by Aeschylus
[772] For whom have the gods and divinities that share their altar and the thronging assembly of men ever admired so much as they honored Oedipus then, when he removed that deadly, man-seizing plague from our land?
[777] But when, his sanity regained, he grew miserable in his wretched marriage, then carried away by his grief and with maddened heart he accomplished a double evil. With the hand that killed his father he struck out his eyes, which were dearer to him than his children.
[785] Next he launched brutal, wrathful words against the sons he had bred — ah! curses from a bitter tongue — that wielding iron in their hands they would one day divide his property. So now I tremble in fear that the swift-running Erinys will bring this to fulfillment.
[Enter Messenger.]
MESSENGER
[792] Take heart, you daughters who were nurtured by your mother. Our city has escaped the yoke of slavery; the boasts of the powerful men have fallen to the ground.The city enjoys fair weather and has taken on no water even though it has been buffeted by many waves. The walls hold, and we have fortified the gates with champions fully capable in single-handed combat. For the most part all is well, at six of the gates. But lord Apollo, the reverend leader of the seventh, took for himself the seventh gate, accomplishing upon the children of Oedipus the ancient follies of Laius.
CHORUS
[803] What novel happening will further affect the city?
MESSENGER
[804] The city is saved, but the kings born of the same seed —
CHORUS
[805] Who? What did you say? I am out of my mind with fear of your report.
MESSENGER
[806] Control yourself now and listen. The sons of Oedipus —
CHORUS
[807] Ah, miserable me, I am prophet of these evils.
MESSENGER
[808] In truth, beyond all question, struck down in the dust —
CHORUS
[809] Are they lying out there? This is hard to bear, but say it just the same.
MESSENGER
[810] The men are dead, murdered by their very own hands.
CHORUS
[811] Then with hands so fraternal did they each kill the other together?
MESSENGER
[812] Yes, so all too equal was their destiny to them both. All alone, in truth, it consumes the ill-fated family. We have cause in this for joy and tears — the one because the city fares well, the other because the leaders, the two generals, have divided the whole of their property with hammered Scythian steel. They will possess only that land they take in burial, swept away as they were in accordance with their father’s curses. [The city is saved, but through their mutual murder the earth has drunk the blood of the two kings born of the same seed.]
[Exit.]
CHORUS
[822] O great Zeus and the divine powers that guard our city, you who indeed protect these walls of Cadmus, should I rejoice and shout in triumph for the unharmed safety of the city, or should I lament our leaders in war, now wretched, ill-fated and childless? Indeed, in exact accordance with their name and as “men of much strife,” they have perished through their impious intent.
[833] O black curse on the family, Oedipus’ curse, now brought to fulfillment! A chill of horror falls about my heart. In frenzy like a maenad I make my song for the grave as I hear of their corpses dripping with blood, how they died through the workings of cruel fate. This song of the spear, sung to the flute, is indeed born of an ill omen.
[840] The curseful utterance of their father has done its work and not fallen short. Laius’ plans, made in disobedience, have kept their force. I am anxious for our city; divine decrees do not lose their edge.
[The funeral procession with the bodies of the brothers comes into view.]
[845] O bringers of immense grief, you have done in this a deed beyond belief, yet lamentable troubles have indeed come. The events are self-evident; the messenger’s report is plain to see. Twofold is our distress — double disaster of kindred murder, this double suffering has come to fulfillment. What shall I say? What else indeed than that sorrow born of sorrows surround this house’s hearth?
[854] But sail upon the wind of lamentation, my friends, and about your head row with your hands’ rapid stroke in conveyance of the dead, that stroke which always causes the sacred slack-sailed, black-clothed ship to pass over Acheron to the unseen land where Apollo does not walk, the sunless land that receives all men.
[861] But here come Antigone and Ismene to do their bitter duty, the dirge over their brothers both. With all sincerity, I think, will they pour forth their fitting grief from their lovely, deep-bosomed breasts. But it is right for us, before their singing, to cry out the awful hymn of the Erinys and thereafter sing the hated victory song of Hades.
[871] Ah, sisters most unfortunate in your kin of all women who clasp their girdle about their robes, I weep, I groan, and there is no feigning in the shrill cries that come straight from my heart.
[875] Ah, pity you senseless men, whom friends could not persuade and evils could not wear down! To your misery you have captured your father’s house with the spear.
[879] To their misery, indeed, they found a miserable death in the outrage done their house.
[881] Ah, you brothers who were poised to cast over the walls of your home and looked — to your sorrow — for sole rule, now you have been reconciled by the iron sword.
[886] The great Erinys of your father Oedipus has fulfilled it all truly. Pierced through your left sides, pierced indeed — through those sides that were born from one womb!
[888] Ah, strange ones! Ah, the curses that demand death for death! Right through, as you say, were they struck, with blows to house and body by an unspeakable wrath and by the doom, called down by their father’s curse, which they shared without discord.
