Page:Tragedies of Sophocles (Plumptre 1878).djvu/209

Rh And call on that drear dark of Tartaros,

My father's home, to snatch thee from the earth,

And call on these dread Powers, and I invoke

Ares who stirred this fearful hate in you.

Hear this, and go thy way! And then proclaim

To all the race of Cadmos, and to those

Thy true allies, that Œdipus has left

To both his sons, such legacies as these.

Chor. I cannot wish thee joy of thy late journey,

Ο Polyneikes! and I bid thee turn

At once with fullest speed, thy backward way.

Polyn. Woe, then, for all my wandering, all my failure.

Woe, too, for all my friends. Is this the goal

For which from Argos starting, (wretched me!)

We hither came? an end I dare not tell

To any of my friends, nor turn them back;

But needs must meet my fate without a word.

But Ο my sisters, ye—for ye have heard

My father's bitter curse—I charge you both,

If these dire curses find fulfilment dread,

And it is given you homeward to return,

Do not ye scorn me: give me honours meet,

A seemly burial, decent funeral rites;

And this your praise, which now ye get from him

For whom ye labour, other praise shall bear,

No whit inferior, for your love to me.

Antig. I pray thee, Polyneikes, yield to me.

Polyn. In what, thou dear Antigone? Speak on.

Antig. Lead back thy host to Argos, slackening not,

Nor ruin both thy country and thyself.

Polyn. It may not be. How, known as coward once,

Could I again lead forth an armament?

Antig. And why, dear boy, need'st thou be wroth again?

What profit hast thou in thy country's fall?