Page:Modern Greek folklore and ancient Greek religion - a study in survivals.djvu/569

 for the woman there before them, and tell how they can no longer check the founts of tears, when they behold Antigone drawing near to 'the bed-chamber where all must sleep' ([Greek: ton pankoitan thalamon]). Here the expression of the idea is becoming plainer, and it is no accident that the word [Greek: thalamos], so commonly used of the bride-chamber, is here selected. But yet clearer words are to follow; for Antigone herself, in response to these words of compassion from the Chorus, interprets more boldly that at which they hint. 'Me doth Hades, with whom all must sleep, bear off yet alive to Acheron's shore, me that have had no part in wedlock, whose name hath never rung forth in bridal hymn, but 'tis Acheron I shall wed .'

Nor does this clear pronouncement stand alone; thrice more, as the play advances, the same thought is echoed in unmistakeable tones. First comes the opening of that half impassioned, half sophistic, speech of Antigone, from which some critics would delete her argumentative estimate of a brother's claims as against those of a husband; but the removal of those lines would still leave intact that outburst, 'Oh tomb, oh bride-chamber, oh cavernous abode of everlasting durance .' And then again in the speech of the messenger, who bears tidings of the fate of both Antigone and her lover, the same thought is pressed upon us with double insistence. First he tells how, having given Polynices his full rites of burial, they turned to go next 'unto the vaulted chamber where on couch of rock the maiden should be wed with Hades' ([Greek: pros lithostrôton korês nympheion Haidou koilon]), and from afar is heard the voice of loud lament beside 'the bridal chamber unhallowed by funeral rites' ([Greek: akteriston amphi pastada] ). And later in the same narrative, when we have heard how that voice of loud lament was stilled, Haemon is pictured as lying dead in Antigone's dead embrace, having won his bridal's fulfilment only in Hades' house ([Greek: ta nymphika telê lachôn deilaios en g' Haidou domois]).

The reiteration of a single thought through all this series of passages is most remarkable. What does it mean? Did Sophocles intend merely to enhance the tragedy of Antigone's