A Book of Golden Deeds | Page 7

was a lovely grove--

'All the haunts of Attic ground, Where the matchless coursers bound,
Boast not, through their realms of bliss, Other spot so fair as this.
Frequent down this greenwood dale Mourns the warbling nightingale,
Nestling 'mid the thickest screen Of the ivy's darksome green, Or where
each empurpled shoot Drooping with its myriad fruit, Curl'd in many a
mazy twine, Droops the never-trodden vine.' ANSTICE.
This beautiful grove was sacred to the Eumenides, or avenging
goddesses, and it was therefore a sanctuary where no foot might tread;
but near it the exiled king was allowed to take up his abode, and was
protected by the great Athenian King, Theseus. There his other
daughter, Ismene, joined him, and, after a time, his elder son Polynices,
arrived.
Polynices had been expelled from Thebes by his brother Eteocles, and
had been wandering through Greece seeking aid to recover his rights.
He had collected an army, and was come to take leave of his father and
sisters; and at the same time to entreat his sisters to take care that, if he
should fall in the battle, they would prevent his corpse from being left
unburied; for the Greeks believed that till the funeral rites were
performed, the spirit went wandering restlessly up and down upon the
banks of a dark stream, unable to enter the home of the dead. Antigone
solemnly promised to him that he should not be left without these last
rites. Before long, old Oedipus was killed by lightning, and the two
sisters returned to Thebes.
The united armies of the seven chiefs against Thebes came on, led by
Polynices. Eteocles sallied out to meet them, and there was a terrible
battle, ending in all the seven chiefs being slain, and the two brothers,
Eteocles and Polynices, were killed by one another in single combat.
Creon, the uncle, who thus became king, had always been on the side
of Eteocles, and therefore commanded that whilst this younger brother
was entombed with all due solemnities, the body of the elder should be
left upon the battlefield to be torn by dogs and vultures, and that
whosoever durst bury it should be treated as a rebel and a traitor to the
state.
This was the time for the sister to remember her oath to her dead
brother. The more timid Ismene would have dissuaded her, but she
answered,
'To me no sufferings have that hideous form Which can affright me

from a glorious death'.
And she crept forth by night, amid all the horrors of the deserted field
of battles, and herself covered with loose earth the corpse of Polynices.
The barbarous uncle caused it to be taken up and again exposed, and a
watch was set at some little distance. Again Antigone
'Was seen, lamenting shrill with plaintive notes, Like the poor bird that
sees her lonely nest Spoil'd of her young'.
Again she heaped dry dust with her own hands over the body, and
poured forth the libations of wine that formed an essential part of the
ceremony. She was seized by the guard, and led before Creon. She
boldly avowed her deed, and, in spite of the supplications of Ismene,
she was put to death, a sufferer for her noble and pious deeds; and with
this only comfort:
'Glowing at my heart I feel this hope, that to my father, dear And dear
to thee, my mother, dear to thee, My brother, I shall go.' POTTER.
Dim and beautiful indeed was the hope that upbore the grave and
beautiful Theban maiden; and we shall see her resolution equaled,
though hardly surpassed, by Christian Antigones of equal love and
surer faith.

THE CUP OF WATER

No touch in the history of the minstrel king David gives us a more
warm and personal feeling towards him than his longing for the water
of the well of Bethlehem. Standing as the incident does in the summary
of the characters of his mighty men, it is apt to appear to us as if it had
taken place in his latter days; but such is not the case, it befell while he
was still under thirty, in the time of his persecution by Saul.
It was when the last attempt at reconciliation with the king had been
made, when the affectionate parting with the generous and faithful
Jonathan had taken place, when Saul was hunting him like a partridge
on the mountains on the one side, and the Philistines had nearly taken
his life on the other, that David, outlawed, yet loyal at the heart, sent
his aged parents to the land of Moab for refuge, and himself took up his
abode in the caves of the wild limestone hills that had become familiar
to him when he was a shepherd.