LEADER OF THE CHORUS:
GUARD:
(CREON enters hurriedly from the palace.)
LEADER:
CREON :
GUARD:
CREON:
GUARD:
CREON:
GUARD:
CREON:
GUARD:
CREON :
ANTIGONE:
CREON (to GUARD):
(Exit GUARD)
(To ANTIGONE ) Now, tell me thou-not in many words, but
briefly-knewest thou that an edict had forbidden this?
ANTIGONE:
CREON:
ANTIGONE:
LEADER OF THE CHORUS:
CREON:
ANTIGONE:
CREON :
ANTIGONE:
CREON:
ANTIGONE:
CREON:
ANTIGONE:
CREON :
ANTIGONE:
CREON:
ANTIGONE:
ANTIGONE:
CREON :
ANTIGONE:
CREON:
ANTIGONE:
CREON:
(Enter the GUARD on the spectators' left, leading in ANTIGONE.)
What portent from the gods is this?-my soul is amazed. I know
her-how can I deny that yon maiden is ANTIGONE?
O hapless, and child of hapless sire,-Of Oedipus! What means this?
Thou brought a prisoner?-thou, disloyal to the king's laws, and
taken in folly?
Here she is, the doer of the deed:-caught this girl burying
him:-but where is Creon?
Lo, he comes forth again from the house, at our need
What is it? What hath chanced, that makes my coming timely?
O king, against nothing should men pledge their word; for the
after-thought belies the first intent. I could have vowed that I
should not soon be here again,-scared by thy threats, with which I had
just been lashed: but,-since the joy that surprises and transcends our
hopes is like in fulness to no other pleasure,-I have come, though
'tis in breach of my sworn oath, bringing this maid; who was taken
showing grace to the dead. This time there was no casting of lots; no,
this luck hath fallen to me, and to none else. And now, sire, take her
thyself, question her, examine her, as thou wilt; but I have a right
to free and final quittance of this trouble.
And thy prisoner here-how and whence hast thou taken her?
She was burying the man; thou knowest all.
Dost thou mean what thou sayest? Dost thou speak aright?
I saw her burying the corpse that thou hadst forbidden to bury. Is
that plain and clear?
And how was she seen? how taken in the act?
It befell on this wise. When we had come to the place,-with
those dread menaces of thine upon us,-we swept away all the dust
that covered the corpse, and bared the dank body well; and then sat us
down on the brow of the hill, to windward, heedful that the smell from
him should not strike us; every man was wide awake, and kept his
neighbour alert with torrents of threats, if anyone should be careless
of this task.
So went it, until the sun's bright orb stood in mid heaven, and
the heat began to burn: and then suddenly a whirlwind lifted from
the earth storm of dust, a trouble in the sky the plain, marring all
the leafage of its woods; and the wide air was choked therewith: we
closed our eyes, and bore the plague from the gods.
And when, after a long while, this storm had passed, the maid
was seen; and she cried aloud with the sharp cry of a bird in its
bitterness,-even as when, within the empty nest, it sees the bed
stripped of its nestlings. So she also, when she saw the corpse
bare, lifted up a voice of wailing, and called down curses on the
doers of that deed. And straightway she brought thirsty dust in her
hands; and from a shapely ewer of bronze, held high, with
thrice-poured drink-offering she crowned the dead.
We rushed forward when we saw it, and at once dosed upon our
quarry, who was in no wise dismayed. Then we taxed her with her past
and present doings; and she stood not on denial of aught,-at once to
my joy and to my pain. To have escaped from ills one's self is a great
joy; but 'tis painful to bring friends to ill. Howbeit, all such
things are of less account to me than mine own safety.
Thou-thou whose face is bent to earth-dost thou avow, or
disavow, this deed?
I avow it; I make no denial.
Thou canst betake thee whither thou wilt, free and clear of a
grave charge.
I knew it: could I help it? It was public.
And thou didst indeed dare to transgress that law?
Yes; for it was not Zeus that had published me that edict; not
such are the laws set among men by the justice who dwells with the
gods below; nor deemed I that thy decrees were of such force, that a
mortal could override the unwritten and unfailing statutes of
heaven. For their life is not of to-day or yesterday, but from all
time, and no man knows when they were first put forth.
Not through dread of any human pride could I answer to the gods
for breaking these. Die I must,-I knew that well (how should I
not?)-even without thy edicts. But if I am to die before my time, I
count that a gain: for when any one lives, as I do, compassed about
with evils, can such an one find aught but gain in death?
So for me to meet this doom is trifling grief; but if I had
suffered my mother's son to lie in death an unburied corpse, that
would have grieved me; for this, I am not grieved. And if my present
deeds are foolish in thy sight, it may be that a foolish judge
arraigns my folly.
The maid shows herself passionate child of passionate sire, and
knows not how to bend before troubles.
Yet I would have thee know that o'er-stubborn spirits are most
often humbled; 'tis the stiffest iron, baked to hardness in the
fire, that thou shalt oftenest see snapped and shivered; and I have
known horses that show temper brought to order by a little curb; there
is no room for pride when thou art thy neighbour's slave.-This girl
was already versed in insolence when she transgressed the laws that
had been set forth; and, that done, lo, a second insult,-to vaunt of
this, and exult in her deed.
Now verily I am no man, she is the man, if this victory shall rest
with her, and bring no penalty. No! be she sister's child, or nearer
to me in blood than any that worships Zeus at the altar of our
house,-she and her kinsfolk shall not avoid a doom most dire; for
indeed I charge that other with a like share in the plotting of this
burial.
And summon her-for I saw her e'en now within,-raving, and not
mistress of her wits. So oft, before the deed, the mind stands
self-convicted in its treason, when folks are plotting mischief in the
dark. But verily this, too, is hateful,-when one who hath been
caught in wickednes then seeks to make the crime a glory.
Wouldst thou do more than take and slay me?
No more, indeed; having that, I have all.
Why then dost thou delay? In thy discourse there is nought that
pleases me,-never may there be!-and so my words must needs be
unpleasing to thee. And yet, for glory-whence could I have won a
nobler, than by giving burial to mine own brother? All here would
own that they thought it well, were not their lips sealed by fear. But
royalty, blest in so much besides, hath the power to do and say what
it will.
Thou differest from all these Thebans in that view.
These also share it; but they curb their tongues for thee.
And art thou not ashamed to act apart from them?
No; there is nothing shameful in piety to a brother.
Was it not a brother, too, that died in the opposite cause?
Brother by the same mother and the same sire.
Why, then, dost thou render a grace that is impious in his sight?
The dead man will not say that he so deems it.
CREON:
Yea, if thou makest him but equal in honour with the wicked.
It was his brother, not his slave, that perished.
Wasting this land; while he fell as its champion.
Nevertheless, Hades desires these rites.
But the good desires not a like portion with the evil.
Who knows but this seems blameless in the world below?
A foe is never a friend-not even in death.