Stasimon 5
[Episode]
Loudly, loudly raise the wail, and with white hands strike upon your heads!
1350
Creon
Oh, wretched Jocasta! what an end to life and marriage you have found the riddling of the Sphinx! Tell me how her two sons accomplished the bloody deed,
the struggle caused by the curse of Oedipus.
1355
Messenger
Of our successes before the towers you know, for the walls are not far away so as to prevent your learning each event as it occurred. Now when they,
the young sons of the old Oedipus, had adorned themselves in their bronze armor, they went and took their stand between the armies, chieftains both and two generals for the contest and the single combat. Then Polyneices, turning his eyes towards Argos, lifted up a prayer:
1360
O Lady Hera, for I am yours, since I have married the daughter of Adrastus and dwell in your land, grant that I may slay my brother, and give my right hand, which is set against him, the victory, stained with his blood. Asking for a shameful crown, to kill his brother.
1365
And tears came to the eyes of many at their sad fate, and men looked at one another, casting their glances round.
1370
But Eteocles, looking towards the temple of Pallas with the golden shield, prayed: Daughter of Zeus, grant that this arm may launch the spear of victory
against my brother’s breast and slay him who has come to sack my country.
1375
When the Tuscan trumpet, like a torch, blew the signal for the bloody battle, they darted wildly against one another;
like boars whetting their savage tusks, they joined battle, their beards wet with foam. They kept shooting out their spears, but crouched beneath their shields to let the steel glance off in vain; but if either saw the other’s eye above the rim,
1380
he would aim his lance there, eager to outwit him with the point.
1385
But both kept such careful outlook through the spy-holes in their shields, that their weapons found nothing to do; while from the onlookers far more than the combatants trickled the sweat caused by terror for their friends.
Eteocles, in kicking aside a stone that rolled beneath his tread, exposed a limb outside his shield, and Polyneices, seeing a chance of dealing him a blow, aimed at it, and the Argive shaft passed through his leg;
1390
the Danaid army, one and all, cried out for joy. And the wounded man, seeing Polyneices’ shoulder bare in this effort, plunged his spear with all his might into his breast, restoring gladness to the citizens of Thebes, though he broke off the spear-head.
1395
And so, at a loss for a weapon, he retreated step by step, till catching up a splintered rock he let it fly and broke the other’s spear in the middle; and now the combat was equal, for each had lost his lance.
1400
Then clutching their sword-hilts
they closed, and round and round, with shields clashing, they fought a wild battle. And Eteocles introduced the crafty Thessalian trick, having some knowledge of it from his association with that country. Disengaging himself from the immediate contest,
1405
he drew back his left foot but kept his eye closely on the pit of the other’s stomach from a distance; then advancing his right foot he plunged the weapon through his navel and fixed it in his spine. Down fell Polyneices, dripping with blood,
1410
ribs and belly contracting in his agony. But the other, thinking his victory now complete, threw down his sword and began to despoil him, wholly intent on that, without a thought for himself. And this indeed tripped him up; for Polyneices, who had fallen first, was still faintly breathing,
1415
and having in his grievous fall kept his sword, he made a last effort and drove it through the heart of Eteocles. They both lie there, fallen side by side, biting the dust with their teeth, and they have not decided the mastery.
1420
Chorus Leader
Ah, ah, how I mourn for your sorrows, Oedipus! The god, it seems, has fulfilled those curses of yours.
1425
Messenger
Now hear what further woes succeeded. Just as her two sons had fallen and lay dying, their wretched mother came on the scene,
her daughter with her, in great haste. When she saw their mortal wounds, she wailed: O my sons, the help I bring is too late. And throwing herself on each in turn she wept and mourned, sorrowing over all her toil in nursing them, and their sister, by her side, mourned also:
1430
Supporters of your mother’ s age, dearest brothers, leaving me forlorn, unwed! Then lord Eteocles with one deep dying gasp, hearing his mother, laid on her his clammy hand,
1435
and though he could not say a word, his moistened eye was eloquent to prove his love. And Polyneices was still breathing, and seeing his sister and his old mother he said: Mother, our end has come; I pity you
1440
and my sister Antigone and my dead brother. For I loved him though he became my enemy, I loved him in spite of all. Bury me, mother, and you, my sister, in my native land; pacify the city’s wrath that l may get at least that much
1445
of my own fatherland, although I lost my home. With your hand, mother, close my eyes—he himself places her fingers on the lids—and farewell; for already the darkness wraps me round.
