440 BC

ANTIGONE

by Sophocles

translated by R. C. Jebb

CHARACTERS IN THE PLAY

daughters of Oedipus:

ANTIGONE

ISMENE

CREON, King of Thebes

EURYDICE, his wife

HAEMON, his son

TEIRESIAS, the blind prophet

GUARD, set to watch the corpse of Polyneices

FIRST MESSENGER

SECOND MESSENGER, from the house

CHORUS OF THEBAN ELDERS

ANTIGONE

ANTIGONE

ANTIGONE

(SCENE:-The same as in the Oedipus the King, an open space before

the royal palace, once that of Oedipus, at Thebes. The backscene

represents the front of the palace, with three doors, of which the

central and largest is the principal entrance into the house. The time

is at daybreak on the morning after the fall of the two brothers,

Eteocles and Polyneices, and the flight of the defeated Argives.

ANTIGONE calls ISMENE forth from the palace, in order to speak to

her alone.)

ANTIGONE

ISMENE, sister, mine own dear sister, knowest thou what ill

there is, of all bequeathed by Oedipus, that Zeus fulfils not for us

twain while we live? Nothing painful is there, nothing fraught with

ruin, no shame, no dishonour, that I have not seen in thy woes and

mine.

And now what new edict is this of which they tell, that our

Captain hath just published to all Thebes? Knowest thou aught? Hast

thou heard? Or is it hidden from thee that our friends are

threatened with the doom of our foes?

ISMENE

No word of friends, Antigone, gladsome or painful, hath come to

me, since we two sisters were bereft of brothers twain, killed in

one day by twofold blow; and since in this last night the Argive

host hath fled, know no more, whether my fortune be brighter, or

more grievous.

ANTIGONE

I knew it well, and therefore sought to bring thee beyond the

gates of the court, that thou mightest hear alone.

ISMENE

What is it? 'Tis plain that thou art brooding on some dark

tidings.

ANTIGONE

What, hath not Creon destined our brothers, the one to honoured

burial, the other to unburied shame? Eteocles, they say, with due

observance of right and custom, he hath laid in the earth, for his

honour among the dead below. But the hapless corpse of Polyneices-as

rumour saith, it hath been published to the town that none shall

entomb him or mourn, but leave unwept, unsepulchred, a welcome store

for the birds, as they espy him, to feast on at will.

Such, 'tis said, is the edict that the good Creon hath set forth

for thee and for me,-yes, for me,-and is coming hither to proclaim

it clearly to those who know it not; nor counts the matter light, but,

whoso disobeys in aught, his doom is death by stoning before all the

folk. Thou knowest it now; and thou wilt soon show whether thou art

nobly bred, or the base daughter of a noble line.

ISMENE

Poor sister,-and if things stand thus, what could I help to do

or undo?

ANTIGONE

Consider if thou wilt share the toil and the deed.

ISMENE

In what venture? What can be thy meaning?

ANTIGONE

Wilt thou aid this hand to lift the dead?

ISMENE

Thou wouldst bury him,-when 'tis forbidden to Thebes?

ANTIGONE

I will do my part,-and thine, if thou wilt not,-to a brother.

False to him will I never be found.

ISMENE

Ah, over-bold! when Creon hath forbidden?

ANTIGONE

Nay, he hath no right to keep me from mine own.

ISMENE

Ah me! think, sister, how our father perished, amid hate and

scorn, when sins bared by his own search had moved him to strike

both eyes with self-blinding hand; then the mother wife, two names

in one, with twisted noose did despite unto her life; and last, our

two brothers in one day,-each shedding, hapless one, a kinsman's

blood,-wrought out with mutual hands their common doom. And now we

in turn-we two left all alone think how we shall perish, more

miserably than all the rest, if, in defiance of the law, we brave a

king's decree or his powers. Nay, we must remember, first, that we

were born women, as who should not strive with men; next, that we

are ruled of the stronger, so that we must obey in these things, and

in things yet sorer. I, therefore, asking the Spirits Infernal to

pardon, seeing that force is put on me herein, will hearken to our

rulers. for 'tis witless to be over busy.

ANTIGONE

I will not urge thee,-no nor, if thou yet shouldst have the

mind, wouldst thou be welcome as a worker with me. Nay, be what thou

wilt; but I will bury him: well for me to die in doing that. I shall

rest, a loved one with him whom I have loved, sinless in my crime; for

I owe a longer allegiance to the dead than to the living: in that

world I shall abide for ever. But if thou wilt, be guilty of

dishonouring laws which the gods have stablished in honour.

ISMENE

I do them no dishonour; but to defy the State,-I have no

strength for that.

ANTIGONE

Such be thy plea:-I, then, will go to heap the earth above the

brother whom I love.

ISMENE

Alas, unhappy one! How I fear for thee!

ANTIGONE

Fear not for me: guide thine own fate aright.

ISMENE:

At least, then, disclose this plan to none, but hide it

closely,-and so, too, will I.

ANTIGONE

Oh, denounce it! Thou wilt be far more hateful for thy silence, if

thou proclaim not these things to all.

ISMENE

Thou hast a hot heart for chilling deeds.

ANTIGONE

I know that I please where I am most bound to please.

ISMENE

Aye, if thou canst; but thou wouldst what thou canst not.

ANTIGONE

Why, then, when my strength fails, I shall have done.

ISMENE

A hopeless quest should not be made at all.

ANTIGONE

If thus thou speakest, thou wilt have hatred from me, and will

justly be subject to the lasting hatred of the dead. But leave me, and

the folly that is mine alone, to suffer this dread thing; for I

shall not suffer aught so dreadful as an ignoble death.

ISMENE

Go, then, if thou must; and of this be sure,-that though thine

errand is foolish, to thy dear ones thou art truly dear.

(Exit ANTIGONE on the spectators' left. ISMENE retires into the

palace by one of the two side-doors. When they have departed, the

CHORUS OF THEBAN ELDERS enters.)

CHORUS (singing)

strophe 1

Beam of the sun, fairest light that ever dawned on Thebe of the

seven gates, thou hast shone forth at last, eye of golden day,

arisen above Dirce's streams! The warrior of the white shield, who

came from Argos in his panoply, hath been stirred by thee to

headlong flight, in swifter career;

LEADER OF THE CHORUS

systema 1

who set forth against our land by reason of the vexed claims of

Polyneices; and, like shrill-screaming eagle, he flew over into our

land, in snow-white pinion sheathed, with an armed throng, and with

plumage of helms.

CHORUS

antistrophe 1

He paused above our dwellings; he ravened around our sevenfold

portals with spears athirst for blood; but he went hence, or ever

his jaws were glutted with our gore, or the Fire-god's pine-fed

flame had seized our crown of towers. So fierce was the noise of

battle raised behind him, a thing too hard for him to conquer, as he

wrestled with his dragon foe.

LEADER

systema 2

For Zeus utterly abhors the boasts of a proud tongue; and when

he beheld them coming on in a great stream, in the haughty pride of

clanging gold, he smote with brandished fire one who was now hasting

to shout victory at his goal upon our ramparts.

