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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
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.
See, I am advancing; be my guide, my poor child.
Antigone
I am, I am! The saddest maiden of all in
Thebes
.
I am, I am! The saddest maiden of all in
Thebes
.
Oedipus
Where am I placing my aged step? Bring my staff, child.
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
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
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.
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
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
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.
Show yourself to your companions.
Antigone
My own laments suffice.
My own laments suffice.
Oedipus
Go pray at the altars.
Go pray at the altars.
Antigone
They have enough of my piteous tale.
1750
They have enough of my piteous tale.
1750
Oedipus
At least go seek the Bromian god in his untrodden sanctuary among the Maenads’ hills.
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
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
The Phoenician Women. Euripides. Edward P. Coleridge (Translator). London. 1891.
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Funding provided by The Annenberg CPB/Project.