THE LIBRARY
OF
THE UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA
LOS ANGELES
IN MEMORY OF
MRS. VIRGINIA B. SPORER
SOPHOCLES
SOPHOCLES
TRAGEDIES
AND
FRAGMENTS
Translated by the lab
E. H. PLUMPTRE D.D.
'Dean of Wtlli
WITH NOTES RHYMED
CHORAL ODES AND
LYRICAL DIALOGUES
IN TWO VOLUMES
VOL I
BOSTON U.S.A.
D. C. HEATH & CO., PUBLISHERS
1914
TO
CONNOP THIRLWALL, D.D.
LORD BISHOP OF ST. DAVID'S,
AND
TO THE MEMORY OF
JULIUS CHARLES HARE, MA.
FRIENDS in your boyhood, when the dawn was bright,
Friends in the heat and burden of the day,
Friends even yet, though one has passed away
To join the children of the Lord of Light!
Long since ye roamed each vale, and climbed each height.
Where songs of Hellas float through golden grove,
Or from the hill of Capitolian Jove,
Tracked the young stream of Rome's imperial might.
Our friend and brother heareth loftier praise ;
But thou, kind teacher, speakest to us still,
And wilt not scorn, scant offering though they be,
These echoes of high thoughts of ancient days.
Ah! would the power were equal with the will!
Would that my faltering speech were worthier thee I
LLANBILO, August a^M, 1865.
2042146
PUBLISHER'S NOTE
The present edition of" Sophocles " is uniform with the late
Dean Tlumptrii translation of jEschylos. The text of the
second edition, which was carefully revised by the translator,
has been followed, and the Dean's annotations have been
included.
In translating the Choral Odes the Dean used such
unrhymed metres as seemed to him most analogous in their
general rhythmical effect to those of the original, but in
order to meet a freely expressed wish he added a rhymed
version of the Choral Odes and chief lyrical dialogues in an
appendix.
The brackets [ ] indicate lines which are looked upon by
one or more critics of repute as spurious, and an asterisk (*)
the more prominent passages in which the text is so uncertain,
or the construction so difficult, that the rendering must be
looked upon as, at best, somewhat doubtful. The numerals
refer to the Greek text, not to the translation.
CONTENTS
Frontispiece SOPHOCLES : From the bust in the
Uffizi Gallery, Florence
Pag-t
CHRONOLOGICAL OUTLINE OF THE LIFE OF
SOPHOCLES . . . . . . 13
CEmpus THE KING . . . . . 17
CEinpus AT COLONOS . i e 73
ANTIGONE . . , '39
ELECTKA 189
CHRONOLOGICAL OUTLINE OF
THE LIFE OF SOPHOCLES
B.C.
525 Birth of ^Eschylos.
510 Expulsion of the Peisistratidae. Democratic con-
stitution of Cleisthenes.
500 Birth of Anaxagoras.
499 jEschylos exhibits his first tragedy.
497 Death of Pythagoras (?)
495 Birth of Sophocles.
490 Battle of Marathon.
485 Xerxes succeeds Dareios.
484 Birth of Herodotos. ^Eschylos gains the prize In
tragedy.
480 Athens taken by Xerxes. Battle of Salamis.
Sophocles leads the chorus of victory.
Birth of Euripides.
479 Athens taken by Mardonios.
477 Commencement of Athenian Supremacy.
476 Bones of Theseus discovered in Skyros,
472 The P(r$(e of /Eschylos.
CHRONOLOGICAL OUTLINE
B.C.
471 Birth of Thucydides.
468 Sophocles gains his first victory in tragedy. The
Triptolemos.
Birth of Socrates.
467 Death of Simonides.
466 Battle of Eurymedon.
461 Ostracism of Kimon. Ascendancy of Pericles.
The Oresieian Trilogy of .flJschylos.
456 Death of ^Eschylos. Herodotos recites his history
at the Olympian Games (?)
455 Euripides appears as a writer of tragedies.
450 Anaxagoras retires from Athens after a residence of
thirty years.
448 Sacred war between Delphiaus and Phocians.
441 Euripides gains the first prize.
440 Sophocles exhibits the Antigone, and is made one of
the ten Athenian generals in the war with Samos.
