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LITR 4370 Tragedy lecture notes Spring 2017 Oedipus at Colonus |
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Bacchae presentation
Bacchae Presentation Five (lines 814-1126): Calyssa Rosene
Classical Greek Poets & Philosophers
preview BT on Euripides, Aristotle on Euripides
Presentation 1: Dionysus on stage, from Asia, just starting to move through Greece
Dionysus says former King Cadmus was OK, kept mother Semele's shrine, but family troubles, rumors against D's divinity
drives aunts from homes, including Agave, mother of new King Pentheus
part 1 ends on transformation or shifting-identity theme (Dionysus changes from god-status, assumes mortal, human form)
Presentation 2. More questioning or shifting of identities
Chorus of Dionysus's women followers from Asia
women insist on holiness, not debauchery
l. 147 more confusion of Dio's identity
Whoever leads our
dancing—
that one is Bromius! [Dionysus]
215 Tiresias changes from serious prophet to comic figure (comic theory > incongruity) > 240 young and try the dancing [cf. chorus of old men in Lysistrata]
253 Tiresias advises to always respect traditions of ancestors
Pentheus enters, disrespects Bacchic women and older men incl. grandfather
l. 297 Pentheus threatens to capture Dionysus
Presentation 3. (Faron)
Tiresias advises Pentheus to relax, get with the program—even if Dionysus isn't a god, things will go better if we just act like he's one
(Euripides can be shocking with his devil-may-care attitude toward the gods)
Pentheus, though, shows too much disrespect to everyone, from Dionysus to his women-chorus to his aunts to Tiresias and Cadmus
436 PENTHEUS: Keep your hands off me! Be off with you—
441
go quickly to where this man,
Tiresias, has that seat of his, the place
where he inspects his birds. Take some levers,
knock it down. Demolish it completely
Tiresias
500
Our life is brief—that's why
the man who chases greatness
fails to grasp what's near at hand. [tragic
flaw?]
Presentation 4
Pentheus's men capture Dionysus, who doesn't resist arrest
Bacchic women from Asia escape from prison (Pentheus had them locked up)
Euripides can shock (& seem modern) with casual references to sex, gender-bending
Pentheus to Dionysus
563
Well, stranger, I see this body of yours
is not unsuitable for women's
pleasure—
[!]
567 your hair . . . flows across your cheeks That's most seductive.
Confusion over whether Dionysus-figure on stage is really Dionysus or just someone play-acting as Dionysus (instability of identity also modern)
576
PENTHEUS:
Why do you bring these rituals to
DIONYSUS:
Dionysus sent me—the son of Zeus.
584
PENTHEUS:
Tell me what they're like,
those rituals of yours.
DIONYSUS:
That information
cannot be passed on to men like you,
those uninitiated in the rites of
Bacchus.
628 Pentheus:
He's insulting
636 Lock him up—in the adjoining stables. . . .
[The soldiers move in to round up the chorus of Bacchae. As they do so, the
ground begins to shake, thunder sounds, lightning flashes, and the entire palace
starts to break apart]
716
DIONYSUS:
[shouting from within the palace]
Io! Hear me, hear me as I call you.
Io! Bacchae! Io Bacchae!
741
[Enter Dionysus, bursting through the palace front doors, free of all chains,
smiling and supremely confident.]
767 After a while, Bacchus came and shook the place, [again a confusion of identity b/w speaker & god]
Bacchae Presentation Five (lines 814-1126):
messenger enters; cf. Guard in Antigone
832
your all-too-royal temper.
843
three groups of dancing women. One of
them
Autonoe
led. Your mother, Agave,
[Autonoe, Agave =
royal sisters of Semele, mother of Dionysus]
led the second group, and Ino led the
third.
They weren't as you described—all drunk on wine 850
857-9
a marvelous sight,
to see such an orderly arrangement,
women young and old and still
unmarried girls.
863-5
they looped some snakes, who licked the
women's cheeks.