CHORUS

strophe 2

Swung down, he fell on the earth with a crash, torch in hand, he

who so lately, in the frenzy of the mad onset, was raging against us

with the blasts of his tempestuous hate. But those threats fared not

as he hoped; and to other foes the mighty War-god dispensed their

several dooms, dealing havoc around, a mighty helper at our need.

LEADER

systema 3

For seven captains at seven gates, matched against seven, left the

tribute of their panoplies to Zeus who turns the battle; save those

two of cruel fate, who, born of one sire and one mother, set against

each other their twain conquering spears, and are sharers in a

common death.

CHORUS

antistrophe 2

But since Victory of glorious name hath come to us, with joy

responsive to the joy of Thebe whose chariots are many, let us enjoy

forgetfulness after the late wars, and visit all the temples of the

gods with night-long dance and song; and may Bacchus be our leader,

whose dancing shakes the land of Thebe.

LEADER

systema 4

But lo, the king of the land comes yonder, Creon, son of

Menoeceus, our new ruler by the new fortunes that the gods have given;

what counsel is he pondering, that he hath proposed this special

conference of elders, summoned by his general mandate?

(Enter CREON, from the central doors of the palace, in the garb of

king, with two attendants.)

CREON

Sirs, the vessel of our State, after being tossed on wild waves,

hath once more been safely steadied by the gods: and ye, out of all

the folk, have been called apart by my summons, because I knew,

first of all, how true and constant was your reverence for the royal

power of Laius; how, again, when Oedipus was ruler of our land, and

when he had perished, your steadfast loyalty still upheld their

children. Since, then, his sons have fallen in one day by a twofold

doom,-each smitten by the other, each stained with a brother's

blood,-I now possess the throne and all its powers, by nearness of

kinship to the dead.

No man can be fully known, in soul and spirit and mind, until he

hath been seen versed in rule and law-giving. For if any, being

supreme guide of the State, cleaves not to the best counsels, but,

through some fear, keeps his lips locked, I hold, and have ever

held, him most base; and if any makes a friend of more account than

his fatherland, that man hath no place in my regard. For I-be Zeus

my witness, who sees all things always-would not be silent if I saw

ruin, instead of safety, coming to the citizens; nor would I ever deem

the country's foe a friend to myself; remembering this, that our

country is the ship that bears us safe, and that only while she

prospers in our voyage can we make true friends.

Such are the rules by which I guard this city's greatness. And

in accord with them is the edict which I have now published to the

folk touching the sons of Oedipus;-that Eteocles, who hath fallen

fighting for our city, in all renown of arms, shall be entombed, and

crowned with every rite that follows the noblest dead to their rest.

But for his brother, Polyneices,-who came back from exile, and

sought to consume utterly with fire the city of his fathers and the

shrines of his fathers' gods,-sought to taste of kindred blood, and to

lead the remnant into slavery;-touching this man, it hath been

proclaimed to our people that none shall grace him with sepulture or

lament, but leave him unburied, a corpse for birds and dogs to eat,

a ghastly sight of shame.

Such the spirit of my dealing; and never, by deed of mine, shall

the wicked stand in honour before the just; but whoso hath good will

to Thebes, he shall be honoured of me, in his life and in his death.

LEADER OF THE CHORUS

Such is thy pleasure, Creon, son of Menoeceus, touching this

city's foe, and its friend; and thou hast power, I ween, to take

what order thou wilt, both for the dead, and for all us who live.

CREON

See, then, that ye be guardians of the mandate.

LEADER

Lay the burden of this task on some younger man.

CREON

Nay, watchers of the corpse have been found.

LEADER

What, then, is this further charge that thou wouldst give?

CREON

That ye side not with the breakers of these commands.

LEADER

No man is so foolish that he is enamoured of death.

CREON

In sooth, that is the meed; yet lucre hath oft ruined men

through their hopes.

(A GUARD enters from the spectators' left.)

GUARD

My liege, I will not say that I come breathless from speed, or

that have plied a nimble foot; for often did my thoughts make me

pause, and wheel round in my path, to return. My mind was holding

large discourse with me; 'Fool, why goest thou to thy certain doom?'

'Wretch, tarrying again? And if Creon hears this from another, must

not thou smart for it?' So debating, I went on my way with lagging

steps, and thus a short road was made long. At last, however, it

carried the day that I should come hither-to thee; and, though my tale

be nought, yet will I tell it; for I come with a good grip on one

hope,-that I can suffer nothing but what is my fate.

CREON

And what is it that disquiets thee thus?

GUARD

I wish to tell thee first about myself-I did not do the deed-I did

not see the doer-it were not right that I should come to any harm.

CREON

Thou hast a shrewd eye for thy mark; well dost thou fence

thyself round against the blame; clearly thou hast some strange

thing to tell.

GUARD

Aye, truly; dread news makes one pause long.

CREON

Then tell it, wilt thou, and so get thee gone?

GUARD

Well, this is it.-The corpse-some one hath just given it burial,

and gone away,-after sprinkling thirsty dust on the flesh, with such

other rites as piety enjoins.

CREON

What sayest thou? What living man hath dared this deed?

GUARD

I know not; no stroke of pickaxe was seen there, no earth thrown

up by mattock; the ground was hard and dry, unbroken, without track of

wheels; the doer was one who had left no trace. And when the first

day-watchman showed it to us, sore wonder fell on all. The dead man

was veiled from us; not shut within a tomb, but lightly strewn with

dust, as by the hand of one who shunned a curse. And no sign met the

eye as though any beast of prey or any dog had come nigh to him, or

torn him.

Then evil words flew fast and loud among us, guard accusing guard;

und it would e'en have come to blows at last, nor was there any to

hinder. Every man was the culprit, and no one was convicted, but all

disclaimed knowledge of the deed. And we were ready to take red-hot

iron in our hands;-to walk through fire;-to make oath by the gods that

we had not done the deed,-that we were not privy to the planning or

the doing.

At last, when all our searching was fruitless, one spake, who made

us all bend our faces on the earth in fear; for we saw not how we

could gainsay him, or escape mischance if we obeyed. His counsel was

that this deed must be reported to thee, and not hidden. And this

seemed best; and the lot doomed my hapless self to win this prize.

So here I stand,-as unwelcome as unwilling, well I wot; for no man

delights in the bearer of bad news.

LEADER

O king, my thoughts have long been whispering, can this deed,

perchance, be e'en the work of gods?

CREON

Cease, ere thy words fill me utterly with wrath, lest thou be

found at once an old man and foolish. For thou sayest what is not to

be borne, in saying that the gods have care for this corpse. Was it

for high reward of trusty service that they sought to hide his

nakedness, who came to burn their pillared shrines and sacred

treasures, to burn their land, and scatter its laws to the winds? Or

dost thou behold the gods honouring the wicked? It cannot be. No! From

the first there were certain in the town that muttered against me,

chafing at this edict, wagging their heads in secret; and kept not

their necks duly under the yoke, like men contented with my sway.

'Tis by them, well I know, that these have been beguiled and

bribed to do this deed. Nothing so evil as money ever grew to be

current among men. This lays cities low, this drives men from their

homes, this trains and warps honest souls till they set themselves

to works of shame; this still teaches folk to practise villainies, and

to know every godless deed.