Meets Herodotos at Samos.
439 Sophocles returns to Athens.
432 Prosecution of Anaxagoras, Aspasia, and Pheidias.
431 Commencement of the Peloponnesian War.
430 Plague at Athens. (Edipus the King (?) CEdipus at
Colonos (?)
429 Birth of Plato.
428 Death of Anaxagoras.
427 Ascendency of Cleon. Aristophanes gains his first
prise for comedy.
CHRONOLOGICAL OUTLINE
B.C.
424 The Knights of Aristophanes.
423 The Clouds of Aristophanes.
421 Peace of Nikias.
419 The Peace of Aristophanes.
416 Tragic prize gained by Agathon.
415 Tragic prize gained byArchippos. Sicilian Expedi-
tion. Mutilation of the Hermae busts. Banishment
of Alkibiades.
413 Destruction of Athenian army and fleet in Sicily.
Sophocles appointed as member of constituent
committee
411 Revolution at Athens. Council of the Four
Hundred. Sophocles assents. Recall of Alki-
biades.
409 The Philoctetes of Sophocles.
406 Battle of Arginusae.
Death of Euripides.
Death of Sophocles.
401 The (Edipus at Colonos reproduced (?) by the younger
Sophocles.
CEDIPUS THE KING
DRAMATIS PERSONS
CEDIPUS, King of Thebes. Messenger from Corinth.
CREON, brother of ]oc\ST A.. Shepherd.
TEIRESIAS, a soothsayer. Second Messenger.
Priest of ZEUS. JOCASTA , wife of CEDIPUS.
Ciiorus of Priests and Suppliants.
ARGUMENT. Laics, King of Thebes, married Jocasta,
daughter of Menaekeus, and they had no child. And he,
grieved thereat, sought counsel of the God at Delphi, and the
God bade him cease to wish for children, for should a son be
born to him, by that son he should surely die. 1 And then it
came to pass that Jocasta bare him a son. And they, fearing
the God's word, gave the boy to a shepherd, that he miglit
cast it out upon the hill Kithceron ; and so they were com-
forted, and deemed that they by this device had turned the
oracle into a thing of nought. And thirty years afterwards,
when Laios was well stricken in years, he went again on a
pilgrimage to Delphi; and thence he never came back again,
slain on the n'ay, men knew not by whose hands. And at
1 THE ORACLE TO LAIOS.
Laios, Labdacos' son, thou askest for birth of fair offspring ;
Lo ! I will give thee a son, but know that Destiny orders
That thou by the boy's hand must die, for so to the curses of Pelops,
Whom of his son thou hast robbed, Zeus, son of Kronos, hath
granted,
And he, in his trouble of heart, called all this sorrow upon (hoc.
I 17 B
CED1PUS THE KING
that time ike Sphinx made havoc of Thebes and all the coasts
thereof, so that they had no heart nor power to search into the
matter of the king's death, but sought only for some one to
answer the monster's riddle, 1 and save the city and its people.
And a stranger came to the city, (Edipus of Corinth, son, as
it was said, of Polybos and Merope, and answered the riddle
aright? and slew the Sphinx. A nd then the people of the city
in their joy chose (Edipus as their king, in the room of Laios,
who had been slain ; and Jocasta took him as her husband,
and Creon, Jocasta's brother, was his chief friend and conn'
sellor, and all tilings prospered with him, and he had tu<o
sons and two daughters. But soon the wrath of God fell
upon Thebes, and the city was visited with a sore pestilence ;
and the people turned in their affliction to their Gods, and
made their supplications. 3
1 THE RIDDLE OF THE SPHINX.
There lives upon earth a being, two-footed, yea, and with four feet,
Yea, and with three feet, too, yet his voice continues unchanging ;
And, lo ' of all things that move in earth, in heaven, or in ocean,
He only chant; es his nature, and yet when on most feet he walketh,
Then is the speed of his limbs most weak and utterly powerless.
8 ANSWER OF CEDIPUS.
Hear thou against thy will, thou dark- winged Muse oi the
slaughtered,
Hear from my lips the end, bringing a close to thy crime :
Man is it thou hast described, who, when on earth he appeareth,
First as a babe from the womb, four-footed creeps on his way,
Then when old age cometh on, and the burden of years weighs full
heavy,
Bending his shoulders and neck, as a third foot useth his staff.
