Epeisodion 5
Oedipus
And had these daughters not been born to me to be my comfort, in truth I would be dead, for lack of help from you. But now these girls preserve me; they are my nurses; they are men, not women, in sharing my toil. But you are from another and are no sons of mine.
1365
Therefore the divinity looks upon you—not yet as he soon will look, if indeed those armies of yours are moving against Thebes. There is no way in which you can ever overthrow that city. Before that you will fall, polluted by bloodshed, and so too your brother.
1370
Such curses as my heart before now sent up against you both, I now invoke to fight for me, in order that you may think it fit to revere your parents and not to dishonor your father utterly, because he who begot such sons is blind. For my daughters here did not act in this way.
1375
This supplication of yours, and this throne of yours, will lie in the power of my curses, if indeed Justice, revealed long ago, sits beside Zeus, to share his throne through sanction of primordial laws. But off to damnation with you, abhorred by me and disowned!
1380
Take these curses which I call down on you, most evil of evil men: may you never defeat your native land, and may you never return to the valley of Argos; I pray that you die by a related hand, and slay him by whom you have been driven out. This is my prayer.
1385
And I call on the hateful darkness of Tartarus that your father shares, to take you into another home; and I call on the divinities of this place, and I call on the god of war, who has set dreadful hatred in you both. Go with these words in your ear;
1390
go and announce to all the Cadmeans, and to your own faithful allies, that Oedipus has distributed such portions to his sons.
1395
Chorus
Polyneices, in your past travels I take no joy. Now go back with speed.
Polyneices
Alas, for my journey and my failed attempt! Alas, for my companions!
Such is the end of the road on which we set out from Argos—wretched me!—such an end, that I cannot even mention it to any of my companions or turn them back, but must go in silence to meet this fate.
1400
But you, daughters of this man and my sisters, since you hear these hard curses of a father, do not—if this father’s curses be fulfilled and you find some way of return to Thebes—do not, I beg you by the gods, leave me dishonored,
1405
but give me burial and due funeral rites. So the praise which you now win from this man here for your labors will be increased by another praise no less, through your care for me.
1410
Antigone
Polyneices, I beseech you, hear me in one thing!
Polyneices
What is it, dearest Antigone? Speak!
1415
Antigone
Turn your force back to Argos as quickly as may be, and do not destroy both yourself and your city.
Polyneices
No, it is not possible. For how could I lead the same force again, when once I had shrunk back?
Antigone
But why, my brother, must your anger rise again? What profit will come to you from destroying your native land?
1420
Polyneices
It is shameful to be in exile, and to be mocked in this way by my brother, when I am eldest-born.
Antigone
Do you see to what sure fulfillment the prophecies of this man are leading,
who declares mutual death for you two?
1425
Polyneices
Yes, for he wishes it. But I must not yield.
Antigone
Ah, wretched me! But who will dare follow you, when he hears what prophecies this man has uttered?
Polyneices
I will not report ill-tidings; a good leader should tell the better news, and not the worse.
Antigone
Is this then your fixed decision, my brother?
Polyneices
Yes, and do not detain me. This path now will be my destiny, ill-fated and evil, because of my father here and his Furies. But as for you two,
may Zeus grant you good things, if you bring these things to completion for me when I am dead, since in life you will see me no more.
1435
Now release me, and farewell; for nevermore will you behold me living.
Antigone
Ah, wretched that I am!
Polyneices
Do not mourn for me.
Antigone
And who would not mourn you, brother, when you are hurrying off
