or over the groaning straits!
ChorusO Leader of the chorus of the
stars whose breath is fire, overseer of the chants in the night, son
begotten of Zeus, appear, my
king, with your attendant Thyiads, who in night-long frenzy dance and
sing you as Iacchus the Giver!
Enter Messenger, on the spectators’ left.MessengerNeighbors of the house of Cadmus and of Amphion, there
is no station of human life that I would ever praise or blame as being
settled. Fortune sets upright and Fortune sinks the lucky and unlucky
from day to day, and no one can prophesy to men concerning the order
that has just been established. For Creon, as I saw it, was once blest:
he had saved this land of Cadmus from its enemies; and having won sole
and total dominion in the land, he guided it on a straight course and
flourished in his noble crop of children. And now all this has been lost. When a man has
forfeited his pleasures, I do not reckon his existence as life, but
consider him just a breathing corpse. Heap up riches in your house, if
you wish! Live with a tyrant’s pomp! But if there is no joyalong with all of that, I would not pay even the shadow
of smoke for all the rest, compared with joy.