The Tragedies of Euripides, Volume I.. Euripides
morose, would not give up those of the enemy who had fallen at Thebes, for sepulture, and exposed the body of Polynices without burial, and banished Œdipus from his country; in the one instance disregarding the laws of humanity, in the other giving way to passion, nor feeling pity for him after his calamity.
THE PHŒNICIAN VIRGINS
JOCASTA
O thou that cuttest thy path through the constellations82 of heaven, and art mounted on thy golden-joined seats, thou sun, whirling thy flame with83 thy swift steeds, how inauspicious didst thou dart thy ray on that day when Cadmus came to this land having left the sea-washed coast of Phœnicia; who in former time having married Harmonia, daughter of Venus, begat Polydorus; from him they say sprung Labdacus, and from him Laius. But I am84 the daughter of Menœceus, and Creon my brother was born of the same mother; me they call Jocasta (for this name85 my father gave me), and Laius takes me for his wife; but after that he was childless, for a long time sharing my bed in the palace, he went and inquired of Apollo, and at the same time demands the mutual offspring of male children in his family; but the God said, "O king of Thebes renowned for its chariots, sow not for such a harvest of children against the will of the Gods, for if thou shalt beget a son, he that is born shall slay thee, and the whole of thy house shall wade through blood." But having yielded to pleasure, and having fallen into inebriety, he begot to us a son, and having begot him, feeling conscious of his error and the command of the God, gives the babe to some herdsmen to expose at the meads of Juno and the rock of Cithæron, having bored sharp-pointed iron through the middle of his ankles, from which circumstance Greece gave him the name of Œdipus. But him the grooms who attend the steeds of Polybus find and carry home, and placed him in the arms of their mistress. But she rested beneath her bosom him that gave me a mother's pangs, and persuades her husband that she had brought forth. But now my son showing signs of manhood in his darkening cheek, either having suspected it by instinct, or having learned it from some one, went to the temple of Apollo, desirous of discovering his parents; at the same time went Laius my husband, seeking to gain intelligence of his son who had been exposed, if he were no longer living; and both met at the same point of the road at Phocis where it divides itself; and the charioteer of Laius commands him, "Stranger, withdraw out of the way of princes;" but he moved slowly, in silence, with haughty spirit; but the steeds with their hoof dyed with blood the tendons of his feet. At this (but why need I relate each horrid circumstance besides the deed itself?) the son kills his father, and having taken the chariot, sends it as a present to his foster-father Polybus. Now at this time the sphinx preyed vulture-like86 upon the city with rapacity, my husband now no more, Creon my brother proclaims that he will give my bed as a reward to him who would solve the enigma of the crafty virgin. But by some chance or other Œdipus my son happens to discover the riddle of the sphinx, [and he receives as a prize the sceptre of this land,]87 and marries me, his mother, wretched he not knowing it, nor knew his mother that she was lying down with her son. And I bear children to my child, two sons, Eteocles and the illustrious Polynices, and two daughters, one her father named Ismene, the elder I called Antigone. But Œdipus, after having gone through all sufferings, having discovered in my bed the marriage with his mother, he perpetrated a deed of horror on his own eyes, having drenched in blood their pupils with his golden buckles. But after that the cheek of my children grows dark with manly down, they hid their father confined with bolts that his sad fortune might be forgotten, which indeed required the greatest policy. He is still living in the palace, but sick in mind through his misfortunes he imprecates the most unhallowed curses on his children, that they may share this house with the sharpened sword. But these two, dreading lest the Gods should bring to completion these curses,88 should they dwell together, in friendly compact determined that Polynices the younger son should first go a willing exile from this land, but that Eteocles remaining here should hold the sceptre for a year, changing in his turn; but after that he sat on the throne of power, he moves not from his seat, but drives Polynices an exile from this land. But he having fled to Argos, and having contracted an alliance with Adrastus, assembles together and leads a vast army of Argives; and having marched to these very walls with seven gates he demands his father's sceptre and his share of the land. But I to quell this strife persuaded my son to come to his brother, confiding in a truce before he grasped the spear. And the messenger who was sent declares that he will come. But, O thou that inhabitest the shining clouds of heaven, Jove, preserve us, give reconciliation to my children; it becomes thee, if thou art wise, not to suffer the same man always to be unfortunate.
