Ism. Mean'st thou to bury him, when law forbids?
Antig. He is my brother; yes, and thine, though thou
Would'st fain he were not. I desert him not.
Ism. Ο daring one, when Creon bids thee not?
Antig. He has no right to keep me from mine own.
Ism. Ah me! remember, sister, how our sire
Perished, with hate o'erwhelmed and infamy,50
From evils that himself did bring to light,[1]
With his own hand himself of eyes bereaving,
And how his wife and mother, both in one,
With twisted cordage, cast away her life;
And thirdly, how our brothers in one day
In suicidal conflict wrought the doom,
Each of the other. And we twain are left;
And think, how much more wretchedly than all
We twain shall perish, if, against the law,
We brave our sovereign's edict and his power.60
This first we need remember, we were born
Women; as such, not made to strive with men.
And next, that they who reign surpass in strength,
And we must bow to this, and worse than this.
I then, entreating those that dwell below,
To judge me leniently, as forced to yield,
Will hearken to our rulers. Over-zeal
That still will meddle, little wisdom shows.
Antig. I will not ask thee, nor though thou should'st wish
To do it, should'st thou join with my consent.70
Do what thou wilt, I go to bury him;
And good it were, in doing this, to die.
- ↑ Here the impression left is, that the blindness was followed almost immediately by the death. The thought of the long discipline of suffering and tranquil death which we find in the "Œdipus at Colonos" belonged to a later period of the poet's life.
