Page:The Antigone of Sophocles (1911).djvu/38

34

For he insisted that the deed must be

Reported to the King and not concealed.

And this prevailed, and me, most luckless wight,

The lot condemned to win the prize. So here

I am, unwilling and unwelcome, I am sure,

For no man loves a bearer of bad news.

My lord, a voice within me long hath been

A-whispering, haply gods’ hands here are seen.

Stay!—ere you fill me full of wrath, and prove

A dotard by your talk, not merely old.

Prate not about the gods to me, and say

They have regard for this dead man. Did they

Prize him so high for faithful services

That they would seek to hide the corpse of him

Who came to burn their colonnaded shrines,

Their votive offerings, to devastate

Their land, and break to fragments all the laws?

Gods honor wicked men? Impossible!—

No! When my edict first was spread abroad,

I heard some mutterings from malcontents

That tossed their heads in secret, and refused

To bear the yoke in loyalty to me,

Intolerant of rule and restive. Now

I ’m thoroughly convinced the watchmen here

Were bribed by these and brought to do this deed.

For true it is, no evil ever grew

In current use among mankind, like money,

This sacks and ruins cities, this drives men

From home, makes nature fall into revolt,

And by its base corrupting influence

Trains erstwhile honest souls to set themselves

To dirty practices, plants in the hearts

Of men the seed of every wickedness

And teaches them to know all godless deeds.

But those who wrought this thing, seduced by gold,

Will all be caught, or soon or late, and find

That disobedience brings its punishment.

And now, as Zeus has still my reverence,

Mark this—upon my oath I say it—Find

The very man that made this grave and bring