Perchance another act of piety Will make amends: I killed my father; true, But still I loved my mother.--Oh, 'tis shame To mention such a wedlock; yet I will, And force myself to bear this punishment, To tell abroad my more than bestial crime, So strange, that nations stand in dumb amaze, 265 So shameful, that no age will credit it, That e'en the shameless parricide is shocked: Into my father's bed I bore my hands Smeared with my father's blood, and there received The wages of my crime--a greater crime. My father's murder was a trivial thing; 270 But, that my sum of crime might be complete, My mother, to my marriage chamber led, Conceived--Oh, how could nature e'er endure A greater crime? And yet, if aught remains, I have begotten children vile enough To do this also. I have cast away The scepter which I won by parricide, 275 And with it other hands are armed for war. Full well do I my kingdom's fortune know, That never more shall any gain the throne Without the sacrifice of kindred blood. Dire evils doth my father-soul presage, For even now are sown the baleful seeds Of future strife; the plighted pact is spurned; 280 One will not yield the throne he hath usurped, The other claims his right, calls on the gods To witness of his bond, and, driven from home, Moves Argos and the towns of Greece to arms. No light destruction comes to weary Thebes; For weapons, flames, and wounds press hard on her, 285 And greater woes than these, if such there be, That all may know I have begotten sons. _Antigone:_ If thou no other cause for living hast, My father, this one reason is enough, That thou as father mayst restrain thy sons From deadly strife. Thou only canst avert 290 Their threats of impious war, curb their mad hearts, Give peace to citizens, to country rest, And to their broken treaty honest faith. To many men art thou refusing life, If for thyself thou dost refuse to live.