AESCHYLUS'
Seven
Against Thebes
(EPTA EPI
QHBAS)
467BC
(Awarded 1st prize at the City Dionysia)
Translated
by
George
Theodoridis
© 2010
Dramatis Personae
Eteocles
(Son of the late king Oedipus of Thebes)
Spy
Antigone
(Sister to Eteocles)
Ismene
(Sister to Eteocles and Antigone)
Messenger
Chorus
(Of Theban Women)
Soldiers and armed guards
Various citizens
Thebes just
before dawn.
In the
distance may be discerned the fortressed walls of the city.
Around the
stage are statues of various gods, an altar.
A group of
men (citizens of Thebes) are talking vigorously about war. They are waiting for
Eteocles.
As Eteocles
enters with his armed guard (SL) they respectfully stop talking and move to give
him and space.
Eteocles is
regally dressed.
Eteocles:
Citizens of Thebes, sons of Cadmus!
The words and deeds of the man who stands at the prow
of the ship of State and steers its fortune must be timely. His eyes should
defy sleep and stay wide open. Because, if things go well with the city, then
we turn to the gods and think them to be the cause of that good fortune but if,
on the other hand, the city is hit by some misfortune –may the gods forbid
that!- then it will be I, Eteocles, to whom the city will turn and it would be
my name alone, that will be whispered, along with curses and groans and will
travel from the mouth of one citizen to that of the next.
May Zeus, the averter of evil, avert our city from
this!
10
But now it is up to you, sons of Cadmus. All of you!
Those of you who are still young and those of you whose youth has come and
gone! All of you, call forth all your courage and might, watch every corner of
the city and apply yourselves as well as you can upon what needs doing.
Protect our land, our gods, their altars and see that
they are not dishonoured.
Protect your children.
Protect this earth, which is both, your mother and
your nurse! Yes, your nurse
because it was she who took the whole burden of nourishing you while you were
still a baby, crawling all about her. It was her generous soil that raised you
to become honest men; men to build a home, to carry a shield, men strong enough
to show yourselves worthy of her in her hour of need.
22
So far, the gods have been with us and, thanks to
them, throughout the whole siege, the war moved in our favour.
But now our seer says the worst is about to come. He
says that the Achaians are planning to attack and capture of our city tonight.
Our prophet examined the flight of birds, not by sacrificial fire but by his
ears and by his soul only –unerring instruments with which he read the
prophetic signs in their flight.
30
So, now you must all rush to the battlements and to
the gates of our walls!
Pick up your armour and hurry!
Take control of all our parapets, all the Tower
platforms, all our gates! Stand there with courage and bravery. The horde of
the enemy is large but do not fear it!
God will see us through this!
I have already sent scouts and spies to check the
enemy's strength. I'm sure they'll have something valuable to report to us soon
and then the enemy will not take us by surprise.
Exit the
original group of men rushing off to the battle (SL)
A few
seconds later enter a Spy (SL)
39
Spy:
My Lord, noble King of the Cadmeans!
I bring you news from the enemy's army. I was there
and saw with my own eyes what went on in their camp.
I saw seven of their captains. Fierce, war-loving men
all of them! They slaughtered a bull over a black iron shield and dipping their
hands into its blood swore an oath to Ares, the god of war, to Enyo, the very
face of War and to the god Fear, lover of blood. The oath they uttered said
that they will either destroy the city of the Cadmeans utterly and devastate
the country or else they will soak our soil with their own blood.
Then, they took tokens of themselves over to
Adrastus' chariot, mementos for their homes and parents and there shed some
tears, though they never let out a groan of grief!
52
No, their iron hearts were beating with the fire of
boldness, just like lions in the face of battle and they'll waste no time to
deliver its proof. I left them as they were casting lots, letting Fate decide
who will lead his troops to which of our gates.
So, hurry, my Lord!
Quickly, pick out our bravest men and send them to
defend our gates. The whole Argive army, fully armed, is right now raising the
dust of our land as they are advancing towards us at full speed. The white
froth that drips from their horses' panting mouths has changed the colour of
our meadow.
61
Come now, my Lord, act like the skilled captain of a
ship and strengthen our towers before the tempest of war bursts upon them
because the waves of a huge army roar above our land right now. You must seize what you can with what
little time is left.
I'll stand watch day and night and send you reports
about what goes on beyond our walls, reports that will keep you safe.
Exit Spy
(SL)
69
Eteocles:
Zeus!
Earth!
Gods of our walls!
Curse of Oedipus!
Deliverer of curses!
Bearer of my father's interminable curse!
Don't let this city fall to the enemy!
Don't let the enemy destroy it, foundations and all!
This is a city whose lips utter Greek words!
Let not her homes, her hearths ever be yoked by
slavery's bonds.
This is the land of Cadmus. Let her be free!
Come gods! Come, show us your strength! For your sake
and ours, show your strength! A city that prospers honours her gods.
Exit
Eteocles with his guard. (SL)
The light
changes to reveal the passage of time. It is now day.
Sounds of
battle raging within.
Enter the
chorus of Theban women (SR)
They rush
about the stage in confusion and panic.
Chorus:
Ah!
Ah!
The terror is unbearable!
Chorus:
Ah!
Ah!
The evil is insufferable!
80
Chorus:
The enemy is unleashed!
They have left their barracks!
Chorus: Pointing
into the distance within
Look!
Look there!
Ah!
Waves of them are surging this way!
Chorus:
The horses, look!
The dust, look!
Look how it's clogging the air!
A silent but true messenger!
The sounds
of a riotous army approaching.
Chorus:
Ah!
Did you hear that?
The hoofs of horses, pummelling our land!
Chorus:
It's getting closer and closer!
Chorus:
They are flying!
Chorus:
The roar of a wild torrential river!
It crashes against the mountains!
They rush
about clinging to the statues of the gods, kneeling, praying
Chorus:
Ah!
Ah!
Gods and goddesses!
Protect us!
Chorus:
Hold back this rushing horror!
Stand by our walls!
Cry out your war shouts!
90
Chorus:
The enemy!
White shields and frightful armour!
The enemy charges with all speed at the walls of our
city!
Chorus:
Which of the gods and goddesses can protect us now?
Who can save us?
Chorus:
Ah!
Ah!
Look, gods!
Gods of our fathers, look!
Chorus:
I kneel before your holy statues!
How must my prayers go?
Chorus:
Blessed gods sitting on blessed thrones!
This is the hour to cling to their statues.
Chorus:
Yes, why wait?
Chorus:
And why wail so deeply?
A roar from
the battlefield
100
Chorus:
Do you hear that?
Chorus:
Listen!
Chorus:
Listen!
A throng of shields clash!
Chorus:
Waste no time!
Bring the sacred cloths and the garlands!
Adorn the statues now!
Another roar
from the battlefield
Chorus:
And that! Did you hear that?
Chorus:
I did!
A throng of spears clash!
Chorus:
God of war, Ares, will you betray your own city?
What now, god?
What now, god of the golden helmet?
Chorus:
Look here, god!
Look down here!
To your own city, the city you once loved!
Protect it!
Chorus:
Come all you gods who guard our city!
Hurry to our side!
110
Chorus:
See here this group of women praying to you!
Save us all from slavery!
Chorus:
Look there!
A wave of plumed helmets soars around the walls of
Thebes!
Ares' furious breath churns it about.
Chorus: Rushing
to the statue of Zeus
Zeus!
You, who guides all things to their end!
Save us all! Let us not be captured by our enemy!
120
Chorus:
The Argives have surrounded Cadmus' city!
