Page:The Antigone of Sophocles (1911).djvu/34

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To the rout,—but the twain, who were born

Of one sire, of one mother,

Drave their spears in each other,

At one stroke of the sovereignty shorn.

Since Victory hath come, the glorious,

With joy responsive, O Thebes victorious,

Now all the toil

And all the moil

Of the recent wars forget;

Now visit all the sacred shrines with song

And dance, and Bacchus leading, all night long

The measures in motion set.

Chorus Leader.

But look where cometh the king of the land,

The son of Menœcus, Creon, whose hand

Holds the sceptre of empire but recently given

To him by the changes and fortunes of heaven.

What counsel in mind is he now revolving?

What problem for us to help him in solving,

That to this convocation

He by a proclamation

Hath summoned this council of elders?

Creon enters through the central door of the palace, with two attendants.

Sirs, safely have the gods our ship of state,

That labored hard in troubled seas, again

Made steady: and by special summons you

Of all the people chosen I have called

Apart; for, first, I knew how you revered

With constant loyalty the royal power

Of Laius; and then, when Œdipus

Our vessel steered, and after his downfall

Still faithful to the children, staunch in heart.

Since now yon sons of his are slain, struck down

In mutual slaughter by a double doom,

Each brother’s hand stained by a brother’s blood,