Page:Tragedies of Sophocles (Plumptre 1878).djvu/205

Rh All this I learn too late, me miserable!

And now, I bear my witness that I come,

As to thy keeping, basest of the base:

Learn not my faults from others. But since there,

Sharing the throne of Zeus, Compassion dwells,

Regarding all our deeds; so let it come

And dwell with thee, my father. For our faults

We shall find healing, more we cannot add.

Why art thou silent?Speak, my father, speak;

Turn not away.And wilt thou answer nought,

But send'st me back dishonoured?Voiceless still?

Not speaking e'en the matter of thy wrath!

And ye, his children, ye, my sisters, strive

To ope your father's sealed and stubborn lips

That he reject me not, thus scorned and shamed,

(God's suppliant too) not one word answering.

Antig. Say, thou thyself, poor sufferer, what thou need'st,

For many words, or giving sense of joy,

Or stirring anger, or the touch of pity,

Have from the speechless drawn forth speech at last.

Polyn. Well, I will tell thee. Thou dost guide me well;

First, calling on the God to give me help,

Bowed at whose shrine, the ruler of this land

Raised me, and brought me hither, granting me

To speak and hear, and safely to depart:

And this I wish, my friends, from you to gain,

And from my sisters, and my father here.

And why I came, my father, now I [sic]'ll tell thee.

Behold me exiled from my fatherland,

Driven forth, because I claimed by right of age

To sit upon thy throne of sovereignty.

And so Eteocles, though younger born,