A source-book of ancient history - The Search For Mecca

A Chariot-Race 191
every round, steadfast in his steadfast car; at last slacken-
ing his left rein while the horse was turning, unawares
he struck the edge of the pillar; he broke the axle-box in
twain; he was thrown over the chariot-rail; he was caught
in the shapely reins; and as he fell on the ground, his colts
were scattered into the middle of the course.
But when the people saw him fallen from the car, a
cry of pity went up for the youth, who had now done such
Orestes
deeds and was meeting such a doom,—now dashed to This false _
earth, now tossed feet uppermost to the sky,— till the death was
charioteers, with difficulty checking the career of his ceive^the^"
horses, loosed him, so covered with blood that no friend hearer.
Such fatal-
•
1 1111 1 , ,
who saw it would have known the hapless corpse. Straight- ities, howway
they burned it on a pyre; and chosen men of Phocis doubtlesr
are bringing in a small urn of bronze the sad dust of that
mighty form, to find due burial in his fatherland.
"°'- "i^com-
mon.
The human
Antigone. Ismene, sister, mine own dear sister, knowest Jf.^ ''^•'^u^C
thou what ill there is, of all bequeathed by CEdipus, that divine.
Zeus fulfils not for us twain while we live? Nothing pain- Sophocles,
o r- Anligofie
ful is there, nothing fraught with ruin, no shame, no dis- (opening).
honor, that I have not seen in thy woes and mine.
^vcknt^^^'
And now what new edict is this of which they tell, World, 93.
that our Captain hath just published to all Thebes? Sf attacked
Knowest thou aught? Hast thou heard? Or
their city,
is it hidden
° Thebes, and
from thee that our friends are threatened with the doom had been
e r -> driven off.
of our foes?
Their brother
Ismene. No word of friends, Antigone, gladsome or hrd^^eenwith
painful, hath come to me, since we two sisters were bereft the enemy.
of brothers twain, killed in one day by a twofold blow; and
Eteocles,
if.,
' -^
other in
Ant. I knew it well, and therefore sought to brmg thee battle.
since in this last night the Argive host hath fled, I know no brother had
more, whether my fortune be brighter, or more grievous, killed each