Sophocles Antigone 87

ed. August Boeckh

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KREON

Doch wisse nur, die allzustarre Sinnesart,
460

sie fällt am ersten; und das allerhärteste

Stahleisen, spröd' aus Feuers Glut gekommen, magst

am meisten du zerbersten und zerbrechen sehn.

Mit kleinem Zügel, weiſs ich, wird der Rosse Muth,

der hitzigsten, gebändigt; denn nicht ziemet dem
465

sich groſs zu dünken, der ein Knecht der Nächsten ist.

Ja diese wusste schon zuvor schmachvollen Trotz

zu üben, als sie unsre Satzung übertrat;

der zweite Trotz nun ist es, da sie dies gethan,

sich deſs zu rühmen und zu lachen nach der That.
470

Traun ich bin jetzo Mann nicht, sondern sie ist Mann,

bleibt solcher Macht Anmafsung dieser ungestraft.

Nein, mag sie meiner Schwester Kind, mag näher noch

mir blutsverwandt als alle Blutsverwandten seyn,

nicht soll dem schlimmsten Loose selber sie entgehn,
475

noch ihre Schwester: denn auch jene zeih' ich deſs,

dafs dieses Grabes Weihe sie mit ausgedacht.

Ruft sie herbei mir; denn so eben sah ich noch

sie drinnen rasen, nicht der Sinne mächtig mehr.

So wird die Seele schon zuvor Verrätherin
480

des Truges, der im Finstern ausgesonnen ward;

doch hass' ich den auch, welcher auf der bösen That

betroffen, nachher diese schön noch schminken will.

Antigone. Sophocles. ed. August Boeckh. Leipzig. 1884.

Current edition Experimental

German (A. Boeckh, 1884) (OCR draft) (German) (German (A. Boeckh, 1884))

Provisional text from uncorrected OCR; expect errors.

Editions (12)

Greek (L. Benloew, 1858) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (L. Benloew, 1858)) — 87 focus

σιγῶσ᾽, ἐὰν μὴ πᾶσι κηρύξῃς τάδε.

Greek (A. Boeckh, 1884) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (A. Boeckh, 1884)) — 87 focus

σιγῶσ᾽, ἐὰν μὴ πᾶσι κηρύξῃς τάδε.

Greek (F. H. Bothe, 1806) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (F. H. Bothe, 1806)) — 87 focus

σύ γ᾽ ὡς, ἐὰν μὴ πᾶσι κηρύξῃς τάδε.

Greek (Lewis Campbell, 1879) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (Lewis Campbell, 1879)) — 87 focus

σιγῶσ᾽, ἐὰν μὴ πᾶσι κηρύξῃς τάδε.

Greek (A. Colonna, 1978) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (A. Colonna, 1978)) — 87 focus

σιγῶσ᾽, ἐὰν μὴ πᾶσι κηρύξῃς τάδε.

Greek (A. Dain, 1955) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (A. Dain, 1955)) — 87.mvp-line-87 focus

σιγῶσ’, ἐὰν μὴ πᾶσι κηρύξῃς τάδε.

Greek (R. D. Dawe, 1979) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (R. D. Dawe, 1979)) — 87 focus

σιγῶσ᾽, ἐὰν μὴ πᾶσι κηρύξηις τάδε.

Greek (G. Hermann, 1830) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (G. Hermann, 1830)) — 87 focus

σιγῶσ᾽, ἐὰν μὴ πᾶσι κηρύξῃς τάδε.

Greek (R. C. Jebb, 1906) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (R. C. Jebb, 1906)) — 87 focus

σιγῶσ᾽, ἐὰν μὴ πᾶσι κηρύξῃς τάδε.

Greek (A. C. Pearson, 1924) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (A. C. Pearson, 1924)) — 87.mvp-line-87 focus

σιγῶσ᾽, ἐὰν μὴ πᾶσι κηρύξῃς τάδε.

Antigone (OCR draft) Experimental (Antigone) — 87 focus

σιγῶσʼ, ἐὰν μὴ πᾶσι κηρύξῃς τάδε.

Greek (K. Reinhardt, 1949) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (K. Reinhardt, 1949)) — 87 focus

σιγῶσ᾽, ἐὰν μὴ πᾶσι κηρύξηις τάδε.

Translations (10)

Spanish (J. A. Bolufer, 1921) (OCR draft) Experimental (Spanish (J. A. Bolufer, 1921)) — 87 focus

CREONTE

¿No era hermano también el que frente a él murió?

Latin (F. H. Bothe, 1806) (OCR draft) Experimental (Latin (F. H. Bothe, 1806)) — 87 focus

Creon

Nonne etiam frater ille erat, qui contraria inferens arma occubuit?

