οὐδὲν γὰρ αἰσχρὸν τοὺς ὁμοσπλάγχνους σέβειν.
Antigone. Sophocles. Berlin. 1806.
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Table of Contents
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Current edition Experimental
Greek (F. H. Bothe, 1806) (OCR draft) (Greek) (Greek (F. H. Bothe, 1806))
Provisional text from uncorrected OCR; expect errors.
Editions (11)
Greek (L. Benloew, 1858) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (L. Benloew, 1858)) — 504 focus
κἄξεστιν αὐτῇ δρᾷν λέγειν θ᾽ ἃ βούλεται.
Greek (A. Boeckh, 1884) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (A. Boeckh, 1884)) — 504 focus
οὐ γάρ τι δοῦλος, ἀλλ᾽ ἀδελφὸς ὤλετο.
Greek (Lewis Campbell, 1879) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (Lewis Campbell, 1879)) — 504 focus
τιθεῖσα; τούτοις τοῦτο πᾶσιν ἁνδάνειν
Greek (A. Colonna, 1978) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (A. Colonna, 1978)) — 504 focus
τιθεῖσα; τούτοις τοῦτο πᾶσιν ἁνδάνειν
Greek (A. Dain, 1955) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (A. Dain, 1955)) — 504.mvp-line-501 focus
τιθεῖσα; τούτοις τοῦτο πᾶσιν ἁνδάνειν
Greek (R. D. Dawe, 1979) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (R. D. Dawe, 1979)) — 504 focus
τιθεῖσα; τούτοις τοῦτο πᾶσιν ἁνδάνειν
Greek (G. Hermann, 1830) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (G. Hermann, 1830)) — 504 focus
σὺ τοῦτο μούνη τῶνδε Καδμείων ὁρᾷς.
Greek (R. C. Jebb, 1906) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (R. C. Jebb, 1906)) — 504 focus
τιθεῖσα;
τούτοις τοῦτο πᾶσιν ἁνδάνειν
Greek (A. C. Pearson, 1924) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (A. C. Pearson, 1924)) — 504.mvp-line-501 focus
τιθεῖσα; τούτοις τοῦτο πᾶσιν ἁνδάνειν
Antigone (OCR draft) Experimental (Antigone) — 504 focus
τιθεῖσα; τούτοις τοῦτο πᾶσιν ἁνδάνειν
Greek (K. Reinhardt, 1949) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (K. Reinhardt, 1949)) — 504 focus
τιθεῖσα; τούτοις τοῦτο πᾶσιν ἁνδάνειν
Translations (2)
German (J. J. C. Donner, 1875; OCR review) (OCR draft) Experimental (German (J. J. C. Donner, 1875; OCR review)) — 499 focus
Was also säumst du? Wie von deinen Worten mir
Gefällig keins ist und gefalle mir es nie!
So müssen auch die meinen dir mißfällig sein.
Und doch, wodurch wohl konnt' ich ehrenvollern Ruhm
500
Erringen, als indem ich meines Bruders Grab
Bestellte? Diese würden all' es wohlgethan
Erklären, fesselt' ihnen Furcht die Zunge nicht.
Doch wie dem Herrscher andres Glück in Menge ward,
So darf er reden, darf er thun, was ihm beliebt.
505
Was also säumst du? Wie von deinen Worten mir
Gefällig keins ist und gefalle mir es nie!
So müssen auch die meinen dir mißfällig sein.
Und doch, wodurch wohl konnt' ich ehrenvollern Ruhm
500
Erringen, als indem ich meines Bruders Grab
Bestellte? Diese würden all' es wohlgethan
Erklären, fesselt' ihnen Furcht die Zunge nicht.
Doch wie dem Herrscher andres Glück in Menge ward,
So darf er reden, darf er thun, was ihm beliebt.
505
Kreon.
Du siehst allein dies unter Kadmos' Volke hier.
Du siehst allein dies unter Kadmos' Volke hier.
Antigone.
Auch diese seh'ns; dir schmiegt sich ihre Zunge nur.
Auch diese seh'ns; dir schmiegt sich ihre Zunge nur.
Kreon.
Nicht Scham erfüllt dich, andern Sinns, als die, zu sein?
Nicht Scham erfüllt dich, andern Sinns, als die, zu sein?
Antigone.
Nicht schänden kann es, wenn man fromm den Bruder ehrt.
Nicht schänden kann es, wenn man fromm den Bruder ehrt.
Kreon.
War Bruder nicht auch, der ihm gegenüber fiel?
