CHORUS
(Str.)
If mortal prayers are heard in hell,
Hear, Goddess dread, invisible!
Monarch of the regions drear,
Aidoneus, hear, O hear!
By a gentle, tearless doom
Speed this stranger to the gloom,
Let him enter without pain
The all-shrouding Stygian plain.
Wrongfully in life oppressed,
Be he now by Justice blessed.
(Ant.)
Queen infernal, and thou fell
Watch-dog of the gates of hell,
Who, as legends tell, dost glare,
Gnarling in thy cavernous lair
At all comers, let him go
Scathless to the fields below.
For thy master orders thus,
The son of earth and Tartarus;
In his den the monster keep,
Giver of eternal sleep.
[Enter MESSENGER]
MESSENGER
Friends, countrymen, my tidings are in sum
That Oedipus is gone, but the event
Was not so brief, nor can the tale be brief.
CHORUS
What, has he gone, the unhappy man?
MESSENGER
Know well
That he has passed away from life to death.
CHORUS
How? By a god-sent, painless doom, poor soul?
MESSENGER
Thy question hits the marvel of the tale.
How he moved hence, you saw him and must know;
Without a friend to lead the way, himself
Guiding us all. So having reached the abrupt
Earth-rooted Threshold with its brazen stairs,
He paused at one of the converging paths,
Hard by the rocky basin which records
The pact of Theseus and Peirithous.
Betwixt that rift and the Thorician rock,
The hollow pear-tree and the marble tomb,
Midway he sat and loosed his beggar's weeds;
Then calling to his daughters bade them fetch
Of running water, both to wash withal
And make libation; so they clomb the steep;
And in brief space brought what their father bade,
Then laved and dressed him with observance due.
But when he had his will in everything,
And no desire was left unsatisfied,
It thundered from the netherworld; the maids
Shivered, and crouching at their father's knees
Wept, beat their breast and uttered a long wail.
He, as he heard their sudden bitter cry,
Folded his arms about them both and said,
"My children, ye will lose your sire today,
For all of me has perished, and no more
Have ye to bear your long, long ministry;
A heavy load, I know, and yet one word
Wipes out all score of tribulations--love.
And love from me ye had--from no man more;
But now must live without me all your days."
So clinging to each other sobbed and wept
Father and daughters both, but when at last
Their mourning had an end and no wail rose,
A moment there was silence; suddenly
A voice that summoned him; with sudden dread
The hair of all stood up and all were 'mazed;
For the call came, now loud, now low, and oft.
"Oedipus, Oedipus, why tarry we?
Too long, too long thy passing is delayed."
But when he heard the summons of the god,
He prayed that Theseus might be brought, and when
The Prince came nearer: "O my friend," he cried,
"Pledge ye my daughters, giving thy right hand--
And, daughters, give him yours--and promise me
Thou never wilt forsake them, but do all
That time and friendship prompt in their behoof."
And he of his nobility repressed
His tears and swore to be their constant friend.
This promise given, Oedipus put forth
Blind hands and laid them on his children, saying,
"O children, prove your true nobility
And hence depart nor seek to witness sights
Unlawful or to hear unlawful words.
Nay, go with speed; let none but Theseus stay,
Our ruler, to behold what next shall hap."
So we all heard him speak, and weeping sore
We companied the maidens on their way.
After brief space we looked again, and lo
The man was gone, evanished from our eyes;
Only the king we saw with upraised hand
Shading his eyes as from some awful sight,
That no man might endure to look upon.
A moment later, and we saw him bend
In prayer to Earth and prayer to Heaven at once.
But by what doom the stranger met his end
No man save Theseus knoweth. For there fell
No fiery bold that reft him in that hour,
Nor whirlwind from the sea, but he was taken.
It was a messenger from heaven, or else
Some gentle, painless cleaving of earth's base;
For without wailing or disease or pain
He passed away--and end most marvelous.
And if to some my tale seems foolishness
I am content that such could count me fool.
CHORUS
Where are the maids and their attendant friends?
MESSENGER
They cannot be far off; the approaching sound
Of lamentation tells they come this way.
[Enter ANTIGONE and ISMENE]
ANTIGONE
(Str. 1)
Woe, woe! on this sad day
We sisters of one blasted stock
must bow beneath the shock,
Must weep and weep the curse that lay
On him our sire, for whom
In life, a life-long world of care
'Twas ours to bear,
In death must face the gloom
That wraps his tomb.
What tongue can tell
That sight ineffable?
CHORUS
What mean ye, maidens?
ANTIGONE
All is but surmise.
CHORUS
Is he then gone?
ANTIGONE
Gone as ye most might wish.