The clashing of the armour is terrifying!
Chorus:
The horses!
Through the iron rods in their mouths, they shout out
"murder!" "murder!"
Chorus:
There!
The seven giants in the ranks of the enemy!
Their armour brilliant above all others!
Chorus:
They have taken up their stand at our seven gates,
each according to the lot he drew.
130
Chorus: Rushing
to the statue of Athena
Daughter of Zeus!
Athena, Palas, powerful lover of the battle!
Be our city's saviour!
Chorus: Rushing
to the statue of Poseidon
Poseidon!
Lord of the sea! Lover of horses!
Raise now your fish killing trident for us and
release us from this terror!
Free us from this terror, Lord Poseidon!
Chorus: Rushing
to the statue of Ares
Ares!
O, Ares, Ares!
This is your city! The city that took its name from
Cadmus.
She is your city, Ares. Save her!
140
Chorus: Rushing
to the statue of Aphrodite
Aphrodite! Cyprian goddess, mother of our race!
Fight off our enemy!
We are of the same blood yet we come to you!
We pray to your holy majesty with offerings and
tears.
Chorus: Rushing
to the statue of Apollo
Apollo!
Lord of the wolves!
Come down upon our enemy like a wolf and rush them
away!
Make them feel our pain.
Chorus: Rushing
to the statue of Artemis
Artemis!
Leto's virgin daughter!
Arm yourself with your unerring bow!
The loud
sound of chariots approaching
Chorus:
Ah!
Listen!
Ah!
Chorus:
Ah!
Do you hear that?
150
Chorus:
The chariots!
The thunder of chariots circling about our city!
Chorus: Rushing
to the statue of Hera
Hera! Our Lady!
The axles groan with the great load!
Chorus:
Ah!
Beloved Artemis!
Look!
The skies shiver with the hurled spears!
Frenzy in the skies!
Chorus:
Ah!
What now for our city?
Chorus:
What now?
Chorus:
What god will bring what end to this?
Chorus:
Ah!
Dear Apollo!
Chorus:
Ah!
The stones have reached to peaks of our battlements!
160
Chorus:
Do you hear that?
Shields clashing against our gates!
Chorus:
Athena, lover of the battle!
Your father, Zeus, has given you the judgement of
every war.
You can decree its end.
Bring this one to our favour!
Chorus:
Goddess, save your city!
Our city of seven gates!
Chorus:
Athena!
Blessed Queen, Onca!
Your statue stands before the seven gates of our
city!
Protect it, dear goddess!
Chorus:
Almighty gods!
Great gods and goddesses of this city!
Protectors of this land's towers!
Do not betray us to an army whose speech is alien to
us.
170
Chorus:
Hear us!
Hear us, dear gods!
Hear justly these virgins!
We pray with our arms stretched out to you!
Chorus:
Dear gods!
Shield our walls with your presence!
Show that you are friends of this city, Thebes!
Think now of all the offerings this city has ever
made to you!
Remember them and save it!
Chorus:
Remember its sacrifices!
Remember its holy rites!
Enter
Eteocles with his guard (SL)
181
Eteocles: Outraged
at the chorus
You!
Yes, I ask all of you!
Insufferable creatures, the lot of you!
Is all this praying, all this crying and wild shrieking,
all this moaning at the statues of our guardian gods going to save our besieged
city? Is it going to give courage to its soldiers?
No, this is the sort of thing that makes sensible
folk despise you!
Women!
Neither in the depths of misery nor in the laps of
the sweetest joy, do I want to be forced to live with a woman!
Women!
When things go well for them, their arrogance is unrivalled and when
they are touched by fear, then they're an unbearable pain to both, their home
as well as their city!
191
You, now! All this rushing back and forth, all this
shrieking, has spread panic in the hearts of our own folk. And while we, inside
the city, are destroying ourselves, the enemy, outside it, is getting great
encouragement by your antics.
That's what it comes from having women inside your
house.
Man, woman and whatever else in between! If they
disobey my orders, there will be a death sentence waiting for them! They will
not escape death by stoning, in the hands of the people!
200
Man should mind matters outside the house and women
should worry about whatever goes on inside it. Let no woman bother with matters
outside her home. Let her sit inside and not cause any trouble.
Do you or do you not hear me, women?
Or am I talking to the deaf?
Chorus:
Dear son of Oedipus!
We were terrified!
Chorus:
The thunder of the chariots!
The loud roar of the axles!
Chorus:
The forged iron clanging in the mouths, around the
jaws, of the horses!
Eteocles:
What of it?
Would a sailor save his ship in a hurricane by simply
rushing back and forth from stern to prow?
211
Chorus:
No, he would not but when I first heard the murderous hail of war crashing
against our gates, I rushed here, to the old statues of the gods, whom I trust.
Chorus:
It was that dreadful sound that made me panic!
Chorus:
I came here to pray to the blessed gods, to ask them
to watch over our city and keep it safe.
Eteocles:
Pray that our towers stand strong against the enemy's
spear.
That's what the gods would prefer. Don't they say
that a city lost to the people is a city lost to the gods?
219
Chorus:
I hope that these gods will never abandon me while
I'm alive!
Chorus:
Nor ever abandon our city to the destructive fire of
the enemy!
Eteocles:
It's the wise prayer that brings about success.
Success: Her mother is Obedience, the saviour's wife.
Isn't that what the proverb says?
Chorus:
That might be true but the gods!
Chorus:
The gods are almighty!
And their might can raise the helpless from their
despair and lift the heavy and hard clouds from their eyes.
230
Eteocles:
Sacrificing to the gods and consulting them before a battle is a man's job.
Yours is to stay inside the house and be silent.
Chorus:
It is to these very gods that we owe our freedom!
It is because of them that our city is not a conquered
city!
It is because of them that our towers ward off the
onslaught of the enemy.
Why would anyone get angry at us for praising them?
Eteocles:
I'm not angry at you for praising our gods but for turning our people into
frightened cowards. By all means, pray but do so calmly and not with so much
fear and panic.
239
Chorus:
We rushed here, to the holy sanctuary of our city,
trembling with terror because a little while ago we heard this loud noise!
Chorus:
It was such a frightening confusion of sounds!
Eteocles:
So, if you now hear the sounds of wounded men or men
dying don't start screeching and wailing. That's the very stuff, the blood and
groans of dying men, that Ares, the god of war feeds on!
The Sound of
horses snorting
Chorus:
Listen!
Do you hear that?
Chorus:
It is the horses snorting!
Eteocles:
Your hearing is far too sharp! Don't listen so closely!
Chorus:
The city groans from within its earthly depths.
Chorus:
It's surrounded!
Eteocles:
That's why I am here!
I'm the one to worry about that!
The sound of
crashing gates
Chorus:
Ah!
Our gates!
Chorus:
The battering is getting louder!
250
Eteocles:
Will you shut up? Say nothing about this to anyone!
Chorus:
Oh, gods of our city!
Oh, heavens!
Do not forsake the walls of our city!
Eteocles:
Pox upon you woman!
Silence! Put up with it!
Chorus:
Oh, gods of our city!
Oh, heavens!
Save me from slavery!
Eteocles:
It is you! You are the one whose throwing me and the
whole city into slavery!
Chorus:
Zeus!
Chorus:
Zeus, send your thunderbolt into the ranks of the
enemy!
Eteocles:
Oh, Zeus!
What a breed you have made for us in women!
Chorus: Clinging
to a statue
A breed, as miserable as the men of a conquered city.
Eteocles:
Your mouth utters ill words while your hands touch
upon a holy statue!
