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)) — 494 focus
Greek (A. Boeckh, 1884) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (A. Boeckh, 1884)) — 494 focus
Greek (F. H. Bothe, 1806) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (F. H. Bothe, 1806)) — 494 focus
Greek (A. Colonna, 1978) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (A. Colonna, 1978)) — 494 focus
Greek (A. Dain, 1955) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (A. Dain, 1955)) — 494.mvp-line-491 focus
Greek (R. D. Dawe, 1979) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (R. D. Dawe, 1979)) — 494 focus
Greek (G. Hermann, 1830) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (G. Hermann, 1830)) — 494 focus
Greek (R. C. Jebb, 1906) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (R. C. Jebb, 1906)) — 494 focus
Greek (A. C. Pearson, 1924) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (A. C. Pearson, 1924)) — 494.mvp-line-491 focus
Antigone (OCR draft) Experimental (Antigone) — 494 focus
Greek (K. Reinhardt, 1949) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (K. Reinhardt, 1949)) — 494 focus
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
Kreon.
Du siehst allein dies unter Kadmos' Volke hier.
Antigone.
Auch diese seh'ns; dir schmiegt sich ihre Zunge nur.
Kreon.
Nicht Scham erfüllt dich, andern Sinns, als die, zu sein?
Antigone.
Nicht schänden kann es, wenn man fromm den Bruder ehrt.
Kreon.
War Bruder nicht auch, der ihm gegenüber fiel?
510
Antigone.
Derselben Mutter und desselben Vaters Sohn.
Kreon.
Warum an ihm denn frevelst du durch solche Gunst?
Antigone.
Das wird der Abgeschiedne selbst nicht zugesteh'n.
Kreon.
Nicht, wenn der Frevler gleiche Gunst von dir empfängt?
Antigone.
Kein Knecht, der Bruder war's ja, der im Kampfe fiel.
515
Kreon.
Dies Land verheerend, während er es kämpfend schirmt.
Antigone.
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
Antigone.
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!
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
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
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
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
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
Commentary
Commentary (Lewis Campbell, 1879) (OCR draft) (Commentary (Lewis Campbell, 1879)) focus
493-494. mvp-comment-287-1 And it commonly happens that the spirit of those who are plotting some utter wickedness in secret is convicted of its occulted guilt before the act.