FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136  
137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   >>   >|  
resting thy aged foot upon the couch in a state of misery? OEDIPUS, CREON, ANTIGONE, CHORUS. OED. Why, O virgin, hast thou with the most doleful tears called me forth leaning on the support of a blind foot[50] to the light, a bed-ridden man from his darksome chamber, gray-headed, an obscure phantom of air--a dead body beneath the earth--a flitting dream? ANT. O father, thou shalt receive words of unhappy tidings; no longer do thy children behold the light, nor thy wife, who ever was employed in attending as a staff on thy blind foot, my father: alas me! OED. Alas me, for my sufferings! for well may I groan and vociferate these things. The three souls, tell me, my child, by what fate, how quitted they this light? ANT. Not for the sake of reproaching thee, nor exulting over thee, but for grief I speak: thy evil genius, heavy with swords, and fire, and wretched combats, has rushed down upon thy children, O my father. OED. Alas me! ah! ah! ANT. Why dost thou thus groan? OED. Alas me! my children! ANT. Thou wouldest grieve indeed, if looking on the chariot of the sun drawn by its four steeds, thou couldest direct the sight of thine eyes to these bodies of the dead. OED. The evil of my sons indeed is manifest; but my wretched wife, by what fate, O my child, did she perish? ANT. Causing to all tears of grief they could not contain, to her children she bared her breast, a suppliant she bared it, holding it up in supplication. But the mother found her children at the Electran gate, in the mead where the lotus abounds, contending with their lances in the common war, as lions bred in the same cave, with the blood-wounds now a cold, a gory libation, which Plato received, and Mars gave. And having seized the brazen-wrought sword from the dead she plunged it into her flesh, but with grief for her children she fell amidst her children. But all these sufferings, O my father, has the God heaped this day upon our house, whoever he be, that adds this consummation. CHOR. This day hath been the beginning of many woes to the house of Oedipus; but may life be more fortunate! CRE. Now indeed cease from your grief, for it is time to think of the sepulture. But hear these words, O Oedipus; Eteocles, thy son, hath given to me the dominion of this land, giving them as a marriage portion to Haemon, and _with them_ the bed of thy daughter Antigone. I therefore will not suffer thee any longer to dwell in this land. For cle
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136  
137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

children

 

father

 
sufferings
 

longer

 

wretched

 

Oedipus

 

wounds

 

daughter

 

Haemon

 
received

libation

 

portion

 
common
 

lances

 

holding

 
supplication
 

suffer

 

suppliant

 

Antigone

 

mother


abounds

 
contending
 

Electran

 

marriage

 

breast

 
fortunate
 

heaped

 
consummation
 

beginning

 
dominion

wrought
 

brazen

 

seized

 
giving
 

plunged

 

amidst

 
sepulture
 

Eteocles

 

beneath

 
flitting

headed

 

obscure

 
phantom
 

receive

 

employed

 

attending

 
behold
 
unhappy
 

tidings

 
chamber