Chorus:
The courage has gone from my heart and the fear has
taken my tongue.
260
Eteocles:
Let me ask a small favour from you.
Chorus:
Ask it quickly and I'll tell you if I can grant it.
Eteocles:
Will you be silent, woman?
Miserable wretch, will you stop terrifying the men
who are defending you?
Chorus:
All right. I shall be silent!
I shall suffer our Fate like the rest.
Eteocles:
Now these last words of yours are far better than all those that preceded them!
Even better, let go of those statues, move away from
them and make this simple prayer: "May the gods be our allies in this
war!"
Now, let me first make a vow and then, raise the loud
cheer of victory. The cheer we Greeks raise when we make our sacrifices. Make
it loud and hearty, to raise our men's spirits and strip away from their hearts
the fear of battle.
271
Now here, is my vow:
I swear this oath to the gods who guard our city's
fields and her market place and to the waters of Dirce, our spring and those of
Ismenus, our river.
I vow that if we win this day and Thebes and her
people are saved from the hands of her enemies, the hearths of these gods shall
be painted with the blood of sacrificed sheep and bulls and all the holy
shrines shall be adorned with the battle vestments of the enemy, still stained
with their own blood, blood drawn by our spears.
280
This is the sort of vows you, too, should be making
and you should stop all your mournful wails and your useless, wild shrieks.
Such behaviour won't release you from what Fate has in store for you.
Now, I'm going to the seven gates of our city to
place seven brave and able fighters, me included, as guards there, to face the
enemy.
I don't want any rumours, spread by our battle
Messengers to start off some unnecessary fire of urgency in the city.
Exit
Eteocles (SL)
Chorus:
I know, I know what he means but the dread won't let
my heart rest.
290
Chorus:
The dread of a dreadful enemy outside our walls
kindles again and again the fire of fear, deep inside my soul.
Chorus:
Like the frightened dove dreads the snake that's
reaching for her young in their nest.
Chorus:
The enemy rushes against our walls.
One wave after another!
What will happen to us?
Chorus:
And then the jagged stones!
One wave after another!
They hurl them at our besieged people!
300
Chorus:
Gods!
Children of Zeus!
Mighty gods in the Heavens!
Save our city with your unrivalled power!
Chorus:
Save our soldiers, the sons of Cadmus!
Chorus:
Where else will you go, gods, if you hand this land
over to the enemy?
What other land is there, better than this?
Chorus:
With a soil more fertile and deep?
Chorus:
With the waters of Dirce?
More vital than all the others?
310
Chorus:
Waters, poured out by Poseidon himself, the god who
surrounds the earth and by the children of Tethys.
Chorus:
And so, gods!
Gods, defenders of Thebes!
Hurl madness upon our enemy!
Hurl disaster upon the men outside our walls!
Chorus:
Make them drop their shields!
Make them run away!
Let them taste their own slaughter!
Chorus:
Gain glory in the eyes of our citizens!
Gods, save our Thebes and strengthen your thrones
inside her!
Answer our prayers and our loud groans!
321
Chorus:
What a pity it would be, if such an ancient city as
this is sent to Hades!
Conquered by an Achaean spear!
Her people enslaved!
Her buildings turned to dust and ash.
Chorus:
Is this the will of the gods?
That we, the daughters of Thebes, young and old -
Be dragged by our hair like horses –
Our clothes torn from our bodies!
330
Chorus:
And the city is emptied!
And the loud groans and the pitiful wails of captives
in chains rise.
They are taken to their Fate!
Chorus:
I can tell!
I can fear!
It's a dire Fate for the captives!
Chorus:
Tears fall as I think of innocent girls, their
innocence torn from them, untimely, before their marriage rites and dragged
onto a bitter journey away from their homes.
Chorus:
Those girls…
Chorus:
Those girls… their Fate is more miserably than that
of the dead!
Chorus:
Ah!
Ah!
Chorus:
In a conquered city the miseries abound!
Misery to us all!
340
Chorus:
Ah!
Ah!
Man slaughters man!
Man drags man away!
Chorus:
Man sets fire to the city and the city is blackened
with smoke!
Ares, the god of war makes all men wild with frenzy!
Slaughter!
Sacrilege!
Chorus:
Mayhem and noise overtake the streets!
Ruin and upheaval overwhelm it!
Man falls by the spear of man.
350
Chorus:
The babies scream at their young mother's
blood-stained breast.
The families are torn apart by roving enemy gangs.
Looting hand meets looting hand, heavy with loot.
The empty hand calls the empty hand to join him in
the looting,
Neither hand satisfied to be the emptier nor the
equal of the two.
Ah!
How will this battle end?
Chorus:
All the food is wildly
strewn about the city streets falling where it may.
And the housewives grieve
at such a bitter sight.
There!
There the rich fruits of
the earth!
There they flow in waves of
waste!
Chorus:
Young women, new to this
Fate, their hearts clogged with misery.
Slaves now!
They await their new bed, a
captive's bed!
Not the bed of a lover but
that of a hateful enemy!
Death's dark night is their
only hope to escape the new bed's anguish.
Chorus: Indicating SL within.
Ah!
Friends, look!
Our Spy, coming from the
battlefield!
370
Chorus:
He's hurrying to us, with
some news, no doubt, from the field, about the enemy.
He is running as fast as
the wheels of a chariot.
Chorus: Indicating SR within
And there, look! Here comes
our king, as well. Eteocles, the son of Oedipus.
Just in time to hear the
news. He's also rushing here.
Enter Spy and Eteocles almost at the same time.
With Eteocles come the other six men who guarded the gates.
Spy: To Eteocles
My lord, I can tell you all
about our enemy.
I can tell you which gate
was drawn by which of their best fighters.
Eteocles nods his permission
There's Tydeus at the
Proetid gate. He's already there, roaring like thunder but the prophet, Oecles'
son, holds him back from crossing the Ismenus, because the offerings he had
sacrificed did not augur well.
380
Tydeus, though, fuming with
anger and with lust for battle-blood hissed, like a snake in the mid-day sun,
he hurls abuses at the prophet, calling him a coward who slides away from death
and battle. His anger made three of the tall feathers on his helmet shake
violently and the bronze bells beneath his shield give out a terrifying clang!
On that proud shield of
his, he has an expertly engraved emblem depicting a sky, sparkling with stars
and in its centre, in all her full glory, shines the eye of the night, the most
revered of all the stars, the Moon herself.
391
And maddened with the lust
for battle's blood, Tydeus wields his frightening shield about and yells as he
roams round about the river's edge, like some wild horse, frothing furiously at
the iron bit waiting to hear the trumpet's call.
My Lord, who will stand
against that man?
Who can be relied upon to
protect Proteus' Gate, once those barriers fall?
Eteocles:
I'm not the sort of man who gets terrified by the adornments of an armour.
Adornments, feathers and bells, carry no spears themselves and make no wounds.
400
And as for this glorious
Night you talk about, the one that shines on the man's shield, amongst all the
stars of heaven, well, perhaps, they're an idiot's prophesy that will come true
for him. Because if this Night falls upon this man's eyes when he's dead - this
man who carries this arrogant adornment on his armour- then, perhaps he'll
realize that he had prophesied his own death rites. It'll be a death justly
deserved.
410
Indicates Melanthipus, one of the men accompanying him.
Astacus' noble son, here,
Melanthipus will serve as this man's opponent. I'll post him at that gate. He
is from a great family and he serves the throne of Honour. Hates arrogance.
Reluctant to commit deeds of shame and he's certainly not a coward. Melanthipus is a descendant of heroes.