* The starting-point of the cycle of CEdipus' legends is found in
the Odyssey, xi. 271, where Odysseus describes the spectres that he
saw in Hades :
" And there I looked on Epicasta's form,
Mother of CEdipus, who, knowing not,
Wrought greatest guilt, her own son marrying :
And he his father slew, and married her.
But soon the Gods disclosed it all to men,
And he, with many woes, in Thebes beloved,
18
(EDI PUS THE. KING
Through fatf ful counsels of th Gods, ruled long
O'er the Cadmeians. bhe, with woe outworn,
To Hades went, strong warder of the dead,
A long noose letting down from lofty roof.
And many a woe she left behind to him,
Which the Erinnyes of his mother work. "
With this it will be interesting to compare Pindar, Olymp., ii.
35-42 :
" So Destiny, who keeps of olden time
The goodly fortune of an honoured race,
With prosperous years from God,
Leads it another while
Backward to bale and woe ;
E'en when the fateful son of Laios killed
The father whom he met,
And so fulfilled
The Oracle in Pyiho given of old,
And seeing it, she slew,
Erinnyes, clear of sight,
The warrior race, with fratricidal hand."
^Eschylos (B.C. 471) had made it the subject of a Trilogy, tracing
the working of the curse in Laios, CEdipus, the Seven against Thebes,
of which only the last is extant.
The date of composition is uncertain. Hypotheses which con-
nect the description of the plague at Thebes with that at Athens in
B.C. 429, or the protests against impiety with the mutilation of the
Henna; in B.C. 415, are at best uncertain.
CEDIPUS THE KING
SCENE. THEBES. In the background, the palace of CEniPus ; in front,
the altar of ZEUS, Priests and Boys round it in the attitude of
suppliants, -with oli-vc and laurel branches in their hands, enfwincd
'with "woclien threads.
Enter CEnipus.
(Edip. Why sit ye here, my children, youngest brood
Of Cadmos famed of old, in solemn state,
Your hands thus wreathed with the suppliants' boughs f
And all the city reeks with incense smoke,
And all re-echoes with your hymns and groans ;
And I, my children, counting it unmeet
To hear report from others, I have come
Myself, whom all name CEdipus the Great.
Do thou, then, aged Sire, since thine the right
To speak for these, tell clearly how ye stand,
In terror or submission ; speak to me
As willing helper. Heartless should I be
To see you prostrate thus, and feel no ruth.
Priest. Yea, CEdipus, thou ruler of my land,
Thou seest our age, who sit as suppliants, bowed
Around thine altars ; some as yet too weak
For distant flight, and some weighed down with age,
Priest, I, of Zeus, and these the chosen youth :
And in the market-places of the town
The people sit and wail, with wreath in hand,
By the two shrines of Pallas, 1 or the grave,
* These numerals refer to the Greek text, not to the translation.
i Probably, as at Athens Athena had two temples as Polias and
M
CEDIPUS THE KING
Where still the seer Ismenos prophesies,
For this our city, as thine eyes may see,
Is sorely tempest-tossed, nor lifts its head
From out the surging sea of blood-flecked waves,
All smitten in the ripening blooms of earth,
All smitten in the herds that graze the fields,
Yea, and in timeless births of woman's fruit ;
And still the God, fire-darting Pestilence,
As deadliest foe, upon our city swoops,
And desolates the home where Cadmos dwelt,
And Hades dark grows rich in sighs and groans.
It is not that we deem of thee as one
Equalled with Gods in power, that we sit here,
These little ones and I, as suppliants prone ;
But, judging thee, in all life's shifting scenes,
Chiefest of men, yea, and of chiefest skill
In communings with Heaven. For thou did'st come
And freed'st this city, named of Cadmos old,
From the sad tribute which of yore we paid
To that stern songstress, 1 all untaught of us,
And all unprompted ; but by gift of God,
Men think and say, thou did'st our life upraise.
