lord, wherefore dost thou insult my father here, banishing him from his country? Why make thy laws against an unhappy corse?

CRE. The determination of Eteocles this, not mine. ANT. It is absurd, and thou a fool to enforce it.

CRE. How so? Is it not just to execute injunctions? ANT. No, if they are base, at least, and spoken with ill intent.

CRE. What? will he not with justice be given to the dogs?

ANT. No, for thus do ye not demand of him lawful justice.

CRE. We do; since he was the enemy of the state, who least ought to be an enemy.

ANT. Hath he not paid then his life to fortune? CRE. And in his burial too let him now satisfy vengeance.

ANT. What outrage having committed, if he came after his share of the kingdom?

CRE. This man, that you may know once for all, shall be unburied.

ANT. I will bury him; even though the city forbid it. CRE. Thyself then wilt thou at the same time bury near the corse.

ANT. But that is a glorious thing, for two friends to lie near.

CRE. Lay hold of her, and bear her to the house. ANT. By no means-for I will not let go this body. CRE. The God has decreed it, O virgin, not as thou wilt.

ANT. And this too is decreed-that the dead be not insulted.

CRE. Around him none shall place the moist dust.

ANT. Nay, by his mother here Jocasta, I entreat thee, Creon.

CRE. Thou labourest in vain, for thou canst not obtain this.

ANT. But suffer thou me at any rate to bathe the body.

CRE. This would be one of the things forbidden by the state.

ANT. But let me put bandages round his crue I wounds.

CRE. In no way shalt thou shew respect to this

corse.

ANT. Oh most dear, but I will at least kiss thy lips. CRE. Thou shalt not prepare calamity against thy wedding by thy lamentations.

ANT. What? while I live shall I ever marry thy son?

CRE. There is strong necessity for thee, for by what means wilt thou escape the marriage?

ANT. That night then shall find me one of the Danaïdæ.

CRE. Dost mark with what audacity she hath insulted us?

ANT. The steel be witness, and the sword by which I swear.

CRE. But why art thou so eager to get rid of this marriage?

ANT. I will take my flight with my most wretched father here.

CRE. There is nobleness in thee; but there is some degree of folly.

ANT. And I will die with him too, that thou mayest farther know.

CRE. Go-thou shalt not slay my son-quit the land.

EDIPUS, ANTIGONE, CHORUS.

ED. O daughter, I praise thee indeed for thy zealous intentions.

ANT. But if I were to marry, and thou suffer banishment alone, my father?

ED. Stay and be happy; I will bear with content mine own ills.

ANT. And who will minister to thee, blind as thou art, my father?

ŒD. Falling wherever it shall be my fate, I will lie on the ground.

ANT. But Edipus, where is he? and the renowned Enigmas?

ED. Perished! one day blest me, and one day destroyed.

ANT. Ought not I then to have a share in thy woes?

ED. To a daughter exile with a blind father is shameful.

ANT. Not to a right-minded one however, but honourable, my father.

ED. Lead me now onward, that I may touch thy mother.

ANT. There: touch the aged woman with thy most dear hand.

ED. O mother! Oh most hapless wife!

ANT. She doth lie miserable, having all ills at once on her.

ED. But where is the fallen body of Eteocles, and of Polynices?

ANT. They lie extended before thee near one another.

ED. Place my blind hand upon their unhappy faces.

ANT. There: touch thy dead children with thy hand.

ED. O ye dear wrecks, unhappy, of an unhappy father.

ANT. O name of Polynices, most dear indeed to me. ED. Now, my child, is the oracle of Apollo come to pass.

ANT. What? but dost thou mention evils in addition to these evils?

ED. That I must die an exile at Athens.

ANT. Where? what citadel of Attica will receive thee?

ED. The sacred Colonus, and the temple of the Equestrian God. But stay-minister to thy blind father here, since thou art desirous of sharing his exile.

ANT. Go to thy wretched banishment: stretch forth thy dear hand, O aged father, having me as thy guide, as the gale that wafts the ship.

ED. Behold, I go, my child, be thou my unhappy conductor.

ANT. We are, we are indeed unhappy above all Theban virgins.

ED. Where shall I place my aged footstep? Bring my staff, my child.

ANT. This way, this way come; here, here place thy foot, thou that hast the strength of a dream.

ŒED. Alas! alas! for my most wretched flight!-To drive me, old as I am, from my country-Alas! alas! the dreadful dreadful things that I have suffered !

ANT. What suffered! what suffered d! Vengeance sees not the wicked, nor repays the foolishness of mortals.

ED. That man am I, who mounted aloft to the victorious heavenly song, having solved the dark enigma of the virgin Sphinx.

ANT. Dost thou bring up again the glory of the Sphinx? Forbear from speaking of thy former successes. These wretched sufferings awaited thee, O father, being an exile from thy country to die any where. Leaving with my dear virgins tears for my loss, I depart far from my country, wandering in state not like a virgin's.

ED. Oh! the excellency of thy mind!

ANT. In the calamities of a father at least it will make me glorious. Wretched am I, on account of the insults offered to thee and to my brother, who has perished from the family, a corse denied sepulture, unhappy, whom, even if I must die, my father, I will cover with secret earth.

D. Go, shew thyself to thy companions. ANT. They have enough of my lamentations. CED. But make thy supplications at the altars. ANT. They have a satiety of my woes.

CED. Go then, where stands the fane of Bacchus unapproached, on the mountains of the Mænades.

ANT. To whom I formerly, clad in the skin of the Theban fawn, danced the sacred step of Semele on the mountains, conferring a thankless favour on the Gods?

d The old reading was τί τλᾶς; τί τλᾶς; making it the present tense. Brunck first edited it as it stands in Porson. Antigone repeats the last word of her father.