English (Lewis Campbell, 1906) (OCR draft) Experimental (English (Lewis Campbell, 1906)) — 87 focus

CR

Was not Eteocles thy brother too?

German (J. J. C. Donner, 1875; OCR review) (OCR draft) Experimental (German (J. J. C. Donner, 1875; OCR review)) — 100 focus

Strahl des Helios, schönstes Licht,¹
100

Das der siebenthorigen Stadt

Thebe's nimmer zuvor erschien!

Du strahlst endlich, des gold'nen Tags

Aufblick, herrlich herauf,

Ueber Dirke's Fluten herüberwandelnd;²
105

Und Ihn, der mit leuchtendem Schild

Kam von Argos in voller Wehr,

Triebest du flüchtig in eilendem Lauf

Fort mit hastigem Zügel:

English (Thomas Francklin, 1758–1759) (OCR draft) Experimental (English (Thomas Francklin, 1758–1759)) — 87 focus

Creon

Why then thus reverence him who least de-

served it?

Spanish (A. G. Garbin, 1889) (OCR draft) Experimental (Spanish (A. G. Garbin, 1889)) — 87 focus

CREONTE

No, tu muerte me basta.

German (F. Hölderlin, 1804) (OCR draft) Experimental (German (F. Hölderlin, 1804)) — 87 focus

ANTIGONAE

Eins Blutes. Kind eins einigen Geschlechtes.
535

English (Sir Richard Jebb1, 1904) (OCR draft) Experimental (English (Sir Richard Jebb1, 1904)) — 87 focus

Creon

Was it not a brother, too, that died in the opposite cause?

English (Robert Potter, 1788) (OCR draft) Experimental (English (Robert Potter, 1788)) — 87 focus

Chorus
ANTIS. 1. 556cont2

How blest their state, whose gladsome hours

583

Glide smoothly on, untaught to taste of woe!

But when (heav'n-sent) sfflictions flow,

Wide-wasting the impetuous torrent pours;

The house from its foundations shakes,

And ruin all its sons o'ertakes.

593

As when from Thrace the winds tempestuous sweep

With dark'ning horror o'er the deep,

The boiling sands are from the bottom torn,

And high the surging billows borne;

605

Furious they lash the solid shore,

The promontories round rebellow to the roar.

The house of Labdacus of old

In all the pomp of regal splendor stood;

Till rough misfortune's swelling flood

Ruin on former ruin deep'ning rolfd.,

615

Some god adds fury to its force,

And urges its resistless course;

No dams, no mounds the raging torrent stay,

Race after race it sweeps away.

O the last branch of this imperial line

A brighter sun now seem'd to shine;

626

The bloody dust the dead heap'd round, [ground.

Proud speech, and frenzy wild soon mow her to the

English (Sir Richard Jebb2, 1904) (OCR draft) Experimental (English (Sir Richard Jebb2, 1904)) — 100-160 focus

Enter the Chorus on the right.

Chorus

Shaft of the sun, fairest light of all that have dawned on Thebes of the seven gates, you have shone forth at last, eye of golden day, advancing over Dirce’s streams!
100

You have goaded with a sharper bit the warrior of the white shield, who came from Argos in full armor, driving him to headlong retreat.
105

110

Chorus

He set out against our land because of the strife-filled claims of Polyneices, and like a screaming eagle he flew over into our land, covered by his snow-white wing,
110

with a mass of weapons and crested helmets.
115

117

Chorus

He paused above our dwellings; he gaped around our sevenfold portals with spears thirsting for blood; but he left

before his jaws were ever glutted with our gore, or before the Fire-god’s pine-fed flame had seized our crown of towers.
120

So fierce was the crash of battle swelling about his back, a match too hard to win for the rival of the dragon.
125

127

Chorus

For Zeus detests above all the boasts of a proud tongue. And when he saw them advancing in a swollen flood,

arrogant their clanging gold, he dashed with brandished fire one who was already starting to shout victory when he had reached our ramparts.
130

134

Chorus

Staggered, he fell to the earth with a crash,

torch in hand, a man possessed by the frenzy of the mad attack, who just now was raging against us with the blasts of his tempestuous hate. But his threats did not fare as he had hoped, and to the other enemies mighty Ares dispensed each their own dooms with hard blows,
135

Ares, our mighty ally at the turning-point.
140

141

Chorus

For the seven captains, stationed against an equal number at the seven gates, left behind their brazen arms in tribute to Zeus the turner of battle—all but the accursed pair who, born of one father and one

mother, set against each other their spears, both victorious, and who now share in a common death.
145