Some held young gazelles or wild wolf cubs
and fed them on their own white milk,
the ones
[Bacchic women may resemble satyrs as "women of
nature"]
869-74
Then one of them,
taking a thyrsus, struck a rock with it,
[thyrsus:
see illustration at end of speech] 870
and water gushed out, fresh as dew.
Another,
[cf. Moses in Bible, Numbers 20.11]
using her thyrsus, scraped the ground. At once,
the god sent fountains of wine up
from the spot.
877
Oh, if you'd been there,
if you'd seen this, you'd come with
reverence
to that god whom you criticize so much.
896
The entire mountain and its wild animals
were, like them, in one Bacchic
ecstasy.
As these women moved, they made all things
dance.
903 men are hunting us.
909-10
ripping a fat, young, lowing calf apart—
others tearing cows in pieces with
their hands.
910
913
bulls, proud beasts till then,
with angry horns, collapsed there on
the ground,
dragged down by the hands of a thousand girls.
[gender /
feminist analysis might make much of girls vs. bulls]
921
Like fighting troops,
they raided
Hysiae and Erythrae,
[cities in region]
below rocky
everything, snatching children from
their homes.
932
their pointed spears
did not draw blood. But when those
women
threw the thyrsoi in their hands, they wounded
them
940
My lord,
940
you must welcome this god into our city,
whoever he is.
948
CHORUS LEADER:
I'm afraid to talk freely before the king,
but nonetheless I'll speak—this Dionysus
is not inferior to any god.
950
959
We'll march out against these Bacchae.
In this whole business we will lose
control,
960
if we have to put up with what we've
suffered
from these women.
My lord! There's still a chance to end this
calmly.
980
981
Should I become a slave
to my own slaves?
993
[moving up to Pentheus]
How'd you like to gaze upon those women out there,
sitting together in the mountains?
PENTHEUS:
I'd like that.
Yes,
for that I'd pay in gold—and pay a lot.
DIONYSUS:
Why is that? Why do you desire it so much?
997
DIONYSUS:
Would you derive pleasure from looking on,
viewing something you find painful?
PENTHEUS:
Yes, I would—
if I were
sitting in the trees in silence.
1005
you must clothe your body
in a dress—one made of eastern linen.
PENTHEUS:
What! I'm not going up there as a man?
I've got to change myself into a woman?
1027 So first, we must go up and spy on them.
DIONYSUS:
Hunt down evil by committing evil—
that sounds like a wise way to proceed.
[irony]
1030
1096
The truth is easy to acknowledge:
whatever is divine is mighty,
whatever has been long-established
law
is an eternal natural truth.
1100
dressed up as a raving Bacchic female,
to spy upon your mother's company.
[Enter Pentheus
dressed in women's clothing. He moves in a deliberately over-stated female way,
enjoying the role]
Assignments
Review, preview Euripides, Greek Poets and Philosophers
Last of the three great Greek tragic playwrights, essential but mixed reputation
popular among Greek and later audiences, esp. Romans, so more of his plays survive (24 total, compared to 7 each for Aeschylus and Sophocles)
remains popular for modern adaptations
Aeschylus and Sophocles are respected more but performed less
Nietzsche, The Birth of Tragedy
Chapter 11: Euripides = the death of tragedy
Theseus an all-purpose hero in Athenian legends
in Oedipus at Colonus, a romance-hero who saves Antigone from captivity
in Hippolytos and Phaedra, more of a tragic hero like Creon in Antigone
(Hippolytus / Phaedra Archetype)
Opening of Hippolytos (video)
4.30 Aphrodite speaks, Artemis at side
8.50 Hippolytus enters
13.55 Phaedra enters
ll. 214 ff. Tiresias and Cadmus, old men acting out (contrast general seriousness of Tiresias in Sophoclean tragedies)
228 all this god stuff
564 Pentheus gets aroused by Bacchus
715 spectacle up-front
741 more spectacle of Dionysus
OedCol 1458 > Seven Against Thebes
Notes for Aeschylus, Seven Against Thebes
SCENE > Oed's curse
7th gate: Eteocles x Polynices
10 do not be afraid . . . crowd of foreigners
10 Tiresias as herdsman of birds
39 each commander > gates
Chorus of Theban maidens
109 saved from slavery . . . torrent of men
149 hear rattle of chariots
181 Eteocles: don't go Dionysiac
230 man's duty . . . your duty silent, isnide house
256-7
ETEOCLES:
[256] O Zeus, what a breed you have made for us in women!