[900] Groaning spreads throughout the city, too: the walls groan; the land that loves its sons groans. But for those who come after them there remains their property, on which account the strife of those terrible-fated men came to fulfillment in death. In their haste to anger they apportioned their property so that each has an equal share. To those who loved them their reconciler is not blameless, nor is Ares agreeable. Under strokes of iron they are come to this, and under strokes of iron there await them — what, one might perhaps ask — shares in their father’s tomb.
[915] Our shrill, heart-rending wail goes with them — product of lamentation and pain felt of its own accord — a wail from a distressed mind, joyless, pouring forth tears from a heart that wastes away as I weep for these two princes.
[922] Over these poor men it can be said that they did much to harm our citizens and also the ranks of all the foreigners who died in abundance in the fighting.
[926] Ill-fated beyond all women who are called by the name of mother is she who bore them. After she made her own child her own husband, she gave birth to these sons, who have thus ended their lives with kindred hands giving death for death.
[933] Of the same seed, in truth, they were utterly destroyed in unloving divisions, in maddened discord, in the ending of their strife.
[937] Their hatred has ceased. Their life has been mingled in the blood-soaked earth. Now truly their blood is one. Ruthless is that which resolved their strife, the stranger from across the sea, sharpened iron rushed from the fire.
[945] Ruthless, too, was Ares, the cruel divider of their property, who made their father’s curses come true. They hold in misery their allotted portion of god-given sorrows. Beneath their corpses there will be boundless wealth of earth.
[949] Ah, you have wreathed your race with many troubles! In the final outcome the Curses have raised their piercing cry, now that the family is turned to flight in all directions. A trophy to Ruin now stands at the gate where they struck each other and where, having conquered them both, the divine power stayed its hand.
[The following antiphonal dirge is sung by the two sisters — Antigone standing by the bier of Polynices,
Ismene by that of Eteocles.]
ANTIGONE
[957] You were struck as you struck.
ISMENE
[957] You died as you killed.
ANTIGONE
[958] By the spear you killed —
ISMENE
[959] By the spear you died —
ANTIGONE
[960] Your deed made you wretched.
ISMENE
[961] You suffering made you wretched.
ANTIGONE
[962] Let the lament come.
ISMENE
[963] Let the tears come.
ANTIGONE
[964] You are laid out for mourning —
ISMENE
[965] Though you did the killing.
ANTIGONE
[966] Ah me!
ISMENE
[966] Ah me!
ANTIGONE
[967] My heart is mad with wailing.
ISMENE
[968] My heart groans within me.
ANTIGONE
[969] Ah, the grief, brother all-lamentable.
ISMENE
[970] And you also, brother all-wretched.
ANTIGONE
[971] You perished at the hands of your nearest and dearest.
ISMENE
[972] And you killed your nearest and dearest.
ANTIGONE
[973] Twofold to tell of —
ISMENE
[974] Twofold to look upon —
ANTIGONE
[975] Are these sorrows so close to those.
ISMENE
[976] Fraternal sorrows stand close by fraternal sorrows.
CHORUS
[977] O Fate, giver of grievous troubles, and awful shade of Oedipus, black Erinys, you are indeed a mighty force.
ANTIGONE
[980] Ah, me
ISMENE
[980] Ah, me
ANTIGONE
[981] Sorrows hard to behold —
ISMENE
[982] He showed me when he returned from exile.
ANTIGONE
[983] But he made no return after he had killed.
ISMENE
[984] He was saved, but lost his life.
ANTIGONE
[985] He lost it, all too truly.
ISMENE
[986] And took this one’s life away.
ANTIGONE
[987] Wretched family!
ISMENE
[988] Wretched suffering!
ANTIGONE
[989] Kindred sorrows full of groans!
ISMENE
[990] Sorrows steeped in tripled griefs.
CHORUS
[991] O Fate, giver of grievous troubles, and awful shade of Oedipus, black Erinys, you are indeed a mighty force.
ANTIGONE
[994] Now you know of the Erinys by experience —
ISMENE
[995] And you are made aware no later —
ANTIGONE
[996] When you came back to our city.
ISMENE
[997] Yes, to face him with your spear.
ANTIGONE
[998] A tale of destruction!
ISMENE
[999] Destruction to look upon!
ANTIGONE
[1000] Oh, the grief —
ISMENE
[1001] Oh, the evils —
ANTIGONE
[1002] For home and land.
ISMENE
[1003] Above all for me,
ANTIGONE
[1004] And more also for me.
ISMENE
[1005] Ah I pity your grievous suffering, my king.
ANTIGONE
[1006] Pity for you both, most lamentable of all men.
ISMENE
[1007] You were possessed by delusion.
ANTIGONE
[1008] Where shall we lay them in the earth?
ISMENE
[1009] Ah, where their honor is greatest.
ANTIGONE
[1010] To lie beside their father, a cause for him of sorrow.
[Enter a Herald.]
HERALD
[1011] It is my duty to announce the will and decrees of the council on behalf of the people of this our Cadmean city.
