Site Home > Philosophical Stages > Scene I
ANTIGONE:
I weep for the ruin in my mother's bed,
The sexual intercourse and the incest
My father had with our mother.
Ill fated parents make a miserable child.
I am going to them now,
Unholy and unmarried, to lodge with them.
Oh, my brother, you were married once,
But what a disaster it was:
CREON:
You there! With your head bowed to the ground --
Are you guilty? Or do you deny that you did this thing?
ANTIGONE:
Of course not. I did it. I won't deny anything.
CREON:
Did you know that this had been forbidden?
ANTIGONE:
I knew. I couldn't help knowing. It was everywhere.
CREON:
And yet you dared to violate these laws?
ANTIGONE:
What laws? I never heard it was Zeus
Who made that announcement.
And it wasn't justice, either. The gods below
Didn't lay down this law for human use.
And I never thought your announcements
Could give you a mere human being
Power to trample the gods' unfailing,
Unwritten laws. These laws weren't made now
Or yesterday. They live for all time,
And no one knows when they came into the light.
No man could frighten me into taking on
The gods' penalty for breaking such a law.
I'll die in any case, of course I will,
Whether you announce my execution or not.
But if I die young, all the better:
People who live in misery like mine
Are better dead. So if that's the way
My life will end, the pain is nothing.
But if I let the corpse my mother's son
Lie dead, unburied, that would be agony.
This way, no agony for me. But you! You think
I've been a fool? It takes a fool to think that.
CREON: (To the chorus.)
Don't forget: The mind that is most rigid
Stumbles soonest; the hardest iron
Tempered in fire till it is super strong
Shatters easily and clatters into shards.
And you can surely break the wildest horse
With a tiny bridle. When the master's watching,
Pride has no place in the life of a slave.
This girl was a complete expert in arrogance
Already, when she broke established law.
And now, arrogantly, she adds insult to injury:
She's boasting and sneering about what she's done!
Listen, if she's not punished for taking the upper hand,
Then I am not a man. She would be a man!
I don't care if she is my sister's child
Or closer yet at my household shrine for Zeus
She and her sister must pay the full price
And die for their crime.
Yes, I say they have equal guilt,
Conniving, one with the other, for this burial.
Bring her out. I saw her in there a minute ago;
She was raving mad, totally out of her mind.
Often it's the feelings of a thief that give him away
Before the crimes he did in darkness come to light.
(Turning to Antigone.)
But how I hate it when she's caught in the act,
And the criminal still glories in her crime.
ANTIGONE:
You've caught me, you can kill me. What more do you want?
CREON:
For me, that's everything. I want no more than that.
ANTIGONE:
Then what are you waiting for? More talk?
Your words disgust me, I hope they always will.
And I'm sure you are disgusted by what I say.
But yet, speaking of glory, what could be more
Glorious than giving my true brother his burial?
All these men would tell you they're rejoicing
Over that, if you hadn't locked their tongues
With fear. But a tyrant says and does
What he pleases. That's his great joy.
CREON:
You are the only one, in all Thebes, who thinks that way.
ANTIGONE:
No. They all see it the same. You've silenced them.
CREON:
Aren't you ashamed to have a mind apart from theirs?
ANTIGONE:
There's no shame in having respect for a brother.
CREON:
Wasn't he your brother, too, the one who died on the other side?
ANTIGONE:
Yes, my blood brother same mother, same father.
CREON:
When you honor the one, you disgrace the other. Why do it?
ANTIGONE:
The dead will never testify against a burial.
CREON:
Yes, if they were equal. But one of them deserves disgrace.
ANTIGONE:
He wasn't any kind of slave. He was his brother, who died.
CREON:
He was killing and plundering. The other one defended our land.
ANTIGONE:
Even so, Hades longs to have these laws obeyed.
CREON:
But surely not equal treatment for good and bad?
ANTIGONE:
Who knows? Down below that might be bless6d.
CREON:
An enemy is always an enemy, even in death.
ANTIGONE:
I cannot side with hatred. My nature sides with love.
CREON:
Go to Hades, then, and if you have to love, love someone
dead.
As long as I live, I will not be ruled by a woman.
(Enter Ismene under guard, through the great doors.)
CREON:
Now you. Hiding in my house like a snake,
A coiled bloodsucker in the dark! And I never realized
I was raising a pair of deadly, crazed revolutionaries!
Come, tell me: How do you plead? Guilty of this burial
As an accomplice? Or do you swear you knew nothing?
ISMENE:
I did it, I confess. That is, if we are partners, anyway.
I am an accomplice, and I bear responsibility with her.
ANTIGONE:
I will not permit this penalty to fall on you.
No. I never wanted to give you a share.
ISMENE:
But these are your troubles! I'm not ashamed;
I'll be your shipmate in suffering.
ANTIGONE:
I have witnesses: the gods below saw who did the work.
I won't accept a friend who's only friends in words.
ISMENE:
No, please! You're my sister: Don't despise me!
Let me die with you and sanctify our dead.
ANTIGONE:
No, you may not die along with me. Don't say you did it!
You wouldn't even touch it. Now leave my death alone!
ISMENE:
Why would I care to live when you are gone?
ANTIGONE:
Creon's the one to ask. He's the one you care for.
ISMENE:
Why are you scolding me? It won't help you.
ANTIGONE:
Of course not. It hurts me when my mockery strikes you.
ISMENE:
But I still want to help you. What can I do?
ANTIGONE:
Escape! Save yourself! I don't begrudge you that.
ISMENE:
0 misery! Why am I cut off from your fate?
ANTIGONE:
Because you chose life, and I chose death.
ISMENE:
But I gave You reasons not to make that choice.
ANTIGONE: (Pointing to Creon and the chorus.)
Oh yes, you are sensible; these men agree.
(Pointing to the ground, speaking of the dead or the
gods below.)
But they agree with me.
ISMENE:
Yes, I know. And now the sin is mine as much as yours.
ANTIGONE:
Be brave. You are alive. Already my soul is dead.
It has gone to help those who died before me.
CREON:
What a pair of children! One of you lost her mind
Moments ago; the other was born without hers.
ISMENE:
That is right, sir. Whenever we commit a crime,
Our minds, which grew by nature, leave us.
CREON:
Yours did, when you deliberately joined a criminal in crime.
ISMENE:
Without her, why should I live? I'd be alone.
CREON:
Her? Don't speak of her. She is no more.
ISMENE:
But will you really kill the bride of your son?
CREON:
There's other ground for him to plow, you know.
ISMENE:
But no one is suited to him as well as she is.
CREON:
I loathe bad women. She's not for my son.
ANTIGONE (or possibly ISMENE, or possibly CHORUS):
0 Haemon, dearest, what a disgrace your father does to you!
CREON:
Shut up! What a pain you are, you and your marriage!
ISMENE:
Will you really take away your son's bride?
CREON:
Not me. Death will put a stop to this marriage.
ISMENE:
So she will die. Has it really been decided?
CREON:
Yes. By you and me. Now, no more delays.
Servants! Take them inside. They are women,
And they must not be free to roam about.
Even a brave man flees from Death
When he sees his life in immediate danger.