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Messenger
Ho there! Who is at the palace-gates? Open the door, summon Jocasta forth. Ho there! once again I call; in spite of this long delay,
come forth; listen, noble wife of Oedipus, cease your lamentation and your tears of woe.
1070
Ho there! Who is at the palace-gates? Open the door, summon Jocasta forth. Ho there! once again I call; in spite of this long delay,
come forth; listen, noble wife of Oedipus, cease your lamentation and your tears of woe.
1070
Jocasta
Surely you have not come, dear friend, with the sad news of Eteocles’ death, beside whose shield you have always marched, warding off from him the enemy’s darts?
What tidings are you here to bring me? Is my son alive or dead? Tell me.
1075
Surely you have not come, dear friend, with the sad news of Eteocles’ death, beside whose shield you have always marched, warding off from him the enemy’s darts?
What tidings are you here to bring me? Is my son alive or dead? Tell me.
1075
Messenger
He is alive, do not fear that, so that I may rid you of your terror.
He is alive, do not fear that, so that I may rid you of your terror.
Jocasta
Well? How is it with the seven towers that wall us in?
Well? How is it with the seven towers that wall us in?
Messenger
They stand unshattered; the city is not plundered.
They stand unshattered; the city is not plundered.
Jocasta
Have they been in jeopardy of the
Argive
spear?
1080
Have they been in jeopardy of the
Argive
spear?
1080
Messenger
Yes, on the very brink; but our Theban warriors proved stronger than
Mycenae
’s might.
Yes, on the very brink; but our Theban warriors proved stronger than
Mycenae
’s might.
Jocasta
One thing tell me, by the gods, if you know anything of Polyneices; for this too is my concern, if he is alive.
One thing tell me, by the gods, if you know anything of Polyneices; for this too is my concern, if he is alive.
Messenger
As yet your sons are living, the pair of them.
1085
As yet your sons are living, the pair of them.
1085
Jocasta
God bless you! How did you succeed in beating off from our gates the
Argive
army, when beleaguered? Tell me, so that I may go within and cheer the old blind man, since our city is still safe.
God bless you! How did you succeed in beating off from our gates the
Argive
army, when beleaguered? Tell me, so that I may go within and cheer the old blind man, since our city is still safe.
Messenger
After Creon’s son, who gave up his life for his country, had taken his stand on the turret’s top and plunged a dark-hilted sword through his throat to save this land, your son told off seven companies with their captains to the seven gates to keep watch on the
Argive
warriors,
1090
and stationed cavalry to cover cavalry, and infantry to support infantry, so that assistance might be close at hand for any weak point in the walls. Then from our lofty towers we saw the
Argive
army with their white shields leaving
1095
Teumesus, and, when near the trench, they charged up to our Theban city at a run. In one loud burst from their ranks and from our walls rang out the battle-cry and trumpet-call.
1100
1104
First to the Neitian gate, Parthenopaeus, son of the huntress,
led a company bristling with thick rows of shields, and he had his own device in the centre of his shield: Atalanta slaying the Aetolian boar with an arrow shot from far. To the gates of Proetus
1105
came the prophet Amphiaraus, bringing the victims on a chariot; he had no boastful sign, but weapons chastely plain.
1110
Next lord Hippomedon came marching to the Ogygian gates with this device in the middle of his shield:
Argus the all-seeing dappled with eyes on the watch, some open with the rising stars, others hiding when they set, as could be seen after he was slain.
1115
At the Homoloian gates Tydeus had his post,
a lion’s skin with shaggy mane upon his shield, while the Titan Prometheus bore a torch in his right hand, to fire the town.
1120
Your own Polyneices led the battle against the Fountain gate; upon his shield for a device
were the colts of
Potniae
galloping at frantic speed, revolving by some clever contrivance on pivots by the handle, so as to appear distraught.
