Page:The Antigone of Sophocles (1911).djvu/49

SOPHOCLES. Oft evil seems good to the vain

Whom the god leadeth on to bane,

Blind and deaf, hath not seen, hath not heard,

And lo!

Into mischief and woe

He plunges entire.

But look where Hæmon, of thy sons

The last and youngest, yonder comes.

Is he lamenting,

In anguish resenting

The fraud, Antigone’s ’spousal denied,

The cruel doom of his promised bride.

[Hæmon enters L.

We soon shall know more sure than seers can tell.

My son, thou ’rt certainly not come in rage

Against thy father, hearing our just doom

Irrevocable passed on thy betrothed?

Or are we dear to thee, do what we may?

Thou art my father; rules that thou dost give

For my direction, I obey, for thy

Good guidance I esteem a greater gain

To me than any marriage I could make.

Ay, this, my son, should ever be thy thought,

To let thy father’s will in all come first.

For this men, pray to rear within their homes

The children born to them all dutiful,

That they pay back in kind their father’s foe,

Their father’s friend such equal honer’ show.

But he to whom is born a worthless child,

What else hath he but trouble for himself

Begot and exultation for his foes?

Therefore, my son, let not a woman’s charm

Allure thee so that mere desire for her

Will cast thy reason out, for be assured

An evil woman in thy home to share

Thy bed affords a chill embrace. What sore

More ulcerous and painful far can be

Than this—a faithless friend. O cast away

The loathsome thing, and let this girl, as though