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. 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.
Oedipus
  1. Where are the corpses of Eteocles, and of Polyneices?
Antigone
  1. Here they both lie, stretched out side by side.
Oedipus
  1. Lay my blind hand upon their poor faces.