Complete Works of Euripides

by Euripides

  CHOR. O ye Gods, may ye be averters of these ills, and grant to the children of Œdipus some means of agreement.

  ETEO. My mother, this is not a contest of words, but intervening time is fruitlessly wasted; and thy earnestness avails nothing; for we shall not agree in any other way, than on the terms proposed, that I holding the sceptre be monarch of this land. Forbearing then tedious admonitions, let me have my way; and do thou begone from out these walls, or thou shalt die.

  POL. By whose hand? Who is there so invulnerable, who having pointed the murderous sword against me, shall not bear the same fate?

  ETEO. He is near, not far removed from thee: dost thou look on these my hands?

  POL. I see them. But wealth is cowardly, and feeble, loving life.

  ETEO. And therefore hast thou come, with such a host against one who is nothing in arms?

  POL. For a cautious general is better than one daring.

  ETEO. Thou art insolent, having trusted in the truce, which preserves you from death.

  POL. A second time again I demand of you the sceptre and my share of the land.

  ETEO. I will admit no demand, for I will regulate my own family.

  POL. Holding more than your share?

  ETEO. I own it; but quit this land.

  POL. O ye altars of my paternal Gods.

  ETEO. Which thou art come to destroy?

  POL. Do ye hear me?

  ETEO. Who will hear thee, who art marching against thy country?

  POL. And ye shrines of the Gods delighting in the milk-white steeds;

  ETEO. Who hate thee.

  POL. I am driven out of my own country.

  ETEO. For thou hast come to destroy it.

  POL. With injustice indeed, O ye Gods!

  ETEO. At Mycenæ call upon the Gods, not here.

  POL. Thou art impious.

  ETEO. But not my country’s enemy, as thou art.

  POL. Who drives me out without my share.

  ETEO. And I will put thee to death in addition.

  POL. My father, hearest thou what I suffer?

  ETEO. For he hears what wrongs thou doest.

  POL. And thou, my mother?

  ETEO. It is not lawful for thee to mention thy mother.

  POL. O my city!

  ETEO. To Argos go, and call on Lerna’s stream.

  POL. I will go, do not distress thyself; but thee, my mother, I mention with honor.

  ETEO. Depart from out of the country.

  POL. I will go out; but grant me to see my father.

  ETEO. You will not obtain your request.

  POL. But my virgin sisters then.

  ETEO. Never shalt thou behold these.

  POL. O my sisters!

  ETEO. Why callest thou on these — being their greatest enemy?

  POL. My mother, but thou farewell.

  JOC. Do I experience any thing that is well, my son?

  POL. I am no longer thy child.

  JOC. To many troubles was I born.

  POL. For he throws insults on us.

  ETEO. For I am insulted in turn.

  POL. Where wilt thou stand before the towers?

  ETEO. Why dost thou ask me this question?

  POL. I will oppose myself to thee, to slay thee.

  ETEO. Desire of this seizes me also.

  JOC. Wretched me! what will ye do, my children?

  POL. The deed itself will show.

  JOC. Will ye not escape your father’s curses?

  ETEO. Let the whole house perish!

  POL. Since soon my blood-stained sword will not remain any longer in inactivity. But I call to witness the land that nurtured me, and the Gods, how dishonored I am driven from this land, suffering such foul treatment, as a slave and not born of the same father Œdipus. And if any thing befalls thee, my city, blame not me, but him; for against my will have I come, and against my will am I driven from this land. And thou, king Apollo, God of our streets, and ye shrines, farewell, and ye my equals, and ye altars of the Gods receiving the victims; for I know not if it is allowed me ever again to address you. But hope does not yet slumber, in which I have trusted with the favor of the Gods, that having slain this man, I shall be master of this Theban land.

  ETEO. Depart from out of the country; with truth indeed did your father give you the name of Polynices by some divine foreknowledge, a name corresponding with strife.

  CHORUS.