1125
At Electra’s gate Capaneus brought up his company, bold as Ares for the battle;
this device his shield bore upon its iron back: an earth-born giant carrying on his shoulders a whole city which he had wrenched from its base, a hint to us of the fate in store for
Thebes
.
1130
Adrastus was at the seventh gate;
a hundred vipers engraved on his shield,
as he bore on his left arm the hydra the boast of
Argos
, and serpents were carrying off in their jaws the sons of
Thebes
from within our very walls. Now I was able to see each of them,
1135
as I carried the watch-word along to the leaders of our companies.
1140
To begin with, we fought with bows and thonged javelins, with slings that shoot from far and crashing stones; and as we were conquering, Tydeus and your son suddenly cried aloud:
You sons of Danaus, before you are torn to pieces by their attack, why delay to fall upon the gates with all your might, light-armed and cavalry and charioteers? No loitering then, soon as they heard that call; and many fell with bloody head,
1145
and many of us you could have seen thrown to the earth like tumblers before the walls, breathing their last, bedewing the dry ground with streams of blood.
1150
1153
Then Atalanta’s son, who was not an
Argive
but an Arcadian, hurling himself like a hurricane at the gates, called for
fire and picks to raze the town; but Periclymenus, son of the ocean-god, stayed his wild career, heaving on his head a wagon-load of stone, the coping from the battlements; and it shattered his head with yellow hair and
1155
crashed through the seams of the skull, dabbling with blood his fresh cheek; and he will never go back alive to his mother with her lovely bow, the maid of Maenalus.
1160
Your son then, seeing these gates secure, went on to the next, and I followed him.
I saw Tydeus and his thick rows of targeteers hurling their Aetolian spears into the opening at the top of the turrets, so that our men fled and left the battlements; but your son rallied them once more, as a huntsman cheers his hounds,
1165
and stationed them at the towers again. And then we hastened to other gates, after stopping the affliction there. As for the madness of Capaneus, how can I describe it? He was going about with a long scaling-ladder, and boasting
1170
that even the holy fire of Zeus would not hold him back from giving the city to utter destruction. And even as he spoke, he climbed up beneath the hail of stones, crouched under the shelter of his shield, rung by smooth rung going up the ladder.
1175
But, just as he was scaling the parapet of the wall, Zeus smote him with a thunderbolt; the earth re-echoed, and fear seized everyone; for from the ladder
his limbs were slung far apart, his head toward
Olympus
, his blood toward earth,
1180
while his legs and arms went spinning round like Ixion’s wheel he was hurled, spinnning; his burning corpse fell to the ground.
1185
But when Adrastus saw that Zeus was hostile to his army, he drew the
Argive
troops outside the trench. Meanwhile our armed cavalry, seeing the lucky omen of Zeus before us,
were driving forth their chariots, and the armed men charged with spears into the middle of the Argives, and all troubles happened at once: men were dying, hurled headlong from chariots, wheels flew off, axles crashed together,
1190
while the dead were heaped up on the dead. So for to-day we have prevented destruction of the towers of our land; but if this land will be fortunate for the future, that rests with the gods; for even now it owes its safety to some deity.
1195
After Creon’s son, who gave up his life for his country, had taken his stand on the turret’s top and plunged a dark-hilted sword through his throat to save this land, your son told off seven companies with their captains to the seven gates to keep watch on the
Argive
warriors,
1090
and stationed cavalry to cover cavalry, and infantry to support infantry, so that assistance might be close at hand for any weak point in the walls. Then from our lofty towers we saw the
Argive
army with their white shields leaving
1095
Teumesus, and, when near the trench, they charged up to our Theban city at a run. In one loud burst from their ranks and from our walls rang out the battle-cry and trumpet-call.
1100
First to the Neitian gate, Parthenopaeus, son of the huntress,
led a company bristling with thick rows of shields, and he had his own device in the centre of his shield: Atalanta slaying the Aetolian boar with an arrow shot from far. To the gates of Proetus
1105
came the prophet Amphiaraus, bringing the victims on a chariot; he had no boastful sign, but weapons chastely plain.
