by Sophocles
CYLLENE
No, that’s not it; try something else.
CHORUS
Is it like one of the horned beetles that live on Aetna?
CYLLENE
Now you’re getting closer to the beast
CHORUS
And which part makes the sound, the inside or the outside?
CYLLENE
first cousin to a potsherd.
CHORUS
What name do you call it? Tell me, if you know any more.
CYLLENE
The boy calls the animal a “tortoise” and the instrument a “lyre.”
CHORUS
property
CYLLENE
and this is his only consolation or cure for sorrow. He enjoys idly singing along; he coaxes Aeolian tunes from the lyre. Thus the boy made himself a voice from a dead animal.
CHORUS
Singing; this strophe has an antistrophe at .
A loud voice extends over the place, flitting around like a bee over the flowers. As for the other matter, I am getting closer. Know this, goddess: whoever contrived this is none other than the thief. But don’t be angry or upset that I say this.
CYLLENE
What delusion has come over you? Who are you blaming as a thief?
CHORUS
Not you, by Zeus; I don’t want to upset you, my lady.
CYLLENE
Surely you’re not calling the son of Zeus a thief?
CHORUS
this very theft.
CYLLENE
if what you say is true.
CHORUS
I speak truth. stolen the cattle it fits cut
CYLLENE
I understand finally laughing at my foolishness nothing, delight for the child. You can be reassured about me from now on, and laugh at me if you get some joy or profit from it. But do not mock the son of Zeus, making childish remarks about the child. For he did not inherit a thief’s nature from his father, nor does thievery hold sway in his mother’s family. If there is any theft here, look for a poor man as your thief; but this boy’s house is hardly poor. Consider his family, and fit bad deeds to bad men; it’s hardly appropriate to him. But you are always a child, even though you’re a young man and your beard grows on your face like a goat’s. Stop stretching up your smooth bald head for caresses. I tell you this: if you think the gods are foolish or laughable, you will soon be crying.
CHORUS
Singing; this is the antistrophe corresponding to the strophe at .
Turn and twist the words however you want, to find a clever story. You won’t convince me that the sewn-together hides are any others than the ones from the stolen cows of Loxias . Don’t try to turn me aside.
CHORUS
Because Zeus
CYLLENE
The child is no thief.
CHORUS
If he does bad things, then he is bad.
CYLLENE
I don’t like to hear bad things about Zeus’ son.
CHORUS
But if it’s the truth, then I have to say it.
CYLLENE
Don’t say
CYLLENE
Where are the cattle pastured?
CHORUS
Most of them now
CYLLENE
Who has them, wretch? Who
CHORUS
The boy has closed them up inside.
CYLLENE
Stop saying bad things about Zeus’ son!
CHORUS
I would stop, if someone would bring out the cattle.
CYLLENE
You’re choking me, you and those cows of yours.
CHORUS
left drive them out
CHORUS
Hey! Oh! what she said he didn’t
SILENUS
Silenus has come back, and Cyllene has presumably left.
Hey!
CHORUS
Oh Loxias, of the cows
Apollo probably enters in response to the chorus’ calls.
APOLLO
Cows are rewarded free. [?] Uncertain meaning.
THE PROGENY
Since being unearthed more than a century ago, the hoard of Oxyrhynchus Papyri has fascinated and frustrated classical scholars. There are 400,000 fragments, many containing text from the great writers of antiquity, and yet only a small amount have been read so far, due to most being unreadable.
However, scientists are now using multi-spectral imaging techniques, developed from satellite technology, to decode the papyri. The fragments, preserved between sheets of glass, respond to the infra-red spectrum, becoming at last readable.
The short extract below is the only known fragment we have of one of Sophocles’ lost plays The Progeny. The fragment was only discovered in 2005, with the help of Oxford University and has sparked new interest in the forgotten work, which was based on the second siege of Thebes. According to myth, Polynices and six allies attacked Thebes when his brother Eteocles had refused to give up the throne as agreed. All but one of the seven invaders were killed and their children swore vengeance and attacked Thebes several years later, when the action of this play takes place. These Epigonoi (descendents) defeated and killed Laodamas, the son of Eteocles, conquering Thebes and installing Thersander on the throne.
FRAGMENT
Speaker 1: . . . eating the whole and sharpening the shining iron.
Speaker 2: And the helmets shake their purple-tinged crests. For the wearers of breastplates, the weavers strike up the wise shuttle’s songs, waking up those who sleep.