  Cadmus came from Tyre to this land, before whom the quadrupede heifer bent with willing fall, showing the accomplishment of the oracle, where the divine word ordered him to colonize the plains of the Aonians productive of wheat, where indeed the fair-flowing stream of the water of Dirce passes over the verdant and deep-furrowed fields, where the * * * * mother produced Bacchus, by her marriage with Jove, whom the wreathed ivy twining around him instantly, while yet a babe, blest and covered with its verdant shady branches, an event to be celebrated with Bacchic revel by the Theban virgins and inspired women. There was the bloodstained dragon of Mars, the savage guard, watching with far-rolling eyeballs over the flowing fountains and grassy streams; whom Cadmus, having come for water for purification, slew with a fragment of rock, the destroyer of the monster having thrown his arms with blows on his blood-stained head, by the counsel of the divine Pallas born without mother, having thrown the teeth fallen to the earth upon the deep-furrowed plains. Whence the earth sent forth a spectacle, an armed [host] above the extreme limits of the ground; but iron-hearted slaughter again united them with their beloved earth; and sprinkled with blood the ground which showed them to the serene gales of the air. And thee, sprung of old from our ancestor Io, Epaphus, O progeny of Jove, on thee have I called, have I called in a foreign tongue, with prayers in foreign accent, come, come to this land (thy descendants have founded it), where the two Goddesses Proserpine and the dear Goddess Ceres, queen of all (since earth nurtures all things), have held their possessions, send the fire-bearing Goddesses to defend this land: since every thing is easy to the Gods.

  ETEOCLES, CHORUS, MESSENGER.

  ETEO. Go thou, and bring hither Creon son of Menœceus, the brother of my mother Jocasta, saying this, that I wish to communicate with him counsels of a private nature and those which concern the common welfare of the country, before we go into battle and the ranks of war. And see, he spares the trouble of your steps, by his presence; for I see him coming toward my palace.

  CREON, ETEOCLES, CHORUS.

  CRE. Surely have I visited many places, desiring to see you, O king Eteocles! and I have gone round to the gates and the guards of the Thebans, seeking you.

  ETEO. And indeed I have wished to see you, Creon, for I found attempts at reconciliation altogether fail when I came and entered into conference with Polynices.

  CRE. I have heard that he aspires to higher thoughts than Thebes, having trusted in his alliance with Adrastus and his army. But it becomes us to hold these things in dependence on the Gods. But what is most immediately before us, this am I come to acquaint you with.

  ETEO. What is this? for I understand not your speech.

  CRE. A prisoner is arrived from the Argives.

  ETEO. Does he bring us any news of those stationed there?

  CRE. The Argive army is preparing quickly to surround the city of the Thebans with thickly-ranged arms.(Note [B].)

  ETEO. Therefore must we draw our forces out of the Theban city.

  CRE. Whither? Dost thou not in the impetuosity of youth see what it behooves thee to see?

  ETEO. Without these trenches, as we are quickly about to fight.

  CRE. Small are the forces of this land; but theirs innumerable.

  ETEO. I know that they are bold in words.

  CRE. Argos of the Greeks has some renown.

  ETEO. Be confident; quickly will I fill the plain with their slaughter.

  CRE. I would it were so: but this I see is a work of much labor.

  ETEO. Know that I will not restrain my forces within the walls.

  CRE. And yet the wh
ole of victory is prudence.

  ETEO. Dost thou wish then that I have recourse to other measures?

  CRE. To every measure indeed, rather than hazard all on one battle.

  ETEO. What if we were to attack them by night from ambush?

  CRE. If, having failed, at least you can have a safe retreat hither.

  ETEO. Night brings the same advantage to all, but more to the daring.

  CRE. Dreadful is it to fail in the darkness of night.

  ETEO. But shall I lead my force against them while at their meal?

  CRE. That would cause terror; but we must conquer.

