Antigone

Perseus Greek · Perseus Greek · 406 sections

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Ismene, my sister, true child of my own mother, do you know any evil out of all the evils bequeathed by Oedipus that Zeus will not fulfil for the two of us in our lifetime? There is nothing—no pain, no ruin,
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no shame, nor dishonor—that I have not seen in your sufferings and mine. And now what is this new edict that they say the general has just decreed to all the city? Do you know anything? Have you heard? Or does it escape you that
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evils from our enemies are on the march against our friends?
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To me no word of our friends, Antigone, either bringing joy or bringing pain has come since we two were robbed of our two brothers who died in one day by a double blow.
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And since the Argive army has fled during this night, I have learned nothing further, whether better fortune is mine, or further ruin.
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I knew it well, so I was trying to bring you outside the courtyard gates to this end, that you alone might hear.
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Hear what? It is clear that you are brooding on some dark news.
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Why not? Has not Creon destined our brothers, the one to honored burial, the other to unburied shame? Eteocles, they say, with due observance of right and custom, he has laid in the earth
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for his honor among the dead below. As for the poor corpse of Polyneices, however, they say that an edict has been published to the townsmen that no one shall bury him or mourn him, but instead leave him unwept, unentombed, for the birds a pleasing store
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as they look to satisfy their hunger. Such, it is said, is the edict that the good Creon has laid down for you and for me—yes, for me—and it is said that he is coming here to proclaim it for the certain knowledge of those who do not already know. They say that he does not conduct this business lightly,
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but whoever performs any of these rites, for him the fate appointed is death by public stoning among the entire city. This is how things stand for you, and so you will soon show your nature, whether you are noble-minded, or the corrupt daughter of a noble line.
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Poor sister, if things have come to this, what would I
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profit by loosening or tightening this knot?
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Consider whether you will share the toil and the task.
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What are you hazarding? What do you intend?
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Will you join your hand to mine in order to lift his corpse?
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You plan to bury him—when it is forbidden to the city?
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Yes, he is my brother, and yours too, even if you wish it otherwise. I will never be convicted of betraying him.
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Hard girl! Even when Creon has forbidden it?
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No, he has no right to keep me from my own.
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Ah, no! Think, sister, how our father
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perished in hatred and infamy, when, because of the crimes that he himself detected, he smashed both his eyes with self-blinding hand; then his mother-wife, two names in one, with a twisted noose destroyed her life;
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lastly, our two brothers in a single day, both unhappy murderers of their own flesh and blood, worked with mutual hands their common doom. And now we, in turn—we two who have been left all alone—consider how much more miserably we will be destroyed, if in defiance of the law
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we transgress against an autocrat’s decree or his powers. No, we must remember, first, that ours is a woman’s nature, and accordingly not suited to battles against men; and next, that we are ruled by the more powerful, so that we must obey in these things and in things even more stinging.
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I, therefore, will ask those below for pardon, since I am forced to this, and will obey those who have come to authority. It is foolish to do what is fruitless.
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I would not encourage you—no, nor, even if you were willing later,
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would I welcome you as my partner in this action. No, be the sort that pleases you. I will bury him—it would honor me to die while doing that. I shall rest with him, loved one with loved one, a pious criminal. For the time is greater
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that I must serve the dead than the living, since in that world I will rest forever. But if you so choose, continue to dishonor what the gods in honor have established.
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I do them no dishonor. But to act in violation of the citizens’ will—of that I am by nature incapable.
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You can make that your pretext! Regardless, I will go now to heap a tomb over the brother I love.
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Oh no, unhappy sister! I fear for you!
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Do not tremble for me. Straighten out your own destiny.
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Then at least disclose the deed to no one before you do it.
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Conceal it, instead, in secrecy—and so, too, will I.
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Go on! Denounce it! You will be far more hated for your silence, if you fail to proclaim these things to everyone.
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You have a hot heart for chilling deeds.
