Creon
Ah me! what shall I do? Am I to mourn with tears myself or my city, which has a cloud around it
as if it went through
Acheron
? My son has died for his country, bringing glory to his name, but grievous woe to me.
1310
His body I have just now taken from the dragon’s rocky lair and sadly carried the self-slain victim here in my arms; and the house is filled with weeping; but now I have come for my sister Jocasta, age seeking age, that she may bathe my child’s corpse and lay it out.
1315
For those who are not dead must reverence the god below by paying honor to the dead.
1320
Chorus Leader
Your sister, Creon, has gone out, and her daughter Antigone went with her.
Creon
Where did she go? What happened? Tell me.
Chorus Leader
She heard that her sons were about to engage in single combat for the royal house.
1325
Creon
What do you mean? In my tenderness to my dead son, I was not able to learn this.
Chorus Leader
It is some time, Creon, since your sister’s departure,
and I expect the struggle for life and death is already decided by the sons of Oedipus.
1330
Creon
Alas! I see a sign there, the gloomy look and face of the messenger coming to tell us the whole matter.
The Phoenician Women. Euripides. Edward P. Coleridge (Translator). London. 1891.
Sponsored by Perseus Project, Tufts University.
Funding provided by The Annenberg CPB/Project.