Antigone
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Original / primary: Perseus Eng2
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I tell you on my oath. If you do not find the very hand that made this burial, and reveal him before my eyes, mere death shall not suffice for you, not before, hung up alive, you have made this outrage plain,
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so that hereafter you may thieve with better knowledge of where your money should be received from, and learn that it is best not to be fond of money-making from any and every source. For you will find that ill-gotten gains bring more men to ruin than to safety.
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Guard
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Will you allow me to speak? Or shall I just turn and go?
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Creon
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Do you not know even now how much your voice sickens me?
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Guard
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Is the pain in your ears, or in your soul?
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Creon
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And why would you define the seat of my pain?
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Guard
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He who did it hurts your heart, but I, your ears.
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Creon
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God! How plain it is that you are a born babbler.
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Guard
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Perhaps, but never the author of this action.
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Creon
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Yes, and what is more, you sold your life for silver.
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Guard
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Ah! It is truly sad when the judge judges wrong .
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Creon
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Expound on judgment as you will. But, if you fail to
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show me the perpetrators of these crimes, you will avow that money basely earned wreaks sorrows. Exit Creon.
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Guard
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Well, may the man be found! That would be best. But, whether he be caught or not—for fortune must decide that—I assure you that you will not see me come here again.
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Saved just now beyond hope and belief, I owe the gods great thanks. Exit the Guard.
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Chorus
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Wonders are many, and none is more wonderful than man.
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This power spans the sea, even when it surges white before the gales of the south-wind, and makes a path under swells that threaten to engulf him. Earth, too, the eldest of the gods, the immortal, the unwearied,
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he wears away to his own ends, turning the soil with the offspring of horses as the plows weave to and fro year after year.
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Chorus
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The light-hearted tribe of birds
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and the clans of wild beasts and the sea-brood of the deep he snares in the meshes of his twisted nets, and he leads them captive, very-skilled man. He masters by his arts
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the beast who dwells in the wilds and roams the hills. He tames the shaggy-maned horse, putting the yoke upon its neck, and tames the tireless mountain bull.
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Chorus
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What marvel sent by the gods is this?—I am bewildered! I know her. How can I deny that this girl is Antigone? O unhappy child
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of your unhappy father, of Oedipus! What can this mean? What! Surely they are not bringing you captive for disobeying the King’s laws and being caught in lunacy?
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Guard
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Here is she, the one who did the deed.
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We caught this one burying him. Where is Creon?
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Chorus
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There, he is coming from the house again at our need.
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Creon
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What is it? What has happened that makes my coming timely?
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Guard
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My king, there is nothing that a man can rightly swear he will not do. For second thought belies one’s first intent.
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I could have vowed that I would not ever come here again, because of your threats by which I had just been storm-tossed. But since this joy that exceeds and oversteps my hopes can be compared in fulness to no other pleasure, I am back—though it is contrary to my sworn oath—
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bringing this girl who was caught giving burial honors to the dead. This time there was no casting of lots. No, this piece of luck has fallen to me, and me alone. And now, my king, as it pleases you, take her yourself, question her and convict her. But justice would see me
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released free and clear from this trouble.
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Creon
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Your prisoner here—how and where did you take her?
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Guard
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She was burying the man. You know all there is to tell.
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Creon
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Are you clear and sure about what you are saying?
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Guard
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I am. I saw her burying the corpse that you
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had forbidden to bury. Is that plain and sufficient?
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Creon
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And how was she observed? How taken in the act?
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Guard
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It happened like this. When we had come to the place with those fierce threats of yours still in our ears, we swept away all the dust that covered
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the corpse and bared the damp body well. We then sat down on the brow of the hill to windward, fleeing the smell from him, lest it strike us. Each man was wide awake and kept his neighbor alert with torrents of threats, if any one should be careless of this task.
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So time passed, until the disk of the sun stood bright in mid-sky and the heat began to burn. And then suddenly a whirlwind lifted from the earth a storm of dust, a trouble in the sky, and it filled the plain, marring all the foliage of its woods.
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Soon the wide air was choked with it. We closed our eyes, and endured the plague from the gods. When, after a long while, this storm had passed, the girl was seen, and she wailed aloud with the sharp cry of a grieving bird, as when inside her empty
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nest she sees the bed stripped of its nestlings. So she, too, when she saw the corpse bare, broke into a cry of lamentation and cursed with harsh curses those who had done it. Immediately she took thirsty dust in her hands,
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and from a pitcher of beaten bronze held high she crowned the dead with thrice-poured libations. We rushed forward when we saw it, and at once closed upon our quarry, who was not at all dismayed. We then charged her with her past and present doings,
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but she made no denial of anything—at once to my joy and to my pain. For to have escaped from trouble one’s self gives the greatest joy, but it stings to lead friends to evil. Naturally, though, all such things are
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of less account to me than my own safety.
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Creon
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You, you with your face bent to the ground, do you admit, or deny that you did this?
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Antigone
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I declare it and make no denial.
