Page:The Antigone of Sophocles (1911).djvu/57

SOPHOCLES. O grave, my bridal-chamber, prison-home

Eternal in the rocky cavern, where

I go to meet my own, the many whom

In death Persephone among the dead

Hath lodged; and last and by the cruellest fate

Of all, I now pass down to her, before

I reach my term of life. Yet when I come,

I entertain the hope that I may win

From thee a loving welcome, father, one

From thee, my mother, and no less from thee

My own dear brother, since this hand it was

That washed and dressed you for the tomb and poured

The last libations at your grave; and now,

Dear Polyneices, this is my reward

For tending thus thy corpse—for what transgression?

What law of heaven have I broken? Why

Should I, unhappy woman, raise my eye

To Heaven any more? What god invoke

To succor me?—when I have earned the name

Of irreligion for my piety.

Well, if such acts in Heaven find approval,

Then, when I meet my doom, I ’ll recognize

The fact that I have sinned; but if they sin

Who judge, may they ne’er suffer—hear my prayer—

More pain than they unjustly make me bear.

The same fierce gusts of passion blow

And make this maiden’s soul to glow.

Her guards then shall have cause to wail,

If they to do my bidding fail.

Ah me! That dread command comes near

To death! To death!

With no hope can I give thee cheer,

For unto death, indeed, thou ’rt near.

O city of my fathers, Thebes,

Ancestral gods,