Without disgrace, sole profit to the dead;
On base and evil deeds no glory waits.
Chorus. Strophe IV.
What art so eager for, my son?
Let not Infatuation's spell,
Spear-frenzied, soul-possessing, bear thee on:
No, the first germ of evil passion quell.
Eteocles.
Since God himself the matter presses on,
Let all of Laios' race, 'neath Phœbos' ban,
Drift with the breeze, Cocytos' wave its goal.
Chorus. Antistrophe IV.
Thee passion biting to the quick
O'er masters, onward thou art led,
A bitter-fruited deed to consummate 690
Of blood, unlawful for thy hand to shed.
Eteocles.
E'en so, for my dear father's hostile curse,
Now ripe, broods over my dry tearless eyes,
Telling that later doom hath prior gain.[1]
- ↑ λέγουσα κέρδος πρότερον ὑστέρου μόρου.
Two translations of this line are offered:
1. Announcing gain prior to later doom.
2. Announcing prior gain of later doom.I have adopted the latter, where πρότερον is used as antithetic to ὕστερον, but means superior, not earlier. The announcement may be regarded as a sarcastic intimation that there is no hope of life; that the only advantage that either brother can gain is to be the last to die.