510
War Bruder nicht auch, der ihm gegenüber fiel?
510
Antigone.
Derselben Mutter und desselben Vaters Sohn.
Derselben Mutter und desselben Vaters Sohn.
Kreon.
Warum an ihm denn frevelst du durch solche Gunst?
Warum an ihm denn frevelst du durch solche Gunst?
Antigone.
Das wird der Abgeschiedne selbst nicht zugesteh'n.
Das wird der Abgeschiedne selbst nicht zugesteh'n.
Kreon.
Nicht, wenn der Frevler gleiche Gunst von dir empfängt?
Nicht, wenn der Frevler gleiche Gunst von dir empfängt?
Antigone.
Kein Knecht, der Bruder war's ja, der im Kampfe fiel.
515
Kein Knecht, der Bruder war's ja, der im Kampfe fiel.
515
Kreon.
Dies Land verheerend, während er es kämpfend schirmt.
Dies Land verheerend, während er es kämpfend schirmt.
Antigone.
Doch spricht für Beide gleiches Recht der Hades an.
Doch spricht für Beide gleiches Recht der Hades an.
Kreon.
Nur soll der Edle nicht empfah'n dem Bösen gleich.
Wer sagt mir, ob dort unten auch der Brauch gefällt?
Nie wird der Feind zum Freunde, selbst im Tode nicht.
520
Nur soll der Edle nicht empfah'n dem Bösen gleich.
Wer sagt mir, ob dort unten auch der Brauch gefällt?
Nie wird der Feind zum Freunde, selbst im Tode nicht.
520
Antigone.
Nicht mitzuhassen, mitzulieben leb' ich nur.
1
Nicht mitzuhassen, mitzulieben leb' ich nur.
1
Kreon.
Hinab denn kommend, liebe, wenn du lieben mußt,
Die dort: so lang' ich lebe, zwingt ein Weib mich nie!
Hinab denn kommend, liebe, wenn du lieben mußt,
Die dort: so lang' ich lebe, zwingt ein Weib mich nie!
Der Chor.
English (Sir Richard Jebb2, 1904) (OCR draft) Experimental (English (Sir Richard Jebb2, 1904)) — 583-630 focus
Chorus
Blest are those whose days have not tasted of evil. For when a house has once been shaken by the gods,
no form of ruin is lacking, but it spreads over the bulk of the race, just as, when the surge is driven over the darkness of the deep by the fierce breath of Thracian sea-winds,
585
it rolls up the black sand from the depths, and the wind-beaten headlands that front the blows of the storm give out a mournful roar.
590
Blest are those whose days have not tasted of evil. For when a house has once been shaken by the gods,
no form of ruin is lacking, but it spreads over the bulk of the race, just as, when the surge is driven over the darkness of the deep by the fierce breath of Thracian sea-winds,
585
it rolls up the black sand from the depths, and the wind-beaten headlands that front the blows of the storm give out a mournful roar.
590
Chorus
I see that the ancient sorrows of the house of the Labdacids
are heaped upon the sorrows of the dead. Each generation does not set its race free, but some god hurls it down and the race has no release. For now that dazzling ray of hope that had been spread
595
over the last roots in the house of Oedipus—that hope, in its turn, the blood-stained dust of the gods infernal and mindlessness in speech and frenzy at the mind cuts down.
600
I see that the ancient sorrows of the house of the Labdacids
are heaped upon the sorrows of the dead. Each generation does not set its race free, but some god hurls it down and the race has no release. For now that dazzling ray of hope that had been spread
595
over the last roots in the house of Oedipus—that hope, in its turn, the blood-stained dust of the gods infernal and mindlessness in speech and frenzy at the mind cuts down.
600
Chorus
Your power, great Zeus—what human overstepping can check it? Yours is power that neither Sleep, the all-ensnaring, nor the untiring months of the gods can defeat. Unaged through time,
605
you rule by your power and dwell thereby in the brilliant splendor of
Olympus
. And through the future, both near and distant, as through the past, shall this law prevail: nothing that is vast comes to the life of mortals without ruin.
610
Your power, great Zeus—what human overstepping can check it? Yours is power that neither Sleep, the all-ensnaring, nor the untiring months of the gods can defeat. Unaged through time,
605
you rule by your power and dwell thereby in the brilliant splendor of
Olympus
. And through the future, both near and distant, as through the past, shall this law prevail: nothing that is vast comes to the life of mortals without ruin.