And now, dear CEdipus, most honoured lord,
We pray thee, we thy suppliants, find for us
Some succour, whether voice of any God,
Or any man brings knowledge to thy soul ;
For still I see, with those whom life has trained
To long-tried skill, the issues of their thoughts
Live and are mighty. Come then, noblest one,
Raise up our city ; come, take heed to it ;
As yet this land, for all thy former zeal,
Calls thee its saviour : do not give us cause
Parthenos, so also at Thebes there were two shrines dedicated to
her under different names, as Onkaea and Isinenia.
1 The tribute of human victims paid to the Sphinx, the " Mus^
of the slaughtered," till her riddle was solved by CEdipus.
M
CEDIPUS THE KIN G
So to remember this thy reign, as men
Who having risen, then fall low again ;
But raise our state to safety. Omens good
Were then with thee ; thou did'st thy work, and now
Be equal to thyself! If thou wilt rule,
As thou dost sway, this land wherein we dwell,
'Twere better far to rule o'er living men
Than o'er a realm dispeopled. Nought avails,
Or tower or ship, when men are not within.
(Edip. O children, wailing loud, ye come with wish
Well-known, not unknown ; well I know that ye
Are smitten, one and all, with taint of plague,
And yet though smitten, none that taint of plague
Feels, as I feel it. Each his burden bears,
His own and not another's ; but my heart
Mourns for the state, for you, and for myself ;
And, lo, ye wake me not as plunged in sleep,
But find me weeping, weeping many tears,
And treading many paths in wandering thought ;
And that one way of health I, seeking, found,
This have I acted on. Menoekeus' son,
Creon, my kinsman, have I sent to seek
The Pythian home of Phcebos, there to learn
The words or deeds wherewith to save the state ;
And even now I measure o'er the time,
And ask, " How fares he ? " grieving, for he stays,
Most strangely, far beyond the appointed day ;
But when he comes, I should be base indeed,
Failing to do whate'er the God declares.
Priest. Well hast thou spoken 1 And these bring me
word,
That Creon comes advancing on his way.
GLdip. O king Apollo, may he come with chance *
That brings deliverance, as his looks are bright.
Priest. If one may guess, he's glad. He had not
come
*3
(EDIPUS THE KING
Crowned with rich wreaths 1 of fruitful laurel else.
(Edip. Soon we shall know. Our voice can reach him
now.
Say, prince, our well-beloved, Mencekeus' son,
What sacred answer bring'st thou from the God ?
Enter CREON.
Creon. A right good answer ! E'en our evil plight,
If all goes well, may end in highest good.
(Edip. What were the words ? Nor full of eager
hope,
Nor trembling panic, list I to thy speech. *
Creon. I, if thou wish, am ready, these being by,
To tell thee all, or go within the gates.
(Edip. Speak out to all. I sorrow more for them
Than for the woe which touches me alone.
Creon. I then will speak what from the God I heard :
King Phcebos bids us chase the plague away
(The words were plain) now cleaving to our land,
Nor cherish guilt which still remains unhealed.
(Edip. But with what rites ? And what the deed itself?
Creon. Or drive far off, or blood for blood repay ; 10
That guilt of blood is blasting all the state.
(Edip. But whose fate is it that He pointeth to ?
Creon. Once,O my king, ere thou did'st guide our state,
Our sovereign Laios ruled o'er all the land.
(Edip. So have I heard, for him I never saw.
Creon. Now the God clearly bids us, he being dead,
To take revenge on those who shed his blood.
(Edip. Yes ; but where are they ? How to track the
course
Of guilt all shrouded in the doubtful past ?
Creon. In this our land, so said He ; those who seek no
Shall find ; unsought, we lose it utterly.
1 Creon, coming from Delphi, wears a wreath of the Parnassian
laurel, its red berries mingling with the dark, glossy leaves.
CEDIPUS THE KING
(Edip. Was it at home, or in the field, or else
In some strange land that Laios met his doom ?
Creon. He went, so spake he, pilgrim-wise afar,
And never more came back as forth he went.
(Edip. Was there no courier, none who shared his road,
Who knew what, learning, one might turn to good ?
Creon. Dead were they all, save one who fled for fear,
And he knew nought to tell but one small fact.
