Characters

ETEOCLES, ruler of Thebes

SCOUT CHORUS of Theban maidens

MESSENGER

[ANTIGONE and ISMENE, daughters of Oedipus HERALD¹]

[Scene: The citadel of Thebes. A mound represents a shrine to the major gods of the city. One side-passage is imagined as leading to the lower town, the other to the walls and the battlefield. A crowd of armed Theban citizens is present. ETEOCLES (not in armour) enters, attended, from the town, to address them.]

ETEOCLES: Citizens of Cadmus’ land, he who guards the city’s fortunes, controlling the helm at its stern,2 never letting his eyes rest in sleep, has to give the right advice for the situation. For if we should be successful, the responsibility would be
5	god’s; but if on the other hand disaster were to strike (which may it not!) then Eteocles’ name alone would be repeatedly harped on by the citizens throughout the town amid a noisy surge of terrified wailing – from which may Zeus the
10	Defender, true to his title, defend the city of the Cadmeans! This is the time when every one of you – including both those who have not yet reached the peak of young manhood and those whom time has carried past it, and who are feeding abundant bodily growth – must have a care for your city, as
14–15	as is right and proper, must come to its aid, to the aid of the altars of its native gods so as never to let their rites be obliterated, to the aid of your children and to the aid of your Motherland, your most loving nurse; for when you were children crawling on her kindly soil, she generously accepted all the toil of your upbringing, and nurtured you to become
20	her shield-bearing inhabitants and be faithful to her in this hour of need. And thus far, up to this day, god has inclined to the right side: we have been besieged within our walls all this time, but for the most part, thanks to the gods, the war is turning out well for us. But now, as the prophet3 states –
25–6	that shepherd of fowl,4 who with infallible skill observes birds of augury with his ears and his mind, without using fire5 – this man, the master of this kind of prophecy, says that a great plan for an attack by the Achaeans6 upon the city is
30–31	being discussed this night. So get moving, all of you, to the battlements and gates of the walls – hurry, with your full armour! Man the parapets, take your stand on the platforms of the walls, stand firm at the gate entrances, have good
34–5	confidence, and don’t be too afraid of this horde of foreigners. God will bring success!
	[Exeunt citizens, making for the walls.]
	I have also acted, sending scouts to spy on the army, and I am sure they are not wasting time on their way. When I have heard from them, I will certainly not be caught by deception.
	[Enter SCOUT from the direction of the battlefield.]
40   SCOUT: Eteocles, most excellent king of the Cadmeans, I come bringing definite news from the army out there; I was myself an eyewitness to what they were doing. Seven men, bold leaders of companies, slaughtered a bull, let its blood run
45–6	into a black-rimmed shield, and, touching the bull’s blood with their hands, swore an oath by Ares, Enyo7 and blood- loving Terror that they would either bring destruction on the city, sacking the town of the Cadmeans by force, or perish
49–51	and mix their blood into the soil of this land; and with their own hands, shedding tears, they were adorning the chariot of Adrastus8 with mementos of themselves9 to take home to their parents. But no word of pity passed their lips: there breathed within them a steel-hearted spirit, blazing with courage, like that of lions with the light of war in their eyes. You have not been delayed in learning this by any slowness
55	of mine: I left them drawing lots, so that according to the fall of the lot each should lead his company against a gate. In view of this, you should speedily post men of excellence, the pick of the city, at the entrances of the gates; for the Argive 60 army, fully equipped, is already coming close, raising the dust, and white foam from the horses’ lungs is dripping and staining the soil. Be like a good ship’s captain and make the city tight, before the squalls of war assail her – for this army is like a roaring land-wave – and take the very quickest
65	opportunity of doing this. For my part, from now on, I will keep a faithful daytime scout’s eye out,10 and through my clear reports you will know what is happening outside and not come to harm.
	[Exit SCOUT by the way he came.]
70  ETEOCLES: O Zeus, and Earth, and you gods of the city, O mighty Curse and Fury of my father,11 do not let my city be captured by its foes, do not extirpate it from Greece, root
74–5	and branch, in utter destruction! Never bind this free land and this free city of Cadmus with the yoke-strap of slavery! Be its defence! I believe I am speaking in our common interest; for when a city enjoys success, it honours its gods.
	[Exit ETEOCLES towards the walls. The CHORUS of Theban maidens enter, from the town, in terror and confusion.]
CHORUS:
	<Ah, ah,> I cry for great, fearful sufferings!
	The army has been let loose, it has left its camp!
80	This great host of horse is pouring forward at the gallop!
	The dust I see in the air shows me it is so,
	a voiceless messenger but true and certain!
	The soil <of my land>,
	struck by hooves, sends the noise right to my ear!
85	It’s flying, it’s roaring like an irresistible
	mountain torrent!
	Oh, oh, you gods and you goddesses, keep off
	the surge of evil!
	The noise <of a war cry comes> over the walls:
90	the army with their white shields rise
	plain to see, coming swift<-footed> against the city!12
	Who, who of the gods or goddesses
	will protect us, who will ward them off?
95	Should I, then, fall down before
	the <ancestral> images of our gods?
	O blest ones, in your fair abode!
	Now is the moment to clasp the images: why do we wait
	and moan to no purpose?
100	Do you hear, or do you not, the clatter of shields?
	When, when, if not now, shall we be able <to adorn
	the gods> with robes and garlands as prayer-offerings?
	I see the noise13 – it is the clatter of many spears!
104–5	What do you mean to do, Ares, ancient god
	of this land?14 Betray your own country?
	God of the golden helmet, watch over, watch over the city
	which you once held worthy of your love!
	[They approach the shrine, prostrate themselves and embrace the images.]
	Gods who dwell in this city and land, come hither, all of you,
109–10	behold this company
	of maidens supplicating you to save them from slavery.
	A wave of men, their crests at an angle,15 breaks loudly
115	over the city, raised up by the blasts of war.
	Father Zeus, you who have supreme power over all,
	at all costs defend us from capture by our foes!
120	The Argives are surrounding the city
	of Cadmus, and terror of their warlike arms
	throws us into confusion; the bits in the horses’ cheeks
	give forth a piercing whine that tells of slaughter;
125	and out of the army seven distinguished leaders of men,
	assigned by lot, are taking their stand
	against the seven gates,
	fully armed, brandishing their spears.
