Page:Tragedies of Seneca (1907) Miller.djvu/83

Rh For weapons, flames, and wounds press hard on her, And greater woes than these, if such there be, That all may know I have begotten sons. Antigone: If thou no other cause for living hast, My father, this one reason is enough, That thou as father mayst restrain thy sons From deadly strife. Thou only canst avert Their threats of impious war, curb their mad hearts, Give peace to citizens, to country rest, And to their broken treaty honest faith. To many men art thou refusing life, If for thyself thou dost refuse to live. Oedipus: Think'st thou that such as they have aught of love For father or for right, whose hearts are filled With lust for blood and power and impious arms, Profane and cruel sons—in brief, my own? Toward every form of evil deed they strive, And have no scruples where their wrath impels. In shame begot, they have no sense of shame. They have no feeling for their wretched sire, None for their country. Naught but lust of power Rules in their maddened breasts. I know full well To what dire ends they tend, what monstrous deeds They are prepared to do; and for this cause I seek to find destruction's shortest path, And haste to die, while yet within my house There is no soul more steeped in guilt than I. O child, why dost thou weep about my knees, Why seek with prayer to soften my hard heart? This means alone my fortune has reserved By which I may be led, unconquered else; For thou alone canst soothe my stubborn soul, Canst teach me piety. For naught is hard Or grievous in my sight, if I perceive That thou dost wish it. Do thou but command: Then will I swim the broad Aegean straits, Will drink the flames which from Sicilia's mount Earth belches forth in whirling, molten streams, Will beard the savage dragon in his den,