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142 142 SOPHOCLES

Antigone. When strength shall fail me, then I '11

cease to strive. Ismene. We should not hunt the impossible at all. Antigone. If thou speak thus, my hatred wilt thou gain, 100

And rightly wilt be hated of the dead. Leave me and my ill counsel to endure This dreadful doom. I shall not suffer ausrht So evil as a death dishonorable.

Ismene. Go, then, if so thou wilt. Of this be sure, los Wild as thou art, thy friends must love thee still.

_Exeunt.

Enter Chorus of Theban Elders.

Stkophe I.

Chorus. Ο light of yon bright sun,^ Fairest of all that ever shone on Thebes,

Thebes with her seven high gates,

Thou didst appear that day, no

Eye of the golden dawn,

O'er Dirce's ^ streams advancing.

Driving with quickened curb.

In haste of headlong flight, The warrior ^ who, in panoply of proof, us

From Argos came, with shield of glittering white ;

Whom Polyneices brought.

Roused by the strife of tongues

Against our fatherland.

As eagle shrieking shrill, 120

^ The action of the drama begins at daybreak, and this hymn is therefore sung to the sun at its rising.

2 A spring near Thebes.

^ The " warrior" is used collectively for the whole Argive army tinder Adrastus that had come to invade Thebes and support; the cause of Polyneices.