	O powerful daughter of Zeus, lover of battle,
130	be the protector of our city,
	Pallas! And the lord of horses and ruler of the sea,16
	with <the mighty strength of> his fish-spearing weapon –
135	give release, give release from our terror!
	And you, Ares – ah, ah! – guard the city
	that bears Cadmus’ name, and make manifest your care for it!
140	And Cypris,17 you who are the ancestress of our race,
	keep them away from us! For we are born
144–5	of your blood, and we approach you with cries
	and prayers that deserve a divine hearing.
	And you, Wolf-god,18 make yourself a wolf
	to the enemy army; and you, maiden
	born of Leto,19 make ready your bow.
150	[They utter sharp cries of terror.]
	I hear the rattle of chariots round the city!
	O Lady Hera!
	The sockets of their heavy-laden axles are squealing!
	Beloved Artemis!
155	The air is going mad with the brandishing of spears!
	What is happening to our city? What will become of it?
	What is the ending that god has yet to bring?
	[They again utter sharp cries of terror.]
	Now comes the bombardment of stones on the battlements!
160	Beloved Apollo!
	Clashing of bronze-rimmed shields at the gates!
	Child of Zeus,20 from whom
	comes the clean21 conclusion to battle that decides a war,
	and you, blest Queen Onca, dwelling before the city,22
165	protect your seven-gated home.
	O gods, you almighty defenders,
	O gods and goddesses with decisive power
	to guard the walls of this land,
	do not betray this city in the toils of battle
170	to an enemy of alien speech!23
	Do not fail to hear, to hear the prayers
	of maidens with uplifted hands!
	O beloved gods,
175	stand over our city to liberate it
	and show how you love it,
	take heed of the people’s worship,
	take heed, and defend them;
180–81	and be mindful, I beg you,
	of the city’s loving sacrificial rites.
	[ETEOCLES re-enters.]
ETEOCLES: I ask you, you insufferable creatures, is this the best policy, does it help save our city, does it give confidence to
185	our beleaguered population, to fall down before the images of the city’s gods and cry and howl in a way any sensible person would abhor? Whether in trouble or in welcome prosperity, may I not share my home with the female gender! When a woman is in the ascendant, her effrontery is impossible
190	to live with; when she’s frightened, she is an even greater menace to family and city. So now, with you running around in all directions like this, your clamour has spread panic and cowardice among the citizens; you are doing your very best to advance the cause of the enemy outside – the city is being
195	sacked by its own people from within! That’s the sort of thing you’ll get if you live with women! Now then, if anyone fails to obey my command, whether a man or a woman or anything in between, a vote of death will be passed against them and there is no way they will escape execution by public
200–201	stoning. Out-of-door affairs are the concern of men; women are not to offer opinions about them. Stay inside and do no harm!
	[The CHORUS make no response.]
	Did you hear me or not? Or am I talking to the deaf?
CHORUS:
	Dear son of Oedipus, I was frightened when I heard
	the sound of the rattle, the rattle of chariots,
205	and the noise of the whirling sockets of their wheels,
	and when the fire-fashioned bits that are horses’ steering-gear howled in their mouths.
208–10   ETEOCLES: So what? A sailor can’t, can he, when his ship is in distress in heavy seas, find an escape from danger by fleeing from the stern to the bows?
CHORUS:
	No, I rushed headlong to the ancient images
	of the divine ones, trusting in the gods, when there came the noise
	of the deadly blizzard of stones at the gates:
	then, then I rose up in fear to pray to the blest ones, that they
215	might spread their protection over the city.
ETEOCLES: You are praying for our walls to keep off the enemy attack? Then that will happen – so far as the gods are concerned. But then it is said that the gods of a captured city leave it.24
CHORUS:
219–20	Never while I live may this assembled company
	of gods desert us, nor may I behold this city
	stormed through by the enemy, and its people
	devoured by their fire.
224–5  ETEOCLES: Please don’t call on the gods while behaving imprudently. Obedience is mother of Success and wife of the Saviour25 – that’s how the saying goes.
CHORUS:
	True, but the power of god is even mightier:
	often amid troubles he sustains the helpless,
	even out of the direst straits when the clouds
	are hanging over their eyes.
230  ETEOCLES: This is the business of men, to offer slaughtered sacrifices to the gods26 when encountering the enemy; your business is to keep quiet and stay in your homes.
CHORUS:
	It is thanks to the gods that we dwell in an unconquered city and that our wall keeps off the enemy horde.
235	What kind of resentment can find that offensive?
ETEOCLES: I don’t at all resent your honouring the race of gods. But in order to avoid making our citizens lose heart, be calm and don’t get too excessively frightened.
CHORUS:
	As soon as I heard that unprecedented din
240	I came in terrified fear to this citadel,
	this glorious divine abode.
ETEOCLES: Well then, if you learn of men wounded or dying, don’t greet the news with wailing. That is what Ares feeds on – the killing of human beings.
245  CHORUS: Listen, I can hear the neighing of horses!
ETEOCLES: Well, if you can hear them, don’t over-publicize the fact.
CHORUS: The city is groaning to its foundations – we’re encircled!
ETEOCLES: I’m capable enough of deciding myself how to deal with this.
CHORUS: I’m frightened! And the clatter at the gates gets louder and louder.
250  ETEOCLES: Will you not keep quiet, instead of talking all about it in public?
CHORUS: Assembled gods, do not betray our walls!
ETEOCLES: Can’t you put up with it in silence, confound you?
CHORUS: Gods of my city, let me not fall into slavery!
ETEOCLES: You’re putting yourself into slavery,27 and me, and the whole city.
255  CHORUS: Almighty Zeus, direct your bolts against the enemy!
ETEOCLES: Zeus, what a race you’ve given us for company, these women!
CHORUS: A wretched one – just like men when their city is captured.
ETEOCLES: Saying ill-omened words again, are you, while touching the images?28
CHORUS: Because of my lack of courage, fear seized hold of my tongue.
260  ETEOCLES: If you could comply with a slight request I have…
CHORUS: Please explain it right away, and I’ll soon understand.
ETEOCLES: Be silent, you poor fool, and don’t terrify your own side.
CHORUS: I’ll be silent; along with the rest I will endure what fate may bring.
