ANTIGONE.

O tomb, O bridal chamber, O thou dwelling,
Dug in the solid rock, and ever guarded!
Whither I go to join my kindred dead.
Dead are they few remain—and Persephassa
Has taken them to herself. And I the last,
And far most miserably, shall now descend
Before my term of life has reached the close
Allotted me by fate. Yet, going thither,
I cherish it among my fondest hopes,
I shall be welcomed with my father's love,
With thy affection, mother, and thy love,

O brother mine; because, when that ye died,

For never

With mine own hands I bathed and deckt you all,
And poured around your sepulchres libations
Due to the tomb: but now, O Polyneikes,
Such is my meed for honouring thy corse.
Yet did I well to honour thee, if those
Who judge aright will judge the deed.
Or had I lost the children I had borne,
Or had my husband pined away in death,
Would I have taken up this toil, defying
The public will. And wherefore say I this?
What rule of right is there?--My husband dead,
Another husband might have filled his place.
And if I lost my child, another mate
Might have begotten me another son.
But now that Hades veils from mortal eyes
Father and mother both, there is no root
From which a brother's life could bloom again.
Guided by such a rule, I thought it meet
To seek thy honour, and neglect all else:
But Kreon deems it sin and dire transgression,
O brother mine! And now he leads me forth
By force of hand, unbedded and unwedded,

ἄλεκτρον, ἀνυμέναιον, οὔτε του γάμου
μέρος λαχοῦσαν, οὔτε παιδείου τροφῆς
ἀλλ ̓ ὧδ ̓ ἔρημος πρὸς φίλων ἡ δύσμορος,
ζῶσ ̓ εἰς θανόντων ἔρχομαι κατασκαφάς.
ποίαν παρεξελθοῦσα δαιμόνων δίκην ;
τί χρή με τὴν δύστηνον ἐς θεοὺς ἔτι
βλέπειν; τίν ̓ αὐδᾷν ξυμμάχων; ἐπεί γε δὴ
τὴν δυσσέβειαν εὐσεβοῦσ ̓ ἐκτησάμην.
ἀλλ ̓, εἰ μὲν οὖν τάδ ̓ ἐστὶν ἐν θεοῖς καλά,
παθόντες ἂν ξυγγνοῖμεν ἡμαρτηκότες
εἰ δ ̓ οἵδ ̓ ἁμαρτάνουσι, μὴ πλείω κακὰ
πάθοιεν, ἢ καὶ ὁρῶσιν ἐκδίκως ἐμέ.

ΧΟΡΟΣ.

ἔτι τῶν αὐτῶν ἀνέμων αὐταὶ

895

900

The promised nuptial tie denied to me,

And the sweet care of children.

Ill-starred maid!

Thus reft of friends I go, while yet alive,

Down to the cavernous chambers of the dead!
In what sort have I wronged the laws of heaven?
Ah! why, unhappy, must I still regard

The Gods-what aid invoke? when now I earn
The name of impious by my piety.

Then be it so if heaven approves these deeds,
My punishment shall prove to me my guilt;
But if the sin is theirs, may they not suffer
More sorrow than they wrongly wreak on me!

(Kreon comes forward again.)

CHORUS.

(Anapastic Movement.)

Blowing still from the self-same quarter the
Storm of the soul this maiden possesseth.

KREON.

For this, and for loitering thus by the way,
With weeping and wailing these guards shall atone.

ANTIGONE.

Ah me! this announcement has come to mine ears, The near neighbour of death!

CHORUS.

No comfort I give for the confident hope
That this sentence will lack its fulfilment.

ANTIGONE.

Land of my fathers! city of Thebe!

Gods of my lineage!

καίτοι † καὶ γενεᾷ τίμιος, ὦ παῖ, παῖ,

καὶ Ζηνὸς ταμιεύεσκε γονὰς χρυσορύτους.

ἀλλ ̓ ἡ μοιριδία τις δύνασις δεινά

οὔτ ̓ ἄν νιν όλβος, οὔτ ̓ Ἄρης,

αν

οὐ πύργος, οὐχ ἁλίκτυποι κελαιναὶ ναες ἐκφύγοιεν.

ζεύχθη δ' †ὀξύχολος παῖς ὁ Δρύαντος,

Ηδωνῶν βασιλεὺς, κερτομίοις οργαῖς,

925

ἀντ. ά.

ἐκ Διονύσου πετρώδει κατάφαρκτος ἐν δεσμῷ. 930

οὕτω τας μανίας δεινὸν ἀποστάζει

ἀνθηρόν τε μένος κεῖνος ἐπέγνω + δὲ * δύαις

ψαύων τὸν θεὸν ἐν κερτομίοις γλώσσαις.

παύεσκε μὲν γὰρ ἐνθέους

γυναῖκας, εὔϊόν τε πῦρ, φιλαύλους το

935

They seize me-no longer I tarry!

See me, the only surviving branch of the
'Princes of Thebe,

See what a doom, and from whom, is upon me,
Because I the holy have hallowed !

(Antigone is led away.)

X. FOURTH STASIMON.

CHORUS.

E'en Danaë's form endured to lose

In brass-clampt halls the light of heaven.

STROPHE I.

Concealed and pent was she in tomb-like chamber;

And yet, my child, my child,

From lineage high she came,

And husbanded the seed of Zeus,

Flowing in golden streams.

The power of destiny is mighty still!

Nor wealth nor war,

Nor tower on land, nor the black ships, sea-stricken,

Can escape it.

ANTISTROPHE I.

He too, so keen in wrath, the son of Dryas,

Edonia's King, received the yoke,

Thanks to his taunting mood,

By Dionysus closed around with rocky bonds.

So mighty and so vigorous the strength

Of madness which distilled from him.

But sorrow taught him

It was a God his jeering tongue had mocked.

For he sought to let and hinder
The dames possessed by God,
And the Bacchanalian torches ;