Not in battle or sea storm,
But reft from sight,
By hands invisible borne
To viewless fields of night.
Ah me! on us too night has come,
The night of mourning. Wither roam
O'er land or sea in our distress
Eating the bread of bitterness?
ISMENE
I know not. O that Death
Might nip my breath,
And let me share my aged father's fate.
I cannot live a life thus desolate.
CHORUS
Best of daughters, worthy pair,
What heaven brings ye needs must bear,
Fret no more 'gainst Heaven's will;
Fate hath dealt with you not ill.
ANTIGONE
(Ant. 1)
Love can turn past pain to bliss,
What seemed bitter now is sweet.
Ah me! that happy toil is sweet.
The guidance of those dear blind feet.
Dear father, wrapt for aye in nether gloom,
E'en in the tomb
Never shalt thou lack of love repine,
Her love and mine.
CHORUS
His fate--
ANTIGONE
Is even as he planned.
CHORUS
How so?
ANTIGONE
He died, so willed he, in a foreign land.
Lapped in kind earth he sleeps his long last sleep,
And o'er his grave friends weep.
How great our lost these streaming eyes can tell,
This sorrow naught can quell.
Thou hadst thy wish 'mid strangers thus to die,
But I, ah me, not by.
ISMENE
Alas, my sister, what new fate
* * * * * *
* * * * * *
Befalls us orphans desolate?
CHORUS
His end was blessed; therefore, children, stay
Your sorrow. Man is born to fate a prey.
ANTIGONE
(Str. 2)
Sister, let us back again.
ISMENE
Why return?
ANTIGONE
My soul is fain--
ISMENE
Is fain?
ANTIGONE
To see the earthy bed.
ISMENE
Sayest thou?
ANTIGONE
Where our sire is laid.
ISMENE
Nay, thou can'st not, dost not see--
ANTIGONE
Sister, wherefore wroth with me?
ISMENE
Know'st not--beside--
ANTIGONE
More must I hear?
ISMENE
Tombless he died, none near.
ANTIGONE
Lead me thither; slay me there.
ISMENE
How shall I unhappy fare,
Friendless, helpless, how drag on
A life of misery alone?
CHORUS
(Ant. 2)
Fear not, maids--
ANTIGONE
Ah, whither flee?
CHORUS
Refuge hath been found.
ANTIGONE
For me?
CHORUS
Where thou shalt be safe from harm.
ANTIGONE
I know it.
CHORUS
Why then this alarm?
ANTIGONE
How again to get us home
I know not.
CHORUS
Why then this roam?
ANTIGONE
Troubles whelm us--
CHORUS
As of yore.
ANTIGONE
Worse than what was worse before.
CHORUS
Sure ye are driven on the breakers' surge.
ANTIGONE
Alas! we are.
CHORUS
Alas! 'tis so.
ANTIGONE
Ah whither turn, O Zeus? No ray
Of hope to cheer the way
Whereon the fates our desperate voyage urge.
[Enter THESEUS]
THESEUS
Dry your tears; when grace is shed
On the quick and on the dead
By dark Powers beneficent,
Over-grief they would resent.
ANTIGONE
Aegeus' child, to thee we pray.
THESEUS
What the boon, my children, say.
ANTIGONE
With our own eyes we fain would see
Our father's tomb.
THESEUS
That may not be.
ANTIGONE
What say'st thou, King?
THESEUS
My children, he
Charged me straitly that no moral
Should approach the sacred portal,
Or greet with funeral litanies
The hidden tomb wherein he lies;
Saying, "If thou keep'st my hest
Thou shalt hold thy realm at rest."
The God of Oaths this promise heard,
And to Zeus I pledged my word.
ANTIGONE
Well, if he would have it so,
We must yield. Then let us go
Back to Thebes, if yet we may
Heal this mortal feud and stay
The self-wrought doom
That drives our brothers to their tomb.
THESEUS
Go in peace; nor will I spare
Ought of toil and zealous care,
But on all your needs attend,
Gladdening in his grave my friend.
CHORUS
Wail no more, let sorrow rest,
All is ordered for the best.
FOOTNOTES
1. The Greek text for the passages marked here and later in the text
have been lost.
2. To avoid the blessing, still a secret, he resorts to a
commonplace; literally, "For what generous man is not (in befriending
others) a friend to himself?"
3. Creon desires to bury Oedipus on the confines of Thebes so as to
avoid the pollution and yet offer due rites at his tomb. Ismene tells
him of the latest oracle and interprets to him its purport, that some
day the Theban invaders of Athens will be routed in a battle near the
grave of Oedipus.
4. The Thebans sprung from the Dragon's teeth sown by Cadmus.
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