CHORUS of Theban women:
[257] A breed steeped in misery, just like men whose city
is captured.
262 do not terrify men
271, 280 Eteocles's vow to sacrifice > action at 7 gates
Chorus 332 modest girls plucked unripe
375 Scout narrates action, gate 1
422 gate 2
526 fifth man, Northern gate
631 7th gate, your own brother
654 Eteocles: father's curses brought to fulfillment
677 chorus: don't be like your father
712 obey us women
719 Eteocles [exit]
792 city saved
804 city is saved but kings born of the same seed
810 men are dead
812 destiny, ill-fated family
845 funeral procession
861 Antigone and Ismene
957 antiphonal dirge--cf. opera
971-2 perished by, killed nearest and dearest [Aristotle on families]
1011-13 rewrite to set up Antigone
1032 Antigone previews action
OedCol 1571
fulfill
my request
When dead; in life ye cannot serve me more.
The Gospel at Colonus
Five Blind Boys, African American culture as tragic beauty
Nightingale song p. 4, p. 26
Five Blind Boys / Oedipus x Chorus pp. 8-9
Ismene p. 13 see you through my tears
Discussion questions:
1. How does it change the Tragedy to have it sung? Or preached [narrator / chorus]
2. What effect of mixing gospel style with classical content? How well do they mix & match?
Discussion questions:
1. How does the narrative genre of tragedy appear in Oedipus at Colonus? At what points of action or characterization does it shift to the narrative genre of romance? What is the effect on an audience of such narrative-genre shifts?
Tragedy as Narrative Genre: (compare romance, comedy, satire as four major narrative genres)
1. The story begins with a problem or conflict that is significant to society, its leaders, or its representatives.
2 The problem may rise from a temptation or error that human beings recognize, such as greed, pride, or self-righteousness. The problem is intimate and integral to human identity; it is not "objectified" or displaced to a villain or outside force, as in romance. Good and evil are not split among "good guys and bad guys"; characters are mixed, in imitation of real life.
3 Action or plot consists of an attempt to discover the truth about the problem, to follow or trace or absorb its consequences, to restore justice (even at cost to oneself), or to regain moral control of the situation.
4 The tragic narrative concludes with resolution of the problem and restoration of justice, often accompanied by the death, banishment, or quieting of the tragic hero.
1 & 2
A prophecy told Oedipus that his burial place will be a blessing to the city that he chooses or receives him, so he must choose correctly.
Creon and Polynices seek to influence Oedipus's decision and draw him back to Thebes.
How will a family under pressure react and interact with each other? Will the family members be honest and supportive, or manipulative and selfish?
How will Athens treat a stranger? (24 Athens I recognize) (164 Against thy will no man shall drive thee hence.)
246
658 grant him the full rights of citizen;
954 a State that champions right and asks / For every action warranty of law,
1153
If any land knows how to pay the gods /
Their proper rites,
it is
3.
Oedipus feels himself called to the grove but must learn why.
Other members of family struggle to resolve tensions in ruling family
4
Oedipus's suffering has ended in death. His suffering has been "redeemed."
Therefore Oedipus's death with its supernatural elements may resemble the transcendence of a romance conclusion.
In romance narrative of journey-quest through tests and trials, the protagonists endure, maintain their quest, and ultimately win.
So far, so good, at least for Oedipus.
