Chapter 23

ANT. How say'st thou? Why this remonstrance?

ISM. Seest thou not, again, He hath no grave and no man buried him.

ANT. Take me but where he lies. Then slay me there.

ISM. Ah! woe is me, doubly unfortunate, Forlorn and destitute, whither henceforth For wretched comfort must we go?

CH. Fear nought, Dear maidens!

ISM. Where shall we find refuge?

CH. Here, Long since, your refuge is secure.

ANT. How so?

CH. No harm shall touch you.

ANT. I know that.

CH. What then Further engrosseth thee?

ANT. How to get home I know not.

CH. Seek not for it.

ANT. Weariness O'erweighs me.

CH. Hath it not before oppressed thee?

ANT. Before, it vexed me; now it overwhelms.

CH. A mighty sea of misery is your lot.

ANT. Woe is me! O Zeus! And whither must we go? Unto what doom doth my Fate drive me now?

CH. Children, lament no longer. 'Tis not well To mourn 'mongst those with whom the honoured dead Hath left the heirloom of his benison.

_Enter_ THESEUS.

ANT. Theseus, behold us falling at thy feet.

THE. What boon, my children, are ye bent to obtain?

ANT. Our eyes would see our father's burial-place.

THE. 'Tis not permitted to go near that spot.

ANT. O Athens' sovereign lord, what hast thou said?

THE. Dear children, 'twas your father's spoken will That no man should approach his resting-place, Nor human voice should ever violate The mystery of the tomb wherein he lies. He promised, if I truly kept this word, My land would evermore be free from harm. The power which no man may transgress and live, The oath of Zeus, bore witness to our troth.

ANT. His wishes are enough. Then, pray thee, send An escort to convey us to our home, Primeval Thebes, if so we may prevent The death that menaces our brethren there.

THE. That will I; and in all that I may do To prosper you and solace him beneath,-- Who even now passes to eternity,-- I must not falter. Come, lament no more. His destiny hath found a perfect end.

* * * * *

NOTES

SOME PROPER NAMES

AIDONEUS, Hades or Pluto. ARES, The War-God, a destructive Power. DEO, Demeter. ERINYES, the Furies. HELIOS, The Sun-God. RHEA, the Mother of the Gods. THEBE, the town of Thebes personified.

ANTIGONE.

1 P. 6, l. 126. _The serpent._ The dragon, the emblem of Thebes.

2 l. 130. _Idly caparisoned._ Reading [Greek: huperopliais].

3 P. 7, l. 140. _Self-harnessed helper._ An allusion to the [Greek: seiraphoros], or side trace-horse, in a chariot-race.

4 P. 13, l. 342. _Children of the steed._ Mules are so-called by Homer.

5 P. 30, l. 955. _Dryas' hasty son._ Lycurgus. See Homer, _Iliad_, vi.

6 l. 971. _Phineus' two sons._ Idothea, the second wife of Phineus, persecuted his two sons by Cleopatra, a daughter of Boreas, whom he had repudiated and immured. The Argonauts saw them in the condition here described.

7 P. 34, l. 1120. _The all-gathering bosom wide._ The plain of Eleusis, where mysteries were held in honour of Deo or Demeter.

8 P. 39, l. 1301. Reading [Greek: *oxuthekto ... peri*xiphei].

9 l. 1303. _The glorious bed of buried Megareus._ Megareus, son of Creon and Eurydice, sacrificed himself for Thebes by falling into a deep cave called the Dragon's Lair.

AIAS.

1 P. 48, l. 172. _Her blood-stained temple._ In some of her temples Artemis was worshipped with sacrifices of bulls, and, according to an old tradition, also with human sacrifices.

2 P. 49. l. 190. _The brood of Sisyphus._ Amongst his enemies, Odysseus was reputed to be the offspring of Sisyphus and not of Laertes.

3 P. 59, l. 574. _Named of the shield._ Eurysakes means Broadshield.

4 P. 71, l. 1011. _Who smiles no more._ Compare a fragment of the _Teucer_ of Sophocles (519, Nauck),

'How vain then, O my son, How vain was my delight in thy proud fame, While I supposed thee living! The fell Fury From her dark shroud beguiled me with sweet lies.'

KING OEDIPUS.

1 P. 86, l. 36. _That stern songstress._ The Sphinx. See also 'minstrel hound.'

2 P. 96, l. 402. _Will hunt | Pollution forth._ The party cry of 'driving out the pollution' was raised against the Alcmaeonidae and other families in Athens, who were supposed to lie under a traditional curse.

3 P. 99. l. 525. _Who durst declare it._ [Greek: Tou pros d' ephanthe]. Though the emphatic order of words is unusual, this seems more forcible than the var. [Greek: toupos d' ephanthe].