1450
So both at once breathed out their life of sorrow.
But when their mother saw this sad event, in her overmastering grief she snatched a sword from the dead, and did a fearful deed; for she drove the steel right through her throat, and there she lies, dead with those she loved so well, her arms thrown round them both.
1455
The army sprang to their feet and fell to wrangling, we maintaining that victory rested with my master, they with theirs; and there was strife among the generals, some holding that Polyneices gave the first wound with his spear, others that, as both were dead, victory rested with neither.
1460
Meanwhile Antigone crept away from the army. They rushed to their weapons, but by some lucky forethought the people of Cadmus had sat down under arms; and by a sudden attack we surprised the Argive army before it was fully equipped.
1465
Not one withstood our onset, and they filled the plain with fugitives, while blood was streaming from the countless dead our spears had slain. When victory had crowned our warfare, some set up an image of Zeus as a trophy, others were stripping the Argive dead of their shields
1470
and sending their spoils inside the battlements; and others with Antigone are bringing the dead here for their friends to mourn. So for the city, the result of this struggle hovers between the two extremes of good and evil fortune. Exit Messenger.
1475
Chorus
No longer do the misfortunes of this house extend to hearsay only; three corpses of the slain lie here at the palace for all to see; by one common death they have drawn their lot, a life of darkness.
1480
Antigone
I do not veil my tender cheek shaded with curls, nor do I feel shame, from maiden modesty, at the dark red beneath my eyes, the blush upon my face, as I hurry on, in bacchic revelry for the dead,
1485
casting from my hair its mantle and letting my delicate saffron robe fly loose, a tearful escort to the dead. Ah me!
1490
Oh, Polyneices! you were rightly named, after all; woe to you, Thebes!
Your strife—not strife, but murder on murder— has brought the house of Oedipus to ruin with dire and grim bloodshed. What harmonious or tuneful wailing can I summon,
1495
for my tears, my tears, oh, my home! oh, my home! as I bear these three kindred bodies, my mother and her sons, a welcome sight to the Fury? She destroyed the house of Oedipus, root and branch,
1500
when his shrewdness solved the Sphinx’s unsolvable song and killed that savage singer. Alas for you, father! What other Hellene or barbarian,
1505
what mortal from a noble line ever endured the anguish of such visible afflictions?
1510
Ah! poor girl, how piteous is your cry!
What bird, perched on the high-leaved branches of oak or pine, will come to mourn with me, left motherless? With cries of woe,
1515
I lament before it comes the piteous lonely life, that I shall live for the rest of time, in streaming tears. On which of these
1520
shall I throw my offerings first, plucking the hair from my head? on the breast of the mother that suckled me, or beside the ghastly death-wounds of my brothers’ corpses?
1525
Oh, oh! Oedipus, my old father with sightless eyes, leave your house, reveal the misery of your life, you who have cast a mist of darkness over your eyes and
1530
draw out a weary existence within the house. Do you hear, you who are wandering with old step across the court, or sleeping on your wretched pallet couch?
1535
have you dragged me to the light by your piteous tears, supporting my blind footsteps, from the gloom of my bed-chamber, gray-haired, invisible as a phantom of the air, or as a spirit from the world below, or
1540
as a dream that flies?
1545
Antigone
Father, there are tidings of sorrow for you to bear; no longer do your sons see the light, or your wife, who would always labor to tend your blind footsteps as with a staff.
Alas for you, my father!
1550
Oedipus
Alas for my sorrows! I may well groan and cry. Three lives! Tell me, child, by what fate they left the light.
Antigone
I do not say this to reproach or mock you, but in sadness: your own avenging curse, with all its load of swords and fire and ruthless war, came on your sons. Alas for you, my father!
1555
Antigone
Why that groan?
1560
Antigone
You are in pain; but if you could look towards the sun-god’s four-horse chariot and turn the light of your eyes on these corpses—
Oedipus
The evil fate of my sons is clear; but she, my poor wife, tell me, daughter, by what fate did she die?
1565
Antigone
All saw her weep and heard her moan, as she rushed forth to carry to her sons her last appeal, a mother’s breast.
But the mother found her sons at the Electran gate, in a meadow where the lotus blooms, fighting out their duel with spears, like lions in their lair, eager to wound each other,
1570
a murderous libation of blood already cold, owed to Hades, poured out by Ares. Then, taking from the dead a sword of hammered bronze, she plunged it in her flesh, and in sorrow for her sons fell with her arms around them. So the god who fulfills these sorrows has brought them all together on this day,
1575
father, for our house.