Dragon's blood. Sprung from the men that the god Ares himself has given
permission to live.
As for the battle itself.
That's up to Ares and the way his dice fall. But Justice herself sends this man
to that gate. Justice, the protector of familial duty. She sends him to that
gate to ward off the enemy spear, away from his motherland, the land that gave
birth to him.
Melanthipus bows and exits SL
Chorus:
Let the gods give victory to our champion!
He heads off to face the
enemy and to fight justly for his motherland.
420
Chorus:
But I shudder at the thought!
Will my eyes soon see the
blood-stained corpses of men fallen for their own folk?
Spy:
Let the gods give him
victory, yes.
Kapaneus drew the Electran
Gate. He's there now. A giant of a man, even greater than the last. Worse than
Tydeus. Arrogance beyond anyone's imagination. Shouts all sorts of vile threats
at our towers, threats which I hope our Fate would never allow.
And he says that, whether
the gods wants to or not, he'll still destroy our city and that even if Zeus
himself were to crash a blazing thunder bolt at the soil before his feet, even
that wouldn't stop him.
430
What's the difference, he
asks mockingly, between Zeus' fire and the fire of the mid-day sun?
On his shield he has a man
whose only armour is a blazing torch which he wields with both hands. The
writing on this shield is with golden letters and they say, "I will set
this town on fire."
Against a man like that,
Eteocles - who will you send against this man? Where do we have a man who has
the strength of heart to stand up to this man's boasts?
Eteocles:
Ha! Tydeus' arrogance works
to our advantage and this man, Kapaneus, adds to that advantage. One advantage
after another!
Men whose head and heart
are filled with vaulting vanity, are brought to Justice by their own tongue and
Kapaneus' tongue hurls wild insults to the gods in heaven, forgetting that he's
a mortal and that they are gods. He won't stop with words but will take up
action. His flood of untamed words will reach the ear of Zeus and then he,
Kapaneus himself, will feel the fire of that torch; and Zeus' thunder bolt is
nothing like the fire of the mid-day sun!
Indicating Polyphontes
Against this boasting loud
mouth I've already declared Polyphontes.
A warrior with a fiery heart - a brave and trusted guard. The goddess
Artemis, our protectress and other gods love him.
Polyphontes bows and exits, SL
Go on! Who's next and which
gate will he attack?
451
Chorus:
To Hades with the man who
hurls such insults at our city!
Let Zeus' bolt destroy
Kapaneus before he bursts into my home and with his battle spear defiles the
haven of my virtue.
Spy:
Now let me speak about the
next enemy warrior and of the gate he has drawn.
The third one to be picked
by the lot was Eteoclus.
Out of the shiny bronze
helmet jumped the token, and fell on his side. He is fated to stand against the
Neistan Gate.
460
He wheels his steeds round
and round that gate, their mouths straining against their muzzles, frothing
with eagerness for the attack and the irons under their chins whistle with
frenzy and in tune with their violent breath.
His shield also has a proud
emblem carved upon it.
A man, in full armour
rushing up the rungs of a ladder leaning against a tower which he's bent on
destroying. He is shouting and the words are written there, on the shield:
"Even Ares cannot throw me from the tower!" the writing says.
You need to send someone
solid against that man, too, Eteocles. Someone who can save our city from the
yoke of slavery.
472
Eteocles:
Megareus!
Megareus steps forward.
This is the very man to do
that and I'm sending him immediately to the Neistan Gate.
A fortunate thing for us
that he's on our side.
Megareus will go there and
he will do his very own boasting with his very own arms!
Creon's son, of the race of
the sown men. This is not a man to be frightened by the snorting of wild
horses. He won't retreat one step from the Gate. More like it, he'll repay the
debt he owes to the city that nurtured him either with his own life or with the
life of two enemy soldiers and capture the city drawn upon his opponent's
shield and with these spoils adorn his own father's house.
Megareus bows and exits SL
Now tell us about the next
loud mouth, leave none of them out!
481
Chorus: At Megareus' back as he exits
You will be fighting for me
and for my home!
Chorus:
Fortune be with you and
against your enemy!
Chorus:
Their loud boastings
against our city shoot out of a frenzied mind!
Let Zeus the Avenger look
upon them in anger.
Spy:
The fourth man is stationed
at the Gate of Onca Athena.
Hippomedon. A frightening
man. A giant. Tall with a mighty body and voice. I saw him as he spun his great
shield about and, I'll admit it right here and now, I trembled with fear at the
sight of it.
490
The artist who did the work
upon his shield was certainly not one of the common, unskilled craftsmen
because the emblem he had carved upon it is magnificent.
It's a picture of a Typhon,
spewing out of his fire-breathing mouth billows of smoke, fire's dark sister
and the whole emblem is held upon the hollow-bellied shield with intertwined
snakes that go all around its rim.
The warrior himself, was
shouting out loud war cries, as if Ares himself had entered his heart. He's in
a frenzy with the lust for battle. Like one of Bacchus' maenads, he is. Wild,
flashing eyes that strike panic everywhere.
500
We've got to guard
ourselves against the charge of such a man. The god Terror himself is roaming
about that gate.
Eteocles:
But first it will be the goddess
Onca Athena who'll send him off like a monstrous snake charging at her
nestlings. Her shrine is just outside that gate and she's appalled by that sort
of insolence.
Hyperbius!
Hyperbius steps forward
I've chosen this man
against Hippomedon. He is Oenops' trusty son.
He knows how to face his
destiny when the need arises. There's no man who can match him in strength, in
bravery in spirit or in armour.
510
It's right that the god of
contests, Hermes, has chosen this pair. It will be enemy against enemy with
these two and their shields will be two enemy gods. Hippomedon has
fire-breathing Typhon on his shield while our Hyperbius has Father Zeus on his.
Indicating Hyperbius' shield There he
is, sitting calmly and ready with a blazing bolt in his hand. And I have never
heard of Zeus having been defeated by anyone.
So these are the gods they
take with them to battle. We are on the side of the victors and the enemy on
the side of the vanquished, since Zeus is mightier than Typhon; and that will
be the outcome with the men also. Hyperbius will be saved by Zeus since it is
Zeus that Hyperbius carries on his shield.
Exit Hyperbius
521
Chorus:
There's no question in my
mind: In a fight between Zeus and the man who bears the emblem of Typhon on his
shield, that earth-born power, Typhon, whose image is hated by all mortals and
all the eternal gods, it will be Typhoon whose head will roll before our gate!
Spy:
Yes, let it happen as you
say!
Now let me tell you about
the fifth man.
His lot was that he should
stand at the Northern Gate, directly opposite the tomb of Amphion, Zeus'
son. There he stands, waving his
spear about and swearing an oath that he will destroy our city, the city of
Cadmus, whether Zeus wills it or not!
530
He says he trusts that
spear more than he trusts the gods and even more than he trusts his own eyes.
Or so he boasts. He is the
pretty little offspring of a mountain woman, barely a man, he is yet but he's a
wild warrior, nevertheless. The down on his young cheeks is just beginning to
spread. New, thick curls that come with the first youth. His name is
Parthenopaeus but there's nothing about him that's girlish. He has a savage
heart, a gruesome face and an insolent tongue.
540
He's out there, in front of
our gate, wielding back and forth his even more insolent bronze shield which is
round and covers his entire body.
The emblem embossed and
burnished upon that shield is an affront to Thebes. It's an image, of the man
eater, Sphinx, cleverly pinned on a pivot that can turn all about. Then, under
her, the Sphinx carries a man and that man is one of ours, a Cadmean, obviously
drawn there like that so as to make this warrior the target of all our arrows.
