The Greek Plays

by The Greek Plays- Sixteen Plays by Aeschylus, Sophocles

  to argue with him or follow his advice

  with much enthusiasm. This deed, he said,

  must be reported to you, not hidden away.

  The motion carried, and I was the lucky one

  chosen by lot to get the prize. I’m here, no doubt,

  as unwelcome as I am unhappy,

  for no one loves the bearer of bad news.

  CHORUS LEADER: For what it’s worth, my lord, the thought has long

  been on my mind: the gods have had a hand in this.

  280

  CREON: (to Chorus Leader) Stop, before your prattle fills me with anger

  and you look every bit the fool—an old fool!

  What you’re saying—that the gods took an interest

  in this corpse—is not to be endured.

  Did they cover it out of respect, as if he was

  their benefactor, the man who came to burn

  their temples, their shrines ringed with columns,

  and to tear their land and laws to pieces?

  Or do you see gods honoring the wicked?

  Impossible! The truth is that, right from the start,

  men of this city, resenting my edicts,

  290

  took to muttering in secret against me,

  shaking their heads, and wouldn’t lay their necks

  under the yoke and learn to like me as they should.

  Led astray by them, I know it for a fact,

  these men*27 have done these things—for pay.

  For there is no human institution as evil

  as money. This puts cities to the sword,

  this uproots men from their homes;

  this inures and perverts the minds

  of good men to tend to evil deeds;

  300

  it’s this that taught mankind to do anything

  and grow familiar with every impious act.

  Those hirelings who have done these things

  have guaranteed their punishment in time to come.

  (speaking to the Guard) But as I’m still a worshipper of Zeus,

  know this well, and I say it on oath: if you

  don’t find the perpetrator of this burial

  and bring him out here, before my eyes,

  death alone won’t be enough for you, not until,

  hung up alive, you confess to this outrage.

  310

  That’s how you’ll learn, when seeking future profit,

  where profit should be sought, and that you ought not

  to make a habit of seeking it just anywhere.

  For you would see that shameful gains

  destroy more men than they preserve.

  GUARD: May I speak, or am I just to turn and go?

  CREON: Don’t you know your voice alone annoys me?

  GUARD: Does it sting you in your ears or in your mind?

  CREON: Why trace the pain to where I feel it?

  GUARD: The doer irks your mind; I, your ears.

  320

  CREON: A born prattler, that’s what you are, for certain!

  GUARD: Maybe, but not the man who did this deed.

  CREON: You did it, though, and threw your life away—for cash.

  GUARD: (with a sigh) pheu!

  How terrible, to judge by false appearance!

  CREON: Play with words all you want, but if you don’t

  reveal the doers of these deeds to me, you’ll find

  that there’s a price to pay for evil gains.

  (Exit Creon, into the palace.)

  GUARD: Well, by all means! I hope he’s caught.

  But if he is or not—chance will determine that—

  you won’t see me coming back here. No way.

  330

  I’m safe now, beyond my wildest hope

  or thought—and thanks to the gods for that!

  (Exit Guard the way he had entered. The Chorus now sing their first ode.)

  strophe 1

  CHORUS: Many are the wonders, the terrors,*28 and none

  is more wonderful, more terrible than man.

  He makes his way, this prodigy, over

  the dim gray sea, riding the blast

  of the south wind, the swells

  of the deep cleaving before him;

  he wears away the Earth, mightiest

  of gods, imperishable, unwearied—

  his plows turn her over and over, year

  340

  after year his mules plod on and on.

  antistrophe 1

  And he has cast his nets about

  the race of lighthearted birds

  and the tribes of wild beasts

  and the swarms bred in the depths of the sea—

  gathers them all in his woven coils,

  over-clever man! And his inventions

  master the beast of field

  350

  and crag—the shaggy-maned

  horse and weariless mountain bull

  bow beneath his yoke.

  strophe 2

  And now he’s taught himself language

  and thought swift as the wind, and how

  to live in cities, shunning

  exposure on the open hills,

  the rain spearing down from heaven; he’s ready

  360

  for anything—nothing

  finds him unready. Death

  alone he will not escape.

  And yet he has contrived

  ways to defeat intractable disease.

  antistrophe 2

  With his ingenious art, clever

  beyond hope, he presses on

  now to evil, now to good.

  Allowing the laws of the land and the sworn

  justice of the gods their place in the scheme

  370

  of things, he is high in his city. But he

  whose daring moves him to evil

  has no city at all. May he never

  share my hearth, never share

  my thoughts, a man who acts this way!

  (Enter Antigone, led by the Guard. The Chorus Leader, speaking again in anapestic measures, reacts to the sight.)

  CHORUS LEADER: I am at a loss, what is this astonishing

  sight? I know it is she; how could I

  deny this is Antigone?

  O sorrowful child

  380

  of sorrowful Oedipus, why?

  Can it be you they are leading away,

  you who have broken the king’s law, you

  they have caught in this folly?

