Sophocles Antigone 114

Search the Perseus Catalog for:

View: By Card By Card

← Previous Next →

Ismene

Hei mihi miserae! et tuae mortis exsors ero?

Antigone. Sophocles. Berlin. 1806.

Sponsored by Perseus Project, Tufts University.

Funding provided by Tufts University.

Current edition Experimental

Latin (F. H. Bothe, 1806) (OCR draft) (Latin) (Latin (F. H. Bothe, 1806))

Provisional text from uncorrected OCR; expect errors.

Editions (12)

Greek (L. Benloew, 1858) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (L. Benloew, 1858)) — 114 focus

λευκῆς χιόνος πτέρυγι στεγανὸς,

Greek (A. Boeckh, 1884) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (A. Boeckh, 1884)) — 114 focus

πολλῶν μεθ’ ὅπλων

Greek (F. H. Bothe, 1806) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (F. H. Bothe, 1806)) — 114 focus

λευκῆς χιόνος πτέρυγι στεγανὸς,

Greek (Lewis Campbell, 1879) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (Lewis Campbell, 1879)) — 114 focus

λευκῆς χιόνος πτέρυγι στεγανὸς

Greek (A. Colonna, 1978) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (A. Colonna, 1978)) — 114 focus

λευκῆς χιόνος πτέρυγι στεγανός,

Greek (A. Dain, 1955) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (A. Dain, 1955)) — 114.mvp-line-114 focus

λευκῆς χιόνος πτέρυγι στεγανός,

Greek (R. D. Dawe, 1979) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (R. D. Dawe, 1979)) — 114 focus

λευκῆς χιόνος πτέρυγι στεγανὸς

Greek (G. Hermann, 1830) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (G. Hermann, 1830)) — 114 focus

λευκῆς χιόνος πτέρυγι στεγανός,

Greek (R. C. Jebb, 1906) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (R. C. Jebb, 1906)) — 114 focus

λευκῆς χιόνος πτέρυγι στεγανός,

Greek (A. C. Pearson, 1924) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (A. C. Pearson, 1924)) — 114.mvp-line-114 focus

λευκῆς χιόνος πτέρυγι στεγανὸς

Antigone (OCR draft) Experimental (Antigone) — 114 focus

λευκῆς χιόνος πτέρυγι στεγανός,

Greek (K. Reinhardt, 1949) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (K. Reinhardt, 1949)) — 114 focus

λευκῆς χιόνος πτέρυγι στεγανός,

Translations (10)

German (A. Boeckh, 1884) (OCR draft) Experimental (German (A. Boeckh, 1884)) — 114 focus

ISMENE

O Schwester, nicht entehre so mich, nicht mit dir

zu sterben und geweiht zu haben dieses Grab.

Spanish (J. A. Bolufer, 1921) (OCR draft) Experimental (Spanish (J. A. Bolufer, 1921)) — 114 focus

ISMENA

¡Ay infeliz de mi! ¿Y no he de obtener tu misma muerte?

English (Lewis Campbell, 1906) (OCR draft) Experimental (English (Lewis Campbell, 1906)) — 114 focus

ISM

Alas! and must I be debarred thy fate?

German (J. J. C. Donner, 1875; OCR review) (OCR draft) Experimental (German (J. J. C. Donner, 1875; OCR review)) — 117 focus

Ueber den Dächern stehend, umgähnt'

Er den siebenthorigen Mund

Mit blutlechzenden Speeren rings,

Und floh, eh' in unserem Blut
120

Sich sein gieriger Schlund

Schwelgend füllt und ehe den Kranz der Thürme

Flammenglut des Hephästos fraß.

Also braust' im Rücken umher

Donner des Kriegs; schwer wurde der Kampf
125

Dem anstürmenden Drachen.¹

English (Thomas Francklin, 1758–1759) (OCR draft) Experimental (English (Thomas Francklin, 1758–1759)) — 114 focus

Antigone

Thou didst, and was 't not well

Spanish (A. G. Garbin, 1889) (OCR draft) Experimental (Spanish (A. G. Garbin, 1889)) — 114 focus

ISMENA

¿Y qué vida, si tú me dejas, me puede ya ser amable?

German (F. Hölderlin, 1804) (OCR draft) Experimental (German (F. Hölderlin, 1804)) — 114 focus

ANTIGONAE

Dein Theil ist ja das Leben, meines Tod.

English (Sir Richard Jebb1, 1904) (OCR draft) Experimental (English (Sir Richard Jebb1, 1904)) — 114 focus

Ismene

Ah, woe is me! And shall I have no share in thy fate?

English (Robert Potter, 1788) (OCR draft) Experimental (English (Robert Potter, 1788)) — 114 focus

Haemon

And not beneath a woman's spirit sink.

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-157-1 ἤνυσαν ¹

mvp-comment-157-2 χρόνῳ ποτέ ² δοῦναι δίκην ³

mvp-comment-157-3 ἐξέπραξαν ὡς ⁴

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.

301. mvp-comment-179-1 παντὸς ἔργου δυσσέβειαν The impiety of every deed; i. e. Every kind of impiety in action. Cp. O.T. 864-865, εὔσεπτον ἁγνείαν λόγων | ἔργων τε πάντων.