I daresay, he hasn't come
all the way from Arcadia, this Parthenopaeus boy, just to play games with us.
No, this warrior will try and get his money's worth for the journey to that
battlefield.
That's the sort of man he
is. A foreigner who's been living well in Argos as a guest of some nobles or
other. Now he wants to pay his debt for that hospitality and so he hurls
insults and threats at our walls. May the gods stop those threats from being
realised.
550
Eteocles:
The gods!
May the gods show their
hand with violence at all the insolent and arrogant emblems these warriors
parade about the place!
Let the gods deliver them
the ruin they so wish upon us!
Actor!
Actor approaches
But I have a man for this
Arcadian you talk about. He's not one to boast with his tongue but to do a deed
with his hands.
Actor here. Brother to the
man that I had just named.
He won't allow an untamed
tongue send a flood of disasters through our Towers. Nor will he let an enemy,
depicting a wild and abhorrent monster on his shield, pass through our gates.
560
That beast he has embossed
upon his shield will reproach him bitterly for bringing her beneath our walls
where she will get rammed and battered by our spears and arrows!
May the gods put deeds to
my words!
Exit Actor.
Chorus:
The gods!
The words of that man stab
at my heart!
Chorus:
They make my hair stand
stiff with fear.
The loud insolence and the
sacrilegious threats and boasts of these men call for punishment from the gods.
Chorus:
Let the gods destroy them,
here, on our soil!
Spy:
Amphiaraus is their sixth
man. A seer. A very wise and very
brave man.
He stands in front of our
Homoloid Gate.
570
He stands there and bellows
abuses at the great Tydeaus. He calls him "murderer" and says that he
has turned Argos upside-down and was the greatest teacher of evil, that he was
Death's very Minister and the summoner of the Avenging Spirits. He calls
him Adrastus' counsellor in
all this evilness.
Then he turns to your brave
brother, Polyneices and, stressing the last syllable more than the first, the
part that mentions strife, utters this sort of words:
580
"Is this what will
please the gods and the future generations to hear? Will they be pleased to
hear that you have brought a foreign army to invade and destroy your father's
kingdom? To raze it to the ground and turn its gods to dust? Is this the right
thing to do, Poly-NEICES? Where is the justice in stopping the spring from
which your very life has sprung?
How can your very own soil raise up to stand beside you in your efforts
when your covetous sword has beaten it into submission?
And me? This enemy soil
will be all the richer for having buried me beneath it. Me, a prophet!
Well then, let us go and
fight and may the gods see that I die with glory!"
590
Those were the seer's
words. He made his speech with his bronze shield resting by his side. He had no
emblem on its centre. This is not a man who wants to look like he's the bravest
in the field, my Lord. No, this is a man who wants to prove he is one.
His fertile mind gives
forth a great harvest of wisdom for him. Deep furrows full of prudent advice.
I think, against this
warrior, my Lord, you should send someone who's wise and brave. A man who
reveres the gods is a man to be truly feared.
Eteocles:
What Fate is this that
brings together these two mortals, ey? One of them, just and righteous but the
other, godless! In every affair of man, there's nothing more evil than an evil
partnership. No good fruit can be gathered from that tree.
600
The only harvest that can
be gathered from the furrows of sin is death.
A man like that -a god
fearing man like that- if he's caught up sailing on the same boat with these
sailors, sailors who are on their way to commit some evil deed, then he, too
will drown along with them, along with those god-detested shipmates of his.
Or, if this man, this just
and honest man, survives this terrible sea and then becomes a neighbour of
these evil men -these men who hate strangers and gods- well then, he too, will
be caught, unjustly, in the same snare that the gods have weaved for them and
he, too, will be lashed by the same lash and applied by the same gods.
610
And that's how it will be
with this man, this son of Oecles. A wise man, a seer, an honest man, a brave
man, a god fearing man; a man who interprets the will of the gods wisely. But a
man who has gone against his own good reason and joined up with men who are
godless and boastful. Men who are sailing back, back into a journey that is too
long to retrace and which, by the will of Zeus, will see him, along with them,
dragged down to destruction, by the very same snare.
So, I don't believe at all
that this man will make an attack against our gates. Not because he is afraid
or lacks bravery but because he knows well that, if Apollo's prophesies are to
be trusted, his end will come in this battle. He knows how to act according to
the needs of the moment: either to shut up or else to speak and say what is
proper.
He signals Lasthenes who comes forward
620
In any case, I will place
against him this man here, Lasthenes. He is a brave man who hates strangers at
our gates. A man who has the wisdom of an old man and the body of a young
warrior. His eyes are as quick as his feet. His arm wastes no time to send a
spear to whatever the enemy shield leaves uncovered.
Still, a victory,
nevertheless, is a gift granted by the gods.
Exit Lasthenes, SL.
Chorus:
Gods!
Chorus:
Heavens!
Chorus:
Give this city her victory!
Chorus:
Our prayers are just. Accept them and fulfil them!
Chorus:
Turn the wrath of this war
against them!
It is they who have invaded
this land.
Chorus:
Zeus!
Chorus:
Zeus, strike them dead
while they're still outside our walls!
Chorus:
Send them your thunder
bolt!
631
Spy:
The seventh man!
The seventh man who's
outside our seventh gate, is your own brother, my king!
And listen to what curses
and oaths your own brother hurls at our city:
Once he destroys our towers
and sets his foot on our soil, once he shouts the shout of triumph and declares
himself king, he prays that he comes face-to-face against you in an armed
combat; and he will kill you, even if he dies by your side; or else, if you
survive, he'll seek revenge for the dishonour you did him when you've sent him
into exile by doing the same thing to you, banish you from this city.
640
These are the curses
Polyneices shouts out and he calls all our ancestors' gods to see that all
these curses of his eventuate.
He waves about a brand new,
well wrought and rounded shield with a double emblem cleverly embossed upon it:
A fully armed warrior, all
in gold, led by a modest woman who, as the writing indicates, is Justice. The
writing says, "I am returning this man back to his own, rightful home, to
regain his country and to live in his own chambers."
These are the emblems their warriors carry.
650
Now you must determine which man you should send
against him. As for me, you'll find no fault with what I have reported to you.
Now, you being the captain of our ship, it is up to you to do the steering.
Exit Spy SL
Eteocles:
Curse infested house!
God hated house of Oedipus! Drenched in tears! My house!
Ah!
Now all those curses are turning into deeds!
But should I weep? Should I groan now? Or should I
wait for more and greater grief? Is there grief unbearable yet to come?
As for him –as for my brother whose name fits his
deeds so well- as for Polyneices, the man of much strife, we shall soon see the
worth of his emblem.
660
We shall soon see if the golden letters will bring
him back. Those golden letters upon his shield that scream his heart's hatred.
If Zeus' virgin daughter, Justice, stands by him, in
his thoughts and deeds, then all this might happen but Justice has never stood
by him. Not since the days he emerged from the darkness of his mother's womb,
nor during the years when he was growing up, nor when he did grow up, nor when
the hair was sprouting on his youthful chin. Justice has never stood by him.
Never did she deign to consider him her own.
And she will certainly not stand by his side now! Not
now that he is committing such vile acts against his fatherland. No, she will
not be his protector here.
671
Justice would be falsely named if she were to take
the side of such a man whose criminal impudence has no bounds.
I base my confidence in
these thoughts and so I will go and stand against him myself.