265  ETEOCLES: I accept this word of yours, in preference to your earlier words. Now, in addition to that, get away from the images and utter a better prayer – that the gods should fight alongside us.29 Listen to my prayer, and then utter the sacred,
270	auspicious ululation of triumph, the customary Hellenic cry at sacrifices,30 to give confidence to our friends and dispel their fear of the foe. I say to the gods who inhabit this land, both those who dwell in the plains and those who watch over the marketplace, and to the springs of Dirce and the waters
275	of Ismenus,31 that if all turns out well and the city is saved, we will redden the altars of the gods with the blood of sheep, set up monuments of victory, <and fix> the spoils of the enemy, gained by the stroke of the spear, in their holy
280	temples. Make prayers like that to the gods, not mournfully, nor with wild, useless pantings – they won’t make it any less impossible for you to avoid what is fated. For myself, I will go and station six men, with myself as the seventh, to combat32
285	the enemy <           >33 at the seven entrances to the walls, before a messenger comes with a flurry of hasty, noisy words and causes a crisis that sets all ablaze.
	[He leaves, making for the walls. The CHORUS leave the shrine and take up their formation in the orchestra.]
CHORUS:
	I heed your words, but terror will not let my soul sleep:
	close to my heart
	thoughts are kindling fear
290	of the host around the walls,
	as a dove, all trembling,
	fears the snakes that make evil companions
	for the chicks sleeping in her nest.
295	For some of them march against the walls
	in full strength, in full mass –
	what is to become of me? –
298–300	while others hurl
	jagged stones at the people of the city,
	attacked from all sides.
	In every way, you gods
	of the family of Zeus, protect the city and people
	of the family of Cadmus!
	What land on earth can you take in exchange
305	that is better than this, if you abandon
	to the enemy this land of deep soil
	and the water of Dirce,
	the best drink for rearing
310	of all the streams sent forth by Poseidon the Earth-Encircler
	and by the children of Tethys?34
	Bearing this in mind, you gods
	of the city, cast
	upon those outside the walls
314–15	the cowardice that destroys men, the panic that makes them
	throw away their arms, and win
	glory for these citizens;35
	be saviours of the city
	and stay in your fair abode
320	in response to our shrill, wailing prayers.
	For it is pitiful that so ancient a city
	should be cast down to Hades, the enslaved plunder
323–5	of the spear, contemptuously ravaged
	and turned to flaky ashes
	by an Achaean man, with divine permission,
	while the women are taken captive and led away –
	ah, ah! – young and old together,
	dragged by their hair like horses,36
	their clothes being torn off, and the city
330	cries out as it is emptied
	of this wretched plunder from which rises a mingled clamour.
	Grievous indeed is the fate I fear!
	And it is lamentable when those just reared37 are plucked unripe
	and traverse, before the lawful time,
335	a hateful path away from their homes:
	I declare that even the dead
	fare better than they do.
	For a city when it is conquered –
	ah, ah! – suffers many disasters.
340	One man leads another captive, or slays,
	or ravages with fire; the whole city
	is besmirched with smoke,
	and over it blows the blast of the raging subduer of hosts,
	Ares, defiling piety.
345	There is tumult throughout the town; it is enclosed all round
	as if by a solid wall;38 man is slain
	by man with the spear;
	loud, bloody screams
349–50	rise up from infants
	fresh from the nourishing breast.
	And Pillage is there, sister to Rampage:
	plunderer meets plunderer
	and plunderless calls to plunderless
	wanting to have him as a colleague –
355	they desire neither a lesser nor an equal share.
	What sufferings may one guess will follow that?
	Grain of every sort, spilled on the ground,
	pains the eye, having acquired
	unfriendly store-keepers;39
360–61	and the earth’s rich gifts
	in mingled confusion are blown about
	in gusts of worthless trash.
	Slave-girls new to suffering
	<will soon be enduring> a captive coupling
365	with a lucky man, for
	they can expect to come to a nocturnal consummation
	with the dominating enemy,
	the climax of their utterly wretched afflictions.
	[The SCOUT is seen returning in haste.]
A VOICE FROM THE CHORUS: It seems to me, you know, my
369–70	dears, that the scout is bringing us fresh news of the army: he is forcing the sockets of his feet to move him rapidly.
	[ETEOCLES is seen returning in haste from the opposite direction; attendants follow, carrying his armour.]
ANOTHER VOICE: And here is the king himself, the son of Oedipus, just at the precise time to learn what the messenger has to say: speed is making his gait uneven too.
375  SCOUT: I can state from accurate knowledge the dispositions of the enemy, and how each has received his allotted station at the gates. Tydeus is already growling near the Proetid Gate, but the prophet40 is not allowing him to cross the
380	river Ismenus, because the sacrifices are not giving good signs. Tydeus, lusting madly for battle, is screaming like a snake hissing at midday,41 and is belabouring the wise prophet, the son of Oecles, with insults, saying that he is cringing before death and battle through cowardice. As he utters these cries, he
385	shakes three crests casting long shadows, the mane of his helmet, and on the underside of his shield bells of beaten bronze make a terrifying clang. Fashioned upon his shield he bears this proud device: a blazing firmament full of stars. Conspicuous
390	in the centre of the shield is a brilliant full moon, the greatest of the stars, the eye of night. Raving thus, in his boastful armour, he screams by the banks of the river, longing for battle, like a horse panting against the force of bit and bridle
395	and impatiently awaiting the sound of the trumpet. Whom will you station to oppose this man? Who can be relied on to stand before Proetus’ Gate when its bolts are undrawn?
ETEOCLES: I would not tremble at the accoutrements of any man; and shield devices cannot inflict wounds, nor can crests
400	or bells hurt without a spear. As for this ‘night’ which you say is on his shield, glittering with the stars of heaven – well, perhaps someone’s folly42 may prove prophetic. For if the night of death should fall on his eyes, then this boastful device
405	would prove to be rightly and properly true to its name for its bearer, and he will have made this arrogant prophecy against himself. I will post against Tydeus, as defender of this
410	gate, the brave son of Astacus, a man of very noble birth and one who honours the throne of Modesty and hates arrogant words; for he never does a shameful deed, and to be cowardly is not his way. He is a scion arising from the Sown Men whom Ares spared,43 and a man of this land through and through: Melanippus. Ares will decide the issue with his dice;
415	but it is very much the just duties of kinship that send him forth to protect the mother that bore him44 from the enemy’s spear.
CHORUS:
	May the gods grant good fortune to him who contends
	on my behalf, for he is standing up
	to be a righteous defender of the city! But I tremble
420	to see the bloody deaths of men who perish
	fighting for their dear ones.