1580
Chorus Leader
Today is the beginning of many troubles to the house of Oedipus; may he live to be more fortunate!
Creon
Cease now your lamentations; it is time we thought of
their burial. Hear what I have to say, Oedipus. Eteocles, your son, left me to rule this land, by giving it as a dowry to Haemon with his marriage to your daughter Antigone. Therefore I will no longer allow you to dwell in this land;
1585
for Teiresias clearly said that the city would never prosper as long as you made your home here. So begone! And I say this not in insult, nor because I am your enemy, but from fear that some calamity will come upon the land, through those avenging fiends of yours.
1590
Oedipus
O destiny! From the beginning, how you have created me wretched and unhappy, if any mortal ever was; for before I had left my mother’s womb and seen the light, Apollo foretold to Laius that I, then unborn, should become my father’s murderer; alas for me!
1595
So, as soon as I was born, the father who begot me tried to kill me, thinking me his enemy, for it was fated he should die at my hand; so he sent me unweaned to make a pitiful meal for beasts; I escaped from that— would that Cithaeron
1600
had sunk into hell’s yawning abyss, because it did not destroy me, but . . . Fate made me a slave in the service of Polybus. And I, poor wretch, after slaying my own father came to my mother’s bed, to her sorrow,
1605
and begot sons that were my brothers, whom I have destroyed, by bequeathing to them the legacy of curses I received from Laius. For I was not born so foolish, that I should have contrived these things against my own eyes and my children’s life, without some god.
1610
Let that pass. What am I, poor wretch, to do? Who now will be my guide and tend the blind man’s step? The one who is dead? If she were alive, I know well that she would. My pair of noble sons? But they are gone from me. But am I still so young myself that I can find a livelihood?
1615
Where? O Creon, why do you seek in this way to kill me utterly? For you will kill me, if you banish me from the land. Yet I will never twine my arms about your knees and seem a coward, for I would not betray my former nobility, no! not for all my ills.
1620
Creon
You have spoken well, in refusing to touch my knees, but I could not allow you to dwell in the land. Of these dead, bear one at once to the palace; but the other, who came with strangers to sack his native town, the dead Polyneices,
1625
cast forth unburied beyond the borders of this land. To all the race of Cadmus shall this be proclaimed: Whoever is caught decking his corpse with wreaths or giving it burial, shall be requited with death. let him be unwept, unburied, a meal for birds.
1630
As for you, Antigone, leave your mourning for these lifeless three and go indoors, to lead your maiden life until to-morrow, when Haemon waits to marry you.
1635
Antigone
O father, in what cruel misery are we plunged!
For you I mourn more than for the dead; for in your woes you do not have something that is grievous and something not; but you were born wholly unfortunate, father. As for you, new-made king, I ask you, who do you insult my father with banishment?
1640
Why do you make laws over a helpless corpse?
1645
Creon
This was Eteocles’ purpose, not mine.
Antigone
It is senseless, and you are a fool to obey it!
Creon
How so? Isn’t it right to carry out his commands?
Antigone
No; not if they are wrong and ill-advised.
Creon
What? Isn’t it right for that other to be given to the dogs?
1650
Antigone
No, for the vengeance you are exacting is not a lawful one.
Creon
Yes, if he was his country’s enemy, when not born an enemy.
Antigone
Well, he rendered up his destiny to fate.
Creon
Let him now pay the penalty in his burial too.
Antigone
What crime did he commit, in coming to claim his portion of the land?
1655
Creon
Be very sure of this, he shall have no burial.
Antigone
I will bury him, although the state forbids.
Creon
Do so, and you will be making your own grave by his.
Antigone
A noble end, for two so near and dear to lie side by side!
Creon
Seize and take her inside.
1660
Antigone
Oh, no! For I will not let go of this corpse.
Creon
These are the god’s decrees, my girl, not what seems good to you.
Antigone
And this has been decreed, not to insult the dead.
Creon
Be sure that no one will sprinkle over the corpse the moistened dust.
Antigone
O Creon, by my mother Jocasta, I implore you!
1665
Creon
Your labor is in vain; you will not gain your prayer.
Antigone
Let me only bathe the dead body.
Creon
That would be part of what is forbidden by the city.
Antigone
At least let me bandage the cruel wounds.
Creon
No; you will never pay honor to this corpse.