  ETEO. The ford of Dirce is indeed deep to pass.

  CRE. Every thing is inferior to a good guard.

  ETEO. What then, shall I charge the Argive army with my cavalry?

  CRE. And there the army is fenced round with chariots.

  ETEO. What then shall I do? give up the city to the enemy?

  CRE. By no means; but deliberate if thou art wise.

  ETEO. What more prudent forethought is there?

  CRE. They say that they have seven men, as I have heard.

  ETEO. What have they been commanded to do? for their strength is small.

  CRE. To head their bands, to besiege the seven gates.

  ETEO. What then shall we do? I will not wait this indecision.

  CRE. Do thou thyself also choose seven men for the gates.

  ETEO. To head divisions, or for single combat?

  CRE. To head divisions, having selected the bravest.

  ETEO. I understand you; to guard the approach to the walls.

  CRE. And with them other generals; one man sees not every thing?

  ETEO. Having chosen them for boldness, or prudence in judgment?

  CRE. For both; for one without the other availeth nothing.

  ETEO. It shall be so: and having gone to the city of the seven towers, I will appoint chiefs at the gates, as you advise, having opposed equal champions against equal foes. But to mention the name of each would be a great delay, the enemy encamped under our very walls. But I will go, that I may not be idle with my hand. And may it befall me to find my brother opposed to me, and being joined with me in battle, to take him with my spear, [and to slay him, who came to desolate my country.] But it is thy duty to attend to the marriage of my sister Antigone and thy son Hæmon, if I fail aught of success; but the firm vow made before I now confirm at my going out. Thou art my mother’s brother, why need I use more words? Treat her worthily, both for thine own and my sake. But my father incurs the punishment of the rashness he brought upon himself, having quenched his sight; I praise him not; even us will he put to death with his execrations, should he gain his point. But one thing is left undone by us, if the soothsayer Tiresias have any oracle to deliver, to enquire this of him; but I will send thy son, Creon, Menœceus, of the same name with thy father, to bring Tiresias hither. With pleasure will he enter into conversation with you; but I lately reviled him with his divining art, so that he is offended with me. But this charge I give the city with thee, Creon; if my arms should conquer, that the body of Polynices be never buried in this Theban land; but that the man who buries him shall die, although he be a friend. This I have told you: but my attendants I tell, bring out my arms, and my panoply which covers me, that we may go this appointed contest of the spear with victorious justice. But to Caution, the most valued of the Goddesses, will we address our prayers to preserve this city.

  CHORUS.

  O Mars, cause of infinite woe, why, I pray, art thou so possessed with blood and death, so discordant with the revels of Bacchus? Thou dost not in the circle of beautiful dancers in the bloom of youth, having let flow thy hair, on the breath of the flute modulate strains, in which there is a lovely power to renew the dance. But with thy armed men, having excited the army of Argives against Thebes with blood, thou dancest before the city in a most inharmonious revel, thou movest not thy foot maddened by the thyrsus clad in fawn-skins, but thy solid-hoofed steed with thy chariot and horses’ bits; and bounding at the streams of Ismenus, thou art borne rapidly in the chariot-course, having excited against the race of those sown [by Cadmus,] a raging host that grasp the shield, well armed, adverse to us at the walls of stone: surely Discord is some dreadful Goddess, who devised all these calamities against the princes of this land, the Labdacidæ involved in woe. O thou forest of heavenly foliage, most productive of beasts, thou snowy eye of Diana, Cithæron, never oughtest thou to have nourished him doomed to death, the son of Jocasta, Œdipus, the babe who was cast out from his home, marked by the golden clasps. Neither ought that winged virgin the Sphinx, thou mountain monster, that grief to this land, to have come, with her most inharmonious lays; who formerly approaching our walls, bore in her four talons the descendants of Cadmus to the inaccessible light of heaven, whom the infernal Pluto sends against the Thebans; but other ill-fated discord among the children of Œdipus springs up in the palace and in the city. For that which is not honorable, never can be honorable, as neither can children the unhallowed offspring of the mother, the pollution of the father. But she came to a kindred bed. Thou didst produce, O [Theban] land! thou didst produce formerly (as I heard the foreign report, I heard it formerly at home), the race sprung from teeth from the fiery-crested dragon fed on beasts, the proudest honor of Thebes. But to the nuptials of Harmonia the Gods came of old, and by the harp and by the lyre of Amphion uprose the walls of Thebes the tower of the double streams, at the midst of the pass of Dirce, which waters the verdant plain before Ismenus. And Io, our ancient mother, doomed to bear horns, brought forth a line of Theban kings. But this city receiving ten thousand goods one in change for another, hath stood in the highest chaplets of war.