But all the men who wrought this thing for hire have made it

sure that, soon or late, they shall pay the price. Now, as Zeus

still hath my reverence, know this-I tell it thee on my oath:-If ye

find not the very author of this burial, and produce him before mine

eyes, death alone shall not be enough for you, till first, hung up

alive, ye have revealed this outrage,-that henceforth ye may thieve

with better knowledge whence lucre should be won, and learn that it is

not well to love gain from every source. For thou wilt find that

ill-gotten pelf brings more men to ruin than to weal.

GUARD

May I speak? Or shall I just turn and go?

CREON

Knowest thou not that even now thy voice offends?

GUARD

Is thy smart in the ears, or in the soul?

CREON

And why wouldst thou define the seat of my pain?

GUARD

The doer vexes thy mind, but I, thine ears.

CREON

Ah, thou art a born babbler, 'tis well seen.

GUARD

May be, but never the doer of this deed.

CREON

Yea, and more,-the seller of thy life for silver.

GUARD

Alas! 'Tis sad, truly, that he who judges should misjudge.

CREON

Let thy fancy play with 'judgment' as it will;-but, if ye show

me not the doers of these things, ye shall avow that dastardly gains

work sorrows.

(CREON goes into the palace.)

GUARD

Well, may he be found! so 'twere best. But, be he caught or be

he not-fortune must settle that-truly thou wilt not see me here again.

Saved, even now, beyond hope and thought, I owe the gods great thanks.

(The GUARD goes out on the spectators' left.)

CHORUS (singing)

strophe 1

Wonders are many, and none is more wonderful than man; the power

that crosses the white sea, driven by the stormy south-wind, making

a path under surges that threaten to engulf him; and Earth, the eldest

of the gods, the immortal, the unwearied, doth he wear, turning the

soil with the offspring of horses, as the ploughs go to and fro from

year to year.

antistrophe 1

And the light-hearted race of birds, and the tribes of savage

beasts, and the sea-brood of the deep, he snares in the meshes of

his woven toils, he leads captive, man excellent in wit. And he

masters by his arts the beast whose lair is in the wilds, who roams

the hills; he tames the horse of shaggy mane, he puts the yoke upon

its neck, he tames the tireless mountain bull.

strophe 2

And speech, and wind-swift thought, and all the moods that mould a

state, hath he taught himself; and how to flee the arrows of the

frost, when 'tis hard lodging under the clear sky, and the arrows of

the rushing rain; yea, he hath resource for all; without resource he

meets nothing that must come: only against Death shall he call for aid

in vain; but from baffling maladies he hath devised escapes.

antistrophe 2

Cunning beyond fancy's dream is the fertile skill which brings

him, now to evil, now to good. When he honours the laws of the land,

and that justice which he hath sworn by the gods to uphold, proudly

stands his city: no city hath he who, for his rashness, dwells with

sin. Never may he share my hearth, never think my thoughts, who doth

these things!

(Enter the GUARD on the spectators' left, leading in ANTIGONE.)

LEADER OF THE CHORUS

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?

GUARD

Here she is, the doer of the deed:-caught this girl burying

him:-but where is Creon?

(CREON enters hurriedly from the palace.)

LEADER

Lo, he comes forth again from the house, at our need.

CREON

What is it? What hath chanced, that makes my coming timely?

GUARD

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.

CREON

And thy prisoner here-how and whence hast thou taken her?

GUARD

She was burying the man; thou knowest all.

CREON

Dost thou mean what thou sayest? Dost thou speak aright?

GUARD

I saw her burying the corpse that thou hadst forbidden to bury. Is

that plain and clear?

CREON

And how was she seen? how taken in the act?

GUARD

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.

CREON

Thou-thou whose face is bent to earth-dost thou avow, or

disavow, this deed?

ANTIGONE

I avow it; I make no denial.

CREON (to GUARD)

Thou canst betake thee whither thou wilt, free and clear of a

grave charge.

(Exit GUARD)

(To ANTIGONE) Now, tell me thou-not in many words, but

briefly-knewest thou that an edict had forbidden this?

ANTIGONE

I knew it: could I help it? It was public.

CREON

And thou didst indeed dare to transgress that law?

ANTIGONE

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.

LEADER OF THE CHORUS

The maid shows herself passionate child of passionate sire, and

knows not how to bend before troubles.

CREON

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.

ANTIGONE

Wouldst thou do more than take and slay me?

CREON

No more, indeed; having that, I have all.

ANTIGONE

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.

CREON

Thou differest from all these Thebans in that view.

ANTIGONE

These also share it; but they curb their tongues for thee.

CREON

And art thou not ashamed to act apart from them?

ANTIGONE

No; there is nothing shameful in piety to a brother.

CREON

Was it not a brother, too, that died in the opposite cause?

ANTIGONE

Brother by the same mother and the same sire.

CREON

Why, then, dost thou render a grace that is impious in his sight?

ANTIGONE

The dead man will not say that he so deems it.

CREON

Yea, if thou makest him but equal in honour with the wicked.

ANTIGONE

It was his brother, not his slave, that perished.

CREON

Wasting this land; while he fell as its champion.

ANTIGONE

Nevertheless, Hades desires these rites.

CREON

But the good desires not a like portion with the evil.

ANTIGONE

Who knows but this seems blameless in the world below?

CREON

A foe is never a friend-not even in death.

ANTIGONE

Tis not my nature to join in hating, but in loving.

CREON

Pass, then, to the world of the dead, and, it thou must needs

love, love them. While I live, no woman shall rule me.

(Enter ISMENE from the house, led in by two attendants.)

CHORUS (chanting)

Lo, yonder Ismene comes forth, shedding such tears as fond sisters

weep; a cloud upon her brow casts its shadow over her

darkly-flushing face, and breaks in rain on her fair cheek.

CREON

And thou, who, lurking like a viper in my house, wast secretly

draining my life-blood, while I knew not that I was nurturing two

pests, to rise against my throne-come, tell me now, wilt thou also

confess thy part in this burial, or wilt thou forswear all knowledge

of it?

ISMENE

I have done the deed,-if she allows my claim,-and share the burden

of the charge.

ANTIGONE

Nay, justice will not suffer thee to do that: thou didst not

consent to the deed, nor did I give thee part in it.

ISMENE

But, now that ills beset thee, I am not ashamed to sail the sea of

trouble at thy side.

ANTIGONE

Whose was the deed, Hades and the dead are witnesses: a friend

in words is not the friend that I love.

ISMENE

Nay, sister, reject me not, but let me die with thee, and duly

honour the dead.

ANTIGONE

Share not thou my death, nor claim deeds to which thou hast not

put thy hand: my death will suffice.

ISMENE

And what life is dear to me, bereft of thee?

ANTIGONE

Ask Creon; all thy care is for him.

ISMENE

Why vex me thus, when it avails thee nought?

ANTIGONE

Indeed, if I mock, 'tis with pain that I mock thee.

ISMENE

Tell me,-how can I serve thee, even now?

ANTIGONE

Save thyself: I grudge not thy escape.

