τί φήις, παῖ, τίν᾽ αὖ λέγεις μοι νέον,
Antigone. Sophocles. Leipzig. 1979.
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Current edition Experimental
Greek (R. D. Dawe, 1979) (OCR draft) (Greek) (Greek (R. D. Dawe, 1979))
Provisional text from uncorrected OCR; expect errors.
Editions (10)
Greek (L. Benloew, 1858) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (L. Benloew, 1858)) — 1289 focus
τίς ἄρα, τίς με πότμος ἔτι περιμένει;
Greek (F. H. Bothe, 1806) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (F. H. Bothe, 1806)) — 1289 focus
ἐγὼ γὰρ σ᾽ ἔγωγ᾽ ἔκανον, ὁ μέλεος,
Greek (Lewis Campbell, 1879) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (Lewis Campbell, 1879)) — 1289 focus
τί φής, [ὦ παῖ,] τίνα λέγεις νέον μοι λόγον,
Greek (A. Colonna, 1978) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (A. Colonna, 1978)) — 1289 focus
τί φῇς, ὦ παῖ; τίνα λέγεις μοι νέον,
Greek (A. Dain, 1955) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (A. Dain, 1955)) — 1289.mvp-line-1268 focus
τί φῄς, παῖ; τίν’ αὖ λέγεις μοι νέον,
Greek (G. Hermann, 1830) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (G. Hermann, 1830)) — 1289 focus
αὖθις δὲ τοῦδε· λοίσθιον δὲ σοὶ κακὰς
Greek (R. C. Jebb, 1906) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (R. C. Jebb, 1906)) — 1289 focus
τί φής, ὦ παῖ,
τίνα λέγεις μοι νέον,
7
Greek (A. C. Pearson, 1924) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (A. C. Pearson, 1924)) — 1289.mvp-line-1271 focus
τί φής, ὦ παῖ, τίνα λέγεις μοι νέον,
Antigone (OCR draft) Experimental (Antigone) — 1289 focus
τί φής, παῖ; τίνʼ αὖ λέγεις μοι νέον,
Greek (K. Reinhardt, 1949) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (K. Reinhardt, 1949)) — 1289 focus
τί φής, παῖ; τίν᾽ αὖ λέγεις μοι νέον,
Translations (2)
German (J. J. C. Donner, 1875; OCR review) (OCR draft) Experimental (German (J. J. C. Donner, 1875; OCR review)) — 1293 focus
Du kannst es sehen; nicht im Hause birgt sich's mehr.
(Im Hintergrunde der Scene wird die Leiche der Königin sichtbar.)
Du kannst es sehen; nicht im Hause birgt sich's mehr.
English (Sir Richard Jebb2, 1904) (OCR draft) Experimental (English (Sir Richard Jebb2, 1904)) — 1261-1345 focus
Creon
Ah, the blunders of an unthinking mind, blunders of rigidity, yielding death! Oh, you witnesses of the killers and the killed, both of one family!
What misery arises from my reasonings! Haemon, you have died after a young life, youngest and last of my sons! O God! You have departed not by your foolishness, but by my own!
1265
Ah, the blunders of an unthinking mind, blunders of rigidity, yielding death! Oh, you witnesses of the killers and the killed, both of one family!
What misery arises from my reasonings! Haemon, you have died after a young life, youngest and last of my sons! O God! You have departed not by your foolishness, but by my own!
1265
Chorus
Ah, how late you seem to see the right!
1270
Ah, how late you seem to see the right!
1270
Creon
God, I have mastered the bitter lesson! But then, then, I think, some god struck me on my head with a crushing weight, and drove me into savage paths,
—ah!—and overthrew my joy to be trampled on! Ah, the labors men must toil through!
1275
1278
Enter the Messenger from the house.
God, I have mastered the bitter lesson! But then, then, I think, some god struck me on my head with a crushing weight, and drove me into savage paths,
—ah!—and overthrew my joy to be trampled on! Ah, the labors men must toil through!
1275
Messenger
My master, you have come, I think, like one whose hands are not empty, but who has a ready store: first, you carry that burden visible in your arms;
second, you will soon look upon further sufferings inside your house.
1280
My master, you have come, I think, like one whose hands are not empty, but who has a ready store: first, you carry that burden visible in your arms;
second, you will soon look upon further sufferings inside your house.
1280
Creon
What worse suffering is still to follow upon these sufferings?
What worse suffering is still to follow upon these sufferings?
Messenger
Your wife is dead, true mother of that corpse, poor lady, by wounds newly cut.
Your wife is dead, true mother of that corpse, poor lady, by wounds newly cut.
Creon
O harbor of Hades, hard to purify!
Why, why do you ruin me? Herald of evil, of grief, what word do you say? Ah, you have done in a dead man anew! What are you saying, boy? What is this you report to me
1285
God no!—what new slaughter, my wife’s doom, is heaped upon this ruin?
1290
1293
The doors of the palace are opened, and the corpse of Eurydice is disclosed.
O harbor of Hades, hard to purify!
Why, why do you ruin me? Herald of evil, of grief, what word do you say? Ah, you have done in a dead man anew! What are you saying, boy? What is this you report to me
1285
God no!—what new slaughter, my wife’s doom, is heaped upon this ruin?
1290
Chorus
The sight is at hand. It is no longer hidden inside.
The sight is at hand. It is no longer hidden inside.
Creon
Ah, misery!
There I see a new, a second evil! What destiny, ah, what, can still await me? I have just now taken my son in my arms, and now I see another corpse before me!
1295
Oh, tormented mother! Oh, my son!
1300
Ah, misery!
There I see a new, a second evil! What destiny, ah, what, can still await me? I have just now taken my son in my arms, and now I see another corpse before me!
