me the vilest, concede one thing to me, for I will speak for thy interest and not mine." CR. And to obtain what demand art thou thus urgent with me? ŒED. Cast me out from this land with what haste thou mayest, where I shall be found by no earthly being to be spoken with CR. had done it, of this be satisfied, had I not first of all been anxious to learn from the divinity what was to be done. ED. But surely his whole prophetic answer openly ordered to put to death the parricide, the impious, myself. CR. So this was said; but still in the emergency wherein we are placed, 'twere better to learn what is to be done. ED. Will ye then thus inquire on behalf of a creature utterly fallen? CR. Yes: for even thou surely mightest now give credit to the god. ED. To thee then do I solemnly give charge, and will exhort thee too; of her within the house make such sepulture as thou choosest, for duly wilt thou perform this on behalf of thine own at least.2 But me, never let this, the city of my fathers, deign to admit a living inhabitant; no, suffer me to abide in the mountains, where is that very Cithæron surnamed mine, which both my father and mother allotted to me yet living as my proper tomb, that I may die by their counsel, who were indeed my destroyers. And yet this much at least I know, that neither disease nor any other chance shall be my downfall; for never had I been saved in the hour of death, unless for some dreadful evil. But for my fate, let it go which way soever it will: but for my children, on the males I would not, Creon, thou shouldest concern thyself more; they are men, so that they never can feel a scarcity of sustenance wherever they shall chance to be; but on my hapless and pitiable girls, before whom was never my table laid without 1 Tův, scil. Toι v. See v. 1446 (ed. Herm.) and Eurip. Med. v. 1011. Porson. 2 Jocasta being his sister. The confidence reposed by Edipus in one who was afterward to appear as the infringer of these most sacred rights, and that toward Edipus's son and his own nephew, is introduced with the poet's usual refinement of art. food, wanting my own presence, but of all that I touched were they two ever the partakers: for whom do thou interest thee for my sake; and above all, suffer me to feel them with mine hands, and pour a last lament over their misfortunes. Do it, O prince, do it, O thou thyself of pure lineage and noble. Surely if I touched them with these hands, I should fancy I held them, even as when I had my sight. What shall I say? Tell me, in the name of the gods, do I not surely hear my darlings crying? And has Creon in compassion sent me the best beloved of my children? Am I right? CR. Thou art right; for I am he that supplied thee with these babes, having known the yet lively delight which from old time possessed thee in them. ED. Then all happiness to thee, and for this their coming may thy tutelary power protect thee better than me. My children, where can ye be? draw near hither, come to these my fraternal hands, which have thus served the once bright eyes of the author of your being for you to see; of me, my children, who without sight, without question of it, was proved your father by that source from whence myself had been raised. And for you I weep, for I have no power to behold you, in imagining the rest of your bitter life, with what treatment at men's hands ye are doomed to live it out. For to what social meetings of the citizens will ye come? nay, to what festivals, whence ye will not betake yourselves home all in tears in place of enjoyment from the scene.1 But when at length ye shall have come to marriageable years, who will be he? who will rashly risk, my children, to incur such scandals as will be destruction to those at once my parents and yours? For what horror is wanting? your father murdered his father; committed incest with that mother whose seed he was himself, and from the self-same source whence he was born, begat himself you. In such sort will ye be reviled; and then who will espouse you. There is not a man, my children; but too plainly is it your destiny to pine 1 If Musgrave's references to Eschylus's Choephora, vv. 450 and 719 (ed. Blom.) be correct, and they are approved by Abreschius and Blomfield, the passage can not stand as the former edition, following Brunck, has it, viz., "from whence ye will not return lamented rather than the spectacle exhibited;" because κƐкhavμévαι in neither of those passages has a passive sense, and is by Blomfield translated lachrymis perfusus. to death barren and unwedded. But since, O son of Menaceus, thou art left sole father to these twain, for we their natural parents are both fallen victims to destruction, do not thou look on and see them, thy kindred, beggars, husbandless, wanderers, nor make them sharers in my woes; but pity them, seeing them as thou dost at their tender years destitute of every thing, except as far as thy part goes. Accord this, O noble sir, pledging me with thine hand. But to you, my children, if ye had already understanding, I would have given much advice; but now1 pray this on my behalf, that I may ever live where it is for me to live, and may ye meet with a better life than that of the father who begot you. CR. Enough of tears hast thou shed, go now within doors. CR. Yes, for what I mean not I am not wont idly to say. CR. Proceed then, and let go thy children. ED. By no means take these at least from me. CR. Seek not to have thy way in every thing, for that wherein thou hadst thy will conduced not to thy welfare in life. CHORUS. O inhabitants of Thebes my country, behold, this Edipus, who solved the famous enigma, and was the most exalted of mankind, who, looking with no envious eye2 upon the enviable fortunes of the citizens, into how vast a stormy 1 εйxɛσ0ɛ can not, I think, be taken passively, and I have therefore followed Dindorf, whose emendation is also adopted by Wunder. In Kalpòs there is, I think, a double meaning, both of the fated spot where Edipus should dwell or die, and a reference to its ordinary meaning, as less shocking to the hearers.-B. 2 Erfurdt has a long and excellent note on the word πiß2έπwV, which he shows to answer exactly the Latin "invidens." Hermann's reading has been followed for the rest.—TR. I have given the best sense to this passage in my power, but I still think Sýλ kai Túxaiç a harsh endy adis sea of tremendous misery he hath come! Then mortal as thou art, looking out for a sight of that day, the last,1 call no man happy, ere he shall have crossed the boundary of life, the sufferer of nought painful. for ζηλωταῖς τύχαις, and that ζήλῳ would be more naturally joined with ἐπιβλέπων. Should we read—πολιτῶν τὰς τύχας ἐπιβλέπων —Β. "The first dark day of nothingness, The last day of danger and distress," says Lord Byron, and so said (in part, at least) Solon before him. But Aristotle, who was not a man to adopt hypothesis for fact, whether supported by poet or philosopher, disputing the first axiom in toto, brings the second into considerable doubt.-Eth. 1. EDIPUS COLONEUS. EDIPUS, banished from Thebes, comes to Athens under the guidance of his daughter Antigone, in fulfillment of an oracle, which declared that he should end his days near the wood of the Eumenides. Creon makes an unsuccessful attempt to carry him back to Thebes, as also Polynices, as the oracle had declared that victory would attend those among whom Edipus should die. But Edipus remains firm, and having charged Theseus concerning his future conduct, he disappears amid a fearful storm, and the place of his burial is handed down to none save the perpetual successors to the throne of Athens.-B. CEDIPUS. Child of a blind old man, Antigone, to what regions are we come, or city of what people? who will welcome Edipus the wanderer for the present day with scantiest alms, craving but little, yet obtaining even less than that little, and that sufficient for me? For to be content my sufferings, and time so long my familiar, and thirdly, my native nobleness, teaches me. But, my child, if thou beholdest any seat, either by the common haunts of men, or by the groves of the deities, place me and seat me there, that we may inquire where, after all, we are. For we are come strangers, to learn of citizens, and perform that which we shall have heard. ANTIGONE. My woe-worn father, Edipus, there are towers, which impale1 a city, to judge by mine eye, at some distance. 1OTEyOvow. Resig translates this occulunt, Hermann continent, adding, "quod qui ita dictum putant, ut tueri urbem turres significentur, non ita absurdi sunt; præsertim quum vix dubitari possit, quin arx Athenarum sit intelligenda. Certe Eschylus sic Sept. ad Thebas 803, dixisse |