ISMENE

Ah, woe is me! And shall I have no share in thy fate?

ANTIGONE

Thy choice was to live; mine, to die.

ISMENE

At least thy choice was not made without my protest.

ANTIGONE

One world approved thy wisdom; another, mine.

ISMENE

Howbeit, the offence is the same for both of us.

ANTIGONE

Be of good cheer; thou livest; but my life hath long been given to

death, that so I might serve the dead.

CREON

Lo, one of these maidens hath newly shown herself foolish, as

the other hath been since her life began.

ISMENE

Yea, O king, such reason as nature may have given abides not

with the unfortunate, but goes astray.

CREON

Thine did, when thou chosest vile deeds with the vile.

ISMENE

What life could I endure, without her presence?

CREON

Nay, speak not of her 'presence'; she lives no more.

ISMENE

But wilt thou slay the betrothed of thine own son?

CREON

Nay, there are other fields for him to plough.

ISMENE

But there can never be such love as bound him to her.

CREON

I like not an evil wife for my son.

ANTIGONE

Haemon, beloved! How thy father wrongs thee!

CREON

Enough, enough of thee and of thy marriage!

LEADER OF THE CHORUS

Wilt thou indeed rob thy son of this maiden?

CREON

'Tis Death that shall stay these bridals for me.

LEADER

'Tis determined, it seems, that she shall die.

CREON

Determined, yes, for thee and for me.-(To the two attendants) No

more delay-servants, take them within! Henceforth they must be

women, and not range at large; for verily even the bold seek to fly,

when they see Death now closing on their life.

(Exeunt attendants, guarding ANTIGONE and ISMENE.-CREON remains.)

CHORUS (singing)

strophe 1

Blest are they whose days have not tasted of evil. For when a

house hath once been shaken from heaven, there the curse fails

nevermore, passing from life to life of the race; even as, when the

surge is driven over the darkness of the deep by the fierce breath

of Thracian sea-winds, it rolls up the black sand from the depths, and

there is sullen roar from wind-vexed headlands that front the blows of

the storm.

antistrophe 1

I see that from olden time the sorrows in the house of the

Labdacidae are heaped upon the sorrows of the dead; and generation

is not freed by generation, but some god strikes them down, and the

race hath no deliverance.

For now that hope of which the light had been spread above the

last root of the house of Oedipus-that hope, in turn, is brought

low--by the blood-stained dust due to the gods infernal, and by

folly in speech, and frenzy at the heart.

strophe 2

Thy power, O Zeus, what human trespass can limit? That power which

neither Sleep, the all-ensnaring, nor the untiring months of the

gods can master; but thou, a ruler to whom time brings not old age,

dwellest in the dazzling splendour of Olympus.

And through the future, near and far, as through the past, shall

this law hold good: Nothing that is vast enters into the life of

mortals without a curse.

antistrophe 2

For that hope whose wanderings are so wide is to many men a

comfort, but to many a false lure of giddy desires; and the

disappointment comes on one who knoweth nought till he burn his foot

against the hot fire.

For with wisdom hath some one given forth the famous saying,

that evil seems good, soon or late, to him whose mind the god draws to

mischief; and but for the briefest space doth he fare free of woe.

LEADER OF THE CHORUS

But lo, Haemon, the last of thy sons;-Comes he grieving for the

doom of his promised bride, Antigone, and bitter for the baffled

hope of his marriage?

(Enter HAEMON)

CREON

We shall know soon, better than seers could tell us.-My son,

hearing the fixed doom of thy betrothed, art thou come in rage against

thy father? Or have I thy good will, act how I may?

HAEMON

Father, I am thine; and thou, in thy wisdom, tracest for me

rules which I shall follow. No marriage shall be deemed by me a

greater gain than thy good guidance.

CREON

Yea, this, my son, should be thy heart's fixed law,-in all

things to obey thy father's will. 'Tis for this that men pray to see

dutiful children grow up around them in their homes,-that such may

requite their father's foe with evil, and honour, as their father

doth, his friend. But he who begets unprofitable children-what shall

we say that he hath sown, but troubles for himself, and much triumph

for his foes? Then do not thou, my son, at pleasure's beck, dethrone

thy reason for a woman's sake; knowing that this is a joy that soon

grows cold in clasping arms,-an evil woman to share thy bed and thy

home. For what wound could strike deeper than a false friend? Nay,

with loathing, and as if she were thine enemy, let this girl go to

find a husband in the house of Hades. For since I have taken her,

alone of all the city, in open disobedience, I will not make myself

a liar to my people-I will slay her.

So let her appeal as she will to the majesty of kindred blood.

If I am to nurture mine own kindred in naughtiness, needs must I

bear with it in aliens. He who does his duty in his own household will

be found righteous in the State also. But if any one transgresses, and

does violence to the laws, or thinks to dictate to his rulers, such an

one can win no praise from me. No, whomsoever the city may appoint,

that man must be obeyed, in little things and great, in just things

and unjust; and I should feel sure that one who thus obeys would be

a good ruler no less than a good subject, and in the storm of spears

would stand his ground where he was set, loyal and dauntless at his

comrade's side.

But disobedience is the worst of evils. This it is that ruins

cities; this makes homes desolate; by this, the ranks of allies are

broken into head-long rout; but, of the lives whose course is fair,

the greater part owes safety to obedience. Therefore we must support

the cause of order, and in no wise suffer a woman to worst us.

Better to fall from power, if we must, by a man's hand; then we should

not be called weaker than a woman.

LEADER

To us, unless our years have stolen our wit, thou seemest to say

wisely what thou sayest.

HAEMON

Father, the gods implant reason in men, the highest of all

things that we call our own. Not mine the skill-far from me be the

quest!-to say wherein thou speakest not aright; and yet another man,

too, might have some useful thought. At least, it is my natural office

to watch, on thy behalf, all that men say, or do, or find to blame.

For the dread of thy frown forbids the citizen to speak such words

as would offend thine ear; but can hear these murmurs in the dark,

these moanings of the city for this maiden; 'no woman,' they say,

'ever merited her doom less,-none ever was to die so shamefully for

deeds so glorious as hers; who, when her own brother had fallen in

bloody strife, would not leave him unburied, to be devoured by carrion

dogs, or by any bird:-deserves not she the meed of golden honour?'

Such is the darkling rumour that spreads in secret. For me, my

father, no treasure is so precious as thy welfare. What, indeed, is

a nobler ornament for children than a prospering sire's fair fame,

or for sire than son's? Wear not, then, one mood only in thyself;

think not that thy word, and thine alone, must be right. For if any

man thinks that he alone is wise,-that in speech, or in mind, he

hath no peer,-such a soul, when laid open, is ever found empty.

No, though a man be wise, 'tis no shame for him to learn many

things, and to bend in season. Seest thou, beside the wintry torrent's

course, how the trees that yield to it save every twig, while the

stiff-necked perish root and branch? And even thus he who keeps the

sheet of his sail taut, and never slackens it, upsets his boat, and

finishes his voyage with keel uppermost.

