The Phoenician Women

Euripides

Euripides. The Plays of Euripides, Translated into English Prose from the Text of Paley. Vol. II. Coleridge, Edward P., translator. London: George Bell and Sons, 1891.

  1. Let the steel know, the sword be my witness!
Creon
  1. Why are you so eager to be released from this marriage?
Antigone
  1. I mean to share my hapless father’s exile.
Creon
  1. A noble spirit yours but there is some folly in it.
Antigone
  1. And I will share his death, I tell you further.
Creon
  1. Go, leave the land; you will not murder my son. Exit Creon.
Oedipus
  1. Daughter, for this loyal spirit I thank you.
Antigone
  1. How could I marry, while you went into exile alone, father?
Oedipus
  1. Stay here and be happy; I will bear my own load of sorrow.
Antigone
  1. And who will tend you in your blindness, father?
Oedipus
  1. Where fate appoints, there I will fall and lie down upon the ground.
Antigone
  1. Where is Oedipus, and that famous riddle?
Oedipus
  1. Lost! One day blessed me, one destroyed me.
Antigone
  1. May I not also share your sorrows?
Oedipus
  1. To wander with her blinded father would be shameful for his daughter.
Antigone
  1. Not so, father, but glory, if she is discreet.
Oedipus
  1. Lead me near, so that I may touch your mother’s corpse.
Antigone
  1. There, embrace the aged form so dear to you.
Oedipus
  1. O mother, o most wretched wife!
Antigone
  1. Pitiably she lies, who suffered every evil at once.