For the rest of the family, however, the living pick up the pieces and resume the struggle (depicted in Seven Against Thebes and Antigone)
(Potential story-book romance ending when Oedipus asks Theseus to take care of his daughters, which Theseus accepts but Antigone denies.)
romance qualities: (Tragedy Modernizes)
302
ANTIGONE: I see a woman
Riding upon a colt
(Antigone as dashing heroine)
(Theseus as all-purpose hero who serves and saves others; the "good king" who makes good things happen)
576 Theseus:
What is the request you ask
of me and
613
THESEUS:
Say
on, I wait full knowledge ere I judge.
930-40 Creon re-enters, mounts rescue, commands
1165 THESEUS: Show us the trail, and I'll attend thee too,
1203
There I might chance behold
Theseus, our captain
bold,
Confront
the robber band,
Ere they have fled the land,
Rescue by might and main
Maidens, the captives
twain.
1252 This best of men who
brings us back again.
OEDIPUS:
My
child! and are ye back indeed!
ANTIGONE:
Yes, saved By Theseus and his gallant followers.
1303 I would like to have thy counsel
1364
Thy
life is safe while any god saves mine.
1588
Ills on ills! no pause or rest!
Come they from our sightless guest?
Or may we now see fulfilled
What fate long time hath willed?
1762
promise me
Thou never wilt forsake them
1a. How does Oedipus's death resemble the conclusion of a romance as transcendence? (It's still a tragedy.)
1385 pain, pain, forever pain > Catharsis
1611
OEDIPUS:
Daughters, for
me the predestined end
Has come;
no turning from it any more.
Wipes out all score of tribulations—love.
2. Since modern audiences typically have difficulty identifying with Oedipus, how may our attitudes to him change in this play? Compare the chorus's and audience's potential catharsis of "pity and fear" for Oedipus to our reactions to the same character inOedipus the King.
185 ANTIGONE: Thy steps to my steps, lean thine aged frame on mine.
277 A holy and god-fearing man is here
1127
She was, ah
woe is me! she was my mother; / I knew it not, nor she; and she my mother
Bare children to the
son whom she had borne,
A birth of shame. But this at least I know:
Knowingly you vilify
her and me;
But I unknowingly wed, and unwilling speak.
1137 Would you, O man of justice, first inquire / If the assassin was by chance thy father, / Or turn on him?
1385 pain, pain, forever pain > Catharsis
2a. Oedipus acts helpless, but how helpless is he? How much is he his old passionate, domineering self controlling the action? How convincing are his speeches justifying his past sins? Evidence of tragic flaw?
421
OEDIPUS: Then may the gods never
quench their fatal feud,
And mine
be the judgment of the fight,
525 I suffered
ills most vile, but none
(So help me Heaven!) from acts in malice done.
545 CHORUS: Thou hast endured—
OEDIPUS: Intolerable woe.
CHORUS: And sinned—
OEDIPUS: I sinned not.
563 OEDIPUS: I slew him who otherwise would have me slain;
745 Creon enters with flattery and false modesty + 766 creepy talk
803 That you shall never attain, but this instead— / My ghost to haunt your country without end;
835 CREON: One of thy daughters is already seized, / The other I will carry off soon.
905 Grant length of days and old age like to mine.
[curse predicts Creon’s fate in
Antigone]
1122 she was your sister
2b. Continuing #2, what about Oedipus's character is revealed by his cursing of Polynices? Why is the scene so powerful and meaningful? Compare to the Bible's parable of the Prodigal Son? (Potential contrast of Abrahamic and Classic Humanist ethics.)
1344
Antigone: Thou art his father—you cannot repay
In kind a son's most impious outrages.
O listen to him; other men like thee
Have thankless children
1505
they are men
Not women in true service to their father;
But
you are bastards, no sons of mine.
Therefore the justice of Heaven watches
thee;
1528
by a kinsman's hand to die and slay
Him who expelled thee.
2c. Not to press comparisons to diminishing returns, but how might Oedipus's resolution appear Christ-like or compatible with the Christ story? (This potential analogy is partly encouraged by the translator's use of biblical language.)
