PREVIOUS

 

Chorus of Theban Elders

Many things cause terror and wonder, yet nothing

is more terrifying and wonderful than man.

This thing goes across the gray

sea on the blasts of winter335

storms, passing beneath

waters towering 'round him. The Earth,

eldest of the gods,

unwithering and untiring, this thing wears down

as his plows go back and forth year after year340

furrowing her with the issue of horses.⁽⁵⁸⁾
 

This thing ensnares and carries off

the tribe of light-minded birds,

the companies of wild beasts, and

the sea's marine life345

with coils of woven meshes--

this keenly skilled man. He has power

through his ways over the beast who traverses

the mountains and haunts the open sky.⁽⁵⁹⁾350

The shaggy-maned horse he tames with yoke,

and the untiring mountain bull.
 

Both language and thought swift as wind

and impulses that govern cities,355

he has taught himself, as well as how

to escape the shafts of rain

while encamped beneath open skies.

All resourceful, he approaches no future thing360

to come without resource. From Hades alone

he will not contrive escape.

Refuge from baffling diseases

he has devised.
 

Possessing a means of invention, a skillfulness beyond expectation, 365

now toward evil he moves, now toward good.

By integrating the laws of the earth

and justice under oath sworn to the gods,

he is lofty of city. Citiless is the man with whom ignobility370

because of his daring dwells.

May he never reside at my hearth

or think like me,

whoever does such things.375
 

[The Watchman returns, leading Antigone and accompanied by at least one other watchman (382), played by a doryphorêma.]
 

Coryphaeus

Concerning this divine portent, I am of two minds.

How, when I know her, will I deny

that this is the girl Antigone?

O unhappy one,

child of unhappy father, Oedipus,380

what does this mean? Surely they are not bringing

you who are in disobedience of royal laws

after they caught you in folly?
 

Watchman

Here she is, that one who did the deed.

We caught her performing rites. But where is Creon?⁽⁶⁰⁾385
 

Coryphaeus

Here he is, returning from the house just when we need him.
 

Creon

What is it? What is happening? What am I in time for?
 

Watchman

Lord, mortals should never swear oaths against

doing anything, for second thoughts belie their intention.

I could have sworn I would be slow coming here390

after the tempest of your threats I weathered last time.

But the joy one prays for and receives beyond his hopes

seems to reach out like no other pleasure.

I swore an oath not to come here, but here I am,

leading this girl who was apprehended paying 395

due rites. We did not cast lots this time.

This is my windfall and nobody else's.

And now, lord, take her yourself, question and

examine her as you wish. I am free and

justly released from these evils.400
 

Creon

How did you catch her, and where do you bring her from?
 

Watchman

This one was performing rites for the man. You know all.
 

Creon

Do you really understand? Do you mean to say what you are saying?
 

Watchman

Yes, I do, because I saw her performing rites for the corpse

that you forbade. Is it not clear and plain what I am saying?405
 

Creon

How is she seen? How was she caught and seized?
 

Watchman

What happened was like this. When we got back,

still threatened by those terrible threats from you,

we swept all the dust away that concealed

the corpse, stripping the oozing body completely bare.410

We then sat on the hill tops, backs to the wind,

delivered from being struck by the stench.

Man was egging on man constantly with abusive

taunts in case anyone might neglect this burden.

So it went for some time, until the dazzling415

orb of the sun stood in the middle of the sky,

and the heat was becoming intense. Then, suddenly,

from the earth a whirlwind raised a column of dust,

a pain from heaven.⁽⁶¹⁾ It filled the plain, mangling

all the foliage of the trees on the plain. The great ether420

was full of dust. We closed our eyes and endured

the divine sickness. When it let off after a long time,

the girl is seen. She wails a bitter

bird's shrill sound as when it sees

an empty bedding's bed orphaned of nestlings.⁽⁶²⁾ 425

So, too, when she sees a bare corpse,⁽⁶³⁾

she groaned and began wailing and cursing

evil curses upon the ones who did the deed.