  GUARD: Here she is, the one who did the deed;

  we caught her burying him. But where is Creon?

  CHORUS LEADER: He’s coming from the palace, just in time.

  (Enter Creon.)

  CREON: What is it? What makes me “just in time”?

  GUARD: King, a man should never swear what he won’t do.

  Afterthoughts will prove him wrong. Me, for instance:

  390

  I swore I’d never rush to get back here,

  thanks to your threats, that rattled me back then.

  But since a longed-for and unexpected joy

  is greater than any other, I’ve come—

  although I swore on oath that I would not—

  bringing this girl, who was caught tending

  to the burial. No drawing of lots this time,

  no, sir—she’s my lucky find, all mine, right here.

  And now, lord, you take charge of her, as you wish.

  Question her, convict her. As for me, I’m free

  400

  of these troubles, off the hook, and rightly so.

  CREON: The girl you’re bringing—how did you catch her?

  GUARD: She was burying him herself: there you have it.

  CREON: Do you know what you’re saying, what it means?

  GUARD: Yes. I saw her burying the corpse you forbade

  anyone to bury. Am I speaking plain and clear?

  CREON: And how was she seen and caught
in the act?

  GUARD: It went like this. When we returned—

  those dreadful threats of yours ringing in our ears—

  we brushed all the dust from off the corpse

  410

  and bared the damp flesh as best we could,

  then sat down on a hilltop, the wind at our backs,

  to escape the smell, keep it from hitting us,

  each man goading his neighbor with taunts flung

  back and forth, if anyone shirked his duty.

  It went on this way until the time when

  the sun’s beaming disk stood in mid heaven

  and it was getting hot. And then, suddenly,

  a whirlwind raised a pillar of dust, trouble high

  as heaven—it filled the plain, it blasted all the leaves

  420

  upon the trees, and the vast sky was engulfed.

  We shut our eyes and bore the gods’ affliction.

  And when, after a long while, it had blown over,

  the girl was spotted. She let out a bitter wail

  like the shrill cry of a bird when she sees

  her nestlings stolen from their bed.

  Just like that, when she saw the naked corpse,

  she cried out in sorrow, and called down

  evil curses on the men who did the deed.

  Right away she brought in her hands the thirsty dust,

  430

  and from a well-wrought bronze jug, lifted high,

  she tipped out three libations, honoring the corpse.

  And we, seeing that, sprang into action

  and caught her on the spot. She remained calm;

  we charged her with what had been done

  and done just now; she denied nothing.

  That brought me joy and sorrow, both at once.

  How sweet for me, to have escaped from evil

  but painful, to bring my friends*29 to grief.

  But to me, all of those matters

  440

  count far less than my own safety.

  CREON: (to Antigone) You there, you with your gaze fixed on the ground,

  do you admit or deny you did this?

  ANTIGONE: I admit, and don’t deny, that I did.

  CREON: (to the Guard) Off with you now, wherever you want;

  you’re free, acquitted of a heavy charge.

  (Exit Guard.)

  CREON: (to Antigone) You now, answer me, not at length but briefly:

  Did you know about my proclamation?

  ANTIGONE: I knew. How could I not? It was public knowledge.

  CREON: And yet you dared transgress these laws?

  450

  ANTIGONE: Yes, because, to me, it wasn’t Zeus at all

  who proclaimed them, nor did Justice who lives

  with the gods below make laws like these for men,

  nor did I think your decrees so formidable

  that you, mere mortal as you are, could override

  the laws of the gods, unwritten and unshakable.

  They are not for now and yesterday, but live

  forever; no one knows when they appeared.

  No dread of what some man might think would ever

  make me break them and be guilty before the gods.

  460

  That I shall die, I knew well enough, even

  without your proclamation—how could I not?

  And if I die before my time, I call it a gain;

  for how would one who lives, like me, beset

  by evils, not gain by dying? And so

  I say that meeting with this death will bring

  no pain at all to me. But if I let my brother,

  born of my mother, lie dead and unburied, that

  would cause me pain, but this does not.

  And if you think I’ve acted foolishly,

  470

  maybe I’m being charged with folly by a fool.

  CHORUS LEADER: How clear it is: the girl’s breed is savage

  from her savage father. She knows not how to yield.

  CREON: Well, I tell you, minds that are rigid

  are most prone to fall, and it’s the stiffest iron

  tempered in the fire until it’s adamant

  that you’ll most often see splintered and shattered.

  I’ve seen spirited horses tamed by a small bit,

  for all their bucking. Just so, we don’t

  tolerate big talk from someone else’s slave.

  480

  She knew full well how to be outrageous then,

  when she trampled on the laws that were laid down;

  and here’s a second outrage, now she’s done it—

  to exult and laugh because she did it.

  For sure, I’m not a man now—she’s the man

  if she gains the upper hand and gets away.