  TIRESIAS (led by his daughter), MENŒCEUS, CREON, CHORUS.

  TIR. Lead onward, my daughter, since thou art an eye to my blind steps, as the star to the mariners. Placing my steps hither on this level plain, proceed lest we stumble; thy father is feeble; and preserve carefully in thy virgin hand my calculations which I took, having learned the auguries of the birds, sitting in the sacred seats where I fortell the future. My child, Menœceus, son of Creon, tell me, how far is the remainder of the journey through the city to thy father? Since my knees are weary, and with difficulty I accomplish such a long journey.

  CRE. Be of good cheer; for thou hast steered thy foot, Tiresias, near to thy friends; but take hold of him, my son. Since every chariot, and the foot of the aged man is used to expect the assistance of another’s hand.

  TIR. Well: I am present; but why didst thou call me with such haste, Creon?

  CRE. We have not as yet forgotten: but recover thy strength, and collect thy breath, having thrown aside the fatigue occasioned by the journey.

  TIR. I am relaxed indeed with toil, brought hither from the Athenians the day before this. For there also was a contest of the spear with Eumolpus, where I made the descendants of Cecrops splendid conquerors. And I wear this golden chaplet, as thou seest, having received the first-fruits of the spoil of the enemy.

  CRE. Thy victorious garlands I make a happy omen. For we, as thou well knowest, are tossing in a storm of war with the Greeks, and great is the hazard of Thebes. The king Eteocles has therefore gone forth adorned with his armor already to battle with the Argives. But to me has he sent that I might learn from you, by doing what we should be most likely to preserve the city.

  TRE. For Eteocles’ sake indeed I would have stopped my mouth, and repressed the oracles, but to thee, since thou desirest to know them, will I declare them: for this land labors under the malady of old, O Creon, from the time when Laïus became the father of children in spite of the Gods, and begat the wretched Œdipus, a husband for his mother. But the cruel lacerations of his eyes were in the wisdom of the Gods, and a warning to Greece. Which things the sons of Œdipus seeking to conceal among themselves by the lapse of time, as about forsooth to escape from the Gods, erred through their ignorance, for they neither giving the honor due to their father, nor allowing
him a free liberty, infuriated the unfortunate man: and he breathed out against them dreadful threats, being both in affliction, and moreover dishonored. And I, what things omitting to do, and what words omitting to speak on the subject, have nevertheless fallen into the hatred of the sons of Œdipus? But death from their mutual hands is near them, O Creon. And many corses fallen around corses, having mingled the weapons of Argos and Thebes, shall cause bitter lamentations to the Theban land. And thou, O wretched city, art sapped from thy foundations, unless men will obey my words. For this were the first thing, that not any of the family of Œdipus should be citizens, nor king of the territory, inasmuch as they are possessed by demons, and are they that will overthrow the city. And since the evil triumphs over the good, there is one other thing requisite to insure preservation. But, as this is neither safe for me to say, and distressing to those on whom the lot has fallen, to give to the city the balm of preservation, I will depart: farewell; for being an individual with many shall I suffer what is about to happen if it must be so; for what can I do!