Wonders are many, and none is more
wonderful than man. This power
spans the sea, even when it surges white before the gales of the
south-wind, and makes a path under swells that threaten to engulf him.
Earth, too, the eldest of the gods, the immortal, the
unwearied, he wears away to
his own ends, turning the soil with the offspring of horses as the plows
weave to and fro year after year.
ChorusThe light-hearted tribe of
birds and the clans of wild
beasts and the sea-brood of the deep he snares in the meshes of his
twisted nets, and he leads them captive, very-skilled man. He masters by
his arts the beast who dwells in
the wilds and roams the hills. He tames the shaggy-maned horse, putting
the yoke upon its neck, and tames the tireless mountain bull.
ChorusSpeech and thought fast as
the wind and the moods that
give order to a city he has taught himself, and how to flee the arrows
of the inhospitable frost under clear skies and the arrows of the
storming rain. He has resource for
everything. Lacking resource in nothing he strides towards what must
come. From Death alone he shall procure no escape, but from baffling
diseases he has devised flights.
ChorusPossessing resourceful skill, a
subtlety beyond expectation he moves now to evil, now to good. When he
honors the laws of the land and the justice of the gods to which he is
bound by oath, his city prospers.
But banned from his city is he who, thanks to his rashness, couples with
disgrace. Never may he share my home, never think my thoughts, who does these things!
Enter the Guard, on the spectators’ left, leading in
Antigone.ChorusWhat marvel sent by the gods is this?—I am
bewildered! I know her. How can I deny that this girl is Antigone? O
unhappy child of your unhappy father, of Oedipus! What can this
mean? What! Surely they are not bringing you captive for disobeying
the King’s laws and being caught in lunacy?