Creon enters. He is followed by attendants carrying the body of Menoeceus.
Creon
[1310]
Ah me! what shall I do? Am I to mourn with tears myself or my city, which has a cloud around it [as if it went through Acheron]? My son has died for his country, bringing glory to his name, but grievous woe to me.
[1315]
His body I have just now taken from the dragon's rocky lair and sadly carried the self-slain victim here in my arms; and the house is filled with weeping; but now I have come for my sister Jocasta, age seeking age, that she may bathe my child's corpse and lay it out.
[1320]
For those who are not dead must reverence the god below by paying honor to the dead.
Chorus Leader
Your sister, Creon, has gone out, and her daughter Antigone went with her.
Creon
Where did she go? What happened? Tell me.
Chorus Leader
[1325]
She heard that her sons were about to engage in single combat for the royal house.
Creon
What do you mean? In my tenderness to my dead son, I was not able to learn this.
Chorus Leader
It is some time, Creon, since your sister's departure,
[1330]
and I expect the struggle for life and death is already decided by the sons of Oedipus.
Creon
Alas! I see a sign there, the gloomy look and face of the messenger coming to tell us the whole matter.
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Euripides. The Complete Greek Drama, edited by Whitney J. Oates and Eugene O'Neill, Jr. in two volumes. 2. The Phoenissae, translated by E. P. Coleridge. New York. Random House. 1938.
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