CHORUS:
In a strange land, strange
thou art;
[cf. Exodus 2:22]
170
1572 Oh, touch me not, but let me all alone
[Jn 20.17 Christ to
Mary Magdalene: “Noli me tangere”]
2d. Since Antigone is Oedipus's true child, compare her character in Oedipus at Colonus to her character in Antigone.
185 ANTIGONE: Thy steps to my steps, lean thine aged frame on mine.
224 Knowing the deeds he wrought, not innocent,
1344
Antigone: Thou art his father—you cannot repay
In kind a son's most impious outrages.
O listen to him; other men like thee
Have thankless children
1432 ANTIGONE: Tell him yourself, unhappy one, your purpose;
1552
ANTIGONE:
Turn back
thy host to
And ruin not thyself and Thebes as well.
Polynices:
That
cannot be.
How could I lead again
An army that had seen their leader quail?
ANTIGONE:
But,
brother, why should you be wish to fight again?
What profit comes from thy country's ruin?
Back to
3. Discuss spectacle in Oedipus at Colonus's finale or elsewhere in play? What advantages to showing or not showing rescues, divine actions, etc.?
302
ANTIGONE: I see a woman
Riding upon a colt
872
ANTIGONE:
Ah, woe is me, they drag me hence, O friends.
[hence
= away]
1192 I would like to see that fight;
1203
There I might chance behold
Theseus, our captain
bold,
Confront
the robber band,
Ere they have fled the land,
Rescue by might and main
Maidens, the captives
twain.
1598 Hark! How the thunder rumbles! Zeus defend us!
[thunder =
sublime +
spectacle]
Messenger 1780
4. Formal question: How do the rhymes and meters of our century-old translation of Oedipus at Colonus affect our reading of the play and our potential sense of its presentation (as poetry, song, dance) to an ancient Greek audience?
143 CHORUS: (Antistrophe 1) [antistrophe=response to strophe; Chorus moves right to left]
72 OEDIPUS: Say that a small service may avail him much. [i.e., if Theseus will help Oedipus, Theseus and AThens will be rewarded]
cf. Birth of Tragedy ch. 9, p. 46
101 grant me some redemption of my life
Notes for Oedipus at Colonus
6 I am taught by suffering to endure, [tragic theme: suffering > wisdom]
14
ANTIGONE: Long-suffering father
Oedipus, the towers
That fence the
city still are faint and far;
[the city =
But where we stand is surely holy ground;
64 OEDIPUS: You say people live in these parts?
STRANGER:
Surely; they bear the name
of yonder god.
[yonder
god=Athena>Athenians]
104
Hear, gentle daughters of primeval Night,
[daughters = Furies]
Hear, namesake of great Pallas;
Of cities, pity this dishonored ghost,
[shade = ghost, memory]
The shadow of him who once was Oedipus.
110 contrast Oed's previous nature
OEDIPUS:
I will be mute, and you
shall guide my steps
110
Into the
covert from the public road,
[covert =
thicket, hiding place]
Till
I have learned their drift. A prudent man
Will ever shape his course by what he learns.
[learning
theme of tragedy]
158 OEDIPUS: Daughter, what counsel should we now pursue?
ANTIGONE: We must obey and do as here they do.
OEDIPUS: Your hand then! 160
170
CHORUS:
In a strange land, strange
thou art; [cf. Exodus 2:22]
170
To her will, incline thy
heart;
[her will = the laws of the
land]
Honor whatsoever the State
Honors, all she frowns on hate.
[she = the State]
186 ANTIGONE: Thy steps to my steps, lean thine aged frame on mine.
192
OEDIPUS:
Strangers, I have no
country. O forbear—
[forbear = hold back, lay
off]
CHORUS: What is it, old man, that you would conceal?
OEDIPUS: Forbear, nor urge me further to reveal—
204 OEDIPUS: Know you of Laius's—
CHORUS: What? Who!