610
Chorus
See how that hope whose wanderings are so wide truly is a benefit to many men, but to an equal number it is a false lure of light-headed desires. The deception comes to one who is wholly unawares until he burns his foot on a hot fire.
615
For with wisdom did someone once reveal the maxim, now famous, that evil at one time or another seems good, to him whose mind a god leads to ruin.
620
But for the briefest moment such a man fares free of destruction.
625
See how that hope whose wanderings are so wide truly is a benefit to many men, but to an equal number it is a false lure of light-headed desires. The deception comes to one who is wholly unawares until he burns his foot on a hot fire.
615
For with wisdom did someone once reveal the maxim, now famous, that evil at one time or another seems good, to him whose mind a god leads to ruin.
620
But for the briefest moment such a man fares free of destruction.
625
Enter Haemon.
Chorus
But here is Haemon, the last of your offspring. Does he come grieving for the doom of Antigone, his promised bride,
and bitter for the deceived hope of their marriage?
630
But here is Haemon, the last of your offspring. Does he come grieving for the doom of Antigone, his promised bride,
and bitter for the deceived hope of their marriage?
630
Commentary
Commentary (Lewis Campbell, 1879) (OCR draft) (Commentary (Lewis Campbell, 1879)) focus
223-330. mvp-comment-136-1 The half-comic or rustic character of the watchman in this play is an extension of the common character of the messenger, whose natural rudeness of speech and thought brings into greater prominence the horror or pathos of the events he describes. The grotesqueness disappears when he speaks of the action of Antigone in 407-440. The employment of this artifice by Sophocles arises from the same motive to which Shakespeare gave a far wider range in such creations as the gravediggers in Hamlet, and the rural fellow in Antony and Cleopatra. The Messenger in the Trachiniae, the Corinthian in the Oedipus Tyrannus, Menelaus in the Ajax, the pretended Shipmaster in the Philoctetes, afford the same sort of contrast to the more tragic personages: and the superstition of the Coloniatae may be compared with the cowardice of the Phrygian slave in the Orestes of Euripides.
223-330.
mvp-comment-136-2
The vulgarity of the common-place Athenian of the fifth century в.с. takes the form of misplaced subtlety of wit. Cp.
Shak. Hamlet, 5. 1
,
We must speak by the card, or equivocation will undo us. The age is grown so picked, that the toe of the peasant comes so near the heel of the courtier, he galls his kibe.
262-263. mvp-comment-163-1 The subtlety of the Φύλαξ deserts him in attempting to express his meaning. The perpetrator was every one and no one of us all every one in vague suspicion, and no one evidently: he escaped being known.' τις gives the indefiniteness required by the sense, = πως.
263.
mvp-comment-164-1
ἀλλ᾽ ἔφευγε *μὴ εἰδέναι (1) But he (the perpetrator) always escaped, so that we could not know him. Böckh and Donaldson read as in the text, interpreting (2) Every man' (πᾶς implied in οὐδείς, the affirmative elicited from the negative)
defended himself by pleading ignorance of the matter. For φεύγειν, * to urge a defensive plea,' cp. Aesch. Suppl. 390, and for the plea, μὴ εἰδέναι, Plat. Legg. 11. 936 E. But the plea of ignorance, although suitable in l. 266, is too special for this place, wherethe non-appearance of the criminal alone is in question. The meaning given above (1) is the same as that required by Hermann (see below), but is more simply expressed by the epexegesis, and the imperfect tense expresses the frustration of continued search. This interpretation involves a rare use of φεύγω, which is, however, analogous to a meaning of ἐκφεύγω that is not uncommon. Cp. Ο. Τ. 111, ἐκφεύγει δὲ τἀμελούμενον : Plat. Phil. 17, τὰ δὲ μέσα αὐτοὺς ἐκφεύγει. Other emendations are ἔφυγε τὸ μὴ εἰδέναι (Porson), explained by Erfurdt to mean
amoliens a se accusationem scire sese negaverat ; ἔφυγε τῷ μὴ εἰδέναι (Herm. 1839),
effugit, eo quod nesciebamus; ἔφευγε πᾶς τὸ μή,
every man pled Not guilty. (Dind.). 264-265. There are few traces of anything corresponding to the trial by ordeal in ancient times. Brunck quotes Virg. Aen. 11. 787,
Et medium freti pietate per ignem | Cultores multa premimus vestigia prima. It seems to have existed in different places as a popular belief, but nowhere to have received positive legal sanction. For a trace of trial by combat' (in Scythia), see Hdt. 4. 180. Cp. also Ar. Lys. 133.