νεφέλη δ᾽ ὀφρύων ὕπερ ἱμερτὸν
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)) — 521 focus
κάτω νυν ἐλθοῦσ᾽, εἰ φιλητέον, φίλει
Greek (A. Boeckh, 1884) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (A. Boeckh, 1884)) — 521 focus
φέρ᾽, εἰπὲ δή μοι, καὶ σὺ τοῦδε τοῦ τάφου
Greek (Lewis Campbell, 1879) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (Lewis Campbell, 1879)) — 521 focus
τίς οἶδεν εἰ κάτω ἐστὶν εὐαγῆ τάδε;
Greek (A. Colonna, 1978) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (A. Colonna, 1978)) — 521 focus
τίς οἶδεν εἰ κάτω ᾿στὶν εὐαγῆ τάδε;
Greek (A. Dain, 1955) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (A. Dain, 1955)) — 521.mvp-line-518 focus
τίς οἶδεν εἰ κάτω ’στὶν εὐαγῆ τάδε;
Greek (R. D. Dawe, 1979) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (R. D. Dawe, 1979)) — 521 focus
τίς οἶδεν εἰ κάτω ᾿στὶν εὐαγῆ τάδε;
Greek (G. Hermann, 1830) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (G. Hermann, 1830)) — 521 focus
κείνους· ἐμοῦ δὲ ζῶντος οὐκ ἄρξει γυνή.
Greek (R. C. Jebb, 1906) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (R. C. Jebb, 1906)) — 521 focus
τίς οἶδεν εἰ κάτωθεν εὐαγῆ τάδε;
Greek (A. C. Pearson, 1924) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (A. C. Pearson, 1924)) — 521.mvp-line-518 focus
τίς οἶδεν εἰ κάτωθεν εὐαγῆ τάδε;
Antigone (OCR draft) Experimental (Antigone) — 521 focus
τίς οἶδεν εἰ κάτωθεν εὐαγῆ τάδε;
Greek (K. Reinhardt, 1949) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (K. Reinhardt, 1949)) — 521 focus
τίς οἶδεν εἰ κάτωθεν εὐαγῆ τάδε;
Translations (2)
German (J. J. C. Donner, 1875; OCR review) (OCR draft) Experimental (German (J. J. C. Donner, 1875; OCR review)) — 526 focus
Dort tritt vor das Thor Ismene heraus,
Die Thränen der Lieb' um die Schwester vergießt:
525
Ein Gewölk um die Brauen entstellt ihr Gesicht,
Rothglühend im Schmerz,
Und bethaut liebreizende Wangen.
Ismene (die von Dienern Kreons herbeigeführt wird). Die
Vorigen.
Dort tritt vor das Thor Ismene heraus,
Die Thränen der Lieb' um die Schwester vergießt:
525
Ein Gewölk um die Brauen entstellt ihr Gesicht,
Rothglühend im Schmerz,
Und bethaut liebreizende Wangen.
Kreon.
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 (R. C. Jebb) (OCR draft) (Commentary (R. C. Jebb))
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.
280. mvp-comment-168-1 Cease, ere you have quite filled me with wrath. καί, which is combined with πρίν, according to the common idiom (πρὶν καὶ..), is slightly displaced so as to emphasize the phrase ἐμὲ μεστῶσαι. The language is made clearer by the emendation καί με, but the emphatic ἐμέ is more suitable in the mouth of Creon. Cp. Phil. 1042.