All this I learn too late, me miserable!
And now, I bear my witness that I come,
As to thy keeping, basest of the base:
Learn not my faults from others. But since there,
Sharing the throne of Zeus, Compassion dwells,
Regarding all our deeds; so let it come
And dwell with thee, my father. For our faults
We shall find healing, more we cannot add.
Why art thou silent?Speak, my father, speak;1270
Turn not away.And wilt thou answer nought,
But send'st me back dishonoured?Voiceless still?
Not speaking e'en the matter of thy wrath!
And ye, his children, ye, my sisters, strive
To ope your father's sealed and stubborn lips
That he reject me not, thus scorned and shamed,
(God's suppliant too) not one word answering.
Antig. Say, thou thyself, poor sufferer, what thou need'st,1280
For many words, or giving sense of joy,
Or stirring anger, or the touch of pity,
Have from the speechless drawn forth speech at last.
Polyn. Well, I will tell thee. Thou dost guide me well;
First, calling on the God to give me help,
Bowed at whose shrine, the ruler of this land
Raised me, and brought me hither, granting me
To speak and hear, and safely to depart:
And this I wish, my friends, from you to gain,
And from my sisters, and my father here.1290
And why I came, my father, now I 'll tell thee.
Behold me exiled from my fatherland,
Driven forth, because I claimed by right of age
To sit upon thy throne of sovereignty.
And so Eteocles, though younger born,
