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Enter Theseus.
Theseus
Cease your lament, children! Where the favor of the nether night is stored up, there is no room for sorrow; divine retribution would follow. Antigone
Son of Aegeus, we supplicate you! Theseus
[1755] To obtain what desire, my children? Antigone
We want look with our own eyes upon our father's tomb. Theseus
It is not right to go there. Antigone
What do you mean, lord, ruler of Athens?
Theseus
[1760] Children, he told me that no one should draw near that place, or approach with prayer the sacred tomb in which he sleeps. He said that, so long as I saw to this, I would always keep the country free from pain. [1765] The divinity heard me say these things, as did the all-seeing Oath of Zeus. Antigone
If this is his intention, we must be content with it. [1770] Send us to ancient Thebes, in case we may somehow stop the bloodshed that threatens our brothers. Theseus
I will do both this and whatever other favorable service I can, for you [1775] and for the newly-departed under the earth, according to the gratitude I owe. I am bound to spare no pains. Chorus
Cease; raise up the lamentation no further. These things are established firm and fixed.
Sophocles. The Oedipus at Colonus of Sophocles. Edited with introduction and notes by Sir Richard Jebb. Sir Richard Jebb. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press. 1889.
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