(Edip. {Interrupting.] And what was that ? One fact
might teach us much,
Had we but one small starting-point of hope.
Creon. He used to tell that robbers fell on him,
Not man for man, but with outnumbering force.
(Edip. How could the robber e'er have dared this deed,
Unless some bribe from hence had tempted him ?
Creon. So men might think ; but Laios having died,
There was no helper for us in our ills.
(EJip. What ill then hindered, when your sovereignty
Had fallen thus, from searching out the truth ?
Creon. The Sphinx, with her dark riddle, bade us look
At nearer facts, and leave the dim obscure.
(Edip. Well, be it mine to track them to their source. 13
Right well hath Phcebos, and right well hast thou,
Shown for the dead your care, and ye shall find,
As is most meet, in me a helper true,
Aiding at once my country and the God.
It is not for the sake of friends remote,
But for mine own, that I dispel this pest ;
For he that slew him, whosoe'er he be,
Will wish, perchance, with such a blow to smite
Me also. Helping him, I help myself.
And now, my children, rise with utmost speed
From off these steps, and raise your suppliant boughs ;
And let another call my people here,
The race of Cadmos, and make known that I
Will do my taskwork to the uttermost ;
OEDIPUS THE KING
So, as God wills, we prosper, or we fail.
Priest. Rise then, my children, 'twas for this we came,
For these good tidings which those lips have brought,
And Phoebos, who hath sent these oracles,
Pray that He come to save, and heal our plague. )M
[Exeunt CREON, Priest, and Suppliants, the
fatter taking their boughs from the altar and
bearing them as t':ey march in procession.
Enter Chorus o/~Theban Citizens.
STROPHE I
Chor. O word of Zeus, 1 glad-voiced, with what intent
From Pytho, bright with gold,
Cam'st thou to Thebes, our city of high fame ?
For lo ! I faint for fear,
Through all my soul I quiver in suspense,
(Hear, lo Paean ! God of Delos, 2 hear !)
In brooding dread, what doom, of present growth,
Or as the months roll on, thy hand will work ;
Tell me, O deathless Voice, thou child of golden hope !
ANTISTROPHE I
Thee first, Zeus-born Athena, thee I call,
Divine and deathless One,
And next thy sister, Goddess of our land,
Our Artemis, who sits,
Queen of our market, on encircled throne;
And Phcebos, the far-darter ! O ye Three,*
Shine on us, and deliver us from ill !
If e'er before, when storms of woe oppressed,
1 The oracle, though given by Apollo, is yet the voice of Zeus, of
whom Apollo is but the prophet, spokesman.
2 Apollo, born in Delos, passed through Attica to Pytho, his
shrine at Delphi.
3 The Three named Athena, Artemis, Phoebos were the guar-
dian drities ol Thebes ; but the tendency to bring three names
together in one group in oaths and invocations runs through Greek
worship generally.
OEDIPUS THE KING
Ye stayed the fiery tide, O come and help us now .'
STROPHE II
Ah me, ah me, for sorrows numberless
Press on my soul ;
And all the host is smitten, and our thoughts no
Lack weapons to resist.
For increase fails of fruits of goodly earth,
And women sink in childbirth's wailing pangs,
And one by one, as flit
The swift-winged birds through air,
So, flitting to the shore of Him who dwells
Down in the darkling West, 1
Fleeter than mightiest fire,
Thou see'st them passing on.
ANTISTROPHE II
Yea, numberless are they who perish thus ;
And on the earth,
Still breeding plague, unpitied infants lie,
Cast out all ruthlessly ; 18
And wives and mothers, grey with hoary age,
Some here, some there, by every altar mourn,
With woe and sorrow crushed,
And chant their wailing plaint.
Clear thrills the sense their solemn Paean cry,
And the sad anthem song ;
Hear, golden child of Zeus,
And send us bright-eyed help.
STROPHE III
And Ares the destroyer drive away ! '
1 Pluto, dwelling where the sun sinks into darkness. The sym-
bolism of the West as the region of dead and evil, of the East as
that of light and truth, belongs to the earliest parables of nature.
a The Pestilence, previously (v. 27) personified, is now idt-ntified
with Ares, the God of slaughter, and, as such, the foe of the more
benign deities.