Nay, forego thy wrath; permit thyself to change. For if I, a

younger man, may offer my thought, it were far best, I ween, that

men should be all-wise by nature; but, otherwise-and oft the scale

inclines not so-'tis good also to learn from those who speak aright.

LEADER

Sire, 'tis meet that thou shouldest profit by his words, if he

speaks aught in season, and thou, Haemon, by thy father's; for on both

parts there hath been wise speech.

CREON

Men of my age are we indeed to be schooled, then, by men of his?

HAEMON

In nothing that is not right; but if I am young, thou shouldest

look to my merits, not to my years.

CREON

Is it a merit to honour the unruly?

HAEMON

I could wish no one to show respect for evil-doers.

CREON

Then is not she tainted with that malady?

HAEMON

Our Theban folk, with one voice, denies it.

CREON

Shall Thebes prescribe to me how I must rule?

HAEMON

See, there thou hast spoken like a youth indeed.

CREON

Am I to rule this land by other judgment than mine own?

HAEMON

That is no city which belongs to one man.

CREON

Is not the city held to be the ruler's?

HAEMON

Thou wouldst make a good monarch of a desert.

CREON

This boy, it seems, is the woman's champion.

HAEMON

If thou art a woman; indeed, my care is for thee.

CREON

Shameless, at open feud with thy father!

HAEMON

Nay, I see thee offending against justice.

CREON

Do I offend, when I respect mine own prerogatives?

HAEMON

Thou dost not respect them, when thou tramplest on the gods'

honours,

CREON

O dastard nature, yielding place to woman!

HAEMON

Thou wilt never find me yield to baseness.

CREON

All thy words, at least, plead for that girl.

HAEMON

And for thee, and for me, and for the gods below.

CREON

Thou canst never marry her, on this side the grave.

HAEMON

Then she must die, and in death destroy another.

CREON

How! doth thy boldness run to open threats?

HAEMON

What threat is it, to combat vain resolves?

CREON

Thou shalt rue thy witless teaching of wisdom.

HAEMON

Wert thou not my father, I would have called thee unwise.

CREON

Thou woman's slave, use not wheedling speech with me.

HAEMON

Thou wouldest speak, and then hear no reply?

CREON

Sayest thou so? Now, by the heaven above us-be sure of it-thou

shalt smart for taunting me in this opprobrious strain. Bring forth

that hated thing, that she may die forthwith in his presence-before

his eyes-at her bridegroom's side!

HAEMON

No, not at my side-never think it-shall she perish; nor shalt thou

ever set eyes more upon my face:-rave, then, with such friends as

can endure thee.

(Exit HAEMON)

LEADER

The man is gone, O king, in angry haste; a youthful mind, when

stung, is fierce.

CREON

Let him do, or dream, more than man-good speed to him!-But he

shall not save these two girls from their doom.

LEADER

Dost thou indeed purpose to slay both?

CREON

Not her whose hands are pure: thou sayest well.

LEADER

And by what doom mean'st thou to slay the other?

CREON

I will take her where the path is loneliest, and hide her, living,

in rocky vault, with so much food set forth as piety prescribes,

that the city may avoid a public stain. And there, praying to Hades,

the only god whom she worships, perchance she will obtain release from

death; or else will learn, at last, though late, that it is lost

labour to revere the dead.

(CREON goes into the palace.)

CHORUS (singing)

strophe

Love, unconquered in the fight, Love, who makest havoc of

wealth, who keepest thy vigil on the soft cheek of a maiden; thou

roamest over the sea, and among the homes of dwellers in the wilds; no

immortal can escape thee, nor any among men whose life is for a day;

and he to whom thou hast come is mad.

antistrophe

The just themselves have their minds warped by thee to wrong,

for their ruin: 'tis thou that hast stirred up this present strife

of kinsmen; victorious is the love-kindling light from the eyes of the

fair bride; it is a power enthroned in sway beside the eternal laws;

for there the goddess Aphrodite is working her unconquerable will.

(ANTIGONE is led out of the palace by two Of CREON'S attendants who

are about to conduct her to her doom.)

But now I also am carried beyond the bounds of loyalty, and can no

more keep back the streaming tears, when I see Antigone thus passing

to the bridal chamber where all are laid to rest.

(The following lines between ANTIGONE and the CHORUS are chanted

responsively.)

ANTIGONE

strophe 1

See me, citizens of my fatherland, setting forth on my last way,

looking my last on the sunlight that is for me no more; no, Hades

who gives sleep to all leads me living to Acheron's shore; who have

had no portion in the chant that brings the bride, nor hath any song

been mine for the crowning of bridals; whom the lord of the Dark

Lake shall wed.

CHORUS

systema 1

Glorious, therefore, and with praise, thou departest to that

deep place of the dead: wasting sickness hath not smitten thee; thou

hast not found the wages of the sword; no, mistress of thine own fate,

and still alive, thou shalt pass to Hades, as no other of mortal

kind hath passed.

ANTIGONE

antistrophe 1

I have heard in other days how dread a doom befell our Phrygian

guest, the daughter of Tantalus, on the Sipylian heights; I how,

like clinging ivy, the growth of stone subdued her; and the rains fail

not, as men tell, from her wasting form, nor fails the snow, while

beneath her weeping lids the tears bedew her bosom; and most like to

hers is the fate that brings me to my rest.

CHORUS

systema 2

Yet she was a goddess, thou knowest, and born of gods; we are

mortals, and of mortal race. But 'tis great renown for a woman who

hath perished that she should have shared the doom of the godlike,

in her life, and afterward in death.

ANTIGONE

strophe 2

Ah, I am mocked! In the name of our fathers' gods, can ye not wait

till I am gone,-must ye taunt me to my face, O my city, and ye, her

wealthy sons? Ah, fount of Dirce, and thou holy ground of Thebe

whose chariots are many; ye, at least, will bear me witness, in what

sort, unwept of friends, and by what laws I pass to the rock-closed

prison of my strange tomb, ah me unhappy! who have no home on the

earth or in the shades, no home with the living or with the dead.

CHORUS

strophe 3

Thou hast rushed forward to the utmost verge of daring; and

against that throne where justice sits on high thou hast fallen, my

daughter, with a grievous fall. But in this ordeal thou art paying,

haply, for thy father's sin.

ANTIGONE

antistrophe 2

Thou hast touched on my bitterest thought,-awaking the ever-new

lament for my sire and for all the doom given to us, the famed house

of Labdacus. Alas for the horrors of the mother's bed! alas for the

wretched mother's slumber at the side of her own son,-and my sire!

From what manner of parents did I take my miserable being! And to them

I go thus, accursed, unwed, to share their home. Alas, my brother,

ill-starred in thy marriage, in thy death thou hast undone my life!

CHORUS

antistrophe 3

Reverent action claims a certain praise for reverence; but an

offence against power cannot be brooked by him who hath power in his

keeping. Thy self-willed temper hath wrought thy ruin.

ANTIGONE

epode

Unwept, unfriended, without marriage-song, I am led forth in my

sorrow on this journey that can be delayed no more. No longer, hapless

one, may I behold yon day-star's sacred eye; but for my fate no tear

is shed, no friend makes moan.

(CREON enters from the palace.)