SCOUT: So indeed may the gods grant him good fortune! Capaneus has been allotted the position at the Electran Gate.
424–5	This second one is a giant,45 bigger than the man previously mentioned,46 and his boasts show a pride beyond human limits; for he says that he will sack the city, god willing or unwilling, and that not even the weapons of Zeus crashing down to earth will stand in his way or hold him back – he
430	compares the lightnings and thunderbolts to the heat of the noonday sun. As his device he bears a naked man carrying fire: the torch with which he is armed blazes in his hands, and in golden letters he declares, ‘I will burn the city’. Against
435	such a man you must send – but who can stand against him? Who will await without panic the onset of this braggart man?
ETEOCLES: Now our first gain has given birth to yet another:47 men’s foolish pride, you see, finds a truthful accuser in their
440	own tongues. Capaneus is voicing threats against men who are ready to act. With contempt for the gods he takes a foolish joy, mortal as he is, in exercising his mouth by sending up to heaven loud, seething words against Zeus: I am certain that he will get his deserts, when something comes to him
445	‘carrying fire’ – the thunderbolt,48 and not a mere image of it either. Excessively loud-mouthed he may be, but a man has been posted against him who is fiery in spirit: powerful Polyphontes,
450	who will be a reliable defender with the goodwill of Artemis the Protectress49 and the aid of the other gods. Name another man who has been allotted to another gate.
CHORUS:
	May he perish, he who makes these great boastful threats against the city!
	May the thunderbolt stop him
454–6	before ever he leaps upon my house
	and plunders me by arrogant armed force
	from my maiden abode!
SCOUT: I will name him. The third man, for whom the third
460	lot sprang out of the upturned helmet of fine bronze, to lead his company against the Neïstan Gate, is Eteoclus. He is circling with his horses, who are snorting in their harness, eager to fall upon the gate; their muzzles, filled with the breath of their proud nostrils, are whistling a barbarian
465	music. His shield is decorated in no petty style. A fully armed soldier is climbing a scaling ladder to the top of the enemy’s wall, aiming to sack the city; and he too is crying out in written syllables, saying that not even Ares can throw him
470	off the wall. Against this man too you must send someone who can be relied on to save this city from the yoke of slavery.
ETEOCLES: He has been sent already, bearing his boast in his hands50 – Megareus, son of Creon,51 of the race of the Sown
475	Men. He will not be terrified into retreating from the gate by the noise of horses’ wild neighing: he will either, by his death, pay his full debt of nurture to this land, or else will adorn his father’s house with booty after conquering two men52 and
480	the city on the shield. Brag about another one;53 don’t be grudging about informing me.
CHORUS:
	Truly I pray that fortune may be with you,
	O defender of my home, and may not be with them:
	as they bluster loudly against the city
484–5	with maddened heart, so may an indignant
	Zeus look upon them with wrath!
SCOUT: Another, the fourth, assigned to the neighbouring Gate
489–90	of Athena Onca, is standing near it uttering loud cries, the vast figure and form of Hippomedon. I shuddered, I won’t deny it, to see him brandish his great round threshing-floor of a shield. And it can’t have been a cheap artist who gave him that device on the shield, Typhon54 emitting dark smoke, the many-coloured sister of flame, from his fire-breathing
495	lips; the round circle of the hollow-bellied shield is floored with coiling snakes.55 The man himself raised a great war cry; he is possessed by Ares, and he rages for a fight like a maenad,56 with a fearsome look in his eye. You need to guard
500	well against the attack of a man like this: Terror itself is now vaunting at the gate.
ETEOCLES: In the first place, Pallas Onca, close neighbour to our city’s gate, hates this man’s arrogance and will keep him off, like a mother bird protecting her nestlings from a hostile
504–5	serpent. And a man has been chosen to face this man: Hyperbius, the brave son of Oenops, ready to learn his fate in this crisis of fortune, faultless in form, in spirit, and also in the handling of arms. And Hermes57 has brought them together appropriately: the man is an enemy of the man he will face,58
510	and on their shields they will bring together two antagonistic gods. One of them has the fire-breathing Typhon, and on
515	Hyperbius’ shield resides Father Zeus, standing with his flaming bolt in his hand. Such are their alliances with gods; and we are on the side of the winners, they of the losers – that is if Zeus is Typhon’s superior in battle. It is to be expected that the human opponents will fare likewise, and
520	by the logic of Hyperbius’ emblem the Zeus he has on his shield should become his Saviour.59
CHORUS:
	I am confident that he who has on his shield
	the adversary of Zeus, the unlovely form of an earth-born
	divinity, an image hateful to mortals
	and to the long-lived gods,
525	will lose his head before the gates!
527–8  SCOUT: So may it be. Now I tell you of the fifth, assigned to the fifth gate, the North Gate, right by the tomb of
536–7	Amphion,60 son of Zeus. He stands there with a savage pride, not at all in keeping with his maidenish name,61 and a fierce
529–30	eye. He swears by the spear he holds, resolved to revere it more than a god and more highly than his eyes, that he will sack the city of the Cadmeans by force. He who says this is the offspring of Ares by a mountain-dwelling mother,62 a
534–5	fair-faced man, little more than a boy: the down is just growing
538	thick and spreading over his cheeks as he comes to the prime of beauty. But he does not stand before the gate without
539–42	a boastful emblem: on his shield of beaten bronze, the circular protector of his body, he wielded our city’s disgrace, the Sphinx, eater of raw flesh, her bright form beaten out and fastened on with rivets, and under her she bears a man, one of the Cadmeans – so that a great many weapons may
545	be thrown at that man.63 Having come here, he is not likely to fight on a petty scale, nor to show himself unworthy of the long journey he has made: Parthenopaeus the Arcadian. This man, such as I have described – an immigrant, paying back to Argos the debt due for his fine upbringing64 – is making threats against these walls which may god not fulfil!
550  ETEOCLES: May they receive from the gods a fate that matches their own intentions, they and those unholy boasts of theirs; then they would surely perish utterly and wretchedly! But for this man too, the Arcadian you speak of, there is a man who
555	does not boast but whose hand can see what needs to be done – Actor, brother of the last-mentioned. He will not allow a tongue with no deeds to its credit to flood in through the gates65 and breed trouble, nor that hateful, hurtful beast
560	to pass from the outside to the inside. She will blame her bearer when she gets an intense pounding below the city walls! If the gods are willing, what I speak will be the truth.
