Sophocles, Antigone 1-99
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, [5] 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 [10] evils from our enemies are on the march against
our friends?
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. [15] And since the
Argive army has fled during this night, I have learned nothing further, whether
better fortune is mine, or further ruin.
I knew it well, so I was trying to bring you outside
the courtyard gates to this end, that you alone might hear.
[20] Hear what? It is clear that you are brooding
on some dark news.
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 [25] 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 [30] 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, [35] 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.
Poor sister, if things have come to this, what would I
[40] profit by loosening or tightening this knot?
Consider whether you will share the toil and the task.
What are you hazarding? What do you intend?
Will you join your hand to mine in order to lift his
corpse?
You plan to bury him--when it is forbidden to the
city?
[45] Yes, he is my brother, and yours too, even
if you wish it otherwise. I will never be convicted of betraying him.
Hard girl! Even when Creon
has forbidden it?
No, he has no right to keep me from my own.
Ah, no! Think, sister, how our father [50] 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; [55] 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 [60] 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. [65] 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.
Poor sister, if things have come to this, what would I
[40] profit by loosening or tightening this knot?
Consider whether you will share the toil and the task.
What are you hazarding? What do you intend?
Will you join your hand to mine in order to lift his
corpse?
You plan to bury him--when it is forbidden to the
city?
[45] Yes, he is my brother, and yours too, even
if you wish it otherwise. I will never be convicted of betraying him.
Hard girl! Even when Creon
has forbidden it?
No, he has no right to keep me from my own.
Ah, no! Think, sister, how our father [50] 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; [55] 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 [60] 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. [65] 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.
I would not encourage you--no, nor, even if you were
willing later, [70] 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 [75] 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.
I do them no dishonor. But to act in violation of the
citizens' will--of that I am by nature incapable.
[80] You can make that your pretext! Regardless,
I will go now to heap a tomb over the brother I love.
Oh no, unhappy sister! I fear for you!
Do not tremble for me. Straighten out your own
destiny.
Then at least disclose the deed to no one before you
do it. [85] Conceal it, instead, in secrecy--and so, too, will I.
Go on! Denounce it! You will be far more hated for
your silence, if you fail to proclaim these things to everyone.
You have a hot heart for chilling deeds.
I know that I please those whom I am most bound to
please.
[90] Yes, if you will also have the power. But
you crave the impossible.
Why then, when my strength fails, I will have
finished.
An impossible hunt should not be tried in the first
place.
If you mean that, you will have my hatred, and you
will be subject to punishment as the enemy of the dead. [95] 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.
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
tr. Sir Richard Jebb
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