Parodos
[Episode]
Stretch out your hand to me from the stairs now, stretch it out, the hand of age to youth,
Antigone
helping me to rise.
105
Old servant
There! clasp it, maiden; you have come at the right time; for Pelasgia’s army is just upon the move, and they are separating the companies.
child of Leto! The plain is one lightning-flash of bronze.
110
Old servant
Ah! this is no ordinary home-coming of Polyneices, with the clash of many horses, many arms.
Antigone
Are the gates barred, and the brazen bolts
fitted into Amphion’s walls of stone?
115
Old servant
Never fear! All is safe within the town. But see the first one, if you want to know him.
Antigone
Who is that one with the white crest,
who marches before the army, lightly bearing on his arm a shield all of bronze?
120
Old servant
A captain, mistress.
Antigone
Who is he? Who is his family? Tell me his name, old man.
Old servant
He claims to be Mycenaean; by Lerna’s streams he dwells, the lord Hippomedon.
125
Antigone
Ah, ah! How proud, how fearful to see, like an earth-born giant, with stars engraved on his shield, not resembling
Old servant
Do you see the one crossing Dirce’s stream?
Antigone
His armor is quite different. Who is that?
Old servant
Tydeus, the son of Oeneus, Aetolian battle-spirit in his breast.
Antigone
Is this the one, old man, who married a sister of Polyneices’ wife? What a foreign look his armor has, half-barbarian!
135
Old servant
Yes, my child; all Aetolians carry shields,
and are most unerring marksmen with their darts.
140
How do you know them so clearly, old man?
I saw and learned the devices on their shields before, when I went with the terms of the truce to your brother, since I looked closely at them, I know the armed men.
Antigone
Who is that youth passing by the tomb of Zethus, with long flowing hair, fierce to see? Is he a captain? For an armed crowd follows at his heels.
145
Old servant
That is Parthenopaeus, Atalanta’s son.
150
Antigone
May Artemis, who rushes over the hills with his mother, lay him low with an arrow, for coming against my city to sack it!
Old servant
May it be so, my child; but they have come here with justice,
and my fear is that the gods will take the rightful view.
155
Antigone
Where is the one who was born of the same mother as I was, by a painful destiny? Oh! tell me, old friend, where Polyneices is.