CHORUS:
	Their words pierce through my breast,
	and each lock of my hair stands up on end
565	when I hear the loud boasts of these loud-mouthed,
	impious men. If the gods are really gods,
	may they destroy them in this land!
SCOUT: The sixth man I have to speak of is a man of the highest virtue and an excellent fighter, powerful Amphiaraus, the
570	prophet. Stationed before the Homoloïd Gate, he is casting many reviling words at powerful Tydeus – ‘murderer’,66 ‘wrecker of your city’, ‘Argos’ great instructor in evil’, ‘arouser of a Fury’,67 ‘high priest of Carnage’, ‘Adrastus’
575	counsellor in these crimes’. And then again he loudly addresses your brother, turning his name inside out and
580	dwelling on its significance,68 and these are the words he utters from his lips: ‘Is an act like this really smiled on by the gods, is it an honourable thing for posterity to hear and tell of, to devastate one’s fatherland and its native gods by bringing a foreign army to invade it? What claim of justice can quench the mother-source, and if your fatherland is conquered
585	by the spear thanks to your incitement, how can you expect it to be your ally? For my part, I will enrich this land by becoming a prophet buried in the soil of the enemy.69 Let
590	us do battle: I expect an honourable death.’ So the prophet spoke, wielding calmly his shield all of bronze. On its circle there was no image; for he desires not the appearance of excellence but the reality, harvesting a deep furrow in his
595	mind from which good counsels grow.70 Against him I advise you to send brave and skilful opponents: formidable is he who reveres the gods.
ETEOCLES: Alas for the fate that visits mortals and links a righteous man with his impious inferiors! In every activity
600	there is nothing worse than evil company; it is a crop best not reaped. Either a virtuous man boards a ship together with sailors engaged in some headstrong villainy and perishes along with that god-detested set of men, or else an honest
605	man in the company of fellow-citizens, men who hate foreigners and are unmindful of the gods, is caught unjustly in the same net as they, and is lashed and laid low, together with them all, by the scourge of god. So too this seer, the son
610	of Oecles, a virtuous, upright, courageous and pious man, a great prophet, has joined together against his will71 with impious men of arrogant speech, who are marching one after another down a road on which it’s a long journey to come back;72 and, Zeus willing, he will be dragged down with
615	them. Indeed, I do not think he will attack the gate at all – not because he is lacking in spirit or cowardly in character, but he knows that he is destined to die in the battle, if the oracle of Loxias73 is to bear fruit (and his habit is to be either
620	silent or accurate). Nevertheless we shall post a man against him: powerful Lasthenes, a gatekeeper hostile to intruders, who has developed a mature mind but youthful flesh; his eye is swift, and in action he is not slow to seize with his spear on a spot exposed by a movement of the shield – but mortals’
625	good fortune is the gift of god.
CHORUS:
	Hear, you gods, our righteous prayers,
	and fulfil them, that the city may prosper,
	turning the evils of the armed struggle against
629–30	the invaders of our land: may Zeus strike them, outside the walls,
	and slay them with his thunderbolt!
SCOUT: Now this is the seventh, at the Seventh Gate:74 your
635	own brother. I will tell what a fate and curse he prays may befall this city,75 sounding out a jubilant paean for its capture: to join battle with you, kill you and die beside you, or else, if you survive, to punish you, as the one who degraded him
639–41	and drove him out, in the same manner – by banishment. Such is the cry of powerful Polyneices, and he is calling on the ancestral gods of his fatherland to look favourably on his prayers in every way. He has a new-fashioned, well-rounded shield, and a double device cunningly worked upon it: one
645	beholds a man-at-arms, made of gold, led by a woman who walks ahead of him with modest gait. And, as the writing proclaims, she says that she is Justice, ‘and I will bring this man back from exile, and he will possess his father’s city and
649, 651	the right to dwell in his home’. Such are the devices of those men – for you will never have reason to criticize me for my reports; now you yourself must decide how to command76 the city.
	[He departs.]
ETEOCLES: O my family, driven mad and greatly hated by the gods, my family so full of tears, the house of Oedipus! Ah
655	me, my father’s curse is truly now fulfilled! But it is not proper to cry or lament, lest that give birth to grief even harder to bear. For this man so well named77 – Polyneices, I mean – we shall soon know where that blazon will end up,
660	whether those letters worked in gold, blathering insanely on his shield, are really going to bring him home. If Justice, the virgin daughter of Zeus, were actually present in his actions and his mind, that might possibly have been the case. But in
665	fact, neither when he escaped the darkness of the womb, nor when he was growing, nor when he reached adolescence, nor when his chin was gathering hair, did Justice ever set eyes on him or hold him in any honour; nor now, surely, when he does harm to his own fatherland, is she standing close by
670	him, I imagine. Truly Justice would be utterly false to her name if she consorted with a man with so utterly audacious a mind. Trusting in this, I will go and stand against him myself: who else has a better right to? I will stand as ruler
675	against ruler, brother against brother, enemy against enemy. [To one of his attendants:] Give me my greaves at once, to protect me against spear and shaft.
	[During the following exchanges, ETEOCLES, with the help of his attendants, is putting on his armour.]
CHORUS: No, dearest of men, son of Oedipus, do not let your passions make you like that utterer of evil words! There are
679–80	enough Cadmean men to go to battle with the Argives; such blood purifies itself.78 But the death of two men of the same blood killing each other – that pollution can never grow old.
ETEOCLES [who has meanwhile put on his greaves]:
	If one must suffer evil, let it not be shameful; that is the only
685	profit the dead can gain. You can never speak of a good reputation arising from a disaster which is also a disgrace.
CHORUS:
	Why this mad passion, child?79 You must not let yourself be carried away by this spear-mad delusion that fills your heart.
	Cast out the root of this evil desire!
ETEOCLES [who has meanwhile put on his corslet]: Since the
690	god is plainly hastening things to their conclusion, let it run before the wind, the whole house of Laius, hated by Phoebus and consigned to the waves of Cocytus.80
CHORUS:
	An all too harshly stinging lust is provoking you
	to perpetrate a homicide, shedding unlawful blood,
	that will bear bitter fruit.