OEDIPUS:
Seed of Labdacus—
[Laius, Oedipus’s
father, was son of King Labdacus of
CHORUS: Oh Zeus!
OEDIPUS: The hapless Oedipus.
224
ANTIGONE:
. . .
Knowing the deeds he wrought, not innocent,
But with no ill intent;
Yet heed a maiden's moan
245
And shelters the
troubled stranger, so men say.
Have I
found so?
258
am I then
A villain born because in self-defense,
Stricken, I struck the striker back again?
276 A holy and god-fearing man is here
Whose coming purports comfort for your folk.
[purports comfort =
signifies blessings]
And when your
chief arrives, whoever he be, [chief = king, later id. as Theseus]
Then
shall ye have my story and know all.
280
SCENE 3
302
ANTIGONE:
I see a woman
Riding upon a colt
323 OEDIPUS: O children—sisters!
327 OEDIPUS: What brought thee, daughter?
ISMENE: Father, care for thee.
330 news . . . brothers
354 bring thy father all
the oracles
Concerning Oedipus
369 now some god and an infatuate soul
[infatuate soul = crazed spirit]
Have stirred betwixt them a mad rivalry
[betwixt them = between Eteocles & Polyneices] 370
To grasp at sovereignty and kingly power.
387 What has been uttered, child?
ISMENE:
Thy country (so it runs)
shall yearn in time [Thy country = Thebes]
To have thee
for their weal alive or dead.*
[weal = well-being, protection]
393 ISMENE: The gods, who once abased, uplift thee now. [romance of transcendence?]
406
OEDIPUS:
Mean they to shroud my bones
in Theban dust? [shroud . .
. dust? = bury my body in Theban soil?]
ISMENE:
Nay, father, guilt of
kinsman's blood forbids.
[Oedipus can’t be
buried in
412 [Instructor's
note: In
following passages here omitted, Ismene
tells
Oedipus of a recent prophecy that previews the blessings Oedipus's
burial will bring to Athens; that Theban invaders of Athens will some day be
routed in a battle near the grave of Oedipus.]
421
may the gods never
quench their fatal feud,
And mine
be the judgment of the fight,
[arbitrament = right to decide]
For which they now are arming, spear to spear;
That neither he who holds the scepter now
[he = Eteocles]
May keep this throne, nor he who fled the realm
[he = Polyneices]
Return again.
[SCENE 4]
523 CHORUS: Grant my request, I granted all to thee.
OEDIPUS:
(Antistrophe
1) [Chorus moves right
to left]
Know then
I suffered
ills most vile, but none
(So help me Heaven!) from acts in malice done.
539
OEDIPUS:
Sprang from the wife and
mother's travail-pain.
[travail-pain= childbirth, labor]
540 then thy offspring are at once— 540
OEDIPUS:
Too true.
Their father's very sisters too.
546 CHORUS: Thou hast endured—
OEDIPUS: Intolerable woe.
CHORUS: And sinned—
OEDIPUS: I sinned not.
563 OEDIPUS: I slew him who otherwise would have me slain;
[SCENE 5]
566 CHORUS: Behold our sovereign, Theseus, Aegeus's son,
597
THESEUS:
What
profit dost thou proffer to have brought?
[What’s
in it for me to inherit responsibility for your body in death?]
OEDIPUS:
Hereafter you shall learn, not yet, methinks.
653
he can claim the hospitality
To which by mutual contract we stand
pledged:
. . .
But grant him the full rights of citizen;
674 What is it thou fearest?
[SCENE 6]
753
of all Thebans I have most
bewailed,
Being his kinsman, his most grievous
woes. [Creon claims to have been
on Oedipus's side all along]
774 Creon's hypocrisy puts us on Oedipus's side
835
OEDIPUS:
What power do you have to execute this threat?
CREON:
One
of thy daughters is already seized,
The other I will carry off
soon.
