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Chorus of Theban Elders

Even Danaë's beauty endured exchanging the light

of the heavens for chambers bound in bronze.⁽¹⁰⁸⁾945

Hidden in a tomb-

like chamber, she was bent to the yoke.

And yet, honored in birth, O child, child,

she became keeper for the gold-streaming seed of Zeus.950

But the power of fate (whatever it may be) is terrible and wonderful.

Neither wealth nor Ares,

no tower, no dark ships

beaten by the sea can escape it.
 

Yoked was Dryas' hot-headed son,955

King of Edonians, for his heart-stinging rage.⁽¹⁰⁹⁾

Shut away at Dionysus'

command in a rocky bondage.

Thus his madness' flowering might, terrible and wonderful,

trickles away. That one in madness touched the god 960

with heart-stinging tongues and came to know him.

He would stop the women taken by god

and the fire of the god's holy Eu-oi-oi-oi-oi ⁽¹¹⁰⁾

and anger the Muses who love the flute.965
 

Beside the expanse of the twin seas' Dark Rocks,⁽¹¹¹⁾

lie the shores of the Bosphorus . . . and Thracian

Salmydessus where its neighbor Ares 970

saw upon the two sons of Phineus

an accursed wound

of blindness dealt by his savage wife,

a wound inflicting blindness upon orbs

appealing for vengeance from eyes pierced975

by bloody hands and pointed shuttles.⁽¹¹²⁾
 

Wretchedly wasting away, they weep their wretched

suffering, having birth from a mother ill-wed.980

The queen is the seed of

the sons of Erechtheus, an ancient lineage,

and in far-off caves

she was reared amid paternal storms,

daughter of Boreas, swift with the horses across the steep hills,985

child of gods. But even over that one

the long-lived Fates wielded power, child.
 

[An old man, led by a boy, enters by the gangway from the city.⁽¹¹³⁾]
 

Tiresias

Lords of Thebes, we come by a common road,

two seeing from one. For the blind,

this way by a guide is usual.990
 

Creon

What is new, aged Tiresias?
 

Tiresias

I shall inform you, and, for your part, obey the prophet.
 

Creon

I did not differ before from your purpose, did I?
 

Tiresias

No, and you steered the city on a straight course.
 

Creon

From experience I can bear witness to your aid.⁽¹¹⁴⁾995
 

Tiresias

Now that you have come onto the razor's edge of chance, start thinking.
 

Creon

What is it? How I shudder at your voice.
 

Tiresias

You shall know when you have heard the marks of my craft.

Sitting at the ancient seat for watching birds,⁽¹¹⁵⁾

where lies my sanctuary for every bird,1000

I hear an unknown sound of birds shrieking

with a gadfly⁽¹¹⁶⁾ sinister and barbarous.

And that they were tearing one another apart with murderous claws, I came

to realize, for the whirling of wings was not without its own mark.

Frightened, I immediately tested the burnt offerings1005

on altars set fully ablaze, but from the sacrifices

Hephaestus did not shine forth, but onto the ashes

the juices oozing from the thigh pieces were melting

and smoking and sputtering, and the bladders

were exploding gall into the air, and dripping1010

thigh bones were exposed from their enveloping fat.

Such things I learned from this boy,

prophecies withering away from rites bearing no marks,

for he is my guide as I am for others.

As for this situation, the city is sick from your thinking.1015

Absolutely all our altars and braziers

are filled by birds and dogs with the meat

of the unfortunate fallen son of Oedipus.

No longer do the gods accept prayers from us

at sacrifices or the flames from our thigh pieces,1020

nor do the birds scream cries that mark meaning clearly

since they are glutted on the fat of a slain man's blood.

Therefore, think about this, child. For men,

all of them, it is common to make mistakes.

Whenever he does make a mistake, that man is still not1025

foolish or unhappy who, fallen into evil,

applies a remedy and does not become immovable.

Stubborn self-will incurs a charge of stupidity.

No, yield to the dead, and do not goad

the deceased. What valor this-- to slay the dead again?1030

I have thought this out well and speak for

your good. Learning from someone speaking kindly

is very pleasant, if he speaks to your profit.
 

Creon

Elder, all of you, like bowmen at their target,

shoot arrows at this man. I am not without experience

of that prophetic craft of yours. By the tribe of those1035

of your ilk, I have been sold off like wares and loaded as cargo before.

