Page:Masterpieces of Greek Literature (1902).djvu/170

140 140 SOPHOCLES

Ismene. What risk is this ? What purpose fills thy mind ?

Antigone. Wilt thou help this my hand to lift the dead?

Ismene. Mean'st thou to bury him, when law for- bids ?

Antigone. He is my brother ; yes, and thine, though

thou 50

Wouldst fain he were not. I desert him not.

Ismene. Ο daring one, when Creon bids thee not?

Antigone. He has no right to keep me from mine own.

Ismene. Ah me ! remember, sister, how our sire Perished, w^ith hate o'erwhelmed and infamy, 50

From e% that himself did bring to light, Vith his own hand himself of eyes bereaving, And how his wife and mother, both in one, With twisted cordage, east away her life ; ^ And thirdly, how our brothers in one day eo

In suicidal conflict wrought the doom, Each of the other. And we twain are left ; And think, how much more wretchedly than all We twain shall perish, if, against the law. We brave our sovereign's edict and his power. es

This first we need remember, we were bom Women ; as such, not made to strive with men. Aud next, that they who reign surpass in strength,

^ Oedipus had been warned by an oracle that he would slay his father and marry his own mother. ^Vhile trying to avoid this fate by leaving Corinth, the home of his supposed parents, he fulfils it by slaying Laius, King of Thebes, and wedding his queen locasta. Many years later the terrible truth is made known that these were his own parents, who had exposed him on a mountain to die when he was an infant. The queen locasta hangs herself at the awful news, and Oedipus puts out his own eyes.