Ah, God! for the curse that hath come, the sin and the ruin withal!
O children distraught, Who in madness have died!
Shall ye rest with old kings In the place of their pride?
Alas for the wrath of your sire if he findeth you laid by his side!
(A HERALD enters.)
HERALD
I bear command to tell to one and all What hath approved itself and now is law, Ruled by the counsellors of Cadmus' town.
For this Eteocles, it is resolved To lay him on his earth-bed, in this soil, Not without care and kindly sepulture.
For why? he hated those who hated us, And, with all duties blanielessly performed Unto the sacred ritual of his sires, He met such end as gains our city's grace,-With auspices that do ennoble death.
Such words I have in charge to speak of him:
But of his brother Polyneices, this-
Be he cast out unburied, for the dogs To rend and tear: for he presumed to waste The land of the Cadmeans, had not Heaven-Some god of those who aid our fatherland-Opposed his onset, by his brother's spear, To whom, tho' dead, shall consecration come!
Against him stood this wretch, and brought a horde Of foreign foemen, to beset our town.
He therefore shall receive his recompense, Buried ignobly in the maw of kites-No women-wailers to escort his corpse Nor pile his tomb nor shrill his dirge anew-Unhouselled, unattended, cast away So, for these brothers, doth our State ordain.
ANTIGONE
And I-to those who make such claims of rule In Cadmus' town-I, though no other help, (Pointing to the body of POLYNEICES)I, I will bury this my brother's corse And risk your wrath and what may come of it!
It shames me not to face the State, and set Will against power, rebellion resolute:
Deep in my heart is set my sisterhood, My common birthright with my brothers, born All of one womb, her children who, for woe, Brought forth sad offspring to a sire ill-starred.
Therefore, my soul! take thou thy willing share, In aid of him who now can will no more, Against this outrage: be a sister true, While yet thou livest, to a brother dead!
Him never shall the wolves with ravening maw Rend and devour: I do forbid the thought!
I for him, I-albeit a woman weak-
In place of burial-pit, will give him rest By this protecting handful of light dust Which, in the lap of this poor linen robe, I bear to hallow and bestrew his corpse With the due covering.Let none gainsay!
Courage and craft shall arm me, this to do.
HERALD
I charge thee, not to flout the city's law!
ANTIGONE
I charge thee, use no useless heralding!
HERALD
Stern is a people newly 'scaped from death.
ANTIGONE
Whet thou their sternness! burial he shall have.
HERALD
How? grace of burial, to the city's foe?
ANTIGONE
God hath not judged him separate in guilt.
HERALD
True-till he put this land in jeopardy.
ANTIGONE
His rights usurped, he answered wrong with wrong.
HERALD
Nay-but for one man's sin he smote the State.
ANTIGONE
Contention doth out-talk all other gods!
Prate thou no more-I will to bury him.
HERALD
Will, an thou wilt! but I forbid the deed.
(The HERALD goes out.)
CHORUS (singing)
Exulting Fates, who waste the line And whelm the house of Oedipus!
Fiends, who have slain, in wrath condign, The father and the children thus!
What now befits it that I do, What meditate, what undergo?
Can I the funeral rite refrain, Nor weep for Polyneices slain?
But yet, with fear I shrink and thrill, Presageful of the city's will!
Thou, O Eteocles, shalt have Full rites, and mourners at thy grave, But he, thy brother slain, shall he, With none to weep or cry Alas, To unbefriended burial pass?
Only one sister o'er his bier, To raise the cry and pour the tear-Who can obey such stern decree?
SEMI-CHORUS
Let those who hold our city's sway Wreak, or forbear to wreak, their will On those who cry, Ah, well-a-day!
Lamenting Polyneices still!
We will go forth and, side by side With her, due burial will provide!
Royal he was; to him be paid Our grief, wherever he be laid!
The crowd may sway, and change, and still Take its caprice for justice' will But we this dead Eteocles, As Justice wills and Right decrees, Will bear unto his grave!
For-under those enthroned on high And Zeus' eternal royalty-He unto us salvation gave!
He saved us from a foreign yoke,-
A wild assault of outland folk, A savage, alien wave!
THE END
.