CREON

Know ye not that songs and wailings before death would never

cease, if it profited to utter them? Away with her-away! And when ye

have enclosed her, according to my word, in her vaulted grave, leave

her alone, forlorn-whether she wishes to die, or to live a buried life

in such a home. Our hands are clean as touching this maiden. But

this is certain-she shall be deprived of her sojourn in the light.

ANTIGONE

Tomb, bridal-chamber, eternal prison in the caverned rock, whither

go to find mine own, those many who have perished, and whom Persephone

hath received among the dead! Last of all shall I pass thither, and

far most miserably of all, before the term of my life is spent. But

I cherish good hope that my coming will be welcome to my father, and

pleasant to thee, my mother, and welcome, brother, to thee; for,

when ye died, with mine own hands I washed and dressed you, and poured

drink-offerings at your graves; and now, Polyneices, 'tis for

tending thy corpse that I win such recompense as this.

And yet I honoured thee, as the wise will deem, rightly. Never,

had been a mother of children, or if a husband had been mouldering

in death, would I have taken this task upon me in the city's

despite. What law, ye ask, is my warrant for that word? The husband

lost, another might have been found, and child from another, to

replace the first-born: but, father and mother hidden with Hades, no

brother's life could ever bloom for me again. Such was the law whereby

I held thee first in honour; but Creon deemed me guilty of error

therein, and of outrage, ah brother mine! And now he leads me thus,

a captive in his hands; no bridal bed, no bridal song hath been

mine, no joy of marriage, no portion in the nurture of children; but

thus, forlorn of friends, unhappy one, I go living to the vaults of

death.

And what law of heaven have I transgressed? Why, hapless one,

should I look to the gods any more,-what ally should I invoke,-when by

piety I have earned the name of impious? Nay, then, if these things

are pleasing to the gods, when I have suffered my doom, I shall come

to know my sin; but if the sin is with my judges, I could wish them no

fuller measure of evil than they, on their part, mete wrongfully to

me.

CHORUS

Still the same tempest of the soul vexes this maiden with the same

fierce gusts.

CREON

Then for this shall her guards have cause to rue their slowness.

ANTIGONE

Ah me! that word hath come very near to death.

CREON

I can cheer thee with no hope that this doom is not thus to be

fulfilled.

ANTIGONE

O city of my fathers in the land of Thebe! O ye gods, eldest of

our race!-they lead me henc--now, now-they tarry not! Behold me,

princes of Thebes, the last daughter of the house of your kings,-see

what I suffer, and from whom, because I feared to cast away the fear

of Heaven!

(ANTIGONE is led away by the guards.)

CHORUS (singing)

strophe 1

Even thus endured Danae in her beauty to change the light of day

for brass-bound walls; and in that chamber, secret as the grave, she

was held close prisoner; yet was she of a proud lineage, O my

daughter, and charged with the keeping of the seed of Zeus, that

fell in the golden rain.

But dreadful is the mysterious power of fate: there is no

deliverance from it by wealth or by war, by fenced city, or dark,

sea-beaten ships.

antistrophe 1

And bonds tamed the son of Dryas, swift to wrath, that king of the

Edonians; so paid he for his frenzied taunts, when, by the will of

Dionysus, he was pent in a rocky prison. There the fierce exuberance

of his madness slowly passed away. That man learned to know the god,

whom in his frenzy he had provoked with mockeries; for he had sought

to quell the god-possessed women, and the Bacchanalian fire; and he

angered the Muses that love the flute.

strophe 2

And by the waters of the Dark Rocks, the waters of the twofold

sea, are the shores of Bosporus, and Thracian Salmydessus; where Ares,

neighbour to the city, saw the accurst, blinding wound dealt to the

two sons of Phineus by his fierce wife,-the wound that brought

darkness to those vengeance-craving orbs, smitten with her bloody

hands, smitten with her shuttle for a dagger.

antistrophe 2

Pining in their misery, they bewailed their cruel doom, those sons

of a mother hapless in her marriage; but she traced her descent from

the ancient line of the Erechtheidae; and in far-distant caves she was

nursed amid her father's storms, that child of Boreas, swift as a

steed over the steep hills, a daughter of gods; yet upon her also

the gray Fates bore hard, my daughter.

(Enter TEIRESIAS, led by a Boy, on the spectators' right.)

TEIRESIAS

Princes of Thebes, we have come with linked steps, both served

by the eyes of one; for thus, by a guide's help, the blind must walk.

CREON

And what, aged Teiresias, are thy tidings?

TEIRESIAS

I will tell thee; and do thou hearken to the seer.

CREON

Indeed, it has not been my wont to slight thy counsel.

TEIRESIAS

Therefore didst thou steer our city's course aright.

CREON

I have felt, and can attest, thy benefits.

TEIRESIAS

Mark that now, once more, thou standest on fate's fine edge.

CREON

What means this? How I shudder at thy message!

TEIRESIAS

Thou wilt learn, when thou hearest the warnings of mine art. As

I took my place on mine old seat of augury, where all birds have

been wont to gather within my ken, I heard a strange voice among them;

they were screaming with dire, feverish rage, that drowned their

language in jargon; and I knew that they were rending each other

with their talons, murderously; the whirr of wings told no doubtful

tale.

Forthwith, in fear, I essayed burnt-sacrifice on a duly kindled

altar: but from my offerings the Fire-god showed no flame; a dank

moisture, oozing from the thigh-flesh, trickled forth upon the embers,

and smoked, and sputtered; the gall was scattered to the air; and

the streaming thighs lay bared of the fat that had been wrapped

round them.

Such was the failure of the rites by which I vainly asked a

sign, as from this boy I learned; for he is my guide, as I am guide to

others. And 'tis thy counsel that hath brought this sickness on our

State. For the altars of our city and of our hearths have been

tainted, one and all, by birds and dogs, with carrion from the hapless

corpse, the son of Oedipus: and therefore the gods no more accept

prayer and sacrifice at our hands, or the flame of meat-offering;

nor doth any bird give a clear sign by its shrill cry, for they have

tasted the fatness of a slain man's blood.

Think, then, on these things, my son. All men are liable to err;

but when an error hath been made, that man is no longer witless or

unblest who heals the ill into which he hath fallen, and remains not

stubborn.

Self-will, we know, incurs the charge of folly. Nay, allow the

claim of the dead; stab not the fallen; what prowess is it to slay the

slain anew? I have sought thy good, and for thy good I speak: and

never is it sweeter to learn from a good counsellor than when he

counsels for thine own gain.

CREON

Old man, ye all shoot your shafts at me, as archers at the

butts;-Ye must needs practise on me with seer-craft also;-aye, the

seer-tribe hath long trafficked in me, and made me their

merchandise. Gain your gains, drive your trade, if ye list, in the

silver-gold of Sardis and the gold of India; but ye shall not hide

that man in the grave,-no, though the eagles of Zeus should bear the

carrion morsels to their Master's throne-no, not for dread of that

defilement will I suffer his burial:-for well I know that no mortal

can defile the gods.-But, aged Teiresias, the wisest fall with

shameful fall, when they clothe shameful thoughts in fair words, for

lucre's sake.

