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Three Millennia of Greek Literature
 

Sophocles Bilingual Anthology
NOTHING MORE WONDERFUL AND FRIGHTENING THAN MAN

from Antigone, * Lines 332-383, * Translated by R. C. Jebb, Greek Fonts


ELPENOR EDITIONS IN PRINT
Page 3

And speech, and wind-swift thought, and all the moods that mould a state, hath he taught himself; and how to flee the arrows of the frost, when 'tis hard lodging under the clear sky, and the arrows of the rushing rain; yea, he hath resource for all; without resource he meets nothing that must come: only against Death shall he call for aid in vain; but from baffling maladies he hath devised escapes.


Cunning beyond fancy's dream is the fertile skill which brings him, now to evil, now to good. When he honours the laws of the land, and that justice which he hath sworn by the gods to uphold, proudly stands his city: no city hath he who, for his rashness, dwells with sin. Never may he share my hearth, never think my thoughts, who doth these things!

Καὶ φθέγμα καὶ ἀνεμόεν φρόνημα καὶ ἀστυνόμους ὀργὰς ἐδιδάξατο͵ καὶ δυσαύλων πάγων ἐναίθρεια καὶ δύσομβρα φεύγειν βέλη παντοπόρος· ἄπορος ἐπ΄ οὐδὲν ἔρχεται τὸ μέλλον· Ἅιδα μόνον φεῦξιν οὐκ ἐπάξεται͵ νόσων δ΄ ἀμηχάνων φυγὰς ξυμπέφρασται.  

 

Σοφόν τι τὸ μηχανόεν τέχνας ὑπὲρ ἐλπίδ΄ ἔχων͵ τοτὲ μὲν κακόν͵ ἄλλοτ΄ ἐπ΄ ἐσθλὸν ἕρπει͵ νόμους παρείρων χθονὸς θεῶν τ΄ ἔνορκον δίκαν ὑψίπολις· ἄπολις ὅτῳ τὸ μὴ καλὸν ξύνεστι τόλμας χάριν· μήτ΄ ἐμοὶ παρέστιος γένοιτο μήτ΄ ἴσον φρονῶν ὃς τάδ΄ ἔρδοι. 

Cf. SAPPHO : Dearest Earth's offspring and Heaven's ||| AESCHYLUS : Nobody's slaves, The technology of a new God ||| PLATO : We are a heavenly flower, Disease and deformity of the soul ||| GREGORY THE THEOLOGIAN : God with Gods is being united ||| PAPATSONIS : Hestia, Wisdom, In Rising Sound

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Reference address : https://ellopos.net/elpenor/greek-texts/ancient-greece/sophocles-man.asp?pg=3