Antigone. Sophocles. ed. Lewis Campbell. Oxford. 1879.
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Current edition Experimental
Greek (Lewis Campbell, 1879) (OCR draft) (Greek) (Greek (Lewis Campbell, 1879))
Provisional text from uncorrected OCR; expect errors.
Editions (11)
Greek (L. Benloew, 1858) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (L. Benloew, 1858)) — 327 focus
Greek (A. Boeckh, 1884) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (A. Boeckh, 1884)) — 327 focus
Greek (F. H. Bothe, 1806) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (F. H. Bothe, 1806)) — 327 focus
Greek (A. Colonna, 1978) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (A. Colonna, 1978)) — 327 focus
Greek (A. Dain, 1955) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (A. Dain, 1955)) — 327.mvp-line-328 focus
Greek (R. D. Dawe, 1979) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (R. D. Dawe, 1979)) — 327 focus
Greek (G. Hermann, 1830) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (G. Hermann, 1830)) — 327 focus
Greek (R. C. Jebb, 1906) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (R. C. Jebb, 1906)) — 327 focus
Greek (A. C. Pearson, 1924) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (A. C. Pearson, 1924)) — 327.mvp-line-328 focus
Antigone (OCR draft) Experimental (Antigone) — 327 focus
Greek (K. Reinhardt, 1949) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (K. Reinhardt, 1949)) — 327 focus
Translations (2)
German (J. J. C. Donner, 1875; OCR review) (OCR draft) Experimental (German (J. J. C. Donner, 1875; OCR review)) — 315 focus
Herr, darf ich reden? Oder geh' ich so von dir?
315
Kreon.
Gewahrst du noch nicht, wie verhaßt dein Wort mir ist?
Der Wächter.
Verlezt es dir die Ohren oder dein Gemüth?
Kreon.
Wie? Nach dem Size meiner Unlust spähst du gar?
Der Wächter.
Der Thäter kränkte dir das Herz, und ich das Ohr.
Kreon.
Was doch ein ganz durchtrieb'ner arger Schalk du bist!
320
Der Wächter.
Doch nimmermehr bin ich es, der die That gethan.
Kreon.
Du bist's, verkauftest deine Seel' um goldnen Lohn.
Weh!
Der Wächter.
Schlimm wahrlich, wenn man, wähnend, auch noch Falsches wähnt!
Kreon.
Ia, wizle mit dem Wahne nur; doch stellt ihr nicht
Die Thäter mir vor Augen, dann bekennt ihr noch,
325
Daß feige Habsucht überall Unsegen bringt.
(ab in den Palast.)
Der Wächter.
Ia, fände man den Thäter! Aber ob man ihn,
Ob nicht ihn fahe denn das Glück entscheidet dies
Mich sollst du niemals wieder hier erscheinen seh'n!
Denn über all mein Hoffen, all mein Denken jezt
330
Gerettet, schuld' ich vielen Dank den Himmlischen.
(ab.)
Erste Strophe.
Der Chor.
Vieles Gewalt'ge lebt, und Nichts
Ist gewaltiger als der Mensch.
Denn selbst über die dunkele
Meerflut zieht er, vom Süd umstürmt,
335
Hinwandelnd zwischen den Wogen
Die rings umtoste Bahn.
Er müdet ab der Götter höchste,
1
Gäa, die ewige, nie zu ermattende,
Während die Pflüge sich wenden von Jahr zu Jahr,
340
Wühlt sie durch der Rosse Kraft um.
Erste Gegenstrophe.
English (Sir Richard Jebb2, 1904) (OCR draft) Experimental (English (Sir Richard Jebb2, 1904)) — 332-380 focus
Chorus
Wonders are many, and none is more wonderful than man.
This power spans the sea, even when it surges white before the gales of the south-wind, and makes a path under swells that threaten to engulf him. Earth, too, the eldest of the gods, the immortal, the unwearied,
335
he wears away to his own ends, turning the soil with the offspring of horses as the plows weave to and fro year after year.
340
Chorus
The light-hearted tribe of birds
and the clans of wild beasts and the sea-brood of the deep he snares in the meshes of his twisted nets, and he leads them captive, very-skilled man. He masters by his arts
345
the beast who dwells in the wilds and roams the hills. He tames the shaggy-maned horse, putting the yoke upon its neck, and tames the tireless mountain bull.
350
Chorus
Speech and thought fast as the wind and the moods that give order to a city he has taught himself, and how to flee the arrows of the inhospitable frost under clear skies and the arrows of the storming rain.
He has resource for everything. Lacking resource in nothing he strides towards what must come. From Death alone he shall procure no escape, but from baffling diseases he has devised flights.
360
Chorus
Possessing resourceful skill, a subtlety beyond expectation he moves now to evil, now to good. When he honors the laws of the land and the justice of the gods to which he is bound by oath,
365
his city prospers. But banned from his city is he who, thanks to his rashness, couples with disgrace. Never may he share my home,
370
never think my thoughts, who does these things!
375
Chorus
What marvel sent by the gods is this?—I am bewildered! I know her. How can I deny that this girl is Antigone? O unhappy child
of your unhappy father, of Oedipus! What can this mean? What! Surely they are not bringing you captive for disobeying the King’s laws and being caught in lunacy?
380
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
,