TUTOR, ANTIGONE
TUT. O thou fair bud in thy father's house, Antigone, since thy mother has permitted thee to leave the virgin's apartments for the extreme chamber89 of the mansion, in order to view the Argive army in compliance with thy entreaties, yet stay, until I shall first investigate the path, lest any citizen should appear in the pass, and to me taunts should come as a slave, and to thee as a princess: and I who well know each circumstance will tell you all that I saw or heard from the Argives, when I went bearing the offer of a truce to thy brother, from this place thither, and again to this place from him. But no citizen approaches this house; come, ascend with thy steps these ancient stairs of cedar, and survey the plains, and by the streams of Ismenus and Dirce's fount how great is the host of the enemy.
ANT. Stretch forth now, stretch forth thine aged hand from the stairs to my youth, raising up the steps of my feet.
TUT. Behold, join thy hand, virgin, thou hast come in lucky hour, for the Pelasgian host is now in motion, and they are separating the bands from one another.
ANT. O awful daughter of Latona, Hecate, the field all brass90 gleaming like lightning.
TUT. For Polynices hath not come tamely to this land, raging with host of horsemen, and ten thousand shields.
ANT. Are the gates fastened with bars, and is the brazen bolt fitted to the stone-work of Amphion's wall?
TUT. Take courage; as to the interior the city is safe, But view the first chief, if thou desirest to know.
ANT. Who is he with the white-plumed helmet, who commands in the van of the army, moving lightly round on his arm his brazen shield?
TUT. He is a leader, lady.
ANT. Who is he? From whom sprung? Speak, aged man, what is he called by name?
TUT. He indeed is called by birth a Mycenæan, and he dwells at the streams of Lerna,91 the king Hippomedon.
ANT. Ah! how haughty, how terrible to behold! like to an earth-born giant, starlike in countenance amidst his painted devices,92 he corresponds not with the race of mortals.
TUT. Dost thou not see him now passing the stream of Dirce, a general?
ANT. Here is another, another fashion of arms. But who is he?
TUT. He is the son of Œneus, Tydeus, and bears on his breast the Ætolian Mars.
ANT. Is this the prince, O aged man, who is husband to the sister of my brother's wife?93 In his arms how different of color, of barbaric mixture!
TUT. For all the Ætolians, my child, bear the target, and hurl with the lance, most certain in their aim.
ANT. But how, O aged man, dost thou know these things so perfectly?
TUT. Having seen the devices of the shields, then I remarked them, when I went to bear the offer of a truce to thy brother, beholding which, I recognize the warriors.
ANT. But who is this, who is passing round the tomb of Zethus, with clustering locks, in his eyes a Gorgon to behold, in appearance a youth?
That is, through the signs of the zodiac: αστηρ differs from αστρον, the former signifying a single star, the latter many.
The preposition συν is omitted, as in Homer,
Αυτηι κεν γαιηι ερυσαιμι.
The same omission occurs in the Bacchæ, αυτηισιν ελαταις, and again in the Hippolytus. It is an Atticism.
See note on Hecuba, 478.
The word τουνομα must be supplied after τουτο, which is implied in the verb καλουσιν.
The ζαρος is a bird of prey of the vulture species. The sphinx was represented as having the face of a woman, the breast and feet of a lion, and the wings of a bird.
Dindorf would omit this verse.
αραι and αρασθαι are often used by the poets in a good sense for prayers, ευχαι and ευχεσθαι for curses and imprecations.
διηρες ‛υπερωον, η κλιμαξ. HESYCHIUS.
Milton, Par. Regained, b. iii. l. 326.
The field, all iron, cast a gleaming brown.
Lerna, a country of Argolis celebrated for a grove and a lake where the Danaides threw the heads of their murdered husbands. It was there also that Hercules killed the famous Hydra.
This alludes to the figure of Argus engraved on his shield. See verse 1130.
Tydeus married Deipyle, Polynices Argia, both daughters of Adrastus, king of Argos.