Euripides

“ Many an ill to Oedipus' house begins
This day. May happier life be yet in store!
Kreon.
Refrain laments: time is it we gave heed
To burial. Unto these words, Oedipus,⁠1585
Hearken: thy son Eteokles gave me rule
O'er this land, making it a marriage-dower
To Haimon with thy child Antigonê.
Therefore thou mayest dwell therein no more;
For plainly spake Teiresias—never Thebes⁠1590
Shall prosper while thou dwellest in the land. ”

“ And thrust Polyneikes banished forth the land.
To Argos fares he, weds Adrastus' child,
And bringeth huge war-muster of Argive shields.
To our very walls seven-gated hath he come,
Claiming his father's sceptre and his right.⁠80
And I, to allay their strife, persuaded son
In truce to meet son, ere they touch the spear:
And, saith the messenger I sent, he comes.
O dweller Zeus in heaven's veiling light,
Save us, grant reconciling to my sons!⁠85
Thou oughtest not, so thou be wise, to leave
The same man evermore to be unblest. ”

“ I dwell, mine eyes a fountain ever of tears.⁠370
Thee too, for sorrow's crown of sorrow, I see
With shaven head, and in dark mourning robes
Clad—woe is me for my calamities!
Mother, how dire is strife betwixt near kin,
How hopeless reconciliation is!⁠375
What doth mine ancient father in his halls,
Whose light is dark? What of my sisters twain?
Do these bemoan mine exile's misery?
Jocasta.
Foully doth some God ruin Oedipus' line.
Thus it began—I bare forefended issue;⁠380
Wed under curse thy sire,—and thou wast born!
Yet wherefore this? The Gods' will must we bear. ”

“ Teiresias.
Hear then the tenor of mine oracle,
What deed of yours shall save the Thebans' town.
Menoikeus must thou slay for fatherland,
Thy so—since thou thyself demandest fate.
Kreon.
How say'st thou? Ancient, what was this thy word?⁠915
Teiresias.
As hath been doomed, even this thou needs must do.
Kreon.
Oh countless ills told in one little word!
Teiresias.
Thine ills—but great salvation for thy land.
Kreon.
I hearkened not!—heard not!—away, thou Thebes!
Teiresias.
Not the same man is this: he flincheth now.⁠920
Kreon. ”

“ Hail, rock that flashest a splendour of light
From the cloven tongue of thy flame o'er the height
⁠Of the Bacchic peak Dionysus haunteth!
Hail, vine that with each morn offerest up
Thy giant cluster to brim the cup⁠230
⁠That never the mystic ritual wanteth! [3]
Hail, cavern revered where the Dragon abode!
Hail, watchtower scaur of the Archer-god!
Hail, snow-smitten ridges by mortal untrod!
⁠O that the wreaths of the dance I were weaving,
⁠With soul unafraid, to the Goddess undying,
⁠These fear-stricken waters of Dirkê leaving
⁠For Apollo's dells [4] by the world's heart lying! ”

“ Thy mediation for the which thou hast wrought⁠450
On me to admit this man within our walls.
Jocasta.
Forbear: haste brings not justice in its train:
But slow speech winneth oftenest wisdom's end.
Refrain fierce look and passion's stormy breath:
The Gorgon's severed head thou seest not:⁠455
Thou seest thine own brother hither come.
And thou, unto thy brother turn thy face,
Polyneikes; for, if thou but meet his eye,
Thou shalt the better speak, and hear his words. ”

“ And for Adrastus and the Argives make
Bitter return, their eyes with black death palled,⁠950
And make Thebes glorious. One of these two fates
Choose: either save the city, or thy son.
Now hast thou all my tale. Lead on, my child,
Homeward. Who useth the diviner's art
Is foolish. If he heraldeth ill things,⁠955
He is loathed of those to whom he prophesies.
If, pitying them that seek to him, he lie,
He wrongs the Gods. Sole prophet unto men
Ought Phœbus to have been, who feareth none. ”

“ How with shame and piteous usage from the homeland I am driven,
Like a bondman, not a son of very Oedipus that came.
City, whatsoe'er befall thee, blame not me: yon tyrant blame.
Willingly I came not, from the land am cast unwillingly.⁠630
Farewell, Phœbus, Highway-king, O palace-bowers, farewell ye!
Friends of youth, farewell, and statues of the Gods where sheep are slain!
For I know not if to me 'tis given to speak to you again.
But my hope not yet doth sleep, wherein I trust, with Gods to aid,
Him to slay, and hold the land of Thebes beneath my sceptre swayed.⁠635
Eteokles. ”

