The Seven Against Thebes [15]
with wrong.
HERALD
Nay-but for one man's sin he smote the State.
ANTIGONE
Contention doth out-talk all other gods!
Prate thou no more-I will to bury him.
HERALD
Will, an thou wilt! but I forbid the deed.
(The HERALD goes out.)
CHORUS (singing)
Exulting Fates, who waste the line
And whelm the house of Oedipus!
Fiends, who have slain, in wrath condign,
The father and the children thus!
What now befits it that I do,
What meditate, what undergo?
Can I the funeral rite refrain,
Nor weep for Polyneices slain?
But yet, with fear I shrink and thrill,
Presageful of the city's will!
Thou, O Eteocles, shalt have
Full rites, and mourners at thy grave,
But he, thy brother slain, shall he,
With none to weep or cry Alas,
To unbefriended burial pass?
Only one sister o'er his bier,
To raise the cry and pour the tear-
Who can obey such stern decree?
SEMI-CHORUS
Let those who hold our city's sway
Wreak, or forbear to wreak, their will
On those who cry, Ah, well-a-day!
Lamenting Polyneices still!
We will go forth and, side by side
With her, due burial will provide!
Royal he was; to him be paid
Our grief, wherever he be laid!
The crowd may sway, and change, and still
Take its caprice for justice' will
But we this dead Eteocles,
As Justice wills and Right decrees,
Will bear unto his grave!
For-under those enthroned on high
And Zeus' eternal royalty-
He unto us salvation gave!
He saved us from a foreign yoke,-
A wild assault of outland folk,
A savage, alien wave!
THE END
.
HERALD
Nay-but for one man's sin he smote the State.
ANTIGONE
Contention doth out-talk all other gods!
Prate thou no more-I will to bury him.
HERALD
Will, an thou wilt! but I forbid the deed.
(The HERALD goes out.)
CHORUS (singing)
Exulting Fates, who waste the line
And whelm the house of Oedipus!
Fiends, who have slain, in wrath condign,
The father and the children thus!
What now befits it that I do,
What meditate, what undergo?
Can I the funeral rite refrain,
Nor weep for Polyneices slain?
But yet, with fear I shrink and thrill,
Presageful of the city's will!
Thou, O Eteocles, shalt have
Full rites, and mourners at thy grave,
But he, thy brother slain, shall he,
With none to weep or cry Alas,
To unbefriended burial pass?
Only one sister o'er his bier,
To raise the cry and pour the tear-
Who can obey such stern decree?
SEMI-CHORUS
Let those who hold our city's sway
Wreak, or forbear to wreak, their will
On those who cry, Ah, well-a-day!
Lamenting Polyneices still!
We will go forth and, side by side
With her, due burial will provide!
Royal he was; to him be paid
Our grief, wherever he be laid!
The crowd may sway, and change, and still
Take its caprice for justice' will
But we this dead Eteocles,
As Justice wills and Right decrees,
Will bear unto his grave!
For-under those enthroned on high
And Zeus' eternal royalty-
He unto us salvation gave!
He saved us from a foreign yoke,-
A wild assault of outland folk,
A savage, alien wave!
THE END
.