1670
Antigone
O my dearest! At least I will kiss your mouth.
Creon
Do not let this mourning bring disaster on your marriage.
Antigone
Marriage! Do you think I will marry your son while I am alive?
Creon
Indeed you must; how will you escape the match?
Antigone
Then that night will find in me another Danaid bride!
1675
Creon
Do you see how boldly she reproaches me?
Antigone
Let the steel know, the sword be my witness!
Creon
Why are you so eager to be released from this marriage?
Antigone
I mean to share my hapless father’s exile.
Creon
A noble spirit yours but there is some folly in it.
1680
Antigone
And I will share his death, I tell you further.
Creon
Go, leave the land; you will not murder my son. Exit Creon.
Oedipus
Daughter, for this loyal spirit I thank you.
Antigone
How could I marry, while you went into exile alone, father?
Oedipus
Stay here and be happy; I will bear my own load of sorrow.
1685
Antigone
And who will tend you in your blindness, father?
Oedipus
Where fate appoints, there I will fall and lie down upon the ground.
Antigone
Where is Oedipus, and that famous riddle?
Oedipus
Lost! One day blessed me, one destroyed me.
Antigone
May I not also share your sorrows?
1690
Oedipus
To wander with her blinded father would be shameful for his daughter.
Antigone
Not so, father, but glory, if she is discreet.
Oedipus
Lead me near, so that I may touch your mother’s corpse.
Antigone
There, embrace the aged form so dear to you.
Oedipus
O mother, o most wretched wife!
1695
Antigone
Pitiably she lies, who suffered every evil at once.
Oedipus
Where are the corpses of Eteocles, and of Polyneices?
Antigone
Here they both lie, stretched out side by side.
Oedipus
Lay my blind hand upon their poor faces.
Antigone
There, touch the dead, your children.
1700
Oedipus
O dear fallen sons, sad offspring of a sad father!
Antigone
O my brother Polyneices, name most dear to me!
Oedipus
Now the oracle of Loxias is being fulfilled, my child.
Antigone
What oracle? Do you have further woes to tell?
Oedipus
That I should die in Athens after a life of wandering.
1705
Antigone
Where? What fenced town in Attica will take you in?
Oedipus
Hallowed Colonus, home of the god of horses. Come then, attend on your blind father, since you are eager to share his exile.
Antigone
Go to unhappy exile; stretch forth your dear hand, my old father, taking me to guide you, like a breeze that guides the ships.
1710
Oedipus
See, I am advancing; be my guide, my poor child.
Antigone
I am, I am! The saddest maiden of all in Thebes.
Oedipus
Where am I placing my aged step? Bring my staff, child.
Antigone
This way, this way, come to me, place your steps here, like a dream in your strength.
1720
Oedipus
Oh, oh, driving the old man in most wretched flight from the country!
Oh, oh! the terrible sorrows I have endured!
1725
Antigone
Why do you speak of enduring? Justice does not see the wicked, and does not requite follies.
Oedipus
I am the one who came into high songs of victory,
because I guessed the baffling riddle of the girl, half-maiden.
1730
Antigone
You are bringing up again the reproach of the Sphinx. Talk no more of past success. This misery was in store for you all the while,
to become an exile from your country and die anywhere.
1735
Leaving to my girlhood friends sad tears, I go forth from my native land, to roam as no maiden should.
Ah! This dutiful resolve towards my father’s suffering will make me famous. Alas for the insults heaped on you and on my brother, whose dead body goes from the house unburied,
1740
poor boy! I will bury him secretly, though I have to die for it, father.
1745
Oedipus
Show yourself to your companions.
Antigone
My own laments suffice.
Oedipus
Go pray at the altars.
Antigone
They have enough of my piteous tale.
1750
Oedipus
At least go seek the Bromian god in his untrodden sanctuary among the Maenads’ hills.
Antigone
Bromius, for whom I once dressed in the Theban fawn-skin and
danced upon the hills in the holy choir of Semele—shall I now offer the gods homage that is not homage?
1755
Oedipus
O citizens of a famous country, look at me; I am Oedipus, who solved the famous riddle, and was the greatest of men,
I, who alone controlled the murderous Sphinx’s power, am now myself driven from the land in dishonor and misery. But why do I make this moan and useless lamentation? As a mortal, I must bear the constraint that the gods decree.
1760
Chorus
Greatly revered Victory,
may you occupy my life and never cease to crown me!
1765