Oedipus the King [39]
Or greet with funeral litanies
The hidden tomb wherein he lies;
Saying, "If thou keep'st my hest
Thou shalt hold thy realm at rest."
The God of Oaths this promise heard,
And to Zeus I pledged my word.
ANTIGONE
Well, if he would have it so,
We must yield. Then let us go
Back to Thebes, if yet we may
Heal this mortal feud and stay
The self-wrought doom
That drives our brothers to their tomb.
THESEUS
Go in peace; nor will I spare
Ought of toil and zealous care,
But on all your needs attend,
Gladdening in his grave my friend.
CHORUS
Wail no more, let sorrow rest,
All is ordered for the best.
FOOTNOTES
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1. The Greek text for the passages marked here and later in the text
have been lost.
2. To avoid the blessing, still a secret, he resorts to a
commonplace; literally, "For what generous man is not (in befriending
others) a friend to himself?"
3. Creon desires to bury Oedipus on the confines of Thebes so as to
avoid the pollution and yet offer due rites at his tomb. Ismene tells
him of the latest oracle and interprets to him its purport, that some
day the Theban invaders of Athens will be routed in a battle near the
grave of Oedipus.
4. The Thebans sprung from the Dragon's teeth sown by Cadmus.
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SOPHOCLES
ANTIGONE
Translation by F. Storr, BA
Formerly Scholar of Trinity College, Cambridge
From the Loeb Library Edition
Originally published by
Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA
and
William Heinemann Ltd, London
First published in 1912
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ARGUMENT
Antigone, daughter of Oedipus, the late king of Thebes, in defiance of
Creon who rules in his stead, resolves to bury her brother Polyneices,
slain in his attack on Thebes. She is caught in the act by Creon's
watchmen and brought before the king. She justifies her action,
asserting that she was bound to obey the eternal laws of right and
wrong in spite of any human ordinance. Creon, unrelenting, condemns
her to be immured in a rock-hewn chamber. His son Haemon, to whom
Antigone is betrothed, pleads in vain for her life and threatens to die
with her. Warned by the seer Teiresias Creon repents him and hurries
to release Antigone from her rocky prison. But he is too late: he
finds lying side by side Antigone who had hanged herself and Haemon who
also has perished by his own hand. Returning to the palace he sees
within the dead body of his queen who on learning of her son's death
has stabbed herself to the heart.
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DRAMATIS PERSONAE
ANTIGONE and ISMENE - daughters of Oedipus and sisters of Polyneices
and Eteocles.
CREON, King of Thebes.
HAEMON, Son of Creon, betrothed to Antigone.
EURYDICE, wife of Creon.
TEIRESIAS, the prophet.
CHORUS, of Theban elders.
A WATCHMAN
A MESSENGER
A SECOND MESSENGER
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ANTIGONE
ANTIGONE and ISMENE before the Palace gates.
ANTIGONE
Ismene, sister of my blood and heart,
See'st thou how Zeus would in our lives fulfill
The weird of Oedipus, a world of woes!
For what of pain, affliction, outrage, shame,
Is lacking in our fortunes, thine and mine?
And now this proclamation of today
Made by our Captain-General to the State,
What can its purport be? Didst hear and heed,
Or art thou deaf when friends are banned as foes?
ISMENE
To me, Antigone, no word of friends
Has come, or glad or grievous, since we twain
Were reft of our two