greek · literary

Antigone

c. 441 BCE · Classical Greece (5th century BCE) · Athens, Greece

Prologue — Antigone and Ismene

1ANTIGONE: Ismene, my own sister, dear in blood,
2knowest thou what ill there is of all bequeathed by Oedipus
3that Zeus doth not accomplish for us twain while we yet live?
4Nothing painful is there, nothing fraught with ruin, no disgrace,
5no dishonour, that I have not seen in thy woes and mine.
6And now what new edict is this of which they tell,
7that our Captain hath just published to all Thebes?
8Knowest thou aught? Hast thou heard? Or is it hidden from thee
9that our friends are threatened with the doom of our foes?
10ISMENE: No word of friends, Antigone, gladsome or painful,
11hath come to me since we two sisters were bereft of our two brothers,
12killed in one day by a twofold blow.
13ANTIGONE: I knew it well, and therefore sought to bring thee past the gates,
14that thou mightest hear alone.
15Know then that Creon hath given burial-honours to our brother Eteocles,
16and hath hidden him in the earth with all rites.
17But the hapless corpse of Polyneices—as rumour saith—
18he hath published to the town that none shall entomb him
19or mourn, but leave unwept, unsepulchred,
20a welcome store for the birds that watch afar for their sweet prey.

First Ode — The Wonders of Man

21CHORUS: Wonders are many, and none is more wonderful than man.
22This power spans the sea, even when it surges white
23before the gales of the winter south;
24and beneath the tumult of waves he passes.
25And Earth, the eldest of the gods, the immortal, the unwearied,
26doth he wear, turning the soil with the offspring of horses,
27as the ploughs go to and fro from year to year.
28And the light-witted tribe of birds, and the races of wild beasts,
29and the briny brood of the sea,
30he takes in the meshes of his woven toils,
31he leads captive, man excellent in wit.
32And speech, and wind-swift thought, and all the moods
33that mould a state, hath he taught himself;
34and how to flee the arrows of the frost,
35when 'tis hard lodging under the clear sky,
36and the arrows of the rushing rain;
37yea, he hath resource for all.
38Cunning beyond fancy's dream is the fertile skill
39which brings him, now to evil, now to good.
40When he honours the laws of the land,
41and that justice which he hath sworn by the gods to uphold,
42proudly stands his city: no city hath he who,
43for his rashness, dwells with sin.
44Never may he share my hearth, never think my thoughts,
45who doth these things!

Antigone Before Creon

46CREON: Thou—thou, whose face is bent to earth—dost thou avow, or disavow, this deed?
47ANTIGONE: I avow it; I make no denial.
48CREON: Tell me, not in many words, but briefly—
49knewest thou that an edict had forbidden this?
50ANTIGONE: I knew it. Could I help it? It was public.
51CREON: And thou didst indeed dare to transgress that law?
52ANTIGONE: Yes; for it was not Zeus that had published me that edict;
53not such are the Laws set among men by the Justice who dwells with the gods below;
54nor deemed I that thy decrees were of such force,
55that a mortal could override the unwritten and unfailing statutes of heaven.
56For their life is not of today or yesterday, but from all time,
57and no man knows when they were first put forth.
58Not through dread of any human pride could I answer to the gods
59for breaking these. Die I must—I knew that well.
60And if I am to die before my time, I count that a gain;
61for who is there who lives amid much sorrow,
62as I, for whom death is not a gain?

Antigone's Lament

63ANTIGONE: Tomb, bridal-chamber, prison in the rock,
64whither I go to find mine own, those many who have perished,
65and whom Persephone hath received among the dead!
66Last of them all, and far most miserably, of all,
67I shall pass thither before the term of my life is spent.
68But I cherish good hope that my coming will be welcome to my father,
69and pleasant to thee, my mother, and welcome, brother, to thee;
70for, when ye died, with mine own hands I washed and dressed you,
71and poured drink-offerings at your graves;
72and now, Polyneices, 'tis for tending thy corpse that I win such recompense as this.
73And yet I honoured thee, as the wise will deem, rightly.
74Never, had I been a mother of children, or if a husband had been mouldering in death,
75would I have taken this task upon me in the city's despite.
76What law, ye ask, is my warrant for that word?
77The husband lost, another might have been found,
78and child from another, to replace the first-born;
79but, father and mother hidden with Hades,
80no brother's life could ever bloom for me again.

The Catastrophe

81MESSENGER: I bring news to thee, O Creon: thy own hand hath brought death to one,
82and ruined another of thy house.
83CREON: What do I hear? What deed is this? Tell me.
84MESSENGER: Haemon is dead. His own right hand hath done the deed.
85CREON: His father's, or his own?
86MESSENGER: His own, in wrath with thee for the murder of his bride.
87CREON: O prophet, how true a word thou hast spoken!
88CHORUS: Too late; too late is Creon's wisdom now.
89CREON: O the hard lessons of my madness!
90Fate hath humbled me beneath a heavy hand.
91My joy hath been struck down and stamped upon by ruin.
92CHORUS: When men have sinned, there is no shunning the gods' vengeance.
93The great words of the proud are paid in full
94with great blows, and in old age teach wisdom.

notes

Antigone by Sophocles was performed around 441 BCE, likely before Oedipus Rex (which dramatises earlier events in the Theban myth cycle). The play centres on the conflict between divine law and human law — between Antigone's duty to bury her brother Polyneices according to religious rite, and Creon's edict forbidding it as a traitor. The central question — which law takes precedence when they conflict? — has made Antigone one of the most debated works in the history of political philosophy. Hegel read the play as dramatising the collision between family (represented by Antigone) and state (Creon), two equally valid but incompatible ethical orders. Neither is simply wrong; both are shattered. The ode "Wonders are many" (lines 21–45 above) is one of the great statements of Greek humanism — and of its limits. Man's ingenuity is marvellous; but without justice and the gods, the city falls. Translation: R.C. Jebb, "Sophocles: The Plays and Fragments, Part III: The Antigone," Cambridge University Press, 1891. Public domain.

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