TEIRESIAS

Alas! Doth any man know, doth any consider...

CREON

Whereof? What general truth dost thou announce?

TEIRESIAS

How precious, above all wealth, is good counsel.

CREON

As folly, I think, is the worst mischief.

TEIRESIAS

Yet thou art tainted with that distemper.

CREON

I would not answer the seer with a taunt.

TEIRESIAS

But thou dost, in saying that I prophesy falsely.

CREON

Well, the prophet-tribe was ever fond of money.

TEIRESIAS

And the race bred of tyrants loves base gain.

CREON

Knowest thou that thy speech is spoken of thy king?

TEIRESIAS

I know it; for through me thou hast saved Thebes.

CREON

Thou art a wise seer; but thou lovest evil deeds.

TEIRESIAS

Thou wilt rouse me to utter the dread secret in my soul.

CREON

Out with it!-Only speak it not for gain.

TEIRESIAS

Indeed, methinks, I shall not,-as touching thee.

CREON

Know that thou shalt not trade on my resolve.

TEIRESIAS

Then know thou-aye, know it well-that thou shalt not live

through many more courses of the sun's swift chariot, ere one begotten

of thine own loins shall have been given by thee, a corpse for

corpses; because thou hast thrust children of the sunlight to the

shades, and ruthlessly lodged a living soul in the grave; but

keepest in this world one who belongs to the gods infernal, a corpse

unburied, unhonoured, all unhallowed. In such thou hast no part, nor

have the gods above, but this is a violence done to them by thee.

Therefore the avenging destroyers lie in wait for thee, the Furies

of Hades and of the gods, that thou mayest be taken in these same

ills.

And mark well if I speak these things as a hireling. A time not

long to be delayed shall awaken the wailing of men and of women in thy

house. And a tumult of hatred against thee stirs all the cities

whose mangled sons had the burial-rite from dogs, or from wild beasts,

or from some winged bird that bore a polluting breath to each city

that contains the hearths of the dead.

Such arrows for thy heart-since thou provokest me-have I

launched at thee, archer-like, in my anger,-sure arrows, of which thou

shalt not escape the smart.-Boy, lead me home, that he may spend his

rage on younger men, and learn to keep a tongue more temperate, and to

bear within his breast a better mind than now he bears.

(The Boy leads TEIRESIAS Out.)

LEADER OF THE CHORUS

The man hath gone, O King, with dread prophecies. And, since the

hair on this head, once dark, hath been white, I know that he hath

never been a false prophet to our city.

CREON

I, too, know it well, and am troubled in soul. 'Tis dire to yield;

but, by resistance, to smite my pride with ruin-this, too, is a dire

choice.

LEADER

Son of Menoeceus, it behoves thee to take wise counsel.

CREON

What should I do then? Speak and I will obey.

LEADER

Go thou, and free the maiden from her rocky chamber, and make a

tomb for the unburied dead.

CREON

And this is thy counsel? Thou wouldst have me yield?

LEADER

Yea, King, and with all speed; for swift harms from the gods cut

short the folly of men.

CREON

Ah me, 'tis hard, but I resign my cherished resolve,-I obey. We

must not wage a vain war with destiny.

LEADER

Go, thou, and do these things; leave them not to others.

CREON

Even as I am I'll go:-on, on, my servants, each and all of

you,-take axes in your hands, and hasten to the ground that ye see

yonder! Since our judgment hath taken this turn, I will be present

to unloose her, as myself bound her. My heart misgives me, 'tis best

to keep the established laws, even to life's end.

(CREON and his servants hasten out on the spectators' left.)

CHORUS (singing)

strophe 1

O thou of many names, glory of the Cadmeian bride, offspring of

loud-thundering Zeus! thou who watchest over famed Italia, and

reignest, where all guests are welcomed, in the sheltered plain of

Eleusinian Deo! O Bacchus, dweller in Thebe, mother-city of Bacchants,

by the softly-gliding stream of Ismenus, on the soil where the

fierce dragon's teeth were sown!

antistrophe 1

Thou hast been seen where torch-flames glare through smoke,

above the crests of the twin peaks, where move the Corycian nymphs,

thy votaries, hard by Castalia's stream.

Thou comest from the ivy-mantled slopes of Nysa's hills, and

from the shore green with many-clustered vines, while thy name is

lifted up on strains of more than mortal power, as thou visitest the

ways of Thebe:

strophe 2

Thebe, of all cities, thou holdest first in honour, thou and thy

mother whom the lightning smote; and now, when all our people is

captive to a violent plague, come thou with healing feet over the

Parnassian height, or over the moaning strait!

antistrophe 2

O thou with whom the stars rejoice as they move, the stars whose

breath is fire; O master of the voices of the night; son begotten of

Zeus; appear, O king, with thine attendant Thyiads, who in

night-long frenzy dance before thee, the giver of good gifts, Iacchus!

(Enter MESSENGER, on the spectators' left.)

MESSENGER

Dwellers by the house of Cadmus and of Amphion, there is no estate

of mortal life that I would ever praise or blame as settled. Fortune

raises and Fortune humbles the lucky or unlucky from day to day, and

no one can prophesy to men concerning those things which are

established. For

CREON was blest once, as I count bliss; he had saved this land of

Cadmus from its foes; he was clothed with sole dominion in the land;

he reigned, the glorious sire of princely children. And now all hath

been lost. For when a man hath forfeited his pleasures, I count him

not as living,-I hold him but a breathing corpse. Heap up riches in

thy house, if thou wilt; live in kingly state; yet, if there be no

gladness therewith, I would not give the shadow of a vapour for all

the rest, compared with joy.

LEADER OF THE CHORUS

And what is this new grief that thou hast to tell for our princes?

MESSENGER

Death; and the living are guilty for the dead.

LEADER

And who is the slayer? Who the stricken? Speak.

MESSENGER

Haemon hath perished; his blood hath been shed by no stranger.

LEADER

By his father's hand, or by his own?

MESSENGER

By his own, in wrath with his sire for the murder.

LEADER

O prophet, how true, then, hast thou proved thy word!

MESSENGER

These things stand thus; ye must consider of the rest.

LEADER

Lo, I see the hapless Eurydice, Creon's wife, approaching; she

comes from the house by chance, haply,-or because she knows the

tidings of her son.

(Enter EURYDICE from the palace.)

EURYDICE

People of Thebes, I heard your words as I was going forth, to

salute the goddess Pallas with my prayers. Even as I was loosing the

fastenings of the gate, to open it, the message of a household woe

smote on mine ear: I sank back, terror-stricken, into the arms of my

handmaids, and my senses fled. But say again what the tidings were;

I shall hear them as one who is no stranger to sorrow.

MESSENGER

Dear lady, I will witness of what I saw, and will leave no word of

the truth untold. Why, indeed, should I soothe thee with words in

which must presently be found false? Truth is ever best.-I attended

thy lord as his guide to the furthest part of the plain, where the

body of Polyneices, torn by dogs, still lay unpitied. We prayed the

goddess of the roads, and Pluto, in mercy to restrain their wrath;

we washed the dead with holy washing; and with freshly-plucked

boughs we solemnly burned such relics as there were. We raised a

high mound of his native earth; and then we turned away to enter the

maiden's nuptial chamber with rocky couch, the caverned mansion of the

bride of Death. And, from afar off, one of us heard a voice of loud

wailing at that bride's unhallowed bower; and came to tell our

master Creon.

