1 Sophocles' Antigone Introduction, translation, and notes by ...

He stood above our houses,
Ringing them with spears hungry for gore,
But he fled before they had tasted our blood,
Before the fire of Hephaestus' pine torches 10
Had seized the crown of our towers.
Such was the din of war beating his back;
He was no match for the dragon race of Thebes. 11
Zeus hates a boastful tongue.
Seeing them advance in full force
With the overweening pride of shimmering gold,
Just as one reaches the highest towers
And prepares to bellow victory,
Zeus brings him down with his lightning bolt. 12
Down he falls and hits the hard earth,
That fire-bearer who raged, a wild Bacchant in his mad attack, 13
And breathed on us the blasts of hostile winds.
His plan to take the city went awry.
The worthy war-god gave victory to one, defeat to another;
Shattering the enemy he raced our chariot to victory.
Seven spearmen for seven gates,
Matched equal to equal;
Six won and gave their all-bronze weapons
To Zeus the trophy-collector,
While six fell defeated.
But at the seventh gate the ill-fated brothers,
Born of one father and one mother,
Clashed their spears, and
Both lost, sharing a double death.
Since glorious Victory has come
Answering with joy the joy of Thebes,
Let us forget the war
And dance our victory into the night.
We shall visit the shrines of the gods;
May Bacchus be the lord of a dance
That will shake the land of Thebes.
10 Hephaestus, Hera's son, is the god of fire, and carpenter of the gods, married to Aphrodite.
11 The Thebans were said to have been born from the teeth of the dragon slain by Cadmus, the founder of
Thebes.
12 This is Capaneus, who is known for his arrogant boasting; he said he would sack Thebes even if Zeus, the
king of the gods, opposed him. He was blasted by Zeus' lightning bolt.
13 Bacchants were worshippers of Dionysus, the god of the theatre and of wine. They were traditionally
shown as wild creatures, possessed by the god and ranging the mountains. In my translation Bacchant refers
to the male worshiper and Bacchante the female. Bacchus is another name for Dionysus.
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