Wednesday, November 07, 2018
Fate
Sophocles, Antigone 951-954 (tr. Hugh Lloyd-Jones):
Newer› ‹Older
But the power of fate is strange; neither wealth nor martial valour, nor a wall, nor black ships crashing through the sea can escape it.Commentators compare Bacchylides, fragment 24 (tr. David A. Campbell):
ἀλλ᾿ ἁ μοιριδία τις δύνασις δεινά·
οὔτ᾿ ἄν νιν ὄλβος οὔτ᾿ Ἄρης,
οὐ πύργος, οὐχ ἁλίκτυποι
κελαιναὶ νᾶες ἐκφύγοιεν.
But mortals are not free to choose prosperity nor stubborn war nor all-destroying civil strife: Destiny, giver of all things, moves a cloud now over this land, now over that.
θνατοῖσι δ᾿ οὐκ αὐθαίρετοι
οὔτ᾿ ὄλβος οὔτ᾿ ἄκναμπτος Ἄρης
οὔτε πάμφθερσις στάσις,
ἀλλ᾿ ἐπιχρίμπτει νέφος ἄλλοτ᾿ ἐπ᾿ ἄλλαν
γαῖαν ἁ πάνδωρος Αἶσα.
