Page:The Antigone of Sophocles (1911).djvu/59

SOPHOCLES.

By the double sea and the rocks dark-blue

Stand Bosporus’ heights where the waters gush through—

Salmydessus of Thrace.

There Ares that hard by the city dwelt

Saw the wound in savage fury dealt,

The accursed blow in the face

Of the two sons of Phineus by his cruel wife

With her shuttle in bloody hands, like a knife—

Full into the orbs of sight

The blinding murderous dagger was driven;

And those eyes appealed mutely for vengeance to Heaven

Out of their darkness of night.

Their pitiful doom, as the hours sped,

Did those sons of a mother unhappily wed

In misery pining bewail;

Yet her ancestors came of a noble race,

The Erechtheidæ—in a far distant place

That child of the Northern Gale

Fleet of foot as a steed o’er the hills, in a cave

Mid the Thracian storms of her father that rave

Round the mountain, was cradled and nursed—

A child of the gods was she, O my daughter,

Yet the fates all hoary with age, they sought her,—

Be content, thy doom’s not the worst.

My lords of Thebes, joint journey have we made,

Directed by the eyes of one,—the blind

Must ever walk depending on a guide.

What tidings, aged Teiresias, dost bring?

I ’ll teach thee—listen to the prophet’s voice.

Thy counsel I have never disregarded.

And for that reason steered the state aright.

Thy service my experience attests.