_Ant._ By a loved hand thou hast perished. _Ism._ And a loved form thou hast slaughtered. _Ant._ Double woes are ours to tell of. _Ism._ Double woes too ours to look on. _Ant._ *Twofold sorrows from near kindred. _Ism._ *Sisters we by brothers standing. _Ant._ Terrible are they to tell of. 970 _Ism._ Terrible are they to look on. _Chor._ Ah me, thou Destiny, Giver of evil gifts, and working woe, And thou dread spectral form of Œdipus, And swarth Erinnys too, A mighty one art thou. ANTISTROPHE _Ant._ Ah me! ah me! woes dread to look on.... _Ism._ Ye showed to me, returned from exile. _Ant._ Not, when he had slain, returned he. _Ism._ Nay, he, saved from exile, perished. 980 _Ant._ Yea, I trow too well, he perished. _Ism._ And his brother, too, he murdered. _Ant._ Woeful, piteous, are those brothers! _Ism._ Woeful, piteous, all they suffered! _Ant._ Woes of kindred wrath enkindling! _Ism._ Saturate with threefold horrors! _Ant._ Terrible are they to tell of. _Ism._ Terrible are they to look on. _Chor._ Ah me, thou Destiny, Giver of evil gifts, and stern of soul, And thou dread spectral form of Œdipus, 990 And swarth Erinnys too, A mighty one art thou. EPODE _Ant._ Thou, then, by full trial knowest.... _Ism._ Thou, too, no whit later learning.... _Ant._ When thou cam'st back to this city[131].... _Ism._ Rival to our chief in warfare. _Ant._ Woe, alas! for all our troubles! _Ism._ Woe, alas! for all our evils! _Ant._ Evils fallen on our houses! _Ism._ Evils fallen on our country! _Ant._ And on me before all others.... _Ism._ And to me the future waiting.... 1000 _Ant._ Woe for those two brothers luckless! _Ism._ King Eteocles, our leader! _Ant._ Oh, before all others wretched! _Ism._ . . . . . _Ant._ Ah, by Atè frenzy-stricken! _Ism._ Ah, where now shall they be buried? _Ant._ There where grave is highest honour. _Ism._ Ah, the woe my father wedded! _Enter a_ Herald _Her._ 'Tis mine the judgment and decrees to publish Of this Cadmeian city's counsellors: It is decreed Eteocles to honour, For his good-will towards this land of ours, 1010 With seemly burial, such as friend may claim; For warding off our foes he courted death; Pure as regards his country's holy things, Blameless he died where death the young beseems; This then I'm ordered to proclaim of him. But for his brother's, Polyneikes' corpse, To cast it out unburied, prey for dogs, As working havoc on Cadmeian land, Unless some God had hindered by the spear Of this our prince;[132] and he, though, dead, shall gain 1020 The curse of all his father's Gods, whom he