Speaker 1: And he fastens as one the chariot’s rail.
MINOR FRAGMENTS
Translated by E. H Plumptre
11
HAST thou done fearful evil? Thou must bear
Evil as fearful; and the holy light
Of righteousness shines clearly.
12
Kings wisdom gain, consorting with the wise.
13
Man is but breath and shadow, nothing more.
14
The mightiest and the wisest in their minds
Thou may’st see like to him who standeth here,
Giving good counsel to a man distressed;
But when God’s will shall send the scourge on one
Who lived till then as fortune’s favourite,
All his fine phrases vanish utterly.
35
‘Neath every stone there lies a scorpion hid.
58
Hark! some one cries — Or do I vainly call?
The man who fears hears noise on every side.
59
Be sure, no lie can ever reach old age.
61
A maiden too, and one of Argive race,
Whose glory lies in fewest words or none.
62
Short speech becomes the wise of heart and good
To parents who begat and bore and bred.
63
Be of good cheer, O lady: dangers oft,
Though blowing dreams by night, are lulled by day.
64
None cleave to life so fondly as the old.
65
Life, O my son, is sweetest boon of all:
It is not given to men to taste death twice.
66
The living should not glory o’er the dead,
As knowing well that he himself must die.
67
How all men seek to shun the tyrant’s face!
88
A soul with good intent and purpose just
Discerns far more than lecturer can teach.
89
Much wisdom often goes with fewest words.
90
A man whose whole delight is still to talk
Knows not how much he vexes all his friends.
91
If thou art noble, as thou say’st thyself,
Tell me from whence thou’rt sprung. No speech stain
What comes of noble nature, nobly born.
92
Thy spee
ch is worthy, not too harshly said;
A noble stock that bears the test of proof,
Will still gain fair repute beyond all blame.
93
Who can count man’s prosperity as great,
Or small and lowly, or of no account?
None of all this continues in one stay.
94
Strange is it that the godless, who have sprung
From evil-doers, should fare prosperously,
While good men, born of noble stock, should be
By adverse fortune vexed. It was ill done
For the Gods thus to order lives of men.
What ought to be is this, that godly souls
Should from the Gods gain some clear recompense,
And the unjust pay some clear penalty;
So none would prosper who are base of soul.
98
Then does men’s life become one vast disease,
When once they seek their ills by ills to cure.
99
Not easy is it to resist the just.
100
Deceit is base, unfit for noble souls,
101
A righteous tongue has with it mightiest strength.
102
Hush, boy! for silence brings a thousand gains.
103
Why tellest thou thy tale of many words?
Superfluous speech is irksome everywhere.
104
In some things be not anxious to inquire:
Far better is it oft to leave them hid.
105
I know not how to answer to these things.
When good men by the base
Are overcome in strife,
What city could endure such deeds as this?
106
No one, I trow; yet take good heed to this,
Lest it be better, e’en by godless deeds,
To triumph over foes than as a slave
To yield obedience.
107
Cease thou. Enough for me the name of son
Of such a father, if indeed I ‘m his:
And if I be not, small the injury;
Repute oft triumphs o’er the truth itself.
108
The bastard is as strong as lawful sons;
Goodness still claims a rank legitimate.
109
Riches gain friends, gain honours, — further still,
Gain highest sovereignty for those who sit
In low estate. The rich have no men foes;
And if they have, these still conceal their hate.
A wondrous power has wealth to wind its way
Or on plain ground, or heights that none may tread,
Where one that’s poor, although ‘twere close at hand
Would fail to gain the thing his heart desires.
The form unsightly and of no esteem
It makes both wise of speech and fair to see:
It only has the power of joy or grief,
It only knows the art of hiding ill.
162
A pleasant ill is this disease of love,
And ‘twere not ill to sketch its likeness thus:
When sharp cold spreads through all the aether clear,
And children seize a crystal icicle,
At first they firmly hold their new-found joy;
But in the end the melting mass nor cares
To slip away, nor is it good to keep:
So those that love, the self-same strong desire
Now leads to action, now to idleness.
202
What virtue gains alone abides with us.
203
The hearts of good men are not quickly bowed.
204
Still where the right of free, true speech is gone,
And the worse counsel in a state prevails,
Blunders make shipwreck of security.
205
And how can I, a mortal, fight with fate
That comes from heaven, when danger presses hard,
And hope helps not?
206
Since age is on thee, keep its fair repute from evil speech
209
The tongue is held in honour by such men
As reckon words of more account than deeds.