It is the right and fitting
thing to do, or else, who else should do it? A chief against a chief, a brother
against a brother, an enemy against an enemy. Yes, I will stand against my
brother, Polyneices.
Quick then, someone bring
me my greaves, to protect me from spears and stones!
Chorus:
No!
Dear son of Oedipus, no!
Don't think like Polyneices
does!
Chorus:
Don't think like the man
who has uttered such dreadful words!
Chorus:
It is a grave enough thing
for Cadmeans and Argives to stand against each other!
The shedding of such blood
can be cleansed.
680
Chorus:
But not the blood shed by a
brother by his brother's sword. Such crime can never be purified.
Eteocles:
If one must endure the
worst, then let him endure it with no shame. It's the only thing that is
praised by the dead.
But if the worst is
accompanied by shame, the dead have nothing to praise.
Chorus:
What is it, my son? What is
it that drives you so eagerly, so madly into battle?
Chorus:
Why fill your soul with
this lust for war?
Chorus:
Snuff out this evil lust at
its birth, my son!
689
Eteocles:
It is too late. The gods
have declared that this event must take place. They are forcing its pace. Well then, let Laius' whole seed be
doomed! It has earned Apollo's hate so let it sail headlong and driven by the
wind, along the fated wave of Kokytus!
Chorus:
How blood thirsty your urge
to commit this slaughter, Eteocles!
Chorus:
Its fruit will be bitter!
Chorus:
The slaughter of a brother
is a sacrilege.
Eteocles:
Blood thirsty, indeed! But
my father's black and bitter curse hangs about me and there, with dry eyes
–eyes that cannot weep- this curse whispers to me, "Kill him! Kill him and
then be killed yourself!" It urges me to grab the prize before I die!
Chorus:
But you, my lord! Stand
firm against that urge! Who would dare call you a coward if you have managed to
prosper in life?
700
Chorus:
Surely the black spirits of vengeance will leave your house if you make
sacrifices to the gods!
Eteocles:
Ha! The gods!
The gods think little of us
now and their only wish from us is that we disappear!
Why then grovel at Fate any
longer?
Chorus:
Grovel now that you are so
near to it!
Who knows? Perhaps this
evil Spirit may yet change course and return later with gentler winds.
Chorus:
Right now, though, it's
still enraged!
709
Eteocles:
A rage, set off by the curses of Oedipus.
The visions in my dreams
are true. They come and they divide our inheritance between me and my brother.
Chorus:
I know you don't want to but, do listen to us women!
Eteocles:
Say what you want, woman
but make it short.
Chorus:
Forget about the seventh
gate, my lord. Go anywhere else but not there.
Eteocles:
Your words will not change my mind. It is set.
Chorus:
A victory, even one bereft
of glory, is honoured by the Heavens.
Eteocles:
This is not a sentiment that
a soldier can accept!
Chorus:
So, you want a harvest of
your own brother’s blood?
Eteocles:
There’s no escape from the
will of the gods!
Exit Eteocles SL
720
Chorus:
Ah!
I shudder, body and soul,
at the power of this divinity!
Chorus:
She is like no other god or
goddess!
Chorus:
She ruins homes!
Chorus:
Erinys! The Avenging
Spirit!
Chorus:
Unerring messenger of doom!
Chorus:
The father shouts out dire
curses, dreadful prayers sprung from a maddened mind and here she’s comes,
ready to fulfil them!
Chorus:
Erinys!
Chorus:
Oedipus!
Chorus:
This strife will kill the
sons of Oedipus. Each by the hateful hand of the other!
Chorus:
It was Chalyb the stranger -
Chorus:
The Scythian –
Chorus:
The bitter distributor of
wealth!
730
Chorus:
The heartless steel!
Chorus:
The sharp sword that had
come from the distant North and settled here a long time ago.
Chorus:
It was that steel that
tossed the dice and by their fall apportioned this land to this family.
Chorus:
It is the sword that rules
the allotting of this land!
Chorus:
The sword gave as much land
to each man as he will take when he's buried.
Chorus:
But no! None of the land in
these wide meadows was given to them.
Chorus:
But when they fall dead,
the one slaughtered by the hand of the other and the dark and thick blood is
drunk by the dry soil of this earth, who will do the purifying? Who can wash
away the evilness of the act?
740
Chorus:
House of pain!
Old pain meets and mingles
with the new!
Chorus:
I'm thinking of the old
sin.
That sin was quickly
avenged and yet, here it is, three generations later!
Laius' sin, his
disobedience to Apollo.
Apollo had warned him three
times from deep within the Pythian shrine-
Chorus:
The earth's very centre!
Apollo had told him thrice:
"To save your kingdom,
Laius, you should have no sons!
Die with no sons,
Laius!"
750
Chorus:
But the king was overcome
by the sweetness of love and so, he had a child.
A boy, a father killer, his
own killer, Oedipus who dared to sow a bloody seed in his mother's sacred field
–
Chorus:
Her womb!
And there he was nurtured
and there he was raised!
And from there he harvested
the pain of blood!
Chorus:
Madness had visited them!
Chorus:
Reason had escaped them!
Chorus:
Madness had brought the two
together!
760
Chorus:
And now, like an ocean of
misery, one pain follows another, a wave crashes upon us and from that,
another, a three headed wave raises and seethes with anger all round our city's
prow.
Chorus:
And so the tower between
our life and our death is now thicker than a mere wall.
Chorus:
Ah!
I fear for Thebes!
Chorus:
Ah!
I fear for her kings!
Chorus:
Ah!
I fear they will all be
vanquished!
Chorus:
The payment of an ancient
curse is always heavy and its collector will not be sent away.
770
Chorus:
Then you will see the
weighty wealth of rich men dragged out from the bottom of the ship's hold and
thrown overboard to keep the ship afloat.
Chorus:
Oedipus!
What man was better
honoured, better loved by the gods, by those who shared his hearth –a whole
market place of them!- than was Oedipus, on the day that he saved our land from
that grotesque beast, the Sphinx, that preyed on men?
780
Chorus:
Yet, when finally the black
sin of his fateful marriage was revealed to him, the madness and the unbearable
pain in his heart drove him to commit a double evil!
Chorus:
With the very hand that he
had killed his father, he tore his eyes out!
Chorus:
His eyes! Things more
precious to a man than his own children!
Chorus:
And then, at his two sons he hurled wild and bitter curses!
Maddened because it was he
who had given life to them!
Chorus:
Ah! What wild and bitter
curses!
They must claim their
portion of their heritage with the sword!
790
Chorus:
Spirits of Vengeance!
I tremble at the thought
that you shall rush to claim your payment now!
Enter Messenger SL
Messenger:
Good news, ladies,
daughters of Theban mothers!
Our city is saved from the
yoke of slavery and all the boasts of those proud warriors have fallen to the
dusty ground.
The tempest has passed and
the ship has born the battering of the waves without taking water. Our towers still stand tall because we
had barricaded our gates with solid warriors. Men who delivered on their pledge
and fought back the enemy.
800
All is well – generally
speaking.
It went well with the six
gates - but the seventh!
There, Apollo, the ruler of
all sevens, there the revered lord of light, had decided to take over the
command of the battle and made Oedipus pay for his father's ancient sin.
Chorus:
What? What news is this?
What new terror must this city bear?
Messenger:
No, no! The city is safe!
It's Oedipus' two sons…
Chorus:
His two sons?
Chorus:
What of them?
Chorus:
I'm too afraid to hear
this!
Messenger:
Calm down now, ladies! Listen!
Both sons of Oedipus…
Chorus:
Ah!
