Page:Masterpieces of Greek Literature (1902).djvu/218

188 188 SOPHOCLES

Second Messenger. Thy wife is dead, that corpse's mother true, 111 starred one, smitten with a blow just dealt. 1375

Creon. Ο agony ! Haven of Death, that none may pacify, Why dost thou thus destroy me ? Turning to Messenger.

Ο thou who comest, bringing in thy train

lA'^oes horrible to tell, iseo

Thou tramplest on a man already slain. What say'st thou ? What new tidings bring' st to me ?

Ah me ! ah me ! Is it that now there waits in store for me My own wife's death to crown my misery ? isss

Chorus. Full clearly thou mayst see. No longer now Does yon recess conceal her.

The gates open and show the dead body of Eurydice.

Creon. Woe is me !

This second ill I gaze on, miserable, AVhat fate, yea, what still lies in wait for me ? Here in my arms I bear what was my son ; 1390

And there, Ο misery ! look upon the dead. Ah, wretched mother ! ah, my son ! my son !

Second Messenger. In frenzy wild she round the .|

altar clung, Ί

And closed her darkening eyelids, and bewailed The noble fate of Megareus,^ who died 1395

Long since, and then again that corpse thou hast ; And last of all she cried a bitter cry Against thy deeds, the murderer of thy sons.

Creon. Woe ! woe ! alas ! ,.

I shudder in my fear. AVill no one strike i4oo ■

1 In the legend which Sophocles here follows, Megarus, a son of Creon and Eurydice, had offered himself as a sacrifice to save the state from its dangers.