Immediately she brings thirsty dust in her hands

and from a well-wrought bronze pitcher held up high,430

she encircles the corpse with three poured offerings.

We saw her and rushed at her, and immediately

we caught our quarry who was without fear or fright.

We examined her about the previous and the present

doings. She did not try to deny anything, 435

happily for me and at the same time sadly.

That I have escaped these evils is

very pleasant, but bringing philoi into evil

is painful. But everything else matters less for me

to get--it is only natural--than my own salvation.440
 

Creon

You! you there, hanging your head to the ground, do you say

you did these things, or do you deny them outright?
 

Antigone

I say I acted. I do not deny acting.⁽⁶⁴⁾
 

Creon

You may remove yourself wherever you wish,

free of a heavy charge.445
 

[Exit Watchman. To Antigone.]
 

Now you, tell me, not at length but concisely,

did you know that these were forbidden by proclamation?
 

Antigone

Yes. Why would I not? It was public.
 

Creon

And you dared anyway to transgress these laws.
 

Antigone

Yes, Zeus was not the one who issued these proclamations450

for me, nor did Justice, who dwells with the gods below,

define such laws among mankind.

I did not think your proclamations so strong

that you, a mortal, could overstep

gods' unwritten and unshakable traditions.455

Not today or yesterday but always

they live, and no one knows when they appeared.

I was not about to pay the penalty before gods

for neglecting them out of fear for a man's thought.

I knew very well that I would die (why not?),460

even if you had not issued your proclamations. But if

I shall die before my time, I declare it a profit,

for whoever lives beset, as I do, by many things evil,

how does he not gain profit by dying?

Thus for me, at least, to meet with this destiny465

is no pain at all. But had I let the one from my

mother, who was dead, go without rites,

over that I would feel pain. Over this, I feel no pain.

If I seem now to be acting foolishly to you, it may be

that I am being accused of foolishness by a fool.470
 

Coryphaeus

Clearly, the offspring is savage from the girl's

savage father. She does not know how to yield to evils.
 

Creon

Even so, know that thoughts that are too rigid

are most prone to fall. The strongest iron,

baked very hard by the fire, you could often see475

shivered and shattered into bits and pieces.

I know that spirited horses are brought to order

by a tiny iron bit, since it is not allowed for someone

who is the slave of those nearby to think big.

This person knew how to commit outrage at that time480

by transgressing the laws that have been set forth.

After she acted, this second outrage:

she boasts about them and exults in having done them.

In this case, I am not a man, but she is a man,

if this victory will be hers without consequences.485

Whether she may be a sister's child and closer in blood

to us than the whole of Zeus of the Boundary,⁽⁶⁵⁾

she and her kin blood will not escape

a very bad fate. I charge that other one

of equally planning this rite.490
 

[Creon to slave attendants]
 

Summon her. I saw her inside just now,

possessed by frenzy and not in possession of her senses.

The spirit of those devising crooked schemes in the dark

usually convicts itself in advance of being a thief.

I hate it when someone, caught in ugliness, 495

afterwards wants to make it look pretty.
 

Antigone

Do you want anything more than to seize me and kill me?
 

Creon

For myself, nothing. With this, I have everything.
 

Antigone

Then, why are you waiting? As nothing in your words

pleases me or could ever please me, so my words500

naturally displease you, too. And yet, where would I

obtain a more renowned renown than

by placing in a tomb one from the same womb?

All these men here would agree with this,

I would say, if fear were not locking up their tongues.505

But absolute rule is blest in many other ways, and,

in particular, it has the power to do and say what it wishes.
 

Creon

You alone of these Cadmeians⁽⁶⁶⁾ see it this way.
 

Antigone

These men of yours see it this way, but their lips cower before you.⁽⁶⁷⁾
 

Creon

Are you not ashamed to think apart from these men?510
 

Antigone

No disgrace is involved in respecting your uterine kin.
 

Creon

Was not the one who died opposing him of the same blood?
 

Antigone

Of the same blood from one mother and the same father.
 

Creon

How, when it is impious in his judgment, do you grant this kindness?
 