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I know that I please those whom I am most bound to please.
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Yes, if you will also have the power. But you crave the impossible.
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Why then, when my strength fails, I will have finished.
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An impossible hunt should not be tried in the first place.
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If you mean that, you will have my hatred, and you will be subject to punishment as the enemy of the dead.
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But leave me and the foolish plan I have authored to suffer this terrible thing, for I will not suffer anything so terrible that my death will lack honor.
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Go, then, if you so decide. And of this be sure: though your path is foolish, to your loved ones your love is straight and true. Exit Antigone on the spectators’ left. Ismene exits into the palace.
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Shaft of the sun, fairest light of all that have dawned on Thebes of the seven gates, you have shone forth at last, eye of golden day, advancing over Dirce’s streams!
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You have goaded with a sharper bit the warrior of the white shield, who came from Argos in full armor, driving him to headlong retreat.
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He set out against our land because of the strife-filled claims of Polyneices, and like a screaming eagle he flew over into our land, covered by his snow-white wing,
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with a mass of weapons and crested helmets.
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He paused above our dwellings; he gaped around our sevenfold portals with spears thirsting for blood; but he left
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before his jaws were ever glutted with our gore, or before the Fire-god’s pine-fed flame had seized our crown of towers.
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So fierce was the crash of battle swelling about his back, a match too hard to win for the rival of the dragon.
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For Zeus detests above all the boasts of a proud tongue. And when he saw them advancing in a swollen flood,
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arrogant their clanging gold, he dashed with brandished fire one who was already starting to shout victory when he had reached our ramparts.
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Staggered, he fell to the earth with a crash,
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torch in hand, a man possessed by the frenzy of the mad attack, who just now was raging against us with the blasts of his tempestuous hate. But his threats did not fare as he had hoped, and to the other enemies mighty Ares dispensed each their own dooms with hard blows,
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Ares, our mighty ally at the turning-point.
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For the seven captains, stationed against an equal number at the seven gates, left behind their brazen arms in tribute to Zeus the turner of battle—all but the accursed pair who, born of one father and one
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mother, set against each other their spears, both victorious, and who now share in a common death.
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But since Victory whose name is glory has come to us, smiling in joy equal to the joy of chariot-rich Thebes,
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let us make for ourselves forgetfulness after the recent wars, and visit all the temples of the gods with night-long dance and song. And may Bacchus, who shakes the earth of Thebes, rule our dancing!
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But look, the king of the land is coming here, Creon, the son of Menoeceus, our new ruler in accordance with the new circumstances fated by the gods. What policy is he setting in motion,
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that he has proposed this special conference of elders, and summoned it by a general mandate?
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My fellow citizens! First, the gods, after tossing the fate of our city on wild waves, have once more righted it. Second, I have ordered you through my messengers to come here
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apart from all the rest, because I knew, first of all, how constant was your reverence for the power of the throne of Laius; how, again, you were reverent, when Oedipus was guiding our city; and lastly, how, when he was dead, you still maintained loyal thoughts towards his children.
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Since, then, these latter have fallen in one day by a twofold doom—each striking, each struck, both with the stain of a brother’s murder—I now possess all the power and the throne according to my kinship with the dead.