846
CREON
(to his guards)
:
If she refuses of her
free will to go.
872
ANTIGONE:
Ah, woe is me, they drag me hence, O friends.
[hence
= away]
903
to thee and all thy cursed race
May the great Sun,
whose eye is everywhere,
Grant length of days and old age like to mine.
[curse predicts Creon’s fate in
Antigone]
[SCENE 7]
947
now the
laws to which himself appealed,
[himself
= Creon]
These and none others shall apply.
954
a State that
champions right and asks
[a
State that champions right = Athens]
For every action warranty of law,
[*Instructor's note:
Theseus chides Creon by saying that if Theseus were visiting Creon's Theban
territories, he would never take military action without consulting with the
leaders of Thebes. Beginning at line 982 below, Creon tries to turn the argument
by saying he couldn't imagine that Theseus would object to actions taken against
a moral outcast like Oedipus.]
986
Nor would
they harbor, so I stood assured,
A godless parricide, a reprobate
[parricide
= parent-murderer; reprobate = troublemaker—i.e.,
Oedipus]
Convicted of incestuous marriage ties.
1104
OEDIPUS:
O
shameless big-mouth, do you think this abuse
Defames my grey hairs—rather than your
own?
Murder
and incest, deeds of horror, all
You blurt forth against me, all I have borne,
No willing sinner; so
it pleased the gods,
1116
And if
When born to misery, as born I was,
I met my sire, not knowing whom I
met or what I did,
and slew
him, how can you
With justice blame my
all-unconscious hand?
And for my
mother, wretch, be ashamed,
As she was your sister,
1131
Knowingly you vilify
her and me;
But I unknowingly wed, and unwilling speak.
1136
if thou canst:
If one should presently attempt to kill you,
Would you, O man of
justice, first inquire
If the assassin was by chance thy father,
Or turn on him?
1152
If any land knows how to pay the gods
Their proper rites,
it is
1192 I would like to see that fight; [sorry, no spectacle, please]
1246
For lo, an escort with the maids draws near.
[SCENE 8]
Enter Antigone and Ismene with Theseus
1250
ANTIGONE:
O
father, father,
Would that some god might grant thee eyes to see
This best of men who
brings us back again.
OEDIPUS:
My
child! and are ye back indeed!
ANTIGONE:
Yes, saved By Theseus and his gallant followers.
OEDIPUS:
Come to your father's arms, O let me feel
A child's embrace I never hoped for
more.
ANTIGONE:
Thou askest what is doubly sweet to give.
1268
Now tell me of your
adventures, but in brief;
Brief speech suffices for young maids like you.
The
gods deal with you after my desire,
With you and with this land!
[i.e., consequences of justice, positive consequences to good actions
1303
I would like to have
Thy counsel
1335
fail not in
due reverence to the god.
1339
For our sake also let our brother come.
On all the woe thy sire and mother brought thee;
1357
nor he that takes
[importunate =
nagging]
A favor lack the grace to make return.
1360
Let it be, then; have your way
1380
Not to be born at all
Is best, far best that can befall,
Next best, when born, with least delay
To trace the backward way.
For when youth
passes with its giddy train,
Troubles on troubles follow, toils on toils,
Pain, pain forever pain;
[Instructor's note: The following scene of Oedipus's repudiation of Polynices might be compared / contrasted to Christ's Parable of the Prodigal Son, Luke 15: 11-32]
1417
All this too late I
learn, wretch that I am,
Alas!
I own it, and am proved most vile
In my neglect of you: I scorn myself.
1425
Why silent? Father, speak. Don’t turn away,
Have you no word?
1444
I have been banished from my native land
Because by right of primogeniture
[primogeniture =
first-born son inherits all]
I claimed possession of thy sovereign throne
From which Eteocles, my younger
brother,
Ousted me,
1450
the prime cause
[popular
= populist; mob-pleasing]
Of this I
deem the curse that rests on thee.
