τ᾽ εὐαρμάτου ἄλσος, ἔμπας
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)) — 831 focus
ἀλλὰ θεός τοι καὶ θεογεννής·
Greek (A. Boeckh, 1884) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (A. Boeckh, 1884)) — 831 focus
ματρῷαι λέκτρων ἆται,
Greek (Lewis Campbell, 1879) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (Lewis Campbell, 1879)) — 831 focus
τέγγει θ᾽ ὑπ᾿ ὀφρύσι παγκλαύτοις δειράδας· ᾇ με
Greek (A. Colonna, 1978) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (A. Colonna, 1978)) — 831 focus
γει θ᾽ ὑπ᾽ ὀφρύσι παγκλαύτοις
Greek (A. Dain, 1955) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (A. Dain, 1955)) — 831.mvp-line-824 focus
γει θ’ ὑπ’ ὀφρύσι παγκλαύτοις
Greek (R. D. Dawe, 1979) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (R. D. Dawe, 1979)) — 831 focus
τέγγει δ᾽ ὑπ᾽ ὀφρύσι παγ-
Greek (G. Hermann, 1830) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (G. Hermann, 1830)) — 831 focus
ἔγκληρα λαχεῖν μέγ᾽ ἀκοῦσαι.
Greek (R. C. Jebb, 1906) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (R. C. Jebb, 1906)) — 831 focus
δειράδας·
ᾇ με δαίμων ὁμοιοτάταν κατευνάζει.
6
Greek (A. C. Pearson, 1924) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (A. C. Pearson, 1924)) — 831.mvp-line-822 focus
τέγγει δ᾽ ὑπ᾽ ὀφρύσι παγ-
Antigone (OCR draft) Experimental (Antigone) — 831 focus
δειράδας· ᾇ με δαίμων ὁμοιοτάταν κατευνάζει.
Greek (K. Reinhardt, 1949) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (K. Reinhardt, 1949)) — 831 focus
τέγγει δ᾽ ὑπ᾽ ὀφρύσι παγ-
Translations (2)
German (J. J. C. Donner, 1875; OCR review) (OCR draft) Experimental (German (J. J. C. Donner, 1875; OCR review)) — 834 focus
Ja, sie war Göttin, göttlichen Stamms,
1
Wir Sterbliche nur und von Menschen gezeugt:
Doch groß ist der Ruhm, mit Göttergeschlecht
Das Geschick im Tode zu theilen.
Dritte Strophe.
Ja, sie war Göttin, göttlichen Stamms,
1
Wir Sterbliche nur und von Menschen gezeugt:
Doch groß ist der Ruhm, mit Göttergeschlecht
Das Geschick im Tode zu theilen.
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
Commentary
Commentary (R. C. Jebb) (OCR draft) (Commentary (R. C. Jebb))
mvp-comment-496-1 τέγγει δ’ ὑπ’ ὀφρύσι … δειράδας 1
mvp-comment-496-2
The Niobe of Sipylus has usually been identified with a colossal rock-image on the N. side of the range. It is rudely carved in relief, within a rectangular niche on the face of a limestone cliff, and represents a woman seated on a throne. (See Stark,
Niobe, pl. 1, Leips. 1863: cp. Baumeister,
Denkm. p. 1029). Prof. W. M. Ramsay, however, holds that this image is the ‘very ancient’
ἄγαλμα of Cybele mentioned by
Paus. 3.22.4
. In two respects it differs from the ancient accounts of the Niobe (quoted below): (
a) it does not ‘weep,’—for the rainwater drops from the front of the niche, clear of the figure; and (
b) the likeness to a human form grows, instead of vanishing, as one approaches. (
Journ. Hellen. Studies III. 61 ff., 1882.) This has been confirmed by another traveller, Herr Schweisthal (as reported in the
Berl. Phil. Wochenschr., May 28, 1887, p. 704). He finds the true Niobe at no great distance from the Cybele, but nearer Magnesia, and in the vicinity of a stream (the Jarikkaia) which Humann, in his ‘Excursion into Sipylus’ (1881), had already identified with the Achelous of
Il. 24.616
. It is a natural phenomenon,—the semblance—as seen from a distance—of a draped woman, seated high on the rocks; she looks towards the right, and lifts her right arm, as if in lament.
mvp-comment-496-3
The best ancient description is by a poet whose native place was in that neighbourhood,—Quintus Smyrnaeus (1. 293— 306):—‘Her streaming tears still fall from the heights of the rugged cliff; and in sympathy with her the sounding waters of the Hermus make lament, and the lofty peaks of Sipylus, over which the mist that shepherds dread floats evermore. A great marvel is she to passers by, because she is like a sorrowful woman, who mourns some cruel grief, and weeps without stint. Such verily seems the figure, when thou gazest at it from afar; but when thou drawest near, lo, 'tis but a sheer rock, a cliff of Sipylus’ (
φαίνεται αἰπήεσσα πέτρη, Σιπύλοιό τ’ ἀπορρώξ).
mvp-comment-496-4
Nonnus was thinking of the effect
from the road, when he wrote (2. 160),
ἕσσομαι ὡς Νιόβη καὶ ἐγὼ λίθος, ὄφρα καὶ αὐτὴν | λαϊνέην στενάχουσαν ἐποικτείρωσιν ὁδῖται. Pausanias, too, says that, at a certain distance from the cliff,
δεδακρυμένην δόξεις ὁρᾶν καὶ κατηφῆ γυναῖκα, but that the illusion vanishes on a nearer approach (1. 21 § 3).