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Now, it is impossible to know fully any man’s character, will, or judgment, until he has been proved by the test of rule and law-giving. For if anyone who directs the entire city does not cling to the best and wisest plans,
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but because of some fear keeps his lips locked, then, in my judgment, he is and has long been the most cowardly traitor. And if any man thinks a friend more important than his fatherland, that man, I say, is of no account. Zeus, god who sees all things always, be my witness—
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I would not be silent if I saw ruin, instead of safety, marching upon the citizens. Nor would I ever make a man who is hostile to my country a friend to myself, because I know this, that our country is the ship that bears us safe, and that only when
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we sail her on a straight course can we make true friends. Such are the rules by which I strengthen this city. Akin to these is the edict which I have now published to the citizenry concerning the sons of Oedipus: Eteocles, who fell fighting
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in behalf of our city and who excelled all in battle, they shall entomb and heap up every sacred offering that descends to the noblest of the dead below. But as for his brother, Polyneices, I mean, who on his return from exile wanted to burn to the ground
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the city of his fathers and his race’s gods, and wanted to feed on kindred blood and lead the remnant into slavery—it has been proclaimed to the city that no one shall give him funeral honors or lamentation,
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but all must leave him unburied and a sight of shame, with his body there for birds and dogs to eat. This is my will, and never will I allow the traitor to stand in honor before the just. But whoever has good will to Thebes,
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he shall be honored by me in death as in life.
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That is your will, Creon, towards this city’s enemy and its friend. And the power is yours, I believe, to make use of every law whatsoever, both concerning the dead and all us who live.
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See, then, that you be guardians of my commands.
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Lay the weight of this task on some younger man.
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That is not what I meant—the guards for the corpse are already in place.
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Then what is this other command that you would give?
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That you not give way to the breakers of my commands.
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There is no one so foolish as to crave death.
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I assure you, that is the wage for disobedience. Yet by just the hope of it, money has many times corrupted men.
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My king, I will not say that I arrive breathless because of speed, or from the action of a swift foot.
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For often I brought myself to a stop because of my thoughts, and wheeled round in my path to return. My mind was telling me many things: Fool, why do you go to where your arrival will mean your punishment? Idiot, are you dallying again? If Creon learns it from another, must you not suffer for it?
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So debating, I made my way unhurriedly, slow, and thus a short road was made long. At last, however, the view prevailed that I should come here—to you. Even if my report brings no good, still will I tell you,
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since I come with a good grip on one hope, that I can suffer nothing except what is my fate.
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And what is it that so disheartens you?
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I want to tell you first about myself—I did not do the deed, nor did I see the doer,
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so it would be wrong that I should come to any harm.
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Like a bowman you aim well at your target from a distance, and all around you hedge yourself off well from the deed. It is clear that you have some unheard-of thing to tell.
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That I do, for terrible news imposes great hesitation.
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Then tell it, will you, and so unburdened go away?
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Well, here it is. The corpse—some one has just given it burial and disappeared after sprinkling thirsty dust on the flesh and performing the other rites that piety demands.
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What are you saying? What man dared do this?
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I do not know. For there was no scar of a pickax to be seen there,
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no earth thrown up by a mattock. The ground was hard and dry, unbroken, not rolled over by wheels. The doer was someone who left no trace. When the first day-watchman showed it to us, a discomforting amazement fell on us all.
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The dead man was veiled from us—not shut within a tomb, but a light cover of dust was on him, as if put there by the hand of one who shunned a curse. And no sign was visible that any beast of prey or any dog had approached or torn him. Then evil words flew thick and loud among us,
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guard accusing guard. It would even have come to blows in the end, nor was there anyone there to prevent it: every man was the culprit, and no one was plainly guilty, while all disclaimed knowledge of the act. We were ready to take red-hot iron in our hands,
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to walk through fire and to swear oaths by the gods that we had neither done the deed, nor shared knowledge of the planning or the doing. At last, when our investigating got us nowhere, someone spoke up and made us all bend our faces
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in fear towards the earth. For we did not know how we could argue with him, nor yet prosper, if we did what he said. His argument was that the deed must be reported to you and not hidden. This view prevailed, and so it was that
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the lot doomed miserable me to win this prize. So here I stand, as unwelcome to you as I am unwilling, I well know. For no man delights in the bearer of bad news.
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My king, my thoughts have long been deliberating whether this deed is somehow the work of gods?

Perseus Greek. CTS URN tlg0011.tlg002.perseus-eng2. Via the Perseus Digital Library / Open Greek and Latin TEI corpora. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0. Source.