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Antigone
883cont2
Touch'd with religious awe: but the high pow'r ....
Of those invested with the sovereign rule ז'ניי
May never be transgress'd. Indignant pride,
Fix'd to its purpose, hath thy ruin wrought......
No pitying tear, no friend, no nuptial rites
Are mine, as thus unhappy I am led
This destined way. No more shall I behold
The sacred orb of yon bright-beaming sun;
895
Yet not one friend laments or weeps my fate.
895
If mournful cries and wailings before death
Avail'd, there is not one, be well assured, LOI
That e'er would cease them. Instant take her hence,
Enclose her in the rock's sepulchral cave,
As I commanded, leave her there alone,...
Either to die, or there to live entomb'd.
We from her death receive no stain: but she
900
No more shall with the living converse hold.T
900
O thou dark tomb, thou rugged bridal bed, D
Deep mansion, which shalt ever close me round,
To thee I go; I go to join my friends,
A numerous train, whom sunk among the dead
Hath Proserpine received. I go the last coli
And most unhappy, ere th' allotted space...!
Of life I reach. Yet glowing at my heart.....
905
I feed this hope, that to my father dear,
905
And dear to thee, my mother, dear to thee, ol
My brother, I shall go; since with these 'hands
Your bodies I with cleansing lavers wash'd,
Added each ritual ornament, and pour'd
Libations at your tombs. And now thy corse,
Loved Polynices, in the earth I laid,
And for the pious deed have this reward;
910
Yet those of better judgment will approve i
910
My care, which paid these honours to the dead.
Where I a mother now, were I a wife,
Mouldering in death if child or husband lay,
I would not, if the state opposed the deed,
In such a task engage. Ask you what rules
Direct my conduct? If an husband dies,
Another might be wedded; to a child,
915
One lost, another father might give birth:
915
But when both parents in the earth are laid
Entomb'd, a brother can no more be born.
Me, by these thoughts impell'd with hallow'd rites
To honour thee, my brother, Creon deem'd
Deep-stain'd with guilt, and daring heinous deeds;
He seized me, with rude hands he leads me now
Of nuptial rites, of hymeneal song,
920
Of bridal bed deprived, and the sweet joys
920
A mother in her children's nurture knows;
But thus oppress'd with wretchedness, by friends
Abandon'd, to the caves of death I go
Alive. What rites, what honours of the gods
Have I transgress'd? But why, unhappy me,
Why to the gods look more? What heav'nly pow'r
Shall I invoke, since for my pious deeds
925
I bear the vengeance to the impious due?
925
If this the justice of the gods demands,
And I offend, these sufferings I forgive :
If these offend, no greater ill be theirs
Than they to me unjustly have assign'd.
Touch'd with religious awe: but the high pow'r ....
Of those invested with the sovereign rule ז'ניי
May never be transgress'd. Indignant pride,
Fix'd to its purpose, hath thy ruin wrought......
No pitying tear, no friend, no nuptial rites
Are mine, as thus unhappy I am led
This destined way. No more shall I behold
The sacred orb of yon bright-beaming sun;
895
Yet not one friend laments or weeps my fate.
895
If mournful cries and wailings before death
Avail'd, there is not one, be well assured, LOI
That e'er would cease them. Instant take her hence,
Enclose her in the rock's sepulchral cave,
As I commanded, leave her there alone,...
Either to die, or there to live entomb'd.
We from her death receive no stain: but she
900
No more shall with the living converse hold.T
900
O thou dark tomb, thou rugged bridal bed, D
Deep mansion, which shalt ever close me round,
To thee I go; I go to join my friends,
A numerous train, whom sunk among the dead
Hath Proserpine received. I go the last coli
And most unhappy, ere th' allotted space...!
Of life I reach. Yet glowing at my heart.....
905
I feed this hope, that to my father dear,
905
And dear to thee, my mother, dear to thee, ol
My brother, I shall go; since with these 'hands
Your bodies I with cleansing lavers wash'd,
Added each ritual ornament, and pour'd
Libations at your tombs. And now thy corse,
Loved Polynices, in the earth I laid,
And for the pious deed have this reward;
910
Yet those of better judgment will approve i
910
My care, which paid these honours to the dead.
Where I a mother now, were I a wife,
Mouldering in death if child or husband lay,
I would not, if the state opposed the deed,
In such a task engage. Ask you what rules
Direct my conduct? If an husband dies,
Another might be wedded; to a child,
915
One lost, another father might give birth:
915
But when both parents in the earth are laid
Entomb'd, a brother can no more be born.
Me, by these thoughts impell'd with hallow'd rites
To honour thee, my brother, Creon deem'd
Deep-stain'd with guilt, and daring heinous deeds;
He seized me, with rude hands he leads me now
Of nuptial rites, of hymeneal song,
920
Of bridal bed deprived, and the sweet joys
920
A mother in her children's nurture knows;
But thus oppress'd with wretchedness, by friends
Abandon'd, to the caves of death I go
Alive. What rites, what honours of the gods
Have I transgress'd? But why, unhappy me,
Why to the gods look more? What heav'nly pow'r
Shall I invoke, since for my pious deeds
925
I bear the vengeance to the impious due?
925
If this the justice of the gods demands,
And I offend, these sufferings I forgive :
If these offend, no greater ill be theirs
Than they to me unjustly have assign'd.
Antigone. Sophocles. Robert Potter (Translator). London. 1820.