Sophocles

Child of an old blind sire, Antigone, What region, say, whose city have we reached? Who will provide today with scanted dole This wanderer? ’Tis little that he craves, And less obtains — that less enough for me; For I am taught by suffering to endure, And the long years that have grown old with me, And last not least, by true nobility. My daughter, if thou seest a resting place On common…

THERE is a saying among men, put forth of old, that thou canst not rightly judge whether a mortal’s lot is good or evil, ere he die. But I, even before I have passed to the world of death, know well that my life is sorrowful and bitter; I, who in the house of my father Oeneus, while yet I dwelt at Pleuron, had such fear of bridals as never vexed any maiden of Aetolia. For my wooer was a… Read the rest of this passage →

Son of Laertes, ever do I behold thee Scheming to snatch some vantage o’er thy foes. And now among the tents that guard the ships Of Ajax, camped at the army’s outmost verge, Long have I watched thee hunting in his trail, And scanning his fresh prints, to learn if now He be within or forth. Skilled in the chase Thou seemest, as a keen-nosed Spartan hound. For the man but now has passed… Read the rest of this passage →

Son of him who led our hosts at Troy of old, son of Agamemnon! — now thou mayest behold with thine eyes all that thy soul hath desired so long. There is the ancient Argos of thy yearning, — that hallowed scene whence the gadfly drove the daughter of Inachus; and there, Orestes, is the Lycean Agora, named from the wolf-slaying god; there, on the left, Hera’s famous temple; and in this place to…

He’s gone to guard each avenue; and now, If thou hast aught of moment to impart Touching our purpose, say it; I attend. Ulysses Son of Achilles, mark me well! Remember, What we are doing not on strength alone, Or courage, but oil conduct will depend; Therefore if aught uncommon be proposed, Strange to thy ears and adverse to thy nature, Reflect that ’tis thy duty to comply, And act…