ANTIGONE.
More must I hear?
ISMENE.
Tombless he died, none near.
ANTIGONE.
Lead me thither; slay me there.
ISMENE.
How shall I unhappy fare,
Friendless, helpless, how drag on
A life of misery alone?
CHORUS.
(Ant. 2)
Fear not, maids—
ANTIGONE.
Ah, whither flee?
CHORUS.
Refuge hath been found.
ANTIGONE.
For me?
CHORUS.
Where thou shalt be safe from harm.
ANTIGONE.
I know it.
CHORUS.
Why then this alarm?
ANTIGONE.
How again to get us home
I know not.
CHORUS.
Why then this roam?
ANTIGONE.
Troubles whelm us—
CHORUS.
As of yore.
ANTIGONE.
Worse than what was worse before.
CHORUS.
Sure ye are driven on the breakers' surge.
ANTIGONE.
Alas! we are.
CHORUS.
Alas! 'tis so.
ANTIGONE.
Ah whither turn, O Zeus? No ray
Of hope to cheer the way
Whereon the fates our desperate voyage urge.
[Enter THESEUS]
THESEUS.
Dry your tears; when grace is shed
On the quick and on the dead
By dark Powers beneficent,
Over-grief they would resent.
ANTIGONE.
Aegeus' child, to thee we pray.
THESEUS.
What the boon, my children, say.
ANTIGONE.
With our own eyes we fain would see
Our father's tomb.
THESEUS.
That may not be.
ANTIGONE.
What say'st thou, King?
THESEUS.
My children, he
Charged me straitly that no moral
Should approach the sacred portal,
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
4 (return)
[ The Greek text for the passages marked here and later in the text have been lost.]
5 (return)
[ 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?"]
6 (return)
[ 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.]
7 (return)
[ The Thebans sprung from the Dragon's teeth sown by Cadmus.]
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