Sophocles Antigone 59

Lewis Campbell (Translator)

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CR

Gloze now on clearness! But unless ye bring

The burier, without glozing ye shall tell,
325

Craven advantage clearly worketh bane.

Antigone. Sophocles. Lewis Campbell (Translator). London, New York and Toronto. 1906.

Current edition Experimental

English (Lewis Campbell, 1906) (OCR draft) (English) (English (Lewis Campbell, 1906))

Provisional text from uncorrected OCR; expect errors.

Editions (12)

Greek (L. Benloew, 1858) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (L. Benloew, 1858)) — 59 focus

ὅσῳ ¹ κάκιστ᾽ ὀλούμεθ᾽, εἰ, νόμου βίᾳ,

Greek (A. Boeckh, 1884) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (A. Boeckh, 1884)) — 59 focus

ὅσῳ κάκιστ᾽ ὀλούμεθ'. εἰ νόμου βίᾳ

Greek (F. H. Bothe, 1806) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (F. H. Bothe, 1806)) — 59 focus

ὅσῳ κάκιστ᾽ ὀλούμεθ᾽, εἰ νόμου βίᾳ

Greek (Lewis Campbell, 1879) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (Lewis Campbell, 1879)) — 59 focus

ὅσῳ κάκιστ᾽ ὀλούμεθ᾽, εἰ νόμου βίᾳ

Greek (A. Colonna, 1978) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (A. Colonna, 1978)) — 59 focus

ὅσῳ κάκιστ᾽ ὀλούμεθ᾽, εἰ νόμου βίᾳ

Greek (A. Dain, 1955) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (A. Dain, 1955)) — 59.mvp-line-59 focus

ὅσῳ κάκιστ’ ὀλούμεθ’, εἰ νόμου βίᾳ

Greek (R. D. Dawe, 1979) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (R. D. Dawe, 1979)) — 59 focus

ὅσωι κάκιστ᾽ ὀλούμεθ᾽, εἰ νόμου βίαι

Greek (G. Hermann, 1830) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (G. Hermann, 1830)) — 59 focus

ὅσῳ κάκιστ᾽ ὀλούμεθ᾽, εἰ νόμου βίᾳ

Greek (R. C. Jebb, 1906) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (R. C. Jebb, 1906)) — 59 focus

ὅσῳ κάκιστ᾽ ὀλούμεθ᾽, εἰ νόμου βίᾳ

Greek (A. C. Pearson, 1924) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (A. C. Pearson, 1924)) — 59.mvp-line-59 focus

ὅσῳ κάκιστ᾽ ὀλούμεθ᾽, εἰ νόμου βίᾳ

Antigone (OCR draft) Experimental (Antigone) — 59 focus

ὅσῳ κάκιστʼ ὀλούμεθʼ, εἰ νόμου βίᾳ

Greek (K. Reinhardt, 1949) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (K. Reinhardt, 1949)) — 59 focus

ὅσωι κάκιστ᾽ ὀλούμεθ᾽, εἰ νόμου βίαι

Translations (10)

German (A. Boeckh, 1884) (OCR draft) Experimental (German (A. Boeckh, 1884)) — 59 focus

KREON

Ha! welch ein frech durchtriebner Bursche bist du doch!

Spanish (J. A. Bolufer, 1921) (OCR draft) Experimental (Spanish (J. A. Bolufer, 1921)) — 59 focus

Creonte

Charla ahora acerca de la opinión; que si no me descubrís a los culpables, os veréis obligados a confesar que las malas ganancias acarrean desgracias.

Latin (F. H. Bothe, 1806) (OCR draft) Experimental (Latin (F. H. Bothe, 1806)) — 59 focus

Creon

De suspicione igi- tur argutare quantumvis : sed nisi haec qui fecerint monstrabitis, fatebimini, malis ex lucris damna gigni.

German (J. J. C. Donner, 1875; OCR review) (OCR draft) Experimental (German (J. J. C. Donner, 1875; OCR review)) — 69 focus

Nicht mehr verlang' ich's, möchte dich zur Helferin

Nicht mehr, erklärtest du dich auch bereit dazu.
70

Nein, wähle deinem Sinne nach: ihn werd' ich selbst

Bestatten; ruhmvoll ist der Tod für diese That.

Bei ihm, dem Lieben, werd' ich ruh'n, die Liebende,

Die frommen Frevel übte; muß ich länger doch

Den Todten dort gefallen, als den Lebenden.
75

Denn dort ja ruh' ich ewig; du, wenn dir's gefällt,

Entehre, was in Ehre selbst bei Göttern steht.

Ich acht' es auch der Ehre werth; indeß der Stadt

Zum Troz zu handeln, fühl ich mich nicht stark genug.

Antigone.

So wende du das vor; doch ich geh' unverweilt,
80

Und schütt' ein Grab dem heißgeliebten Bruder auf.

Ismene.

Tollkühne, weh mir! Ha, wie fürcht' ich deinethalb!

Antigone.