No!
Chorus:
I can guess the horror!
Messenger:
Both of them – believe the
unbelievable- both of them are lying dead there, on the battlefield.
Chorus:
Are they truly dead? Are
they truly lying there on the battlefield?
Chorus:
This is news too horrible
to hear but tell us what exactly happened.
Messenger:
Yes, both of them are dead.
Each killed by the hand of the other.
810
Chorus:
Ah!
In birth, in cruelty and in
Fate the two were alike and so the two were slaughtered thus.
Messenger:
Yes, their Fate was the
same: to be the last of their race, a race fated to end.
And so, here is the reason
for us to shed tears of sadness as well as tears of joy!
Our city has won the war
but both our lords, our generals have divided all their land and wealth with
the forged Skythian sword of steel; and now they'll be given only as much land
as their graves require, the graves in which the blast of their father's dire
curse has delivered them.
Our city is saved but its
soil has sucked the blood of our noble lords - brothers, each killed by the
hand of the other.
Exit Messenger SL
822
Chorus:
Zeus!
Almighty Zeus!
Gods who protects our
Thebes!
You have indeed saved our
towers!
Tell us now what to do.
Chorus:
Should we be glad now?
Should we give out the loud
shout of triumphant joy because Thebes is saved or should we shed bitter tears
for the death of the two ill-fated, pitiful and childless champions?
831
Chorus:
Their name names their
fortune: Eteocles, The Truly Glorious –
Chorus:
Polyneices, The Truly
Warlike!
Chorus:
Both destroyed by their own
ungodly mind!
Chorus:
Black curse!
Complete curse!
Curse of the house of
Oedipus!
Chorus:
A dreadful fear freezes my
heart and when I hear of the deaths of these men, their fates of misery, their
corpses spattered with their own blood, I sing like a frenzied maenad, I sing the song of burials.
Chorus:
How pitiful the song of the
battle-spear!
The bloodied corpses of the two brothers are brought to the
stage on individual biers accompanied by a solemn procession.
840
Chorus:
Ah!
Here is the accomplishment
of Laius' disobedience!
Chorus:
It wasted no time to reach
its conclusion!
Chorus:
Here is the accomplishment of their father's curse!
Chorus:
And Thebes?
I feel a dread about our
city. The wrath of such prophesies do not subside so easily.
Chorus: Indicating the corpses
Men of misery!
Have you done this?
Who can believe that you
have done this?
Chorus:
Believe it!
Here is the proof of this
black horror!
This are not mere words
that pass before us!
Chorus:
We see it all here.
All that our ears have
heard is now seen by our eyes.
Here it is. All of it!
850
Chorus:
Our twin fears, twin destructions, two brothers!
Each died by the hand of
the other.
Twin deaths! Twin Fates
fulfilled!
Chorus:
What am I to say to this?
Chorus:
What else but that I see
hearths full of pain?
New pains added to the
pains of old!
Chorus:
Come ladies!
Make a fair wind with your
sighs!
Beat your heads with your
hands as oars beat the ocean!
Chorus:
Send forth the heavy ship
with the black sails as we always do for the dead.
Help it sail to Acheron's
dark shores where Apollo never sets foot.
Help it sail to the murky
shores that welcomes us all.
Enter Antigone and Ismene grief stricken.
Chorus:
Hush! Here come their
sisters, Antigone and Ismene!
Chorus:
What a bitter duty they
have to perform!
They must sing the dirge
for their two brothers.
Chorus:
And they will sing with
grave earnestness the heavy and righteous sadness, deep in their fair breasts.
Chorus:
But, before we hear their
lament, let us first cry out the dire hymn of the Avenging Spirits and Deaths'
ode of triumph.
Chorus: To the sisters Antigone and Ismene
Ah!
Dear girls! Dear sisters!
You are more unhappy at the
loss of your brothers than all the wealthy women who can pin girdles around
their breasts.
Believe me, sisters, my
groans and my wails come charging forth from deep inside my aching heart!
Chorus: Turning to the corpses
Ah!
Poor fools!
Your friends could not
change your foolish minds!
Hungry for misfortune!
You and your pitiful
bravery!
You have destroyed your
ancestors' home!
Chorus:
Pitiful, yes!
They've destroyed their
house and they've earned themselves a pitiful death!
881
Chorus:
Ah!
So, now you have resolved
your differences with the sword.
Chorus: To Polyneices
It is the walls of your own
house you have ruined!
Chorus: To Eteocles:
It is your own death you
have earned, instead of the city's throne!
Chorus:
The mighty Avenging Spirit
of your father, Oedipus, has delivered the curse in full.
Chorus: Examines the corpse of Polyneices
Look!
Look where he's been
struck!
Chorus: Looks at the corpse closely
The left side!
Chorus: Examining the corpse of Eteocles
Look here, too!
The left side!
Both struck on the left
side!
891
Chorus:
Sides that sprung from the same womb!
Sides cursed by the gods!
The curse of one death
demanding another!
Chorus:
Struck both!
Struck at their home and
their life!
Struck with unspeakable
vengeance!
Struck by the doom sent
upon them by their father's curse.
900
Chorus:
The groans of grief travel through the city!
The towers groan!
The soil that loves its
men, groans!
And the Thebans who are to
come –
Chorus:
Strangers to the house of
Laius, will share its wealth!
A house brought down by
this deadly war.
Chorus:
A house for whose sake this
strife raged until the rage came its full end.
Chorus:
Bitter hearts divided their
wealth and so the portions were equal.
But those who loved these
brothers hate Ares, the arbiter of the feud.
911
Chorus:
There they are, brought to
this by the stroke of the steel but what is next for them? What will the steel
bring to them now, could not one ask?
Chorus:
Their inheritance is now
the grave of their father's land.
Each will share an equal
part, parted by the stroke of steel.
Chorus:
Our hearts scream with
grief, torn with pain, a wail of farewell!
Chorus:
We scream our own scream,
we feel our own pain!
Chorus:
We shed our own tears over
the corpses of these two lords!
922
Chorus:
So now here we stand by the
biers of these poor men and here we say that they have caused the many dreadful
deaths of their own citizens and of the foreign enemy.
Chorus:
Of all the women who may
justly call themselves mothers, the mother of these two men was destined to
bear the heaviest burden.
Chorus:
She made a husband out of
one of her own sons, Oedipus, and with him she gave birth to these two men.
This now is their destiny.
Chorus:
Their hands have killed each other!
Both have sprouted from the
same seed.
930
Chorus:
And so, now, this one
single seed will be sown in the one single ground.
The seed, along with its
whole race.
Chorus:
One seed divided its wealth with enmity's maddened sword and so here now, we
see, that enmity's cruel ending.
Chorus:
The quarrel is over!
Their lives now mingle!
Their double murder is now
one with the blood-drenched soil.
And thus, it's true: now
the same blood flows through both lords.
940
Chorus:
The quarrel was resolved by
the sharp and bitter conciliator who came from the distant seas.
It was the wetted steel,
the gruesome sword, born in the forger's flames.
Chorus:
Bitter was the conciliator
who apportioned their wealth.
It was Ares who saw to it
that their father's curse came true.
Chorus:
And so the poor men have been given their due.
Their due of misery allotted
to them by the gods.
But their wealth now lies
beneath their belly.
The lifeless soil is now
their wealth. Countless, endless wealth.
949
Chorus:
Ah!
How abundant the wreath of
misery with which you've crowned your race!
Wreaths followed screams of
Vengeance!
Curses in shrill voices
sang their song of triumph!