ETEOCLES [who has meanwhile buckled on his sword]: Yes,
695	for the hateful <black(?)> Curse of the father who should have loved me sits close by me with dry, tearless eyes,81 saying, ‘The gain comes before the death that comes after.’
CHORUS:
	Don’t be provoked! You will not be called a coward
699–700	if you find an honourable way to stay alive; the Fury’s black squall
	will leave your house, once the gods
	receive a sacrifice at your hands.
ETEOCLES [who has meanwhile put on his helmet]: The gods, it seems, have already abandoned us, and will they honour any gift from us, doomed as we are? Why then should we still cringe before the fate of death?
CHORUS:
705	Stay, while you have the chance! For the controlling power may perhaps, given time, change the wind of your spirit and blow with a gentler breath;
	but at present it is still seething.
ETEOCLES [who has meanwhile taken up his shield and spear]:
710	Yes, for the curse of Oedipus has made it seethe: it was too true, what I saw in those dream-visions about the dividing of our father’s property.82
CHORUS: Listen to us women, even if you don’t like doing so.
ETEOCLES: You can say what’s helpful, but don’t make it lengthy.
CHORUS: Don’t make this journey to the Seventh Gate.
715  ETEOCLES: I am whetted, and your words will not blunt me.
CHORUS: Yet god respects even an inglorious victory.
ETEOCLES: That’s not an expression that a man-at-arms should tolerate.
CHORUS: You want to shed the blood of your own brother?
ETEOCLES: When the gods send evil, one cannot escape it.
	[He departs.]
CHORUS:
720	I shudder at that destroyer of families,
	that goddess unlike the gods,
	that all-too-true prophet of evil,
	the Fury of the father’s curse,
725	that it has fulfilled the angry imprecations
	of Oedipus’ warped mind:
	this strife that will destroy his children is hastening it on.
	And a foreigner is dividing their inheritances,
	a Chalybian migrant from Scythia,83
729–30	a harsh distributor of property,
	cruel-hearted Iron,
	allotting them land to dwell in,
	as much as is given to the dead to possess,84
	with no share of the broad plains.
734–5	And when they die in kindred slaughter,
	killed by one another, and the dust of earth
	drinks up their dark red, clotted blood,
	who can provide purification,
	who can release them?85 O
739–40	new troubles for the house
	mingling with its old woes!
	For I speak of the transgression
744–6	born long ago, punished swiftly but remaining to the third
	generation, when Laius, defying
	Apollo, who had told him thrice86
	at the central navel of earth,
	the oracular sanctuary of Pytho, to die
	without issue and so save his city,
750	mastered by his own cherished, unwise counsels,
	begot his own death,
	Oedipus the father-slayer,
	who sowed the sacrosanct soil
	of his mother, where he had been nurtured,
755	and suffered a blood-stained progeny:
	it was mindless madness
	that brought that bridal couple87 together.
	Now the sea, as it were, is bringing waves of trouble;
	the first one subsides, but it raises up another
760	of triple strength, which breaks loudly
	around the very poop of the city;
	and for protection, in between,
	stretches the slim breadth of this wall.
	I fear lest together with the princes
765	the city may be laid low.
	Fulfilled is the grievous reconciliation
	spoken of in the curse long ago:88
	destruction does not pass by.
769–71	Among men who earn a living,
	prosperity grown too fat
	leads to the cargo being thrown overboard from the stern.
	For what man was so much admired
	by the gods in their shared abode89
	and by the much-trodden meeting place of mortals90
775	as in those days they admired Oedipus
	who removed from the land
	the man-snatching demon?91
	But when he became aware,
	wretched man, of his appalling marriage,
780	enraged by grief,
	with maddened heart,
	he perpetrated two evils:
	by his own father-slaying hand
	he was robbed of his <           > eyes,92
785	and, angered with his sons
	for their wretched maintenance of him,93 he let fly at them
	(ah, ah!) the curses of a bitter tongue,
788–90	that they would actually one day
	divide his property between them
	with iron-wielding hand. And now I tremble
	lest the swift-footed Fury may fulfil this.
	[A MESSENGER enters from the direction of the battlefield.]
MESSENGER: Have no fear, you daughters born of <noble Cad-mean> mothers: this city has escaped the yoke of slavery. The boasts of mighty men have fallen to the ground, and, as
795	in fair weather, so too when much buffeted by the waves, the city has let no water into her hull. The wall has held, and the champions with whom we reinforced the gates proved reliable in single combat. Things are well for the most part –
800	at six gates; but at the Seventh the victor was the awesome Master of Sevens,94 Lord Apollo, wreaking the consequences of Laius’ old act of unwisdom upon the offspring of Oedipus.
CHORUS: What further untoward thing has happened to the city?
805  MESSENGER: The men have died at each other’s hands.
CHORUS: Who? What are you saying? Your words are frightening me out of my mind.
MESSENGER: Collect yourself, and listen. The sons of Oedipus –
CHORUS: Ah, wretched me! I can foresee the worst!
MESSENGER: <           >
CHORUS: <           >95
MESSENGER: – nor is there any doubt that they were smitten down –
810  CHORUS: And lie there? It is grievous news, but all the same, say it.
MESSENGER: They killed each other with hands that all too truly shared the same blood. Thus the controlling power was one and the same for both, and he has himself utterly destroyed that ill-fated family. Such are the things we have
815	to rejoice and to weep over: the city is faring well, but its chiefs, the leaders of the two armies, have had the whole possession of their inheritance divided between them by hammered Scythian iron: they will have so much of the land as
819	they will take in burial, having been swept away to an evil fate in accordance with their father’s curse.
	[He departs.]
CHORUS:96
822	{O great Zeus and you gods of the city,
	who <have shown your concern> to save
	these walls of Cadmus,
825	shall I hail with shouts of joy
	the unharmed salvation of the city,
	or shall I weep for the wretched, ill-starred,
	childless warlords
	who have verily perished in a manner appropriate to their names –
830	with ‘true glory’ and with ‘much strife’97 –
	because of their impious thoughts?}
	O black, fulfilled curse
	of the family and of Oedipus!
	A terrible chill descends about my heart.
835–6	In maenad-like frenzy I fashion
	a song for their tomb, having heard
	about these blood-dripping corpses that die
	so wretchedly: truly ill-omened
	was this spear-duet!
840	It took full effect, it did not fail,
	the father’s cursing word;
	the disobedient decision of Laius has been a lasting force.
	There is lamentation throughout the city:
	oracles do not lose their edge.