Sei nicht um mich bang; sich're du nur dein Geschick!

Ismene.

Doch offenbare ja zuvor Niemand die That;

Im Dunkel birg' sie; gerne schweig' auch ich davon.
85

Antigone.

Ha, laut verkünd' es! Viel verhaßter wirst du mir

Durch Schweigen, offenbarst du's nicht vor aller Welt.

Ismene.

Dir wallt der Busen glühend, wo mich Schauder faßt.

Antigone.

Doch weiß ich hold mir, deren Huld mein Höchstes iſt.

Ismene.

Wenn du's vermöchtest; doch du willst Unmögliches.
90

Nun freilich, wenn ich's nicht vermag, so lass' ich ab.

Auch nicht von Anfang jage nach Unmöglichem.

Antigone.

Durch solche Reden wirst du billig mir verhaßt,

Und billig hassen wird dich auch der Todte dort.

Nein, laß du mich und meines Sinnes Unverstand
95

Dies Grauenvolle dulden. Was ich Schweres auch¹

Erleiden möge, bleibt mir doch ein schöner Tod.

Ismene.

Nun, wenn dir's gut dünkt, ziehe hin: ächt schwesterlich

Als Schwester fühlend gehst du, wenn als Thörin auch.

(Sie gehen nach verschiedenen Seiten ab. Der Chor tritt auf.) Erste Strophe.

Der Chor.

English (Thomas Francklin, 1758–1759) (OCR draft) Experimental (English (Thomas Francklin, 1758–1759)) — 59 focus

Chorus
\Exit. Scene III. Strophe i. Stroj)lie 2. Antistroplie. 2.

Amazement ! Can it be Antigone ?

343

Or do my eyes deceive me ? No, she comes.

354

O ! wretched daughter of a wretched father !

365

Hast thou trangressed the laws, and art thou ta'en

In this adventurous deed, unhappy maid ?

Spanish (A. G. Garbin, 1889) (OCR draft) Experimental (Spanish (A. G. Garbin, 1889)) — 59 focus

EL CENTINELA

Sí, pero yo no he sido el autor del hecho.

German (F. Hölderlin, 1804) (OCR draft) Experimental (German (F. Hölderlin, 1804)) — 59 focus

KREON

So mahl die Sazung aus! Wenn aber ihr
340

Nicht anzeigt, diess gethan, so möcht’ ihr sagen,

Gewaltiges Gewinnen gebe Schaden.

(Kreon geht ab.)

English (Sir Richard Jebb1, 1904) (OCR draft) Experimental (English (Sir Richard Jebb1, 1904)) — 59 focus

Creon

Let thy fancy play with ‘judgment’.asit will; but, if ye show me not the doers of these things, ye shall avow that dastardly gains work sorrows. [Z£xtz.

English (Robert Potter, 1788) (OCR draft) Experimental (English (Robert Potter, 1788)) — 59 focus

Antigone

This the dead entomb’d
515

Will not attest.
515

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-168-1 κόμψευε . . τὴν δόξαν ¹

mvp-comment-168-2 τὴν δόξαν ²

mvp-comment-168-3

κληδόν’

(the

κληδών

of which you speak), not merely, ‘the word

δόξα

.’ If the v. l.

τὸ δόξαν

(see cr. n.) was intended to mean the latter, it should have been

τὸ δόξα.

mvp-comment-168-4 νυν ³ νῦν ⁴ ταῦτα … τοὺς δρῶντας = τοὺς ταῦτα δρῶντας ⁵

mvp-comment-169-1 δειλά ⁶

mvp-comment-169-2 δεινά ⁷ ν ⁸

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.

324. mvp-comment-188-1 κόμψευε . . δόξαν 'Ay do, refine now on the word "opinion."" This does not seem to be one of the cases where viv with the imperative mood should be changed to vuv, as there is a sufficient reason for the emphatic particle.

325. mvp-comment-189-1 ἐξερεῖτε You shall tell the world. Cp. Pind. Pyth. 2. 22, Ιξίονα φαντὶ ταῦτα βροτοῖς λέγειν ἐν πτερόεντι τροχῷ .. τὸν εὐεργέταν ἀγαναῖς ἀμοιβαῖς 332 ff. The chorus, in their first stasimon, express, in a veiled manner, their emotions at what has occurred. Not being able to say what they really think, that Creon's rash edict has already recoiled on his own family, they descant on the wonderful range of human enterprize, adding that where boldness and resource are combined with justice, they confer glory, but only bring ruin where they are subservient to wrong. The elders do not decide who in the present instance is the transgressor. The ode consists of two strophes and antistrophes, in which glyconic rhythms are mixed with lyrical dactyls, iambi, and trochees, in different proportions, the scheme being as follows:- ICC CC CI CICIC α'. } Iamb. Dact. Troch. Glycon. The two long syllables at the beginning of l. 8 of a form the transition from the dactyls to the trochees. There is a sensible change to a lighter and less simple movement at the beginning of β'. The resolved trochees in B' 5 mark a climax of feeling.