Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE PHOENICIAN WOMEN: ETEOCLES AND POLYNICES, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: My son polynices, now you have first word
Last Line: Let me do wrong, and elsewhere be devout!


JOCASTA. POLYNICES. CHORUS. ETEOCLES

JOC.

My son Polynices, now you have first word,
For you at head of Grecian army are come,
Dealt meanly with, you say; but may some God
Decide this thing, and reconcile us of harm.

POL.

O simple is the saying of the truth,
And what is just, itself being fit, requires
No clever gloss; it is the unjust cause
That sick within wants dose of sophistry.
I have been thinking of my father's house
Both mine and my brother's, eager to escape
The curse that OEdipus called down on us.
I freely left this land, giving it him
To rule there for the rounding of a year,
If I might then myself in turn receive it
And rule there, not in battle or bloodshed coming
To inflict and suffer hurt, as I now must.
And this he approved, and gave me his pledged word,
But carried out no pledge; and now the rule
My brother enjoys, and what is part my house.
And now I am ready what is mine to accept, --
Dismissing all my army from the land,
To dwell within my house, my own turn taking,
Leaving it for my brother as long again --
Rather than waste this country, bringing up
Ladders built for attack against the towers,
As, if I lack redress, I'll seek to do.
Bear witness all the spirits I now invoke,
That all I do is just, and justice failing
I shall be held most foully from my land.
Now mother I have said my say complete,
Not gathering twisted words, but what is just
For wise, I think, and simple men to approve.

CHO.

For me, though Grecian soil was not our nurse,
Yet still for me your word has sense enough.

ET.

If good and wise were but one thing for all,
Men would not have contention so, nor strife;
But, as it is, there is no equal or just --
Such things are found only in name, not fact.
Now mother I will speak and nothing hide;
I to the ultimate risings of the planets
And under the earth would go, could I do that,
If Sovranty, the queen of gods, be mine.
Therefore this treasure, mother, I will not
Pass on to another, but I'll hold it mine.
A cowardly thing to lose the greater part
And take the less; moreover I am ashamed
That he approaching armed, the country spoiling,
Should get his purpose -- and for Thebes were shame
If I afraid of Mycenaean arms
Should give my brother this my sceptre to bear!
His reconciliation not with arms
He should have made, O mother; spoken word
Gets all that enemy steel could ever do.
Yet if no king he here consents to live,
Let live! but I will not relinquish rule.
Am I, if I can reign, to be his slave?
Now therefore welcome fire and welcome sword,
The horses yoke, and with chariots fill the plain.
I will not yield him Sovranty; but if
I wrongly must do, then for my Sovranty
Let me do wrong, and elsewhere be devout!





Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!


Other Poems of Interest...
Home: PoetryExplorer.net