845	O much-mourned pair, this thing you have done
	is <atrocious>! Sufferings have come
	that cannot be talked about, only bewailed.
	[The bodies of ETEOCLES and Polyneices are brought on and laid down side by side.]
	Here it is, plain to see; the messenger’s words are visible reality;
	with double lamentation <I now behold(?)> this twin disaster;
	the sad event is fulfilled, a double death by kindred hands.
850	What shall I say?
	What else but that suffering is a resident in the house?
	Friends, with the wind of lamentation in your sails
855	ply in accompaniment the regular beating of hands on head,98
	which is for ever crossing the Acheron,99
	propelling on a sacred mission from which there is no return100
	the black-sailed ship,
	on which Apollo Paeon never treads101 and the sun never shines,
860	to the invisible shores that welcome all.
	{[Enter ANTIGONE and ISMENE.102]
	But here come Antigone and Ismene
	to fulfil a bitter duty.
863–5	I think they will undoubtedly utter
	a lament for their brothers from their lovely
	deep bosoms; their grief merits it.
	But it is right that we, <having heard> the news first,
	should raise the unpleasing sound
	of the Fury’s hymn, and sing
	the hateful paean of Hades.
870	Oh,
	you most unhappy in your brothers of all
	who bind a sash round their garments!
	I weep, I groan, and there is no deceit about it –
	I am raising my voice sincerely from the heart.}
FIRST SEMICHORUS:103
	Oh, oh, foolish ones,
875	who ignored friendly advice, whom disaster could not deter,
	wretched ones, who captured
	your own father’s house with the point of the spear!
SECOND SEMICHORUS:
	Wretched ones indeed, who found themselves
	wretched deaths, to the ruin of their house!
FIRST SEMICHORUS:
880	Oh, oh, you who sent crashing in ruin
	the walls of your home, who found a bitter end
	to your dreams of sole rulership, now
884	you are reconciled – by steel.
SECOND SEMICHORUS:
886	And the mighty Fury of your father Oedipus
	fulfilled itself in very truth.
FIRST SEMICHORUS:
	Stricken through your left sides,
	yes, stricken, through
890	the ribs moulded in the same womb
	<           >.
	Alas, you possessed ones!
	Alas, the curse that doomed you to mutual death!
SECOND SEMICHORUS:
895	You speak of them as being struck a blow
	that was fatal for their house as well as their bodies,
	struck by the silent power
	and the unambiguous doom
	of their father’s curse.
FIRST SEMICHORUS:
900	Grieving has spread right through the city:
	the walls groan, and so
	does the soil that loved these men; their property
	awaits <new owners>,
	that property over which a dreadful fate came to them,
905	over which came strife and death as its end.
SECOND SEMICHORUS:
	With whetted hearts they parted
	their possessions, so as to gain equal lots;
	but their friends do not see
	their reconciler104 as free of blame,
910	or Ares as pleasing.
FIRST SEMICHORUS:
	By the stroke of iron they are as they are now,
	and there await them, one might well say,
	portions of their father’s sepulchre
	dug by the stroke of iron.
SECOND SEMICHORUS:
915–17	They are accompanied to the grave
	by the loud-sounding, heart-rending
	wailing of a house that grieves for itself, that feels its own pain,
	the wailing of a miserable heart that rejects all joy,
	truly pouring tears
920	from a heart that withers as I lament
	over these two princes.
FIRST SEMICHORUS:
	One can say over these unhappy men
	that they did much to their fellow-citizens
	and to the ranks of foreigners brought from abroad,
925	many of whom were destroyed in battle.
SECOND SEMICHORUS:
	Unhappy is she who bore them
	beyond all women
	who are called mothers of children:105
929–30	she made her own child
	her husband and bore these sons, and they
	have perished thus at each other’s
	fraternal, slaughtering hands.
FIRST SEMICHORUS:
	Fraternal indeed, but utterly destroyed
	by a parting106 that was not friendly
935	in an insane conflict
	that put a stop to their strife.
SECOND SEMICHORUS:
	Their hatred is ended, and their life-strength
939–40	is mingled in the earth
	as it flows with gore: truly they are of one blood!
	A harsh resolver of disputes is the visitor
	from the sea,107 who comes out of fire,
944–5	whetted Iron, and harsh too is Ares,
	that evil divider of property, who has made
	the father’s curse come true.
FIRST SEMICHORUS:
	They have received their allotted portion, the wretched pair,
	through suffering sent by Zeus;
	under their bodies there will be
950	a limitless wealth of land.108
SECOND SEMICHORUS:
	O you who have adorned your family –
	with many sorrows!
954–5	Over your deaths the Curses109 have shrilled
	their high-pitched cry of triumph, having put the family
	to flight in utter rout.
	Ruin’s trophy stands at the gate
959–6	at which they were struck down, and the controlling power
	has defeated two men and ended its work.
FIRST SEMICHORUS:110
	You struck after being struck.
SECOND SEMICHORUS:
	You were killed after killing.111
FIRST SEMICHORUS:
	You killed with the spear.
SECOND SEMICHORUS:
	You died by the spear.
FIRST SEMICHORUS:
	Having striven grievously –
SECOND SEMICHORUS:
	Having suffered grievously –
FIRST SEMICHORUS:
965	You lie dead.
SECOND SEMICHORUS:
	You have killed.
FIRST SEMICHORUS:
	Let lamentation flow.
SECOND SEMICHORUS:
	Let tears flow.
FIRST SEMICHORUS:
	Aiee!
SECOND SEMICHORUS:
	Aiee!
FIRST SEMICHORUS:
	My mind is mad with grief.
SECOND SEMICHORUS:
	My heart groans within me.
FIRST SEMICHORUS:
	Oh, oh, you are utterly to be bewailed!
SECOND SEMICHORUS:
970	And you, for your part, are in utter wretchedness!
FIRST SEMICHORUS:
	You died at kindred hands.
SECOND SEMICHORUS:
	You slew a kindred man.
FIRST SEMICHORUS:
	Double to speak of –
SECOND SEMICHORUS:
	And double to behold –
FIRST SEMICHORUS:
	Are the sufferings of these <two (?)> close together here.
SECOND SEMICHORUS:
	Like brothers these brothers have fallen.
CHORUS:
975	O Destiny, grievous dispenser of heavy fate,
	and mighty shade of Oedipus!
