Antigone.
Weeping and wailing, that all of her coming were ware,
Hasted she. Unto her children she bare, O she bare
Sacredest breasts of a mother with suppliant prayer.
And she found her sons at Electra's portal,1570
In the mead with the clover fair,
Closing with spears in the combat mortal:
As lions that strive in their lair
They grappled, with falchions ruthless-gashing:
Yea, now the oblation of death fell plashing
Which Ares giveth when Hades the spoil will share.
And she snatched from the dead, and the bronze-hammered blade
through her bosom she thrust;
And in grief for her children, enclasping her children, she fell in the dust.
Lo, all the griefs of our line, one marshalled array,
Have been gathered, O father, against our house this day1580
Of the God in whose hands their accomplishment lay.
Chorus.
Many an ill to Oedipus' house begins
This day. May happier life be yet in store!
Kreon.
Refrain laments: time is it we gave heed
To burial. Unto these words, Oedipus,1585
Hearken: thy son Eteokles gave me rule
O'er this land, making it a marriage-dower
To Haimon with thy child Antigonê.
Therefore thou mayest dwell therein no more;
For plainly spake Teiresias—never Thebes1590
