Chor. Full clearly thou may'st see. No longer now
Does yon recess conceal her.
of Eurydike.]
Creon. Woe is me!
This second ill I gaze on, miserable,
What fate, yea, what still lies in wait for me?
Here in my arms I bear what was my son;
And there, Ο misery! look upon the dead.
Ah, wretched mother! ah, my son! my son!1300
Sec. Mess. In frenzy wild she round the altar clung,
And closed her darkening eyelids, and bewailed
*The noble fate of Megareus,[1] who died
Long since, and then again that corpse thou hast;
And last of all she cried a bitter cry
Against thy deeds, the murderer of thy sons.
Creon. Woe! woe! alas!
I shudder in my fear. Will no one strike
A deadly blow with sharp two-edgèd sword?
Fearful my fate, alas!1310
And with a fearful woe full sore beset.
Sec. Mess. She in her death charged thee with being the cause
Of all their sorrows, these and those of old.
Creon. And in what way struck she the murderous blow?
Sec. Mess. With her own hand below her heart she stabbed,
Hearing her son's most pitiable fate.
Creon. Ah me! The fault is mine. On no one else,
Of all that live, the fearful guilt can come;
- ↑ In the legend which Sophocles follows, Megareus, a son of Creon and Eurydike, had been offered up as a sacrifice to save the state from its dangers.
