Were robbed of our two brothers on one day
When each destroyed the other. During the night
The enemy* has fled: so much I know,
But nothing more, either for grief or joy.
ANTIGONE. I knew it; therefore I have brought you here,
Outside the doors, to tell you secretly.
ISMENE. What is it? Some dark shadow is upon you.
20
ANTIGONE. Our brother’s burial.—Creon has ordained
Honour for one, dishonour for the other.
Eteocles, they say, has been entombed
With every solemn rite and ceremony
To do him honour in the world below;
But as for Polyneices, Creon has ordered
That none shall bury him* or mourn for him;
He must be left to lie unwept, unburied,
For hungry birds of prey to swoop and feast
On his poor body. So he has decreed,
30
Our noble Creon, to all the citizens:
To you, to me. To me! And he is coming
To make it public here, that no one may
Be left in ignorance; nor does he hold it
Of little moment: he who disobeys
In any detail shall be put to death
By public stoning* in the streets of Thebes.
So it is now for you to show if you
Are worthy, or unworthy, of your birth.
ISMENE. O my poor sister! If it has come to this
What can I do, either to help or hinder?
40
ANTIGONE. Will you join hands with me and share my task?
ISMENE. What dangerous enterprise have you in mind?
ANTIGONE. Will you join me in taking up the body?
ISMENE. What? Would you bury him, against the law?
ANTIGONE. No one shall say I failed him! I will bury
My brother—and yours too, if you will not.
ISMENE. You reckless girl! When Creon has forbidden?
ANTIGONE. He has no right to keep me from my own!
ISMENE. Think of our father, dear Antigone,
And how we saw him die, hated and scorned,
50
When his own hands had blinded his own eyes
Because of sins which he himself disclosed;
And how his mother-wife, two names in one,
Knotted a rope, and so destroyed herself.*
And, last of all, upon a single day
Our brothers fought each other to the death
And shed upon the ground the blood that joined them.
Now you and I are left, alone; and think:
If we defy the King’s prerogative
And break the law, our death will be more shameful
60
Even than theirs. Remember too that we
Are women, not made to fight with men. Since they
Who rule us now are stronger far than we,
In this and worse than this we must obey them.
Therefore, beseeching pardon from the dead,*
Since what I do is done on hard compulsion,
I yield to those who have authority;
ANTIGONE. I will not urge you. Even if you should wish
To give your help I would not take it now.
70
Your choice is made. But I shall bury him.
And if I have to die for this pure crime,
I am content, for I shall rest beside him;
His love will answer mine. I have to please
The dead far longer than I need to please
The living; with them, I have to dwell for ever.
But you, if so you choose, you may dishonour
The sacred laws* that Heaven holds in honour.
ISMENE. I do them no dishonour, but to act
Against the city’s will I am too weak.
ANTIGONE. Make that your pretext! I will go and heap
80
The earth upon the brother whom I love.
ISMENE. You reckless girl! I tremble for your life.
ANTIGONE. Look to yourself and do not fear for me.
ISMENE. At least let no one hear of it, but keep
Your purpose secret, and so too will I.
ANTIGONE. Go and denounce me! I shall hate you more
If you keep silent and do not proclaim it.
ISMENE. Your heart is hot upon a wintry work!
ANTIGONE. I know I please whom most I ought to please.
ISMENE. But can you do it? It is impossible!
90
ANTIGONE. When I can do no more, then I will stop.
ISMENE. But why attempt a hopeless task at all?
ANTIGONE. O stop, or I shall hate you! He will hate
You too, for ever, justly. Let me be,
Me and my folly! I will face the danger
That so dismays you, for it cannot be
So dreadful as to die a coward’s death.
ISMENE. Then go and do it, if you must. It is
Blind folly—but those who love you love you dearly.
[Exeunt severally
Strophe 1
CHORUS [sings]. Welcome, light of the Sun, the fairest
100
Sun that ever has dawned upon
Thebes, the city of seven gates!*
At last thou art arisen, great
Orb of shining day, pouring
Light across the gleaming water of Dirke.*
Thou hast turned into headlong flight,
Galloping faster and faster, the foe who
Bearing a snow-white shield* in full
Panoply came from Argos.
He* had come to destroy us, in Polyneices’
110
Fierce quarrel.* He brought them against our land;
And like some eagle* screaming his rage
From the sky he descended upon us,
With his armour about him, shining like snow,
With spear upon spear,
And with plumes that swayed on their helmets.