  But whether she’s my sister’s daughter, or closer

  in blood than our courtyard Zeus and all my house,*30

  she—and her sister—shall not escape the worst

  of deaths. Yes, I blame her, too, just as much

  490

  for this burial, the planning of it.

  (to his attendants) So, call her out. Just now, when I was in

  the house, I saw her raving, out of her mind.

  (Exit attendants into the palace, to fetch Ismene.)

  Just like that, a heart plotting mischief

  in darkness is often found out before it acts.

  But what I hate most is when someone

  caught in the act puts a pretty face on it.

  ANTIGONE: Now I’m caught, you want more than my death?

  CREON: Nothing more; having that, I have it all.

  ANTIGONE: What are you waiting for, then? I don’t like—

  500

  and never will like!—anything you say. Just so

  nothing I say is to your liking, either.

  And yet, how could I acquire fame more glorious

  than by conferring the honor of burial

  on my own brother? All these men (indicating the Chorus) would agree

  with me, if fear hadn’t locked down their tongues.

  But tyranny enjoys many blessings, not least

  the power to do and say what it pleases.

  CREON: You alone among Thebans see it that way.

  ANTIGONE: They also see it, but shut their mouths—for you.

  510

  CREON: You’re not ashamed, to think so differently?

  ANTIGONE: No, it’s no shame to honor flesh and blood.

  CREON: Wasn’t he who killed him your brother, too?

  ANTIGONE: He was, from one mother, and the same father.

  CREON: Then why offer tribute impious in his sight?

  ANTIGONE: His corpse won’t testify to that.

  CREON: It will, if you give the impious the same honors.

  ANTIGONE: I do. It was no slave who died, but my brother.

  CREON: He tried to destroy this land! His foe, to save it.

  ANTIGONE: All the same, Hades insists upon these rites.

  520

  CREON: But good and bad do not deserve an equal share.

  ANTIGONE: Who knows what rules apply in the world below?

  CREON: An enemy, even in death, can’t be a friend!

  ANTIGONE: And I can’t join in hate, but only in love.

  CREON: Go down there, then, and love them, if love

  you must—while I live, a woman will not rule!

  (The palace doors open and Ismene appears, escorted by Creon’s attendants. The Chorus Leader, speaking in anapestic measures, announces her entry.)

  CHORUS LEADER: Look now: here is Ismene, before the gates,

  shedding tears of love for her sister;

  the cloud above her brows mars

  her blushing face,

  530

  bedewing her lovely cheeks.

  CREON: You there, lurking in the house like a viper

  sucking my life’s blood in secret—al
l unawares,

  I reared the two of you, pests, to overthrow my throne—

  come, tell me: will you admit you, too, had a share

  in this burial, or swear you knew nothing of it?

  ISMENE: I did the deed, if she will allow it—

  I share in the guilt and bear my part in it.

  ANTIGONE: No! Justice will not grant you this, for you

  refused, and I acted alone, without a partner.

  540

  ISMENE: But now that you’re in trouble, I am not

  ashamed to be a shipmate in your suffering.

  ANTIGONE: Hades and the dead know whose deed it was.

  I feel no love for a friend who loves with words.

  ISMENE: Sister, don’t deprive me of the honor

  of dying and honoring the dead with you!

  ANTIGONE: Don’t die together with me, or make your own

  what you had no hand in; my death is enough.

  ISMENE: And what have I to live for, without you?

  ANTIGONE: Ask Creon. He’s the one you care about.

  550

  ISMENE: Why hurt me? It won’t help you at all.

  ANTIGONE: No, it won’t. It hurts to jeer at you.

  ISMENE: What help can I still be to you, now at least?

  ANTIGONE: Save yourself. I don’t begrudge you that.

  ISMENE: oimoi! Then must I miss sharing your fate?

  ANTIGONE: Yes, for you chose to live, and I to die.

  ISMENE: But not because I chose not to speak!

  ANTIGONE: Your thoughts appealed to some, mine to others.

  ISMENE: And yet we’re both found guilty, both alike.

  ANTIGONE: Take heart; you are alive, but my life

  560

  died long ago, so I could help the dead.

  CREON: Of these two girls, I say this one (pointing at Ismene) just now

  proved herself mad; (pointing at Antigone) she’s been mad from birth.

  ISMENE: Yes, my lord. The mind we’re born with doesn’t

  abide when troubles sink our lives; it vanishes.

  CREON: As yours did, when you chose to side with evil.

  ISMENE: Yes, for how could I live alone, without her?

  CREON: “Her”—don’t mention “her,” for she no longer is.

  ISMENE: But will you kill your own son’s bride-to-be?

  CREON: He’ll find other women, other fields to plow.*31

  570

  ISMENE: But not a marriage so well matched as theirs.

  CREON: An evil wife for a son fills me with loathing.

  ISMENE: Beloved Haemon, how your father wrongs you!*32

  CREON: You and your talk of marriage make me sick.

  ISMENE: So you’ll deprive him of her—your own son?*33

  CREON: Hades will do it for me—stop this wedding.