Æschylos Tragedies and Fragments

Who cleanse thee from the guilt?
Ah me! O sorrows new,
That mingle with the old woes of our house!

Antistrophe II

I tell the ancient tale
Of sin that brought swift doom;
Till the third age it waits,
Since Laios, heeding not
Apollo's oracle,
(Though spoken thrice to him
In Pythia's central shrine,)
That dying childless, he should save the State.

Strophe III

But he by those he loved full rashly swayed,
Doom for himself begat,
His murderer Œdipus,
Who dared to sow in field
Unholy, whence he sprang,
A root of blood-flecked woe.
Madness together brought
Bridegroom and bride accursed.

Antistrophe III

And now the sea of evil pours its flood:
This falling, others rise,
As with a triple crest,
Which round the State's stern roars:
And but a bulwark slight,
A tower's poor breadth, defends:
And lest the city fall
With its two kings I fear.

Strophe IV

And that atonement of the ancient curse
Receives fulfilment now;[118 - The two brothers, i. e., are set at one again, but it is not in the bonds of friendship, but in those of death.]
And when they come, the evils pass not by.
E'en so the wealth of sea-adventurers,
When heaped up in excess,
Leads but to cargo from the stern thrown out.[119 - The image meets us again in Agam. 980. Here the thought is, that a man too prosperous is like a ship too heavily freighted. He must part with a portion of his possession in order to save the rest. Not to part with them leads, when the storm rages, to an enforced abandonment and utter loss.]

Antistrophe IV

For whom of mortals did the Gods so praise,
And fellow-worshippers,
And race of those who feed their flocks and herds[120 - Another reading gives —“And race of those who crowd the Agora.”]
As much as then they honoured Œdipus,
Who from our country's bounds
Had driven the monster, murderess of men?

Strophe V

And when too late he knew,
Ah, miserable man! his wedlock dire,
Vexed sore with that dread shame,
With heart to madness driven,
He wrought a twofold ill,
And with the hand that smote his father's life
Blinded the eyes that might his sons have seen.

Antistrophe V

And with a mind provoked
By nurture scant, he at his sons did hurl[121 - This seems to have been one form of the legends as to the cause of the curse which Œdipus had launched upon his sons, An alternative rendering is —And with a mind enragedAt thought of what they were whom he had reared,He at his sons did hurlHis curses dire and dark.]
His curses dire and dark,
(Ah, bitter curses those!)
That they with spear in hand
Should one day share their father's wealth; and I
Fear now lest swift Erinnys should fulfil them.

Enter Messenger

Mess. Be of good cheer, ye maidens, mother-reared;
Our city has escaped the yoke of bondage,
The boasts of mighty men are fallen low,
And this our city in calm waters floats,
And, though by waves lashed, springs not any leak.
Our fortress still holds out, and we did guard
The gates with champions who redeemed their pledge.
In the six gateways almost all goes well;
But the seventh gate did King Apollo choose,[122 - Sc., when Eteocles fell, Apollo took his place at the seventh gate, and turned the tide of war in favour of the Thebans.]
Seventh mighty chief, avenging Laios' want
Of counsel on the sons of Œdipus.

Chor. What new disaster happens to our city?[123 - I follow in this dialogue the arrangement which Paley adopts from Hermann.]

Mess. The city's saved, but both the royal brothers…

Chor. Who? and what of them? I'm distraught with fear.

Mess. Be calm, and hear: the sons of Œdipus…

Chor. Oh wretched me! a prophet I of ill!

Mess. Slain by each other, earth has drunk their blood.