WORD LISTS

"Antigone" by Sophocles, List 3

Tue Jul 15 15:00:04 EDT 2025
By Vocabulary.com (NY)Visual Thesaurus Moderator
After defying her uncle, the king of Thebes, Antigone is sentenced to death. This classical tragedy, translated from the Greek by Francis Storr, explores the tension between duty and family.

"To me, unless old age have dulled wits"—"Wisdom brings to age at last."

Here are links to our lists for the play: List 1, List 2, List 3

Here is a link to our list for Oedipus the King by Sophocles.
prudence
What, would you have us at our age be schooled,
Lessoned in prudence by a beardless boy?
consort
Think not that in my sight the maid shall die,
Or by my side; never shalt thou again
Behold my face hereafter. Go, consort
With friends who like a madman for their mate.
bane
Mark ye the cruel laws that now have wrought my bane
heinous
Thus by the law of conscience I was led
To honor thee, dear brother, and was judged
By Creon guilty of a heinous crime.
succor
What ordinance of heaven have I transgressed?
Hereafter can I look to any god
For succor, call on any man for help?
puissant
My fatherland, city of Thebes divine,
Ye gods of Thebes whence sprang my line,
Look, puissant lords of Thebes, on me;
The last of all your royal house ye see.
presentiment
Thy words inspire a dread presentiment.
augury
Sitting upon my throne of augury,
As is my wont, where every fowl of heaven
Find harborage, upon mine ears was borne
A jargon strange of twitterings, hoots, and screams
abominate
Therefore the angry gods abominate
Our litanies and our burnt offerings
obstinate
To err is common
To all men, but the man who having erred
Hugs not his errors, but repents and seeks
The cure, is not a wastrel nor unwise.
No fool, the saw goes, like the obstinate fool.
usurp
For that thou hast entombed a living soul,
And sent below a denizen of earth,
And wronged the nether gods by leaving here
A corpse unlaved, unwept, unsepulchered.
Herein thou hast no part, nor e'en the gods
In heaven; and thou usurp'st a power not thine.
impenitent
Vengeance of the gods
Is swift to overtake the impenitent.
contrite
We offered first a prayer
To Pluto and the goddess of cross-ways,
With contrite hearts, to deprecate their ire.
supplicate
When the King saw him, with a terrible groan
He moved towards him, crying, "O my son
What hast thou done? What ailed thee? What mischance
Has reft thee of thy reason? O come forth,
Come forth, my son; thy father supplicates."
chastisement
Swelling words of high-flown might
Mightily the gods do smite.
Chastisement for errors past
Wisdom brings to age at last.

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