Page:Masterpieces of Greek Literature (1902).djvu/200

170 170 SOPHOCLES

On Sipylos' high crag, The Phrygian stranger from a far land come,

Whom Tantalos begat ;

AVhom growth of rugged rock, ess

Clinging as ivy clings,

Subdued, and made its own :

And now, so runs the tale,

There, as she melts in shower,

The snow abideth aye, eso

And stiU bedews yon cliffs that lie below

Those brows that ever weep. With fate like hers God brings me to my rest.

Chorus. A Goddess she, and of the high Gods born ; ^ And we are mortals, born of mortal seed. 895

And lo ! for one who liveth but to die. To gain like doom with those of heavenly race.

Is great and strange to hear. Antigone. Ye mock me then. Alas ! Why wait ye not, By all our fathers' Gods, I ask of you, soo

Till I have passed away,

But flout me while I live ?

Ο city that I love,

Ο men that claim as yours

That city stored with wealth, 905

Ο Dirke, fairest fount, Ο grove of Thebes, that boasts her chariot host,

I bid you witness all.

How, with no friends to weep,

By what stern laws condemned, 910

daughter of Tantalus, became the wife of Amphion, and then, boast- ing of her children as more and more goodly than those of Leto, provoked the wrath of Apollo and Artemis, who slew her children. She. going to ISipylus. in Phrygia, was there turned into a rock." 1 Tantalus, the father of Niobe, was himself a son of Zeus.