Pursue your profits, sell electrum from Sardis,⁽¹¹⁷⁾

if you wish, and the gold of India.

You will not hide that one with a tomb,

not even if Zeus's eagles want to seize1040

him for meat and carry him to the thrones of Zeus.

Not even fearing this pollution,

will I give him up for burying, for well I know that

none among men has the power to pollute gods.

They fall shameful falls, old man Tiresias, those of mortals 1045

who are very clever, whenever they utter shameful

words nobly for the sake of profit.
 

Tiresias

Pheu,

does any man know, does he consider . . .
 

Creon

Just what? What old saw are you saying?
 

Tiresias

by how much the best of possessions is good counsel?1050
 

Creon

By as much, I suppose, as not to have sense is the greatest harm.
 

Tiresias

You certainly were full of this sickness.
 

Creon

I prefer not to speak evil of a prophet.
 

Tiresias

And yet, you do, when you say I prophecy falsely.
 

Creon

Yes, for the whole family of prophets is philos to silver.1055
 

Tiresias

And the family of absolute rulers holds disgraceful profits as philoi.
 

Creon

Do you know what you are saying you say of sovereigns?⁽¹¹⁸⁾
 

Tiresias

I do, since on my account you saved the city and have it now.
 

Creon

You are a skilled prophet but one who is philos to wrongdoing.
 

Tiresias

You will goad me to say in my breast that ought not be moved. 1060
 

Creon

Move them. Only do not do so by speaking for profit.
 

Tiresias

Do I seem to you to speak that way?
 

Creon

Know that you are not going to sell my purpose.
 

Tiresias

Know this well: you will no longer

finish many successive laps of the sun1065

in which you yourself will have repaid one

from your own loins, a corpse in return for corpses,

because you have cast one of those up here down there,

and while domiciling a living being in a tomb without honor,

you have one of those belonging to the lower gods up here,1070

a corpse without portion, without burial rites, without holiness.

In those things, neither you nor the gods above have

a share, but for this they⁽¹¹⁹⁾ are being violated by you.

For this reason, mutilators whose destruction comes afterwards,

lie in ambush for you, the Erinyes of Hades and the gods,1075

so that you may be caught in these same evils.

Consider whether I am saying this, silvered

in bribes, for the wearing away of not a long time

will reveal the laments for men, for women in your house.⁽¹²⁰⁾

All the cities⁽¹²¹⁾ are thrown into disorder by hostility⁽¹²²⁾ 1080

whose severed bodies either dogs have consecrated

or beasts or some winged bird, carrying

an unhallowed stench into the city of their hearths.

Such bolts, for you rile me, like an archer

I let loose in rage at your heart,1085

sure bolts whose heat you will not run out from under.

Boy, lead us home, so this one

may vent his rage on younger men

and learn to nourish a tongue calmer

and a mind in his breast better than he now bears.1090
 

[Exit Tiresias, led by the boy.]
 

Coryphaeus

Lord, the man is gone after uttering terrible prophecies.

We know, from the time I put on

white hair from black,

that he never cried out falsehood to a city.
 

Creon

I know this myself, and I shutter in my breast.1095

For to yield is terrible, but to resist and

smite my rage with ruin present a terrible alternative.
 

Coryphaeus

There is need, son of Menoeceus, to take good counsel.
 

Creon

What ought I to do, then? Tell me. I will obey.
 

Coryphaeus

Go, release the maiden from the cavernous room,1100

and build a tomb for the one lying forth.
 

Creon

You advise this? It is best for me to yield?
 

Coryphaeus

As quickly as possible, lord, the gods' swift-footed

Harms cut short those who think badly.⁽¹²³⁾
 

Creon

Ah me! it is hard, but I abandon my heart to do it. 1105

A vain battle must not be waged against necessity.
 

Coryphaeus

Go, and do these things. Do not entrust them to others.
 

Creon

I should go just as I am. Come, come, servants,

both those present and those not present. Take up

axes, and rush to the place in plain sight.⁽¹²⁴⁾ 1110

Since my opinion turns around in this direction,

I bound her myself, and I will go there and release her.

For I fear that it is best for one to end

his life preserving the established customs.

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