And call on that drear dark of Tartaros,
My father's home, to snatch thee from the earth,1390
And call on these dread Powers, and I invoke
Ares who stirred this fearful hate in you.
Hear this, and go thy way! And then proclaim
To all the race of Cadmos, and to those
Thy true allies, that Œdipus has left
To both his sons, such legacies as these.
Chor. I cannot wish thee joy of thy late journey,
Ο Polyneikes! and I bid thee turn
At once with fullest speed, thy backward way.
Polyn. Woe, then, for all my wandering, all my failure.
Woe, too, for all my friends. Is this the goal1400
For which from Argos starting, (wretched me!)
We hither came? an end I dare not tell
To any of my friends, nor turn them back;
But needs must meet my fate without a word.
But Ο my sisters, ye—for ye have heard
My father's bitter curse—I charge you both,
If these dire curses find fulfilment dread,
And it is given you homeward to return,
Do not ye scorn me: give me honours meet,
A seemly burial, decent funeral rites;1410
And this your praise, which now ye get from him
For whom ye labour, other praise shall bear,
No whit inferior, for your love to me.
Antig. I pray thee, Polyneikes, yield to me.
Polyn. In what, thou dear Antigone? Speak on.
Antig. Lead back thy host to Argos, slackening not,
Nor ruin both thy country and thyself.
Polyn. It may not be. How, known as coward once,
Could I again lead forth an armament?
Antig. And why, dear boy, need'st thou be wroth again?1420
What profit hast thou in thy country's fall?