Antigone

The dead corpse will not bear witness to that.515
 

Creon

He would, if you honor him equally with the impious one.
 

Antigone

He was not a slave but a brother who died.
 

Creon

Yes, while ravaging this land but the other while defending it.
 

Antigone

Nevertheless, Hades longs for these traditional values.⁽⁶⁸⁾
 

Creon

No, the good man does not long to obtain the same allotment as the evil. 520
 

Antigone

Who knows whether that is revered below.
 

Creon

Never is an enemy, not even when dead, a philos.
 

Antigone

It is not my nature to side with an enemy but with a philos.⁽⁶⁹⁾
 

Creon

Go below now, and if you must be philê, be philê,

to them. While I am alive, no woman will rule me.525
 

Coryphaeus

Here is Ismene before the gates,⁽⁷⁰⁾

shedding tears of sisterly philotês.

A cloud above her brows mars

her flushed face,

moistening her comely cheeks.530
 

Creon

You sneaked about the house like a viper and sucked

my blood when I was off guard. I did not realize I was

feeding two ruins and subversions of my throne.

Come, tell me, will you admit you shared in this rite,

or will you swear you knew nothing about it?535
 

Ismene

I have done the deed, at least if she rows along with me.

I both share in the charge and endure it with her.
 

Antigone

No, justice will not allow you this, since you were

not willing to do it, and I did not act in common with you.
 

Ismene

But I am not ashamed amid your evils540

to make myself a fellow voyager in suffering.
 

Antigone

To those whose deed this is, Hades and those below are witnesses.

I do not cherish a philê who is philê only in words.
 

Ismene

Do not deprive me, sister, of dying with you

and rendering the dead his due rites.545
 

Antigone

You, do not die a common death with me. What you did not touch,

do try to make your own. I will be enough by dying--I myself.
 

Ismene

And what life is philos for me bereft of you?
 

Antigone

Go, ask Creon. It is he you care for.⁽⁷¹⁾
 

Ismene

Why do you cause me pain this way, when it does not help you?550
 

Antigone

Yes, I am in pain, if I am mocking you, when I mock you.
 

Ismene

What help even now could I give you--I myself?
 

Antigone

Save yourself. I do not begrudge your escaping out from under this.
 

Ismene

O poor me, am I to fail in sharing your fate?
 

Antigone

Yes, you chose to live, I to die.555
 

Ismene

But, at least, not without my words going unsaid.
 

Antigone

Nobly you seemed to some, and I to others, to think.
 

Ismene

And yet the error is the same for the both of us.⁽⁷²⁾
 

Antigone

Gather your strength. You are living, while my life

perished long ago so as that I could help the dead.560
 

Creon

I say that both of these children seem senseless,

the one just now and the other from when she was first born.
 

Ismene

The sense that grows within, lord, does not remain

with those who are doing badly, but it departs.

Creon

In your case, at any rate, when you chose to do bad things with bad people.565
 

Ismene

Of course I chose. What life is there for me, alone without this one?
 

Creon

This one--do not speak of her, for she is no longer.
 

Ismene

But in that case you will kill your own son's nuptial rites?⁽⁷³⁾
 

Creon

Yes, the fields of others are fit for the plow.
 

Ismene

No, not in the way they have been fit together,⁽⁷⁴⁾ this one to him. 570
 

Creon

I loathe evil wives for sons.
 

Ismene

O most philos Haemon, how your father dishonors you.
 

Creon

You and your marriage bed cause too much grief.
 

Ismene

Will you really deprive your own son of this one?
 

Creon

Hades will be the one to stop this marriage for me.575
 

Ismene

It is settled, so it seems, that this one dies.
 

Creon

Yes, for you and for me. No more delays. Take them

inside, slave women. From now on they

must be women and not let loose.

Even bold men flee when they see580

Hades already near their lives.
 

[Exit Antigone, Ismene and Creon's attendants. Creon remains on stage, standing alone against the backdrop of the house of Labdacus.⁽⁷⁵⁾]
 

NEXT