O
grievous
the tale is,
And grievous their fall,
To the house, to the land,
And to me above all!
And grievous their fall,
To the house, to the land,
And to me above all!
Aeschylus
Dark Fury of hell and of death, the hands of thy
kingdom are strong!
O dark were the sorrows
That exile hath known!
He slew, but returned not
Alive to his own!
He struck down a brother, but fell, in the moment of
triumph hewn down!
O lineage accurst,
O doom and despair!
Alas, for their quarrel,
The brothers that were!
And woe! for their pitiful end, who once were our
love and our care!
O grievous the fate
That attends upon wrong!
Stern ghost of our sire,
Thy vengeance is long!
Dark Fury of hell and of death, the hands of thy
kingdom are strong!
By proof have ye learnt it!
At once and as one,
O brothers beloved,
To death ye were done!
Ye came to the strife of the sword, and behold! ye
are both overthrown!
O grievous the tale is,
And grievous their fall,
To the house, to the land,
And to me above all!
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!
[_Enter a_ HERALD.
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 blamelessly 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 Polynices, 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_ POLYNICES)
I, I will bury this my brother's corse
And risk your wrath and what may come of it!