148

Chorus

But since Victory whose name is glory has come to us, smiling in joy equal to the joy of chariot-rich Thebes ,

let us make for ourselves forgetfulness after the recent wars, and visit all the temples of the gods with night-long dance and song. And may Bacchus, who shakes the earth of Thebes , rule our dancing!
150

155

Chorus

But look, the king of the land is coming here, Creon, the son of Menoeceus, our new ruler in accordance with the new circumstances fated by the gods. What policy is he setting in motion,
155

that he has proposed this special conference of elders, and summoned it by a general mandate?
160

Commentary

Commentary (R. C. Jebb) (OCR draft) (Commentary (R. C. Jebb))

mvp-comment-259-1 δώσειν ¹

mvp-comment-259-2 θανουμένη γάρ ²

mvp-comment-259-3 τί δ’ οὔ ³

mvp-comment-260-1 κεἰ μὴ σὺ προὐκήρυξας ⁴

mvp-comment-260-2 τοῦ χρόνου ⁵

mvp-comment-260-3 αὔτ’ ⁶

mvp-comment-261-1 φέρει ⁷

mvp-comment-262-1 Kvičala and Wecklein reject these four verses, despairing of the difficulties found in vv. 466, 467, which have been variously amended; see Appendix. The alleged difficulties are, (1)

παρ’ οὐδὲν ἄλγος

: (2) the mention of the mother only: (3) the position of

θανόντ’

, which might suggest the sense, ‘slain by my mother’: (4)

ηἰσχόμην

(as L has it). Before dealing with these points, I would call attention to a trait which the impugners of these verses have overlooked, and which speaks strongly for the genuineness of the passage as a whole, corrupt though it be in certain words. That trait is the clause τοῖσδε δ’ οὐκ ἀλγύνομαι ⁸

mvp-comment-263-1 ἄλγος ⁹ παρ’ οὐδέν ¹⁰

mvp-comment-263-2 adv.: ‘is a pain in no appreciable degree,’ is a pain not worth a thought: as he might have said,

οὐδαμοῦ ἄλγος ἐστί

. The normal use of

παρ’ οὐδέν

, ‘of no account,’ is either ( a) with the verb

εἶναι

, as O. T. 982

ταῦθ’ ὅτῳ | παρ’ οὐδέν ἐστι

, or ( b) with a verb meaning ‘to esteem,’ as above, v. 34,

τὸ πρᾶγμ’ ἄγειν | οὐχ ὡς παρ’ οὐδέν

. The only peculiarity here is that, instead of a word in the general sense, ‘ is esteemed’ (

ἄγεται

), we have a virtual equivalent, tinged with the special thought of the moment, viz., ‘ is a pain.’ Exactly so in El. 1327 we have

πότερα παρ’ οὐδὲν τοῦ βίου κήδεσθ’ ἔτι

, instead of

πότερα παρ’ οὐδὲν τὸν βίον ἄγετε

. Thus the suspicions as to the genuineness of

παρ’ οὐδὲν ἄλγος

are illusory.

mvp-comment-263-3 ἀλλ’ ἄν ¹¹

mvp-comment-264-1 ἄθαπτον ἠνσχόμην νέκυν ¹² ηἰσχόμην ¹³ ἠνσχόμην ¹⁴

mvp-comment-264-2 In my first edition I placed in the text the emendation of Semitelos (1887) ᾔσχυναν κύνες ¹⁵

mvp-comment-264-3 Other emendations will be found in the Appendix. Most of them assume that we must have

ἠνεσχόμην

(or

ἀνεσχόμην

), and therefore alter the words

θανόντ’ ἄθαπτον

and

νέκυν

in various ways, —usu. omitting

νέκυν

. The verses produced by these processes are wretched, while, from a palaeographical point of view, they are pure conjectures, which do not attempt to account for the tradition in L.—Two points remain. (1) τὸν ἐξ ἐμῆς | μητρός ¹⁶

mvp-comment-264-4 or

μιᾶς

(Meineke). (2) τὸν ἐξ ἐμ. | μητρος θανόντ’ ¹⁷

mvp-comment-265-1 σχεδόν τι ¹⁸

mvp-comment-265-2 μώρῳ μωρίαν ¹⁹

mvp-comment-265-3 ὀφλισκάνω ²⁰

mvp-comment-266-1 These two verses give a moment of stillness before the storm breaks forth. So at O. T. 404 four verses of the chorus divide the angry speech of Oedipus from the retort of Teiresias.

