Both horse and foot, to hasten, tarrying not
For sacrifice, with loosened rein, and meet
Where the two paths of travellers converge,[1]900
Lest those two maidens slip from out our hands,
And I, outdone, become a laughing-stock
To him, this stranger. Go, I bid you, quickly.
And as for him, if I were wroth with him,
E'en as he merits, he should not depart
Unhurt from me; but with the self-same laws
With which he came shall he be recompensed,
Those and no others. [To Creon.] Never shalt thou stir
From out this land until before mine eyes910
Thou place those maidens. Thou dost grievous wrong
To thine own self, thy fathers, and thy country,
Who, coming to a state that loves the right,
And without law does nothing, sett'st at nought
The things it most reveres, and rushing in,
Tak'st what thou wilt, with deeds of violence.
Thou must have deemed my city void of men,
Slave-like, submissive, and myself as nought.
And yet it was not Thebes that made thee base:
'Tis not her wont to rear unrighteous men;920
Nor would'st thou win her praise, if she should hear
Thou tramplest on my rights, deftest Gods,
And rudely seizest these poor suppliants.
I truly, had I entered on thy land,
Although my cause were justest of the just,
Would not, without the ruler of the land,
Be he who may, have seized or led away;
But should have known what way I ought to live,
A stranger sojourning with citizens.
But thou dost shame a city which deserves
- ↑ The two roads, one leading to Eleusis, the other the Pythian.