1110
Next lord Hippomedon came marching to the Ogygian gates with this device in the middle of his shield:
Argus the all-seeing dappled with eyes on the watch, some open with the rising stars, others hiding when they set, as could be seen after he was slain.
1115
At the Homoloian gates Tydeus had his post,
a lion’s skin with shaggy mane upon his shield, while the Titan Prometheus bore a torch in his right hand, to fire the town.
1120
Your own Polyneices led the battle against the Fountain gate; upon his shield for a device
were the colts of
Potniae
galloping at frantic speed, revolving by some clever contrivance on pivots by the handle, so as to appear distraught.
1125
At Electra’s gate Capaneus brought up his company, bold as Ares for the battle;
this device his shield bore upon its iron back: an earth-born giant carrying on his shoulders a whole city which he had wrenched from its base, a hint to us of the fate in store for
Thebes
.
1130
Adrastus was at the seventh gate;
a hundred vipers engraved on his shield,
as he bore on his left arm the hydra the boast of
Argos
, and serpents were carrying off in their jaws the sons of
Thebes
from within our very walls. Now I was able to see each of them,
1135
as I carried the watch-word along to the leaders of our companies.
1140
To begin with, we fought with bows and thonged javelins, with slings that shoot from far and crashing stones; and as we were conquering, Tydeus and your son suddenly cried aloud:
You sons of Danaus, before you are torn to pieces by their attack, why delay to fall upon the gates with all your might, light-armed and cavalry and charioteers? No loitering then, soon as they heard that call; and many fell with bloody head,
1145
and many of us you could have seen thrown to the earth like tumblers before the walls, breathing their last, bedewing the dry ground with streams of blood.
1150
Then Atalanta’s son, who was not an
Argive
but an Arcadian, hurling himself like a hurricane at the gates, called for
fire and picks to raze the town; but Periclymenus, son of the ocean-god, stayed his wild career, heaving on his head a wagon-load of stone, the coping from the battlements; and it shattered his head with yellow hair and
1155
crashed through the seams of the skull, dabbling with blood his fresh cheek; and he will never go back alive to his mother with her lovely bow, the maid of Maenalus.
1160
Your son then, seeing these gates secure, went on to the next, and I followed him.
I saw Tydeus and his thick rows of targeteers hurling their Aetolian spears into the opening at the top of the turrets, so that our men fled and left the battlements; but your son rallied them once more, as a huntsman cheers his hounds,
1165
and stationed them at the towers again. And then we hastened to other gates, after stopping the affliction there. As for the madness of Capaneus, how can I describe it? He was going about with a long scaling-ladder, and boasting
1170
that even the holy fire of Zeus would not hold him back from giving the city to utter destruction. And even as he spoke, he climbed up beneath the hail of stones, crouched under the shelter of his shield, rung by smooth rung going up the ladder.
1175
But, just as he was scaling the parapet of the wall, Zeus smote him with a thunderbolt; the earth re-echoed, and fear seized everyone; for from the ladder
his limbs were slung far apart, his head toward
Olympus
, his blood toward earth,
1180
while his legs and arms went spinning round like Ixion’s wheel he was hurled, spinnning; his burning corpse fell to the ground.
1185
But when Adrastus saw that Zeus was hostile to his army, he drew the
Argive
troops outside the trench. Meanwhile our armed cavalry, seeing the lucky omen of Zeus before us,
were driving forth their chariots, and the armed men charged with spears into the middle of the Argives, and all troubles happened at once: men were dying, hurled headlong from chariots, wheels flew off, axles crashed together,
1190
while the dead were heaped up on the dead. So for to-day we have prevented destruction of the towers of our land; but if this land will be fortunate for the future, that rests with the gods; for even now it owes its safety to some deity.
1195
Chorus Leader
Victory is fair; and if the gods are growing kinder, it would be well with me.