mvp-comment-266-2 τὸ γέννημα τῆς παιδός ²¹ δηλοῖ ²² ὠμόν ²³ ἐξ ὠμοῦ πατρός ²⁴ γέννημα ²⁵

mvp-comment-267-1 εἴκειν … κακοῖς ²⁶

mvp-comment-268-1 ἀλλ’ ἴσθι τοι ²⁷

mvp-comment-268-2 πίπτειν ²⁸

mvp-comment-269-1 ὀπτὸν … περισκελῆ ²⁹

mvp-comment-269-2 περισκελής ³⁰

mvp-comment-269-3 ἐκ πυρός ³¹

mvp-comment-270-1 θραυσθέντα καὶ ῥαγέντα ³²

mvp-comment-271-1 χαλινῷ δ’ ³³ σμικρῷ ³⁴

mvp-comment-271-2 καταρτυθέντας ³⁵

mvp-comment-272-1 Suspicion has fallen on ἐκπέλει ³⁶

mvp-comment-272-2 ὅστις ³⁷

mvp-comment-272-3 τῶν πέλας ³⁸

mvp-comment-273-1 αὕτη δ’ ³⁹ ὑβρίζειν μὲν … ὕβρις δ’ ⁴⁰ ἐξηπίστατο ⁴¹ τότ’ ⁴²

mvp-comment-273-2 τούτοις ⁴³

mvp-comment-273-3 δεδρακυῖαν γελᾶν ⁴⁴

Commentary (Lewis Campbell, 1879) (OCR draft) (Commentary (Lewis Campbell, 1879)) focus

462. mvp-comment-267-1 κέρδος αὔτ᾽ ἐγὼ λέγω αὔτ᾽, i. e. αὐτό, although not necessary to the construction, as appears from Plat. Apol. 40 Ε., κέρδος ἔγωγε λέγω, is better here than αὖτe, which weakens κέρδος.

463. mvp-comment-268-1 ὡς ἐγώ Supr. ll. 4-6.

466. mvp-comment-269-1 παρ᾿ οὐδὲν ἄλγος Is a grief of no account. Cp. supr. 35.

466. mvp-comment-269-2 ἐμῆς Meineke conj. ἐκ μιᾶs, Seyffert ὁμῆς, unnecessarily. The emphatic use of ἐμós is frequent in Sophocles.

467. mvp-comment-270-1 ἄθαπτον *ἠνσχόμην ἠνσχόμην (1) may be defended by the analogy of the syncopated ἀνσχήσεσθαι, ἄνσχεο, in Epic Greek. Otherwise (2) νέκυν may be cancelled as a gloss, and ἄθαπτον *ὄντ᾿ ἠνεσχόμην read, according to the conj. of Prof. E. L. Lushington. Or (3) ἐσχόμην may be read in the sense of ἠνεσχόμην. Ε. on L. § 55, 4. p. 101. But this is doubtful.

470. mvp-comment-271-1 μώρῳ i.e. One whose judgment is self-condemned, because opposed to the eternal laws. The word is not prompted by mere petulance, but is uttered with profound conviction.

471. mvp-comment-272-1 'The maiden's lineage declares itself in the fierce vein that comes to her from her fierce sire.' Phil. 1045-1046.

472. mvp-comment-273-1 ἐπίσταται Sc. ἡ παῖς.

473. mvp-comment-274-1 σκληρά Unbending, and so Stubborn, Obstinate.

473. mvp-comment-274-2 The self-will of Creon appears with increasing distinctness. (1) He asserts his confidence in the use of power to suppress insubordination. (2) He speaks of his ward, whom he does not care to name, as in the place of a slave (479): (3) he implies that to cede an inch of authority is to give the sovereignty to another (485). (4) He throws the tie of kindred to the winds. The first words of his speech are ominous of his own doom. See Introduction.

475. mvp-comment-275-1 ὀπτὸν .. περισκελή Baked to exceeding hardness. Cp. Aj. 649, καὶ περισκελεῖς φρένες.

476. mvp-comment-276-1 θραυσθέντα καὶ ῥαγέντα Broken and shattered. The strongest word is put first in the Greek. Essay on Language § 41. p.77.

477. mvp-comment-277-1 σμικρῷ has a strong emphasis. Ibid.

478. mvp-comment-278-1 ἐκπέλει Hesych. ἐκπέλει, ἔξεστι. Hdt. uses ἐκγίνεσθαι in a similar sense. See Essay on Language § 55. p. 101.

479. mvp-comment-279-1 δοῦλος Creon shows his coarsely tyrannical spirit by boasting of his absolute power over his orphan relative.

481. mvp-comment-280-1 Cp. Hdt. 3. 83, νόμους οὐκ ὑπερβαίνουσα τοὺς Περσέων.