΟΡΟΣ.

ἀλλὰ θεός τοι καί θεογεννής ἡμεῖς δὲ βροτοὶ καὶ θνητογενεῖς· καί τοι φθιμενῳ τοῖς ἰσοθέοις ἔγκληρα λαχεῖν μέγ ̓ ἀκοῦσαι.

ΑΝΤΙΓΟΝΗ.

810

815

οἴμοι γελῶμαι. τί με, πρὸς θεῶν πατρῴων, στρ. β'.

οὐκ τοὐλομέναν ὑβρίζεις,

ἀλλ ̓ ἐπίφαντον ;

808

γρ. ὄμβρῳ.

811

γρ. τέγγει θ'.

815, 816 γρ. μέγ ̓ ἀκοῦσαι τοῖς ἰσοθ. ἔγκληρα λαχεῖν.

818

γρ. ὀλομέναν.

CHORUS.

Nay, but renowned and freighted with praises,
To the dark recess of the dead thou departest.
Wasting disease has not smitten thy form,

Nor the meed of the sword thy portion has been.
Self-controlled and alive thou wilt go,

Thou only of mortals, to Hades!

ANTIGONE.

Erewhile I heard how piteously perished

That Phrygian dame, who came to rule among us,
The child of Tantalus,

Whom, clinging to her as the ivy clings,

A sprouting rock controlled,

And as she wastes away, the legend tells us,

She lacks nor rain nor snow,

But still, beneath her ever-weeping brows,
Bedeweth she her bosom :

Likest to her, fate leads me to my rest !

CHORUS.

A Goddess was she, and Gods were her fathers:
We are but mortals, and mortal our sires :
Bethink thee how great for a perishing soul,
To challenge the fame of the Godlike!

ANTIGONE.

Ah! I am laughed to scorn! why by my father's Gods

Dost so deride me ere my death,

While yet the sun beholds me?

SOPH. ANT.

G