Sophocles Antigone 801

Editions (11)

Greek (A. Boeckh, 1884) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (A. Boeckh, 1884)) — 801 focus

δειράδας· ᾇ με δαί-

Greek (F. H. Bothe, 1806) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (F. H. Bothe, 1806)) — 801 focus

ἀκτὰν, οὔθ᾽ ὑμεναίων

Greek (Lewis Campbell, 1879) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (Lewis Campbell, 1879)) — 801 focus

νῦν δ᾽ ἤδη ἐγὼ καὐτὸς θεσμῶν

Greek (A. Colonna, 1978) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (A. Colonna, 1978)) — 801 focus

νῦν δ᾽ ἤδη ᾿γὼ καὐτὸς θεσμῶν

Greek (A. Dain, 1955) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (A. Dain, 1955)) — 801.mvp-line-794 focus

νῦν δ’ ἤδη ’γὼ καὐτὸς θεσμῶν

Greek (R. D. Dawe, 1979) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (R. D. Dawe, 1979)) — 801 focus

νῦν δ᾽ ἤδη ᾿γὼ καὐτὸς θεσμῶν

Greek (G. Hermann, 1830) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (G. Hermann, 1830)) — 801 focus

λῖται τὰν νεάταν ὁδὸν

Greek (R. C. Jebb, 1906) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (R. C. Jebb, 1906)) — 801 focus

νῦν δ᾽ ἤδη ᾿γὼ καὐτὸς θεσμῶν

Greek (A. C. Pearson, 1924) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (A. C. Pearson, 1924)) — 801.mvp-line-792 focus

νῦν δ᾽ ἤδη ᾽γὼ καὐτὸς θεσμῶν

Antigone (OCR draft) Experimental (Antigone) — 801 focus

νῦν δʼ ἤδη ʼγὼ καὐτὸς θεσμῶν

Greek (K. Reinhardt, 1949) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (K. Reinhardt, 1949)) — 801 focus

νῦν δ᾽ ἤδη ᾽γὼ καὐτὸς θεσμῶν

Translations (2)

German (J. J. C. Donner, 1875; OCR review) (OCR draft) Experimental (German (J. J. C. Donner, 1875; OCR review)) — 801 focus

Nun führt auch mich, was ich anseh'n muß, ¹

Schon über die Bahn des Gesezes hinaus;

Nicht länger bezwing' ich der Thränen Erguß,

795

Da in Hades' Gemach, das Alle verschlingt,

Ich hinabgeh'n sehe die Jungfrau.

Antigone. Der Chor. Zweite Strophe.

Antigone.

English (Sir Richard Jebb2, 1904) (OCR draft) Experimental (English (Sir Richard Jebb2, 1904)) — 806-880 focus

Antigone

Citizens of my fatherland, see me setting out on my last journey, looking at my last sunlight,

and never again. No, Hades who lays all to rest leads me living to Acheron ’s shore, though I have not had my due portion of the chant that brings the bride, nor has any hymn been mine

810

for the crowning of marriage. Instead the lord of Acheron will be my groom.

815

817

Chorus

Then in glory and with praise you depart to that deep place of the dead, neither struck by wasting sickness,

nor having won the wages of the sword. No, guided by your own laws and still alive, unlike any mortal before, you will descend to Hades.

820

823

Antigone

I have heard with my own ears how our Phrygian guest, the daughter of Tantalus, perished

in so much suffering on steep Sipylus—how, like clinging ivy, the sprouting stone subdued her. And the rains, as men tell, do not leave her melting form, nor does the snow,

825

but beneath her weeping lids she dampens her collar. Most like hers is the god-sent fate that leads me to my rest.

830

834

Chorus

Yet she was a goddess, as you know, and the offspring of gods,

while we are mortals and mortal-born. Still it is a great thing for a woman who has died to have it said of her that she shared the lot of the godlike in her life, and afterwards, in death.

835

839

Antigone

Ah, you mock me! In the name of our fathers’ gods,

why do you not wait to abuse me until after I have gone, and not to my face, O my city, and you, her wealthy citizens? Ah, spring of Dirce, and you holy ground of Thebes whose chariots are many,

840

you, at least, will bear me witness how unwept by loved ones, and by what laws I go to the rock-closed prison of my unheard-of tomb! Ah, misery!

845

I have no home among men or with the shades, no home with the living or with the dead.

850

853

Chorus

You have rushed headlong to the far limits of daring, and against the high throne of Justice

you have fallen, my daughter, fallen heavily. But in this ordeal you are paying for some paternal crime.

855

858

Antigone

You have touched on my most bitter thought

and moved my ever-renewed pity for my father and for the entire doom ordained for us, the famed house of Labdacus. Oh, the horrors of our mother’s bed! Oh, the slumbers of the wretched mother at the side

860

of her own son, my own father! What manner of parents gave me my miserable being! It is to them that I go like this, accursed and unwed, to share their home.

865

Ah, my brother, the marriage you made was doomed, and by dying you killed me still alive!

870

872

Chorus

Your pious action shows a certain reverence, but an offence against power can no way be tolerated by him who has power in his keeping.

Your self-willed disposition is what has destroyed you.

875

876

Antigone

Unwept, unfriended, without marriage-song, I am led in misery on this journey that cannot be put off. No longer is it permitted me, unhappy girl,

to look up at this sacred eye of the burning sun. But for my fate no tear is shed, no friend moans in sorrow.

880