A triumph over your race
that's now gone.
Chorus:
Before the gates where they fought now stands Destruction's trophy!
But Fate held back until
Destruction took them both.
Antigone now walks over to the body of Polyneices and Ismene
over that of Eteocles.
Antigone:
You gave wounds and wounds
you have received in turn.
Ismene:
You have killed and you
have been killed yourself in turn.
Antigone:
You killed by the spear:
Ismene:
You were killed in turn, by
the spear.
Antigone:
Evil the deed!
960
Ismene:
Evil the deed!
Antigone:
Ah, grief!
Ismene:
Ah, tears!
Antigone:
Grief for your death!
Ismene:
Tears for your death!
Antigone:
Ah!
Ismene:
Ah!
Antigone:
My mind is gone with the
grief!
Ismene:
My heart groans with the grief!
Antigone:
Ah!
Ah!
To suffer so!
970
Ismene:
Ah!
Ah!
To have such Fate!
Antigone:
Your own brother has
slaughtered you!
Ismene:
You have slaughtered your
own brother!
Antigone:
A double horror for the
lips to utter!
Ismene:
A double horror for the
eyes to see!
Antigone:
Two sorrows side by side!
Ismene:
Two brothers, two sorrows!
Chorus:
Murderous Fate!
Misery is your gift!
Chorus:
And you, phantom of noble
Oedipus!
Black Spirit of Vengeance!
How mighty is your power!
980
Antigone:
Ah!
Ah!
Ismene:
Ah!
Ah!
Antigone:
A sight impossible for the
eyes!
Ismene:
Such a sight to place before my eyes when he returned from exile!
Antigone:
Yes, he killed but he had
not returned so as…
Ismene:
…to lose a life
Antigone:
It's true, he lost his
life…
Ismene:
...and the life of this
man.
Antigone:
Ah!
Dire the Fate of this race!
Ismene:
Dire its suffering!
Antigone:
Shocking sorrows befell
them both!
990
Ismene:
Shocking sorrows and the
pain is threefold!
Chorus:
Murderous Fate!
Misery is your gift!
Chorus:
And you, phantom of noble
Oedipus!
Black Spirit of Vengeance!
How mighty is your power!
Antigone:
You have tried and you have
learnt…
Ismene:
And you have tried and you
have learnt also, no later than him.
Antigone:
…when you have returned to
our city!
Ismene:
Yes to stand against him with your spear.
Antigone:
A double horror for the
lips to utter!
Ismene:
A double horror for the
eyes to see!
1000
Antigone:
Ah!
Ah!
The pain!
Ismene:
Ah!
Ah!
The dread!
Antigone:
The dread upon our house
and our land!
Ismene:
The dread upon our house
and our land and more than that, upon me!
Antigone:
Upon you and more upon me!
Ismene:
Ah!
Ah!
My lord! Your insufferable
pains!
Antigone:
Ah!
Ah!
More insufferable pains
than the whole of mankind can suffer!
Ismene:
Ah!
Your own sin, your own evil
spirit, my lord!
Antigone:
Ah!
What soil should cover
them?
Ismene:
That soil that will
received them most honourably.
1010
Antigone:
Ah!
Ah!
Let them lie by their father's
side.
Let their father feel their
pain.
Enter the Messenger
Messenger:
I am sent here to announce
the wishes and the decree of the Council of our city, the city of Cadmus.
So far as this man here is
concerned, Eteocles, because of the valour he has shown in defending this city,
he shall be buried with all due honours under the soil of this, his own city.
He has chosen to fight the hated enemy and by doing so, he has risked his life
and has fallen on the battlefield of his country, without offending any of the
gods of his father, acts, befitting honourable young men.
1020
But as for this dead man
here, his brother, Polyneices, my message is that his body is to be cast away,
to be left unburied and above the soil, for the dogs to eat at their pleasure.
This was a man who would have destroyed Cadmus' land, if some god or other had
not stood against him and had delivered him here, by the sword of his own
brother who lies here, next to him.
Even in death, this man
will carry the sin he committed against the gods of his father, whom he has
dishonoured by hurling against them an enemy army and by trying to conquer our
city.
His reward, then, shall be
dishonour.
His tomb shall be the
carrion birds.
There shall be no hand
placing dirt upon his corpse.
There shall be no mourners
chanting the shrill lament of burial for him.
There shall be no loving
hands gracing his death with funeral rites.
This is what has been
decreed for this man's death by the Cadmean Council.
1032
Antigone:
And this is my response to the
Cadmean lords:
If there is no one else who
will join me in burying my brother, then I will burry him myself and take what
chances I must.
I feel no shame in
disobeying the lords of the State and rebelling against the State.
The power of common birth
is mighty and we four, are all children of a luckless mother and an ill-fated
father.
1039
And so my heart!
Take your stand by him,
like a true sister! Share in his misfortune!
You, my heart, in life,
show him, the man who is now dead, all your sisterly love.
Let no one be in any doubt
about this: no empty-bellied wolf shall tear at my brother's flesh.
Polyneices, I, a woman,
will dig your grave!
Polyneices, I, a woman,
will find a way to carry into the folds of my purple garment soil to cover your
body.
Polyneices, I, a woman,
with sprinkle the soil over you.
No decree will stand in my
way!
Courage, brother, I shall
find the way to accomplish what must be accomplished!
Messenger:
I warn you, woman! Do not
force the city's hand!
Antigone:
And I warn you: Make no useless threats to me!
1050
Messenger:
A people that have just escaped disaster can be brutal!
Antigone:
Then let the people be
brutal! My brother will not be left unburied!
Messenger:
The State detests this man. Will you honour him with a burial?
Antigone:
The gods have already
decided about his honour, a long time ago.
Messenger:
No, not until he threw this
State into mortal danger!
Antigone:
No. He was wronged and so
he paid wrong for wrong!
Messenger:
But he wronged not only one but all of us.
Antigone:
The final word rests with the goddess Eris, the goddess of strife.
I will burry this man, so
cut short your lengthy speeches!
Messenger:
In that case, do as you
wish but I have warned you!
Exit Messenger
Chorus:
Ah!
Chorus:
Ah!
Chorus:
Ah!
1060
Chorus:
Spirits of Vengeance!
Chorus:
Erinyes!
Chorus:
Murderous spirits!
Chorus:
Arrogant, insolent spirits!
Chorus:
You have destroyed the
house of Oedipus. Root and branches, the whole stock!
Chorus:
What next must I suffer?
What next must I do?
What next must I think?
Chorus:
How can I not cry for you?
Chorus:
How can I not accompany you
to your grave?
Chorus:
But the folk of this city!
I am terrified of them!
Of their anger!
Chorus: To Eteocles
You, my lord, will have
many who will sing your lament!
1070
Chorus: To Polyneices
But you, my lord, unhappy
lord, will go unlamented.
Your sister's tears will be
your only lament!
Chorus:
Who could believe that?
Chorus: Indicating half the chorus
Let the State do what it sees fit to do or not to do but we, here, will
accompany Polyneices to his grave and we will help Antigone burry her brother.
Chorus:
This is a sadness that is carried by our whole race but the State might change
its view of what is just and what is not, according to the changing times.
Chorus: Indicating the other half
And we, here, will
accompany Eteocles to his grave since, in his case, the State agrees with
Justice.
Chorus:
It was this man, Eteocles,
along with the blessed gods and the almighty Zeus, who has saved the kingdom of
Cadmus from being toppled and drowned by the hordes of the enemy's men.
The biers are lifted and carried away, each half of the
chorus following their designated hero.
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