1200
1202
Victory is fair; and if the gods are growing kinder, it would be well with me.
1200
Jocasta
The gods and fortune have treated us well; for my sons are alive and my land has escaped ruin. But Creon seems to have had bitter enjoyment
from my marriage with Oedipus, by losing his son to his sorrow, a public success, a private grief. But please, come back to your tale again and say what my two sons intend to do next.
1205
The gods and fortune have treated us well; for my sons are alive and my land has escaped ruin. But Creon seems to have had bitter enjoyment
from my marriage with Oedipus, by losing his son to his sorrow, a public success, a private grief. But please, come back to your tale again and say what my two sons intend to do next.
1205
Messenger
Let the rest be; all is well with you so far.
Let the rest be; all is well with you so far.
Jocasta
Your words rouse my suspicions; I cannot let it be.
1210
Your words rouse my suspicions; I cannot let it be.
1210
Messenger
Have you any further wish than your sons’ safety?
Have you any further wish than your sons’ safety?
Jocasta
Yes, to hear if I shall fare well in the future.
Yes, to hear if I shall fare well in the future.
Messenger
Let me go; your son is left without his squire.
Let me go; your son is left without his squire.
Jocasta
There is some evil you are hiding, veiling it in darkness.
There is some evil you are hiding, veiling it in darkness.
Messenger
I would not add ill news to the good you have heard.
1215
I would not add ill news to the good you have heard.
1215
Jocasta
You must, unless you take wings and fly away.
You must, unless you take wings and fly away.
Messenger
Ah! Why did you not let me go after my good news, instead of forcing me to disclose evil? Those two sons of yours are resolved on
deeds of shameful recklessness, a single combat apart from the army; they addressed to Argives and Thebans alike words I would they had never uttered. Eteocles, taking his stand on a lofty tower, after ordering silence to be proclaimed to the army, began:
1220
and said:
O captains of
Hellas
,
chieftains of
Argos
here assembled, and you people of Cadmus, do not barter your lives for Polyneices or for me! For I myself excuse you from this risk,
1225
and will engage my brother in single combat; and if I slay him, I will possess my house alone, but if I am conquered I will hand down the city to him alone. You men of
Argos
, give up the struggle and return to your land, do not lose your lives here;
1230
there are enough of the Sown-men who lie dead.
1235
So he spoke; then your son Polyneices rushed from the battle-line and assented to his proposal. And all the Argives and the people of Cadmus shouted their approval, as though they thought it just.
On these terms the armies made a truce, and in the space between them the generals took an oath to abide by.
1240
1242
At once, the two sons of the old Oedipus were hiding themselves in bronze armor; and lords of
Thebes
with friendly care equipped the captain of this land,
while
Argive
chieftains armed the other. There they stood dazzling, nor were they pale, all eagerness to hurl their lances at each other. Then their friends came to their sides first one, then another, with words of encouragement, saying:
1245
Polyneices, it rests with you to set up an image of Zeus as a trophy and crown
Argos
with fair renown.
1250
Others to Eteocles:
Now you are fighting for your city; now, if victorious, you have the scepter in your power.
So they spoke, cheering them to the battle.
The seers were sacrificing sheep and noting the tongues and forks of fire, the damp reek which is a bad omen, and the tapering flame which gives decisions on two points, being both a sign of victory and defeat.
1255
But, if you have any power or subtle speech
or charmed spell, go, restrain your children from this terrible combat, for great is the risk they run. The prize of the contest will be grievous sorrow for you, if to-day you are deprived of both your sons.
Exit Messenger.
