paying honour to the dead.
LEADER OF THE CHORUS

Thy sister, Creon, hath gone forth and her daughter Antigone
went with her.

CREON
Whither went she? and wherefore? tell me.

LEADER
She heard that her sons were about to engage in single combat

for the royal house.
CREON

What is this? I was paying the last honours to my dead son, and so
am late in learning this fresh sorrow.

LEADER
'Tis some time, Creon, since thy sister's departure, and I

expect the struggle for life and death is already decided by the
sons of Oedipus.

CREON
Alas! I see an omen there, the gloomy look and clouded brow of

yonder messenger coming to tell us the whole matter.
(The SECOND MESSENGER enters.)

MESSENGER
Ah, woe is me! what language can I find to tell my tale?

CREON
Our fate is sealed; thy opening words do naught to reassure us.

MESSENGER
Ah, woe is me! I do repeat; for beside the scenes of woe already

enacted I bring tidings of new horror.
CREON

What is thy tale?
MESSENGER

Thy sister's sons are now no more, Creon.
CREON

Alas! thou hast a heavy tale of woe for me and Thebes
LEADER

O house of Oedipus, hast thou heard these tidings?
CREON

Of sons slain by the self-same fate.
LEADER

A tale to make it weep, were it endowed with sense.
CREON

Oh! most grievous stroke of fate! woe is me for my sorrows! woe!
MESSENGER

Woe indeed! didst thou but know the sorrows still to tell.
CREON

How can they be more hard to bear than these?
MESSENGER

With her two sons thy sister has sought her death.
CHORUS (chanting)

Loudly, loudly raise the wail, and with white hands smite upon
your heads!

CREON
Ah! woe is thee, Jocasta! what an end to life and marriage hast

thou found the riddling of the Sphinx! But tell me how her two sons
wrought the bloody deed, the struggle caused by the curse of Oedipus.

MESSENGER
Of our successes before the towers thou knowest, for the walls are

not so far away as to prevent thy learning each event as it
occurred. Now when they, the sons of aged Oedipus, had donned their

brazen mail, they went and took their stand betwixt the hosts,
chieftains both and generals too, to decide the day by single

combat. Then Polyneices, turning his eyes towards Argos, lifted up a
prayer; "O Hera, awful queens-for thy servant I am, since I have

wedded the daughter of Adrastus and dwell in his land,-grant that I
may slay my brother, and stain my lifted hand with the blood of my

conquered foe. A shameful prize it is I ask, my own brother's
blood." And to many an eye the tear would rise at their sad fate,

and men looked at one another, casting their glances round.
But Eteocles, looking towards the temple of Pallas with the golden

shield, prayed thus, "Daughter of Zeus, grant that this right arm
may launch the spear of victory against my brother's breast and slay

him who hath come to sack my country." Soon as the Tuscan trumpet
blew, the signal for the bloody fray, like the torch that falls,' they

darted wildly at one another and, like boars whetting their savage
tusks, began the fray, their beards wet with foam; and they kept

shooting out their spears, but each crouched beneath his shield to let
the steel glance idly off; but if either saw the other's face above

the rim, he would aim his lance thereat, eager to outwit him.
But both kept such careful outlook through the spy-holes in

their shields, that their weapons found naught to do; while from the
on-lookers far more than the combatants trickled the sweat caused by

terror for their friends. Suddenly Eteocles, in kicking aside a
stone that rolled beneath his tread, exposed a limb outside his

shield, and Polyneices seeing a chance of dealing him a blow, aimed
a dart at it, and the Argive shaft went through his leg; whereat the

Danai, one and all, cried out for joy. But the wounded man, seeing a
shoulder unguarded in this effort, plunged his spear with all his

might into the breast of Polyneices, restoring gladness to the
citizens of Thebes, though he brake off the spear-head; and so, at a

loss for a weapon, he retreated foot by foot, till catching up
splintered rock he let it fly and shivered the other's spear; and

now was the combat equal, for each had lost his lance. Then
clutching their sword-hilts they closed, and round and round, with

shields close-locked, they waged their wild warfare. Anon Eteocles
introduced that crafty Thessalian trick, having some knowledge thereof

from his intercourse with that country; disengaging himself from the
immediate contest, he drew back his left foot but kept his eye closely

on the pit of the other's stomach from a distance; then advancing
his right foot he plunged his weapon through his navel and fixed it in

his spine. Down falls Polyneices, blood-bespattered, ribs and belly
contracting in his agony. But that other, thinking his victory now

complete, threw down his sword and set to spoiling him, wholly
intent thereon, without a thought for himself. And this indeed was his

ruin; for Polyneices, who had fallen first, was still faintly
breathing, and having in his grievous fall retained his sword, he made

last effort and drove it through the heart of Eteocles. There they
lie, fallen side by side, biting the dust with their teeth, without

having decided the mastery.
LEADER OF THE CHORUS

Ah, woe is thee! Oedipus, for thy sorrows! how I pity thee!
Heaven, it seems, has fulfilled those curses of thine.

MESSENGER
Now hear what further woes succeeded. Just as her two sons had

fallen and lay dying, comes their wretched mother on the scene, her
daughter with her, in hot haste; and when she saw their mortal wounds,

"Too late," she moaned, "my sons, the help I bring"; and throwing
herself on each in turn she wept and wailed, sorrowing o'er all her

toil in suckling them; and so too their sister, who was with her,
"Supporters of your mother's age I dear brothers, leaving me

forlorn, unwed!" Then prince Eteocles with one deep dying gasp,
hearing his mother's cry, laid on her his moist hand, and though he

could not say a word, his tear-filled eyes were eloquent to prove
his love. But Polyneices was still alive, and seeing his sister and

his aged mother he said, "Mother mine, our end is come; I pity thee
and my sister Antigone and my dead brother. For I loved him though