And as the king drew nearer, doubtful sounds of a bitter cry

floated around him; he groaned, and said in accents of anguish,

'Wretched that I am, can my foreboding be true? Am I going on the

wofullest way that ever I went? My son's voice greets me.-Go, my

servants,-haste ye nearer, and when ye have reached the tomb, pass

through the gap, where the stones have been wrenched away, to the

cell's very mouth,-and look. and see if 'tis Haemon's voice that I

know, or if mine ear is cheated by the gods.'

This search, at our despairing master's word, we went to make; and

in the furthest part of the tomb we descried her hanging by the

neck, slung by a thread-wrought halter of fine linen: while he was

embracing her with arms thrown around her waist, bewailing the loss of

his bride who is with the dead, and his father's deeds, and his own

ill-starred love.

But his father, when he saw him, cried aloud with a dread cry

and went in, and called to him with a voice of wailing:-'Unhappy, what

deed hast thou done! What thought hath come to thee? What manner of

mischance hath marred thy reason? Come forth, my child! I pray

thee-I implore!' But the boy glared at him with fierce eyes, spat in

his face, and, without a word of answer, drew his cross-hilted

sword:-as his father rushed forth in flight, he missed his

aim;-then, hapless one, wroth with himself, he straightway leaned with

all his weight against his sword, and drove it, half its length,

into his side; and, while sense lingered, he clasped the maiden to his

faint embrace, and, as he gasped, sent forth on her pale cheek the

swift stream of the oozing blood.

Corpse enfolding corpse he lies; he hath won his nuptial rites,

poor youth, not here, yet in the halls of Death; and he hath witnessed

to mankind that, of all curses which cleave to man, ill counsel is the

sovereign curse.

(EURYDICE retires into the house.)

LEADER

What wouldst thou augur from this? The lady hath turned back,

and is gone, without a word, good or evil.

MESSENGER

I, too, am startled; yet I nourish the hope that, at these sore

tidings of her son, she cannot deign to give her sorrow public vent,

but in the privacy of the house will set her handmaids to mourn the

household grief. For she is not untaught of discretion, that she

should err.

LEADER

I know not; but to me, at least, a strained silence seems to

portend peril, no less than vain abundance of lament.

MESSENGER

Well, I will enter the house, and learn whether indeed she is

not hiding some repressed purpose in the depths of a passionate heart.

Yea, thou sayest well: excess of silence, too, may have a perilous

meaning.

(The MESSENGER goes into the palace. Enter CREON, on the spectators'

left, with attendants, carrying the shrouded body of HAEMON on

bier. The following lines between CREON and the CHORUS are

chanted responsively.)

CHORUS

Lo, yonder the king himself draws near, bearing that which tells

too clear a tale,-the work of no stranger's madness,-if we may say

it,-but of his own misdeeds.

CREON

strophe 1

Woe for the sins of a darkened soul, stubborn sins, fraught with

death! Ah, ye behold us, the sire who hath slain, the son who hath

perished! Woe is me, for the wretched blindness of my counsels!

Alas, my son, thou hast died in thy youth, by a timeless doom, woe

is me!-thy spirit hath fled,-not by thy folly, but by mine own!

CHORUS

strophe 2

Ah me, how all too late thou seemest to see the right!

CREON Ah me, I have learned the bitter lesson! But then, methinks,

oh then, some god smote me from above with crushing weight, and hurled

me into ways of cruelty, woe is me,-overthrowing and trampling on my

joy! Woe, woe, for the troublous toils of men!

(Enter MESSENGER from the house.)

MESSENGER

Sire, thou hast come, methinks, as one whose hands are not

empty, but who hath store laid up besides; thou bearest yonder

burden with thee-and thou art soon to look upon the woes within thy

house.

CREON

And what worse ill is yet to follow upon ills?

MESSENGER

Thy queen hath died, true mother of yon corpse-ah, hapless lady by

blows newly dealt.

CREON

antistrophe 1

Oh Hades, all-receiving whom no sacrifice can appease! Hast

thou, then, no mercy for me? O thou herald of evil, bitter tidings,

what word dost thou utter? Alas, I was already as dead, and thou

hast smitten me anew! What sayest thou, my son? What is this new

message that thou bringest-woe, woe is me!-Of a wife's doom-of

slaughter headed on slaughter?

CHORUS

Thou canst behold: 'tis no longer hidden within.

(The doors of the palace are opened, and the corpse of EURYDICE is

disclosed.)

CREON

antistrophe 2

Ah me,-yonder I behold a new, a second woe! What destiny, ah what,

can yet await me? I have but now raised my son in my arms,-and

there, again, I see a corpse before me! Alas, alas, unhappy mother!

Alas, my child!

MESSENGER

There, at the altar, self-stabbed with a keen knife, she

suffered her darkening eyes to close, when she had wailed for the

noble fate of Megareus who died before, and then for his fate who lies

there,-and when, with her last breath, she had invoked evil fortunes

upon thee, the slayer of thy sons.

CREON

strophe 3

Woe, woe! I thrill with dread. Is there none to strike me to the

heart with two-edged sword?-O miserable that I am, and steeped in

miserable anguish!

MESSENGER

Yea, both this son's doom, and that other's, were laid to thy

charge by her whose corpse thou seest.

CREON

And what was the manner of the violent deed by which she passed

away?

MESSENGER

Her own hand struck her to the heart, when she had learned her

son's sorely lamented fate.

CREON

strophe 4

Ah me, this guilt can never be fixed on any other of mortal

kind, for my acquittal! I, even I, was thy slayer, wretched that I

am-I own the truth. Lead me away, O my servants, lead me hence with

all speed, whose life is but as death!

CHORUS

Thy counsels are good, if there can be good with ills; briefest is

best, when trouble is in our path.

CREON

antistrophe 3

Oh, let it come, let it appear, that fairest of fates for me, that

brings my last day,-aye, best fate of all! Oh, let it come, that I may

never look upon to-morrow's light.

CHORUS

These things are in the future; present tasks claim our care:

the ordering of the future rests where it should rest.

CREON

All my desires, at least, were summed in that prayer.

CHORUS

Pray thou no more; for mortals have no escape from destined woe.

CREON

antistrophe 4

Lead me away, I pray you; a rash, foolish man; who have slain

thee, ah my son, unwittingly, and thee, too, my wife-unhappy that I

am! I know not which way I should bend my gaze, or where I should seek

support; for all is amiss with that which is in my hands,-and

yonder, again, a crushing fate hath leapt upon my head.

(As CREON is being conducted into the palace, the LEADER OF THE

CHORUS speaks the closing verses.)

LEADER

Wisdom is the supreme part of happiness; and reverence towards the

gods must be inviolate. Great words of prideful men are ever

punished with great blows, and, in old age, teach the chastened to

be wise.

-THE END-