“ Who brought in ruin the house of Oedipus low,
⁠In the day when the Songstress Sphinx's strain,
⁠So hard to read, by his wisdom was read,
⁠And the fierce shape down unto earth was sped?
⁠Woe for me, father mine!
⁠Who hath borne griefs like unto thine?
⁠What Hellene, or alien, or who that sprang⁠1510
⁠Of the ancient blood of a high-born line,
Whose race in a day is run, hath endured in the sight of the sun
⁠Such bitter pang? ”

“ When Oedipus, king of Thebes, was ware that he had fulfilled the oracle uttered ere he was born, in that he had slain his father, king Laius, and wedded his mother Jocasta, he plucked out his own eyes in his shame and misery. So he ceased to be king; but, inasmuch as his two sons rendered to him neither love nor worship, he cursed them with this curse, "that they should divide their inheritance with the sword." But they essayed to escape this doom by covenanting to rule in turn, year by year. ”

“ That in lordship over Thebes I sway the sceptre, wear the crown.
Have thou done with tedious admonitions then, and let me be:
And, for thee, thou get thee forth these walls, ere death shall light on thee.
Polyneikes.
Death?—of whom?—what man so woundless, as to plunge his murderous sword
Into this my body, and not win himself the like reward?⁠595
Eteokles.
Nigh he is: not far thou standest: lo, these hands—hast eyes to see?
Polyneikes.
Yea—and know how clings to life that craven thing, prosperity! [10]
Eteokles. ”

“ But thou thy mourning for the corpses three,⁠1635
Antigonê, leave, and get thee within doors.
Thy maiden state until the morrow keep,
Whereon the couch of Haimon waiteth thee.
Antigone.
Father, in what ills is our misery whelmed!
For thee I make moan more than for the dead.⁠1640
Thine ills are not part heavy and part light,
But in all things art thou in woeful case. ”

“ All, failing to solve it, were torn to pieces, till Oedipus expounded it thus:—
"Hearken, how loth soever, thou foul-winged Muse of the slain,
⁠Unto my voice which tells thee the end of thy guile and thy doom.
⁠Man is the thing thou hast named: four-footed he crawls on the plain,
⁠What time he hath first come forth a babbling babe from the womb.
⁠And when he is old, must a staff, as a third foot, his weakness sustain,
⁠As he stoopeth his neck 'neath the load of his years, as he bows to the tomb."
Thereupon the Sphinx hurled herself from the rock, and was killed. ”

“ Yet against a battle-blencher thou must lead yon huge array!
Polyneikes.
Yea, for better than the reckless is the prudent captain aye.
Eteokles.
Safe behind the truce, from death that screens thee, vaunting dost thou stand! ⁠600
Polyneikes.
Once again I claim of thee my crown, my share of fatherland.
Eteokles.
Nought to me are claims: for I will dwell in this mine house—mine own.
Polyneikes.
Grasping more than thine is?
Eteokles.
⁠Ay!—now get thee forth the land—begone!
Polyneikes.
Altars of our Gods ancestral,—
Eteokles. ”

“ Antigone.
How!—render homage [33] without heart
⁠To Him, for whom erstwhile arrayed
In Theban fawnskins, I had part
⁠In Semelê's holy dance that swayed
⁠By hill, by glade?
Oedipus.
People of a glorious nation, mark me—Oedipus am I,
He who read the riddle world-renowned, the man once set on high,
He whose single prowess quelled the Sphinx's blood-polluted might.⁠1760
Now dishonoured am I banished from the land in piteous plight.
Yet what boots it thus to wail? What profits vainly to lament?
Whoso is but mortal needs must bear the fate of heaven sent. ”

“ Adrastus, seeing Zeus his army's foe,
Without the trench drew off the Argive host.
Then, marking Zeus's portent fair for us,
Forth of the gates our horse their chariots drave:⁠1190
Our footmen crashed through Argos' mid-array
With levelled spears;—'twas turmoiled ruin all—
Men dying—falling o'er the chariot-rails—
Wheels leaping—axles upon axles dashed,
And corpses heaped on corpses all confused.⁠1195
So then for this day have we barred the fall
Of our land's towers; but if good fortune waits
On Thebes henceforth, this resteth with the Gods. ”

“ Others shall see to that. 'Tis mine to speak.
Kreon.
Whence came on me this curse, and on my son?
Teiresias.
Fair question and demand that I show cause.⁠930
In that den where the earth-born dragon lay
Watching the streams of Dirkê, must he yield,
Slaughtered, a blood-oblation to the earth;
For Ares, nursing wrath 'gainst Kadmus long,
Now would avenge his earth-born dragon's death.⁠935
Do this, and Ares for your champion win.
If earth for seed gain seed, and human blood
For blood, then kindly shall ye prove the earth
Which once sent up a harvest golden-helmed
Of Sown-men. ”