235
Come, let us quickly go: it cannot be
That any blame should fall on righteous haste.
236
It brings some pain, I know, but one must try,
As best one may, to bear the ills of life.
Needs must we find some healing from these things.
237
Some pleasure is there found even in words,
When with them comes forgetfulness of ills.
238
Though I be old, yet with advance of age
Comes reason’s growth, and skill to counsel well.
239
There stretcheth by the sea
A fair Eubœan shore, and o’er it creeps
The vine of Bacchos, each day’s growth complete.
In morning brightness all the land is green
With tendrils fair and spreading. Noontide comes,
And then the unripe cluster forms apace:
The day declines, and purple grow the grapes;
At eve the whole bright vintage is brought in,
And the mixed wine poured out.
255
I own it true. Right well the proverb runs,
That smallest things make known a man’s true bent.
284
Wherefore conceal thou nothing. Time that sees
And heareth all things bringeth all to light.
288
No good e’er comes of leisure purposeless;
And Heaven ne’er helps the men who will not act.
298
’Tis only in God’s garden men may reap
True joy and blessing.
302
Chance never helps the men who do not work.
304
He who neglects the Muses in his youth
Has wasted all the past, and lost true life
For all the future.
311
A mortal man should think things fit for men.
321
This is most grievous, when it might be ours
To set things straight, and we by our own act
Will bring fresh woe and trouble on our heads.
322
But he who dares to look at danger straight,
His speech is clear, his spirit falters not.
323
It is not good to lie; but when the truth
Brings on a man destruction terrible,
He may be pardoned though not good his speech.
325
And wonder not, O prince, that thus I cling
So close to gain; for they whose life is long
Still cleave to profit with their might and main,
And men count all things else as less than wealth;
And though there be that praise a life kept free
From all disease, to me no poor man seems
In that blest state, but sick continually.
326
The noblest life is that of righteousness;
The best, one free from sickness; sweetest far
To have each day the fill of all we wish.
342
Now in the gates Æneas, Goddess-born,
Is seen, and on his shoulders bears his sire,
Who lets his byssine mantle fall in folds
On back where smote the fiery levin-flash,
And gathers round him all his band of slaves;
Beyond all hope, the multitude draws near
Of Phrygians who would fain be emigrants.
343
But little count we make of toil gone by.
358
For those who fare but ill ’tis very sweet
E’en for a moment to forget their ills.
359
None has no sorrow; happiest who has least.
379
He ’twas that taught the Argive army first
To build their walls, and found inventions strange
Of measures, weights, and numbers; he the first
To plan the ten that upward rise from one,
And from the tens to fifties pass, and so
From thence to thousands. He alone devised
The army’s beacon-lights and nightly watch,
And signals of the morning, and made clear
What he did not devise. He brought to sight
The measures and the motions of the stars,
And all their order, and the heavenly signs,
And for the men who guide their ships on sea,
The Great Bear’s circle, and the Dog’s cold setting.
380
Did he not drive away the famine from them;
And, with God’s help, discover pastimes wise,
As they sat down, after long toil at sea —
Draughts, and dice too, sweet help for idleness?
419
But when an oath is added, then the soul
Is made more careful, having then to shun
Both blame of friends and sin against the Gods.
434
The aged man becomes a child again.
436
’Tis better not to be than vilely live.
498
War ever takes our young men in its net.
499
A weary life is that the sailors lead,
To whom no gift from Heaven or Fortune sent
Could offer worthy recompense. Poor souls,
Adventuring traffic far on slender chance,
They save, or gain, or lose all utterly.
500
All evil things are found in length of years;
Sense gone, work useless, thoughts and counsels vain.
501
If men by tears could heal their several ills,
And by their weeping bring the dead to life,
Then gold would be of far less price than tears.
512
Greedy of gain is every barbarous tribe.
513
Be not afraid: speak thou the truth, and then
Thou shalt not fail.
514
What man soe’er, in troubles waxing wroth,
Will use a cure that’s worse than the disease,
Is no physician skilled to deal with grief.
517
I by myself am nought; yea, oftentimes
So look I upon all our womankind,
That we are nothing. Young, we lead a life
Of all most joyous, in our father’s house,
For want of knowledge is our kindly nurse;
But when we come to marriageable years,
Then are we pushed and bartered for away
From household gods and from our parents dear —
Some unto alien husbands, some to men
Of stranger race, and some to homes full strange,
