Chorus.
O mighty Zeus, and all ye guardian powers
Who save, in very sooth, these towers
Of Cadmos, whether now 820
Shall I rejoice, and in triumphant strain,
Our town's unharming saviour, Fortune, hail,
Or those war-chiefs bewail,
Wretched, ill-fated, childless twain,
Who rightly, as their names avow—[1]
Names full of glory and of strife.
Are through intent unhallowed reft of life.
Strophe.
Dark curse, with full completion crowned,
Of Œdipus, inherent in the race!
Hovers an evil chill my heart around. 830
Like Bacchanal, when on mine ear
The tidings fell that the blood-dripping slain
Through evil Fate had died—their tomb to grace,
A dirge I wove, sad strain.—
Ill-omened is this concert of the spear.
Antistrophe.
Their father's baleful curse hath wrought,
Untired, its battle to the bitter end;
Now Laios' wilful counsels have their meed.
- ↑ οἵ δῆτ᾽. As only one of the brothers, Polyneikes, could be said to have perished ὀρθῶς κατ᾽ ἐπωνυμίαν, Hermann thinks part of a verse lost with an allusion to the name of Eteocles.—Paley. I have adopted Mr. Newman's suggestion, κάρτ᾽ ἐτεοκλεῖς καὶ πολυνείκεις.