[1013] It is decreed, first, that Eteocles here, on account of his goodwill towards the city, is to be buried in a kindly grave in its soil; for hating the enemy he chose death in the city and driven by piety towards his ancestral shrines, he died without reproach where it is an honor for the young to die. This is how I was commanded to speak regarding him. But as for his brother, it is decreed that this corpse of Polyneices is to be cast out of the city unburied to be torn by dogs, since he would have been the destroyer of the land of the Cadmeans, if one of the gods had not used his brother’s spear to prevent him. Even in death he will retain the stain of his guilt against his fathers’ gods, whom he dishonored when he launched a foreign army against the city to take it. For this reason it is decreed that he will receive his reward by being buried without honor beneath the winged birds; and that no labor of the hands shall attend him by building up a burial mound nor shall anyone offer him reverence in shrill-sung laments. He is to be refused the honor of being carried in funeral procession by his loved ones. Such is the decree of the Cadmean authorities.
ANTIGONE
[1032] I at least will say something to the rulers of the Cadmeans: even if no one else is willing to share in burying him, I will bury him alone and risk the peril of burying my own brother. Nor am I ashamed to act in defiant opposition to the rulers of the city. A thing to be held in awe is the common womb from which we were born, of a wretched mother and unfortunate father. Therefore, my soul, willingly share his evils, even though they are unwilling, and live in kindred spirit with the dead. No hollow-bellied wolves will tear his flesh — let no one “decree” that! Even though I am a woman, I will myself find the means to give him burial and a grave, carrying the earth in the fold of my linen robe. With my own hands I will cover him over — let no one “decree” it otherwise. Take heart, I will have the means to do it.
HERALD
[1048] I forbid you to act thus in violation of the city.
ANTIGONE
[1049] I forbid you to make useless proclamations to me.
HERALD
[1050] And yet a citizenry that has escaped evil can be harsh.
ANTIGONE
[1051] Let it be harsh! This man will not be unburied.
HERALD
[1052] What! Will you honor with burial a man whom the city detests?
ANTIGONE
[1053] For a long time now the gods have ceased to hold him in honor.
HERALD
[1054] No, he was honored until he put this land in jeopardy.
ANTIGONE
[1055] He suffered evil and gave evil in return.
HERALD
[1056] But this act was against all the citizens, not only one man.
ANTIGONE
[1057] Discord is the last of the gods to close an argument. I will bury him. Put an end to your big talk.
HERALD
[1059] Well then, follow your own rash plan, but I forbid it.
[Exit.]
CHORUS
[1060] Ah, misery! O Erinyes, far-famed destroyers of families, goddesses of death who have thus laid ruin to the family of Oedipus, digging it up from the roots! What will happen to me? What should I do? What plan shall I devise? How can I have the heart neither to weep for you nor escort you to your tomb? But I am afraid and turn away in terror of the citizens. You, at least, Eteocles, will have many mourners, while he, wretched man, departs without lamentation and has a dirge sung only by one sister. Now who could comply with that?
FIRST HALF-CHORUS
[1072] Let the city take action or not take action against those who lament for Polynices. We, at all events, will go and bury him with her, following the funeral procession. For this grief is shared by all our race, and the city approves as just different things at different times.
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SECOND HALF-CHORUS
[1078] We will go with this other corpse, as the city and justice, too, approves. For after the blessed gods and powerful Zeus, he it was who saved the city of the Cadmeans from being capsized and flooded by a wave of foreign men — he beyond all others.
[Exeunt omnes.]
THE SUPPLIANTS
Translated by Herbert Weir Smyth
The Suppliants appeared in 463 BC when democratic undercurrents were running through Athens in advance of the establishment of a new democratic government in 461 BC. In the play, the Danaids, the fifty daughters of Danaus, founder of Argos, flee a forced marriage to their cousins in Egypt. They turn to King Pelasgus of Argos for protection, but Pelasgus refuses until the people of Argos weigh in on the decision, a distinctly democratic move on the part of the king. The people decide that the Danaids deserve protection and they are allowed within the walls of Argos despite Egyptian protests.
The Suppliants is the first play part of a trilogy, which was followed by two lost plays The Egyptians and The Danaids. A plausible reconstruction of the trilogy’s last two-thirds runs thus: during the course of the war, King Pelasgus has been killed, and Danaus rules Argos. He negotiates a peace settlement with Aegyptus, as a condition of which, his fifty daughters will marry the fifty sons of Aegyptus. Danaus secretly informs his daughters of an oracle predicting that one of his sons-in-law would kill him; he therefore orders the Danaids to murder their husbands on their wedding night. His daughters agree. The Danaids would open the day after the wedding.
In short order, it is revealed that forty-nine of the Danaids killed their husbands as ordered; Hypermnestra, however, loved her husband Lynceus, and thus spared his life and helped him to escape. Angered by his daughter’s disobedience, Danaus orders her imprisonment and, possibly, her execution. In the trilogy’s climax and dénouement, Lynceus reveals himself to Danaus, and kills him (thus fulfilling the oracle). He and Hypermnestra will establish a ruling dynasty in Argos. The other forty-nine Danaids are absolved of their murderous crime, and married off to unspecified Argive men. The satyr play following this trilogy was titled Amymone, after one of the Danaids.
The Danaides (1903) by John William Waterhouse
CONTENTS
DRAMATIS PERSONAE
