.

ANTIGONE
What say'st thou, King?

THESEUS
My children, he
Charged me straitly that no moral
Should approach the sacred portal,
Or greet with funeral litanies
The hidden tomb wherein he lies;
Saying, "If thou keep'st my hest
Thou shalt hold thy realm at rest."
The God of Oaths this promise heard,
And to Zeus I pledged my word.

ANTIGONE
Well, if he would have it so,
We must yield. Then let us go
Back to Thebes, if yet we may
Heal this mortal feud and stay
The self-wrought doom
That drives our brothers to their tomb.

THESEUS
Go in peace; nor will I spare
Ought of toil and zealous care,
But on all your needs attend,
Gladdening in his grave my friend.

CHORUS
Wail no more, let sorrow rest,
All is ordered for the best.

FOOTNOTES
---------

[Footnote 4: The Greek text for the passages marked here and later in
the text have been lost.]

[Footnote 5: To avoid the blessing, still a secret, he resorts
to a commonplace; literally, "For what generous man is not (in
befriending others) a friend to himself?"]

[Footnote 6: Creon desires to bury Oedipus on the confines of Thebes so
as to avoid the pollution and yet offer due rites at his tomb. Ismene
tells him of the latest oracle and interprets to him its purport, that
some day the Theban invaders of Athens will be routed in a battle near
the grave of Oedipus.]

[Footnote 7: The Thebans sprung from the Dragon's teeth sown by
Cadmus.]

SOPHOCLES

ANTIGONE

Translation by F. Storr, BA
Formerly Scholar of Trinity College, Cambridge
From the Loeb Library Edition
Originally published by
Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA
and
William Heinemann Ltd, London

First published in 1912

*****

ARGUMENT

Antigone, daughter of Oedipus, the late king of Thebes, in defiance of
Creon who rules in his stead, resolves to bury her brother Polyneices,
slain in his attack on Thebes. She is caught in the act by Creon's
watchmen and brought before the king. She justifies her action,
asserting that she was bound to obey the eternal laws of right and wrong
in spite of any human ordinance. Creon, unrelenting, condemns her to