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Creon
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You can take yourself wherever you please,
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free and clear of a heavy charge. Exit Guard.
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To Antigone.
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You, however, tell me—not at length, but briefly—did you know that an edict had forbidden this?
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Antigone
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I knew it. How could I not? It was public.
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Creon
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And even so you dared overstep that law?
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Antigone
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Yes, since it was not Zeus that published me that edict, and since not of that kind are the laws which Justice who dwells with the gods below established among men. Nor did I think that your decrees were of such force, that a mortal could override the unwritten
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and unfailing statutes given us by the gods. For their life is not of today or yesterday, but for all time, and no man knows when they were first put forth. Not for fear of any man’s pride was I about to owe a penalty to the gods for breaking these.
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Die I must, that I knew well (how could I not?). That is true even without your edicts. But if I am to die before my time, I count that a gain. When anyone lives as I do, surrounded by evils, how can he not carry off gain by dying?
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So for me to meet this doom is a grief of no account. But if I had endured that my mother’s son should in death lie an unburied corpse, that would have grieved me. Yet for this, I am not grieved. And if my present actions are foolish in your sight,
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it may be that it is a fool who accuses me of folly.
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Chorus
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She shows herself the wild offspring of a wild father, and does not know how to bend before troubles.
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Creon
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Yet remember that over-hard spirits most often collapse. It is the stiffest iron, baked to
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utter hardness in the fire, that you most often see snapped and shivered. And I have witnessed horses with great spirit disciplined by a small bit. For there is no place for pride, when one is his neighbors’ slave.
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This girl was already practiced in outrage when she overstepped the published laws. And, that done, this now is a second outrage, that she glories in it and exults in her deed. In truth, then, I am no man, but she is,
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if this victory rests with her and brings no penalty. No! Whether she is my sister’s child, or nearer to me in blood than any of my kin that worship Zeus at the altar of our house, she and her sister will not escape a doom most harsh. For in truth
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I charge that other with an equal share in the plotting of this burial. Call her out! I saw her inside just now, raving, and not in control of her wits. Before the deed, the mind frequently is convicted of stealthy crimes when conspirators are plotting depravity in the dark.
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But, truly, I detest it, too, when one who has been caught in treachery then seeks to make the crime a glory.
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Antigone
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What more do you want than to capture and kill me?
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Creon
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I want nothing else. Having that, I have everything.
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Antigone
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Why then do you wait? In none of your maxims
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is there anything that pleases me—and may there never be! Similarly to you as well my views must be displeasing. And yet, how could I have won a nobler glory than by giving burial to my own brother? All here would admit that they approve,
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if fear did not grip their tongues. But tyranny, blest with so much else, has the power to do and say whatever it pleases.
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Creon
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You alone out of all these Thebans see it that way.
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Antigone
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They do, too, but for you they hold their tongues.
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Creon
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Are you not ashamed that your beliefs differ from theirs?
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Antigone
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No, there is nothing shameful in respecting your own flesh and blood.
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Creon
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Was not he your brother too, who died in the opposite cause?
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Antigone
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A brother by the same mother and the same father.
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Creon
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Why, then, do you pay a service that is disrespectful to him?
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Antigone
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The dead man will not support you in that.
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Creon
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Yes, he will, if you honor him equally with the wicked one.
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Antigone
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It was his brother, not his slave, who died.
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Creon
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But he died ravaging this land, while he fell in its defense.
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Antigone
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Hades craves these rites, nevertheless.
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Creon
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But the good man craves a portion not equal to the evil’s.
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Antigone
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Who knows but that these actions are pure to those below?
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Creon
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You do not love someone you have hated, not even after death.
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Antigone
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It is not my nature to join in hate, but in love.
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Creon
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Then, go down to hell and love them
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if you must. While I live, no woman will rule me.
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Chorus
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Look, here comes Ismene from the palace, shedding the tears of a loving sister. A cloud over her eyes mars her red-flushed face,
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and it breaks into rain on her comely cheek.
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Creon
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You who were lurking like a viper in my own house and secretly gulping up my life’s blood, while I was oblivious that I was nurturing two plagues, two revolutions against my throne—tell me now, will you also affirm
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your share in this burial, or will you forswear all knowledge of it?
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Ismene
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I performed the deed—as long as she concurs—and I share and carry the burden of guilt.
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Antigone
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No, justice will not permit you to do this, since you were not willing to help with the deed, nor did I give you a part in it.
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Ismene
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But now with this sea of troubles around you, I am not ashamed to sail in a sea of suffering at your side.
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Antigone
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As to whose deed it is, Hades and the dead are witnesses. A friend in words is not the type of friend I love.
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Ismene
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No, sister, do not strip me of death’s honor,
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but let me die with you and make due consecration to the dead.
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Antigone
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Do not share my death. Do not claim deeds to which you did not put your hand. My death will suffice.
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Ismene
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And how can I cherish life, once I am deprived of you?
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Antigone
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Ask Creon. Your concern is for him.