	O black Fury, truly you are powerful!
FIRST SEMICHORUS:
	Aiee!
SECOND SEMICHORUS:
	Aiee!
FIRST SEMICHORUS:
	Suffering hard to look on –
SECOND SEMICHORUS:
	He made me see, caused by his banishment.
FIRST SEMICHORUS:
980	He did not come back after he had killed.112
SECOND SEMICHORUS:
	He came, and lost his life.
FIRST SEMICHORUS:
982	Yes, he lost it indeed.
SECOND SEMICHORUS:
	And slew this other.
FIRST SEMICHORUS:
993	Terrible to speak of –
SECOND SEMICHORUS:
	And terrible to behold –
FIRST SEMICHORUS:
984	Are these lamentable kindred sorrows –
SECOND SEMICHORUS:
985	These still-fresh, thrice-hurled113 sufferings.
CHORUS:
	O Destiny, grievous dispenser of heavy fate,
	and mighty shade of Oedipus!
	O black Fury, truly you are powerful!
FIRST SEMICHORUS:
	You know about it114 for sure, having experienced it –
SECOND SEMICHORUS:
990	And you too, having learned not a moment later –
FIRST SEMICHORUS:
	When you came back to the city –
SECOND SEMICHORUS:
992	To combat this man with the spear.
FIRST SEMICHORUS:
983	Wretched race –
SECOND SEMICHORUS:
	That has suffered wretchedly!
FIRST SEMICHORUS:
994	Oh, the toil –
SECOND SEMICHORUS:
	Oh, the trouble –
FIRST SEMICHORUS:
995	– for the house –
SECOND SEMICHORUS:
	– and the land!115
FIRST SEMICHORUS:
998	Oh, oh, my prince, your lamentable sufferings!
SECOND SEMICHORUS:
	<Oh, oh, !>
FIRST SEMICHORUS:
1000	Oh, both so much afflicted in every way!
SECOND SEMICHORUS:
	Oh, both possessed by the spirit of Ruin!
FIRST SEMICHORUS:
	Oh, where in the land shall we inter them?
SECOND SEMICHORUS:
	Oh, in the place of greatest honour.
FIRST SEMICHORUS:
	Oh, oh, a pain to their father, if they sleep where he does!116
	[The last few lines of the original text have been lost; the two SEMICHORUSES must have agreed on where ETEOCLES and Polyneices should be buried, and escorted the bodies off stage.]
	{[Enter a HERALD.117]
1005  HERALD: I have to announce the opinion and the decision of the people’s council of this city of Cadmus. It has been resolved that Eteocles here, on account of his loyalty to his country, shall be buried in the loving recesses of the earth;
1010	for he found death while keeping out the enemy at the gates, and in pious defence of the temples of his fathers he has died blamelessly where it is honourable for the young to die. That is what I have been instructed to say about him; but his brother, the dead Polyneices here, is to be cast out unburied,
1015	a prey for the dogs, as one who would have been the destroyer of the land of Cadmus, had not some god stood up to hinder his armed attack. Even in death he shall bear the pollution and curse of his ancestral gods, whom he insulted when he
1020	tried to capture the city, bringing a foreign army to attack it. So it is decided that he should get his due reward by receiving a dishonourable funeral from the flying birds; that he should neither lie under a laboriously raised burial mound nor be dignified with high-pitched musical wailings; and that he
1025	should not have the honour of a funeral procession from his family. Such is the decision of the aforementioned Cadmean authorities.
ANTIGONE: And I say to the leaders of the Cadmeans: if no one else is willing to join in burying this man, I will bury him; I will brave the danger of burying my brother, and I will
1030	not be ashamed to display such disobedient insubordination to the city. The power of the common womb from which we are sprung, children of a wretched mother and a miserable father, is a formidable thing. Therefore, my soul, with a sister’s heart, living with dead, share willingly in the sufferings
1035	that he endures unwillingly. His flesh <shall not be eaten by dogs or birds> nor torn by hollow-bellied wolves – let no one think it will; for I shall myself, woman though I am, contrive to provide him with a funeral and burial, carrying
1040	it118 in the fold of my fine linen robe, and myself cover him up – and let no one think otherwise. Courage will find a means to do it.
HERALD: I tell you not to flout the city’s will by doing this.
ANTIGONE: I tell you not to make useless proclamations to me.
HERALD: But a people that has escaped danger can be brutal.
1045  ANTIGONE: Be brutal! But this man is not going to remain unburied.
HERALD: This man whom the city hates, you are going to honour him by burial?
ANTIGONE: Yes, if his rights are not dishonoured by the gods.
HERALD: They weren’t, until he cast this country into danger.
ANTIGONE: He was retaliating with harm for the harm he had suffered.
1050  HERALD: But he retaliated against the whole people for the act of just one.
ANTIGONE: Contentiousness always wants the last word! I’m going to bury him; don’t argue any more.
	HERALD: Well, be self-willed! But I forbid it.
	[He leaves.]
FIRST SEMICHORUS [now grouped, with ANTIGONE, around Polyneices’ body]:
	Alas, alas!
1055	O you vaunting destroyers of families,
	Keres, Furies,119 who have thus annihilated
	the family of Oedipus, root and branch!
	What can I let happen, what can I do, what plan can I devise?
	How can I bring myself neither to bewail you
	nor to escort you to a funeral?
SECOND SEMICHORUS [now grouped, with ISMENE, around ETEOCLES’ body]:
1060	I am afraid, and shun conflict
	with the fearsome citizenry.
	You will find many mourners;
	but he, wretched man, will go unlamented
	with only the single-voiced dirge of his weeping sister.
1065	Now who could believe that?
FIRST SEMICHORUS:
	Let the city do or not do what it likes
	to those who mourn Polyneices:
	we here will go and join
1069–70	in escorting him to his burial. For the loss
	is the loss of all the race <of Cadmus>,
	and the city approves different things
	as right at different times.
SECOND SEMICHORUS:
	And we will go with this man, as both the city
	and justice join in approving:
	for, next after the blest ones and the strength of Zeus,
1075	he did most to prevent the city of the Cadmeans
	being destroyed and overwhelmed
	by the human wave of foreigners.
	[ANTIGONE and the FIRST SEMICHORUS go out in one direction, escorting the body of Polyneices; ISMENE and the SECOND SEMICHORUS in the other direction, escorting the body of ETEOCLES.]}