“ Kreon.
Woe's me, the disaster, when fate's stroke heavily fell!
Woe for my sorrows! Ah, unhappy I!⁠1345
Messenger.
Ah, didst thou know the evils more than these!
Kreon.
What can be more calamitous than these?
Messenger.
Dead is thy sister—dead with her two sons.
Chorus.
Upraise, upraise the lamentation-strain,⁠1350
Down on the head let blows of white hands rain!
Kreon.
Hapless Jocasta, what an end of life
And marriage hast thou proved the Sphinx's riddle!
How came to pass the death of her two sons,
The strife, of Oedipus' curse that came?—declare.⁠1355
Messenger. ”

“ Kreon.
Seven champions are there with them, have I heard,—
Eteokles.
Whereto appointed? Seven men's might were small!
Kreon.
To lead their bands to assail our seven gates.
Eteokles.
What then? I wait not counsels of despair.⁠740
Kreon.
Seven choose thou too to front them at the gates.
Eteokles.
To lead our bands, or fight with single spear?
Kreon.
To lead our bands: choose thou our mightiest;—
Eteokles.
Ay so—to avert the scaling of the walls.
Kreon.
And under-captains: one man sees not all.⁠745
Eteokles. ”

“ Each panting at his foe to dart the spear.
On this side and on that their friends drew nigh,
With heartening words thus speaking unto them:
"Thine, Polyneikes, is it to set up⁠1250
Zeus' trophy-statue, and give Argos fame;"
To Eteokles—"Thou for Thebes dost fight:
Now triumph, and thou hold'st her sceptre fast."
So did they hail them, cheering them to fight.
And the priests slew the sheep: flame-tongue they marked,⁠1255 And flame-cleft, steamy reek that bodeth ill,
The pointed flame, which hath decisions twain,
Betokening victory or overthrow. ”

“ And thou, how know'st thou, ancient, all so well?
Old Servant.
Even then I noted their shield-blazonry,
When to thy brother with truce-pact I fared:
I marked them, and I know their bearers now.
Antigone.
Who is this by Zethus' sepulchre going,
With the keen, stern eyes and the curls long-flowing?
⁠A warrior young,
Yet a chief—for in armour brazen-glowing
⁠See his followers throng!
Old Servant.
Parthenopæus, Atalanta's son.⁠150
Antigone. ”

“ Thou art found not where fawnskin and thyrsus in mad reel mingle and sunder,
But with chariots and clashing of bits and with war-horses' footfall of thunder
⁠By Ismenus' brimming marge
⁠With the rushing of steeds dost thou charge,
⁠Into Argives breathing the battle-hate
⁠Against the sons of the Dragon-state;
⁠And with harness of brass and with targe,
⁠Fronting our ramparts of stone, dost array
⁠A host for the fray.
⁠A fearful Goddess in sooth is Strife,
⁠Of whose devising the troublous life
Of the Labdakid kings of the land is anguish-rife.⁠800
(Ant.) ”

“ For I heard, yea, I heard in mine home, in an alien tongue, the story—
From the dragon of crimson crest that battened on beasts of the wold⁠820
A race of the seed of his teeth, to be Thebes' reproach and her glory.
⁠To Harmonia's bridal descended of yore [14]
The children of Heaven; and Thebes' walls rose to the harp's voice singing,
When the spell of Amphion's lyre fashioned towers for her brows' enringing,
⁠In the space 'twixt the rivers twain that pour
⁠Out of Dirkê, whose dews drift greenness, shedding
⁠Life o'er the plain by Ismenus spreading. ”

“ Kreon.
Ruin thy marriage not by thy laments.
Antigone.
How! living shall I e'er wed son of thine?
Kreon.
Needs must thou. Whither from the couch wilt flee?
Antigone.
Me shall that night a Danaus' Daughter prove. [31] ⁠1675
Kreon. (to Oedipus) .
Dost mark how rails she in her recklessness?
Antigone. (raising Polyneikes' sword) .
Witness the steel—this sword whereby I swear.
Kreon.
Wherefore so eager to avoid this bridal?
Antigone.
I will share exile with mine hapless sire.
Kreon.
Noble thy spirit, yet lurks folly there.⁠1680
Antigone. ”

“ And how at Inachus' streams inscribe the spoils—
"Polyneikes hath burnt Thebes, and to the Gods⁠575
Offers these shields?" Never, my son, be thine
To win from lips of Hellenes such renown!
But, he triumphant, vanquished thou, to Argos
How canst thou come, here leaving myriads dead?
And one shall say, "O cursed betrothal made⁠580
By thee, Adrastus! For one bridal's sake
We are ruined!" Evils twain thou draw'st on thee,—
There, to lose all, here, fail mid thine emprise.
Forbear, forbear your vehemence! When meet
Two headstrong fools, the issue is foulest ill.⁠585
Chorus. ”