4 P. 102, l. 625. [CR. _You'll ne'er relent nor listen to my plea._] A line has here been lost in the original.

5 P. 113, l. 1025. _Your purchase or your child?_ Oedipus is not to be supposed to have weighed the import of the Corinthian shepherd's words, 'Nor I nor he,' &c., _supra_.

6 P. 128. l. 1526. _His envied fortune mounted beaming._ Reading [Greek: en zelo politon] (with 2 MSS) and [Greek: epiphlegon] from my conjecture.

ELECTRA.

1 P. 131, l. 6. _The wolf-slaying God._ Apollo Lyceius, from _Lycos_, a wolf.

2 P. 140, l. 363. _Ne'er be it mine,_ &c. Reading [Greek: toume me *lupoun monon | boskema].

3 P. 143, l. 451. _That lingers on my brow._ A somewhat forced interpretation of [Greek: tende lipare tricha]. Possibly [Greek: tend' alamprunton tricha]: 'And this--unkempt and poor--yet give it to him.'

4 P. 144, l. 504. _Chariot course of Pelops, full of toil._ Pelops won his bride Hippodameia by bribing Myrtilus, his charioteer; whom, in order to conceal his fault, he flung into the sea.

5 P. 150, l. 722. _That pulled the side-rope._ See on Ant., p. 7, l. 140.

6 l. 151. _In letting loose again the left-hand rein._ The near horse (see above) knows his business, and, when the slackening of the rein shows that the goal is cleared, makes eagerly for the direct downward course. But if he is let go an instant too soon, he brings the car into contact with the stone.

7 l. 746. _Caught in the reins._ In an ancient chariot-race, the reins were often passed round the body of the charioteer, so as to give more purchase. See this described in the _Hippolytus_ of Euripides.

8 P. 154, l. 837. _One in a woman's toils | was tangled._ Amphiaraus, betrayed by Eriphyle for a necklace.

9 P. 160, l. 1085. _Through homeless misery._ I read [Greek: aion' aoikon] for [Greek: aiona koinon] of the MSS.

10 l. 1086. _Purging the sin and shame._ I read [Greek: kathagnisasa] for the impossible [Greek: kathoplisasa].

11 P. 172, l. 1478. _Thou hast been taking,_ &c. Otherwise, reading with the MSS [Greek: zon tois thanousin ounek' antaudas isa], _At point to die, thou art talking with the dead._

TRACHINIAN MAIDENS.

1 P. 180, l. 104. _Bride of battle-wooing._ 'Deanira' signifies 'Cause of strife to heroes.'

2 P. 185, l. 303. _Ne'er may I see thee._ The Spartan captives from Pylos had lately been at Athens, and some of them were reputed descendants of Hyllus, the son of Deanira.

3 P. 195, l. 654. _Frees him for ever._ His last contest brings his final deliverance.

4 P. 201, l. 860. _From Love's dread minister,_ i.e. from Aphrodite, working through the concealed and silent Iole.

PHILOCTETES.

1 P. 222, l. 194. _Through Chrysa's cruel sting._ Chrysa was an island near the Troad, sacred to a goddess of the name. Her precinct was guarded by a serpent, whose bite, from which Philoctetes suffered, was incurable. See below p. 254, l. 1327.

2 P. 226, l. 344. _The fosterer of my sire._ Phoenix, the tutor of Achilles.

3 P. 227, l. 351. _For I ne'er | Had seen him._ The legend which makes Achilles go to Troy from Scyros is probably ignored.

4 l. 384. _Vile offset of an evil tree._ Alluding to the supposed birth of Odysseus. See on Ai., l. 190, p. 60 [sic. should be p. 49].

5 P. 230, l. 489. _Of old Chalcodon._ One of the former generation, a friend and neighbour of Poeas the father of Philoctetes.

6 P. 237, l. 729. _Of him, whose home is in the skies._ Heracles, imagined as transfigured on Mount Oeta.

7 P. 254, l. 1328. _The sky-roofed fold._ The open precinct that was sacred to the goddess, merely surrounded by a wall. See above, note on p. 222, l. 194.

8 P. 255, l. 1333. _Phoebus' child._ Asclepius.

OEDIPUS AT COLONOS.

1 P. 265, l. 158. _Mingles with draughts,_ &c. Where libations are mixed of water and honey.

2 P. 288, l. 888. _The God._ Poseidon. See above, p. 282 [sic. should be p. 262], l. 55.

3 P. 306, l. 1525. _neighbouring._ [Greek: geitonon] (the participle).

4 l. 1534. _The dragon-brood._ The Cadmeian race at Thebes, sprung from the dragon's teeth sown by Cadmus.

N.B.--For other questionable points the student is referred to the small edition of _Sophocles_, by Campbell and Abbott (2 vols., Clarendon Press, 1900).

Oxford: HORACE HART, Printer to the University.

End of Project Gutenberg's The Seven Plays in English Verse, by Sophocles