Antistrophe 1
Close he hovered above our houses,
Circling around our seven gates, with
He’s gone! gone before ever his jaws
Snapped on our flesh, before he sated
120
Himself with our blood, before his blazing fire-brand
Seized with its fire our city’s towers.
Terrible clangour of arms repelled him,
Driving him back, for hard it is to
Strive with the sons of a Dragon.*
For the arrogant boast of an impious man
Zeus hateth exceedingly. So, when he saw
This army advancing in swollen flood
In the pride of its gilded equipment,
130
He struck them down from the rampart’s edge
With a fiery bolt*
In the midst of their shout of Triumph!’
Strophe 2
Heavily down to the earth did he fall, and lie there,
He who with torch in his hand and possessed with frenzy*
Breathed forth bitterest hate
Like some fierce tempestuous wind.
So it fared then with him;
And of the rest, each met his own terrible doom,
Given by the great War-god,* our deliverer.
140
Seven foemen* appointed to our seven gates
Each fell to a Theban, and Argive arms
Shall grace our Theban temple of Zeus:*
Save two, those two of unnatural hate,
Two sons of one mother, two sons of one King;
They strove for the crown, and shared with the sword
Their estate, each slain by his brother.
Antistrophe 2
Yet do we see in our midst, and acclaim with gladness,
Victory, glorious Victory,* smiling, w
elcome.
Now, since danger is past,
Thoughts of war shall pass from our minds. 150
Come! let all thank the gods,
Dancing before temple and shrine all through the night,
Following Thee, Theban Dionysus.*
CHORUS. But here comes Creon, the new king of
Thebes,
In these new fortunes that the gods have given us.
What purpose is he furthering, that he
160
Has called this gathering of his Counsellors?
Enter CREON, attended
CREON. My lords: for what concerns the state, the gods
Who tossed it on the angry surge of strife
Have righted it again; and therefore you
By royal edict I have summoned here,
Chosen from all our number. I know well
How you revered the throne of Laius;*
And then, when Oedipus maintained our state,
And when he perished, round his sons you rallied,
Still firm and steadfast in your loyalty.
Since they have fallen by a double doom
170
Upon a single day, two brothers each
Killing the other with polluted sword,*
I now possess the throne and royal power
By right of nearest kinship* with the dead.
There is no art that teaches us to know
The temper, mind or spirit of any man
Until he has been proved by government
And lawgiving. A man who rules a state
And will not ever steer the wisest course,
But is afraid, and says not what he thinks,
180
That man is worthless; and if any holds
A friend of more account than his own city,
I scorn him; for if I should see destruction
Threatening the safety of my citizens,
I would not hold my peace, nor would I count
That man my friend who was my country’s foe,
Zeus be my witness. For be sure of this:
It is the city that protects us all;
She bears us through the storm; only when she
Rides safe and sound can we make loyal friends.
190
This I believe, and thus will I maintain
Our city’s greatness.—Now, conformably,
Of Oedipus’ two sons I have proclaimed
This edict: he who in his country’s cause
Fought gloriously and so laid down his life,
Shall be entombed and graced with every rite
That men can pay to those who die with honour;
But for his brother, him called Polyneices,
Who came from exile to lay waste his land,
To burn the temples of his native gods,
200
To drink his kindred blood,* and to enslave
The rest, I have proclaimed to Thebes that none
Shall give him funeral honours or lament him,
But leave him there unburied, to be devoured
By dogs and birds, mangled most hideously.
Such is my will; never shall I allow
The villain to win more honour than the upright;
But any who show love to this our city
In life and death alike shall win my praise.
210
CHORUS. Such is your will, my lord; so you requite
Our city’s champion and our city’s foe.
You, being sovereign, make what laws you will
Both for the dead and those of us who live.
CREON. See then that you defend the law now made.
CHORUS. No, lay that burden on some younger men.
CREON. I have appointed guards to watch the body.
CHORUS. What further charge, then, do you lay on us?
CREON. Not to connive at those that disobey me.
CHORUS. None are so foolish as to long for death.
220
CREON. Death is indeed the price, but love of gain
Has often lured a man to his destruction.
Enter a GUARD
GUARD. My lord: I cannot say that I am come
All out of breath with running. More than once