*7
CEDIPUS THE KING
Who now, though hushed the din lv>
Of brazen shield and spear,
With fiercest battle-cry
Wars on me mightily.
Bid him go back in flight,
Retreat from this our land,
Or to the ocean bed,
Where Amphitrite sleeps,
Or to that haven of the homeless sea
Which sweeps the Thracian shore. 1
*If waning night spares aught,
That doth the day assail :
Do thou, then, Sire almighty,
Wielding the lightning's strength,
Blast him with thy dread fiery thunderbolts.
ANTISTROPHE III
And thou, Lykeian king, the wolfs dread foe,
Fain would I see thy darts
From out thy golden bow
Go forth invincible,
Helping and bringing aid ;
And with them, winged with fire,
The rays of Artemis,
With which on Lykian hills,
She moveth on her course.
And last, O golden-crowned, I call on thee,
Named after this our land, 2
Bacchos, all flushed with wine,
With clamour loud and long,
Wandering with Maenads wild,
l The Chorus prays that the pestilence may be driven either to
the far western ocean, beyond the pillars of Heracles, the couch of
Amphitrite, the bride of Neptune, or to the northern coasts of the
Euxine, where Ares was worshipped as the special God of the
Thracians.
8 Bacchos, as born in Thebes, was known as the Cadmeian king,
the Boeotian God, while Thebes took from him the epithet Bacchia.
I
CEDIPUS THE KING
Flashing with blazing torch,
Draw near against the God whom all the Gods disown. 1
(Edip. Thou prayest, and for thy prayers, if thou wilt
hear
My words, and treat the dire disease with skill,
Thou shalt find help and respite from thy pain,
My words, which I, a stranger to report,
A stranger to the deed, will now declare :
For I myself should fail to track it far,
Finding no trace to guide my steps aright.
But now, as I have joined you since the deed,
A citizen with citizens, I speak
To all the sons of Cadmos. Lives there one
Who knows of Laios, son of Labdacos,
The hand that slew him ; him I bid to tell
His tale to me ; and should it chance he shrinks
From raking up the charge against himself,
Still let him speak ; no heavier doom is his
Than to depart uninjured from the land ;
Or, if there be that knows an alien arm **>
As guilty, let him hold his peace no more ;
I will secure his gain and thanks beside.
But if ye hold your peace, if one through fear,
Or for himself, or friend, shall hide this thing,
What then 1 purpose let him hear from me
That man I banish, whosoe'er he be,
From out this land whose power and throne are mine ;
And none may give him shelter, none speak to him,
Nor join with him in prayers and sacrifice,
Nor give him share in holy lustral stream ;
But all shall thrust him from their homes, declared
Our curse and our pollution, as but now
The Pythian God's prophetic word has shown :
With acts like this, I stand before you here,
1 So, in the Iliad, Ares is, of all the Gods of Olympos, most
hateful to Zeus (v. 890), as the cause of all strife and slaughter.
29
CEDIPUS THE KING
A helper to the God and to the dead.
All this I charge you do, for mine own sake, 1
And for the God's, and for this land that pines,
Barren and god-deserted. Wrong 'twould be
E'en if no voice from heaven had urged us on,
That ye should leave the stain of guilt uncleansed, * 90
Your noblest chief, your king himself, being slain.
Yea, rather, seek and find. And since I reign,
Wielding the might his hand did wield before,
Filling his couch, and calling his wife mine,
Yea, and our offspring too, but for the fate
That fell on his, had grown in brotherhood ;
But now an evil chance on his head swooped ;
And therefore will I strive my best for him,
As for my father, and will go all lengths
To seek and find the murderer, him who slew
The son of Labdacos, and Polydore,
And earlier Cadmos, and Agenor old; 2
And for all those who hearken not, I pray
The Gods to give them neither fruit of earth,
Nor seed of woman, 8 but consume their lives
With this dire plague, or evil worse than this.
And for the man who did the guilty deed,
Whether alone he lurks, or leagued with more,
I pray that he may waste his life away,
For vile deeds, vilely dying ; and for me,
If in my house, I knowing it, he dwells,
May every curse I spake on my head fall.