Stasimon 5
[Episode]
All saw her weep and heard her moan, as she rushed forth to carry to her sons her last appeal, a mother’s breast.
Antigone
But the mother found her sons at the Electran gate, in a meadow where the lotus blooms, fighting out their duel with spears, like lions in their lair, eager to wound each other,
1570
a murderous libation of blood already cold, owed to Hades, poured out by Ares. Then, taking from the dead a sword of hammered bronze, she plunged it in her flesh, and in sorrow for her sons fell with her arms around them. So the god who fulfills these sorrows has brought them all together on this day,
1575
father, for our house.
1580
Chorus Leader
Today is the beginning of many troubles to the house of Oedipus; may he live to be more fortunate!
Creon
Cease now your lamentations; it is time we thought of
their burial. Hear what I have to say, Oedipus. Eteocles, your son, left me to rule this land, by giving it as a dowry to Haemon with his marriage to your daughter Antigone. Therefore I will no longer allow you to dwell in this land;
1585
for Teiresias clearly said that the city would never prosper as long as you made your home here. So begone! And I say this not in insult, nor because I am your enemy, but from fear that some calamity will come upon the land, through those avenging fiends of yours.
1590
Oedipus
O destiny! From the beginning, how you have created me wretched and unhappy, if any mortal ever was; for before I had left my mother’s womb and seen the light, Apollo foretold to Laius that I, then unborn, should become my father’s murderer; alas for me!
1595
So, as soon as I was born, the father who begot me tried to kill me, thinking me his enemy, for it was fated he should die at my hand; so he sent me unweaned to make a pitiful meal for beasts; I escaped from that— would that Cithaeron
1600
had sunk into hell’s yawning abyss, because it did not destroy me, but . . . Fate made me a slave in the service of Polybus. And I, poor wretch, after slaying my own father came to my mother’s bed, to her sorrow,
1605
and begot sons that were my brothers, whom I have destroyed, by bequeathing to them the legacy of curses I received from Laius. For I was not born so foolish, that I should have contrived these things against my own eyes and my children’s life, without some god.
1610
Let that pass. What am I, poor wretch, to do? Who now will be my guide and tend the blind man’s step? The one who is dead? If she were alive, I know well that she would. My pair of noble sons? But they are gone from me. But am I still so young myself that I can find a livelihood?
1615
Where? O Creon, why do you seek in this way to kill me utterly? For you will kill me, if you banish me from the land. Yet I will never twine my arms about your knees and seem a coward, for I would not betray my former nobility, no! not for all my ills.
1620
Creon
You have spoken well, in refusing to touch my knees, but I could not allow you to dwell in the land. Of these dead, bear one at once to the palace; but the other, who came with strangers to sack his native town, the dead Polyneices,
1625
cast forth unburied beyond the borders of this land. To all the race of Cadmus shall this be proclaimed: Whoever is caught decking his corpse with wreaths or giving it burial, shall be requited with death. let him be unwept, unburied, a meal for birds.
1630
As for you, Antigone, leave your mourning for these lifeless three and go indoors, to lead your maiden life until to-morrow, when Haemon waits to marry you.
1635
Antigone
O father, in what cruel misery are we plunged!
For you I mourn more than for the dead; for in your woes you do not have something that is grievous and something not; but you were born wholly unfortunate, father. As for you, new-made king, I ask you, who do you insult my father with banishment?
1640
Why do you make laws over a helpless corpse?
1645
Creon
This was Eteocles’ purpose, not mine.
Antigone
It is senseless, and you are a fool to obey it!
Creon
How so? Isn’t it right to carry out his commands?
Antigone
No; not if they are wrong and ill-advised.
Creon
What? Isn’t it right for that other to be given to the dogs?
1650
Antigone
No, for the vengeance you are exacting is not a lawful one.
Creon
Yes, if he was his country’s enemy, when not born an enemy.
Antigone
Well, he rendered up his destiny to fate.
Creon
Let him now pay the penalty in his burial too.
Antigone
What crime did he commit, in coming to claim his portion of the land?
1655