1295
Oh, tormented mother! Oh, my son!
1300
Messenger
By the altar, with a sharp-whetted sword, she struck until her eyes went slack and dark. Before that she bewailed the noble fate of Megareus who died earlier, and then the fate of this boy, and also, with her last breath,
she called down evil fortune upon you, the slayer of her sons.
1305
By the altar, with a sharp-whetted sword, she struck until her eyes went slack and dark. Before that she bewailed the noble fate of Megareus who died earlier, and then the fate of this boy, and also, with her last breath,
she called down evil fortune upon you, the slayer of her sons.
1305
Creon
Ah, no! I tremble with fear. Why does no one strike me full on my chest with a two-edged sword?
I am miserable—ah—and bathed in miserable anguish!
1310
Ah, no! I tremble with fear. Why does no one strike me full on my chest with a two-edged sword?
I am miserable—ah—and bathed in miserable anguish!
1310
Messenger
Yes, because you were accused of responsibility for both this son’s death, and the other’s, by her whose corpse you see.
Yes, because you were accused of responsibility for both this son’s death, and the other’s, by her whose corpse you see.
Creon
What was the manner of the violent deed by which she departed?
What was the manner of the violent deed by which she departed?
Messenger
Her own hand struck her to the heart upon learning her son’s sharply-lamented fate.
1315
Her own hand struck her to the heart upon learning her son’s sharply-lamented fate.
1315
Creon
Ah this guilt can never be fastened onto any other mortal so as to remove my own! It was I, yes, I, who killed you, I the wretch.
I admit the truth. Lead me away, my servants, lead me from here with all haste, who am no more than a dead man!
1320
Ah this guilt can never be fastened onto any other mortal so as to remove my own! It was I, yes, I, who killed you, I the wretch.
I admit the truth. Lead me away, my servants, lead me from here with all haste, who am no more than a dead man!
1320
Chorus
The course you recommend is to your gain, if there can be gain amidst evil. What is briefest is best, when trouble lies at your feet.
1325
The course you recommend is to your gain, if there can be gain amidst evil. What is briefest is best, when trouble lies at your feet.
1325
Creon
Let it come, let it appear, that fairest of fates for me, that brings my final day,
the fate supreme! Oh, let it come, so that I may never see tomorrow’s light!
1330
1334
Let it come, let it appear, that fairest of fates for me, that brings my final day,
the fate supreme! Oh, let it come, so that I may never see tomorrow’s light!
1330
Chorus
These things are in the future. We must see to present affairs.
Fulfillment of these things rests in the hands where it should rest.
1335
These things are in the future. We must see to present affairs.
Fulfillment of these things rests in the hands where it should rest.
1335
Creon
All that I crave was summed in that prayer.
All that I crave was summed in that prayer.
Chorus
Then pray no more; for mortals have no release from destined misfortune.
Then pray no more; for mortals have no release from destined misfortune.
Creon
Lead me away, I beg you, a rash, useless man.
I have murdered you, son, unwittingly, and you, too, my wife—the misery! I do not know which way I should look, or where I should seek support. All is
1340
amiss that is in my hands, and, again, a crushing fate has leapt upon my head.
1345
Lead me away, I beg you, a rash, useless man.
I have murdered you, son, unwittingly, and you, too, my wife—the misery! I do not know which way I should look, or where I should seek support. All is
1340
amiss that is in my hands, and, again, a crushing fate has leapt upon my head.
1345
Commentary
Commentary (R. C. Jebb) (OCR draft) (Commentary (R. C. Jebb))
mvp-comment-779-1 ὦ παῖ 1
mvp-comment-779-2
αὖ (instead of
ὦ παῖ τίνα), has not much palaeographical probability. It gives, indeed, a closer correspondence with 1266. But the form of dochmiac which the MS. reading gives here is equally correct. (See Analysis. Met.) Seidler was certainly right in omitting
λόγον (see cr. n.): and that remedy suffices.
mvp-comment-779-3 Construe: τίνα νέον σφάγιον γυναικεῖον μόρον λέγεις ἀμφικεῖσθαί μοι ἐπ’ ὀλέθρῳ 2
mvp-comment-779-4
But another version is possible, if
μοι is taken with
ἀμφικεῖσθαι: ‘besetting me,’
ἐπ’ ὀλέθρῳ, for (my) ruin.
Cp. 1285
τί μ’ ὀλέκεις; For
ἐπί, cp.
Thuc. 4.86
οὐκ ἐπὶ κακῷ, ἐπ’ ἐλευθερώσει δέ. The difficulty is that
ἀμφικεῖσθαι cannot well be said of
one sorrow (Eurydicè's death), and that, therefore, we have to evolve from the epithet
νέον the notion of a
circle of woes of which this
μόρος is one. Thus the image would be much more obscurely expressed than that in
Ai. 351
,
ἴδεσθέ μ’ οἷον ἄρτι κῦμα φοινίας ὑπὸ ζάλης | ἀμφίδρομον κυκλεῖται, (‘behold what a surge hath but now burst around me and hemmed me in, under stress of a deadly storm,’) where Ajax is sitting in the midst of the carnage which he has wrought. It is altogether improbable that
ἀμφικεῖσθαι alludes to Eurydicè's corpse having been brought (by the
ἐκκύκλημα) into such a position that Creon stood between it and Haemon's. See 1298, where Creon speaks of her as being
ἔναντα.
Commentary (Lewis Campbell, 1879) (OCR draft) (Commentary (Lewis Campbell, 1879)) focus
1289-1292. mvp-comment-720-1 What new thing dost thou tell me? that the slaughter of a wife is heaped upon the previous ruin?' ὦ παῖ is probably a corruption of alaî, suggested by the general thought that Creon is lamenting for his son.