1260
Ah! Why did you not let me go after my good news, instead of forcing me to disclose evil? Those two sons of yours are resolved on
deeds of shameful recklessness, a single combat apart from the army; they addressed to Argives and Thebans alike words I would they had never uttered. Eteocles, taking his stand on a lofty tower, after ordering silence to be proclaimed to the army, began:
1220
and said:
O captains of
Hellas
,
chieftains of
Argos
here assembled, and you people of Cadmus, do not barter your lives for Polyneices or for me! For I myself excuse you from this risk,
1225
and will engage my brother in single combat; and if I slay him, I will possess my house alone, but if I am conquered I will hand down the city to him alone. You men of
Argos
, give up the struggle and return to your land, do not lose your lives here;
1230
there are enough of the Sown-men who lie dead.
1235
So he spoke; then your son Polyneices rushed from the battle-line and assented to his proposal. And all the Argives and the people of Cadmus shouted their approval, as though they thought it just.
On these terms the armies made a truce, and in the space between them the generals took an oath to abide by.
1240
At once, the two sons of the old Oedipus were hiding themselves in bronze armor; and lords of
Thebes
with friendly care equipped the captain of this land,
while
Argive
chieftains armed the other. There they stood dazzling, nor were they pale, all eagerness to hurl their lances at each other. Then their friends came to their sides first one, then another, with words of encouragement, saying:
1245
Polyneices, it rests with you to set up an image of Zeus as a trophy and crown
Argos
with fair renown.
1250
Others to Eteocles:
Now you are fighting for your city; now, if victorious, you have the scepter in your power.
So they spoke, cheering them to the battle.
The seers were sacrificing sheep and noting the tongues and forks of fire, the damp reek which is a bad omen, and the tapering flame which gives decisions on two points, being both a sign of victory and defeat.
1255
But, if you have any power or subtle speech
or charmed spell, go, restrain your children from this terrible combat, for great is the risk they run. The prize of the contest will be grievous sorrow for you, if to-day you are deprived of both your sons.
Exit Messenger.
1260
Jocasta
Antigone, my daughter, come out of the house;
this heaven-sent crisis is no time for dances or girlish pursuits. But you and your mother must prevent two brave men, your own brothers, from plunging into death and falling by each other’s hand.
1265
Antigone, my daughter, come out of the house;
this heaven-sent crisis is no time for dances or girlish pursuits. But you and your mother must prevent two brave men, your own brothers, from plunging into death and falling by each other’s hand.
1265
Antigone
Mother, what new terror are you proclaiming to your friends before the palace?
1270
Mother, what new terror are you proclaiming to your friends before the palace?
1270
Jocasta
Daughter, your brothers’ lives are going to ruin.
Daughter, your brothers’ lives are going to ruin.
Antigone
What do you mean?
What do you mean?
Jocasta
They have resolved on single combat.
They have resolved on single combat.
Antigone
Oh no! what do you have to say, mother?
Oh no! what do you have to say, mother?
Jocasta
No welcome news; follow me.
No welcome news; follow me.
Antigone
Where, away from my maiden’s chamber?
1275
Where, away from my maiden’s chamber?
1275
Jocasta
To the army.
To the army.
Antigone
I cannot face the crowd.
I cannot face the crowd.
Jocasta
Coyness is not for you now.
Coyness is not for you now.
Antigone
But what shall I do?
But what shall I do?
Jocasta
You will put an end to your brothers’ strife.
You will put an end to your brothers’ strife.
Antigone
How so, mother?
How so, mother?
Jocasta
By falling at their knees with me.
By falling at their knees with me.
Antigone
Lead on till we are between the armies; we must not delay.
Lead on till we are between the armies; we must not delay.
Jocasta
Haste, my daughter, haste! For, if I can forestall the onset of my sons, I may yet live; but if they are dead, I will lie down in death with them.
Exeunt Jocasta and Antigone.
1280
Haste, my daughter, haste! For, if I can forestall the onset of my sons, I may yet live; but if they are dead, I will lie down in death with them.
Exeunt Jocasta and Antigone.
1280
The Phoenician Women. Euripides. Edward P. Coleridge (Translator). London. 1891.
Sponsored by Perseus Project, Tufts University.
Funding provided by The Annenberg CPB/Project.