1457
levy with their aid that sevenfold host
Of spearmen against
1472
victory, if oracles speak true,
Will fall to those who have you for their ally.
1505
they are men
Not women in true service to their father;
But
you are bastards, no sons of mine.
Therefore the justice of Heaven watches thee
1512
That city you can
never storm, but first
You and your brother shall fall
1516 That you might learn to honor those who bear thee
1522
This curse I leave
thee as my last bequest:—
Never to win by arms thy native land,
No, nor return to
But by a kinsman's hand to die and slay
Him who expelled thee.
1541
I dare not whisper this curse to my allies
Or turn them back, but mute must meet my doom.
My sisters, . . grant me burial
and due funeral rites*.
1552
ANTIGONE:
Turn back
thy host to
And ruin not thyself and Thebes as well.
Polynices:
That
cannot be.
How could I lead again
An army that had seen their leader quail?
ANTIGONE:
But,
brother, why should you be wish to fight again?
What profit comes from thy country's ruin?
Polynices:
To live in
exile is shameful, and shalI
[shame/honor]
an
elder brother bear a younger brother's insults?
1562
Polynices:
Aye, so he
wishes:—but I cannot yield.
1588
Ills on ills! no pause or rest!
Come they from our sightless guest?
Or may we now see fulfilled
What fate long time hath willed?
1598
Hark! How the thunder rumbles! Zeus defend us!
[thunder =
sublime +
spectacle]
1611
OEDIPUS:
Daughters, for
me the predestined end
Has come;
no turning from it any more.
1627
OEDIPUS:
For all his
benefits I would perform
The
promise made when I received them first.
[Enter
Theseus]
1644
OEDIPUS:
Our fate hangs
in the balance. I would do all
I
promised thee and thine before I die.
1655
Bequeath a treasure age cannot corrupt.
[transcendence >
romance?]
I myself without a guiding hand
Will take thee soon to the place where I must end.
This secret never reveal to mortal man,
1662 But those dread mysteries speech may not profane [sublime as what cannot be defined or expressed?]
1676
But to the spot—the god within me impels—
Let us set forth; no longer hesitate.
Follow me, daughters, this way. Strange that I
Whom you have led so long should lead you now.
Oh, touch me not
1684
O light, no light to me, but mine a while,
Now the last time I feel thee palpable,
For I am drawing near the final gloom
Of Hades.
Blessing
1700
Wrongfully in life oppressed,
Be he now by Justice blessed.
[Enter
Messenger]
1712
Oedipus is gone, but the event
Was not so brief, nor can the tale be brief.
1716
he has passed away from life to death.
1742
"My children, you will lose your father today,
For all of me has perished, and no more
Have ye to bear your long, long ministry;
A heavy load, I know, and yet one word
Wipes out all score of tribulations—love.
1752
A moment there was silence; suddenly
A voice summoned him;
1762
promise me
Thou never wilt forsake them
1772
Theseus stay,
Our ruler, to behold what next shall happen."
1775
After brief space we looked again, and lo
The man was gone, nowhere to be seen;
Only the king we saw with upraised hand
Shading his eyes as from some awful sight,
1786
It was a messenger from heaven, or else
Some gentle, painless cleaving of earth's base;
[cleaving = opening]
For without wailing or disease or pain
He passed away
[Enter
Antigone and Ismene]
1846
ISMENE:
Alas, my sister, what new fate
Befalls us orphans desolate?
1870
ISMENE:
Tombless he died, none near.
ANTIGONE:
Lead me
there; slay me there.
[willingness
to die anticipates tragedy of Antigone]
1882
ANTIGONE:
How again
to get us home
I know not.
CHORUS:
Why must you roam?
ANTIGONE:
Troubles
overwhelm us—
1894
THESEUS:
Dry your
tears; when grace is shed
On the
quick and on the dead
By dark
Powers beneficent,
Too much grief
they would resent.
1912
let us go
Back to
1923
CHORUS:
Wail no more,
let sorrow rest,
All is ordered
for the best.
