Epeisodion 3
Creon
We will soon know better than seers could tell us.—My son, can it be that
after hearing the final judgment concerning your betrothed, you have
come in rage against your father? Or do I have your loyalty, act how I
may?
Haemon
Father, I am yours, and you keep
me upright with precepts good for me—precepts I shall follow. No
marriage will be deemed by me more important than your good
guidance.
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Creon
Yes, my son, this is the spirit you should maintain in
your heart—to stand behind your father’s will in all things. It is for
this that men pray: to sire and raise in their homes children who are
obedient, that they may requite their father’s enemy with evil and honor
his friend, just as their father does.
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But the man who begets
unhelpful children—what would you say that he has sown except miseries
for himself and abundant exultation for his enemies? Never, then, my
son, banish your reason for pleasure on account of a woman,
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knowing that this embrace soon becomes
cold and brittle—an evil woman to share your bed and home. For what
wound could strike deeper than a false friend? No, spit her out as if
she were an enemy, let her go find a husband in Hades.
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For since I caught her alone of all the city in
open defiance, I will not make myself a liar to my city. I will kill
her. So let her call on Zeus who protects kindred blood. If I am to
foster my own kin to spurn order,
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surely I will do the same for outsiders. For whoever shows his
excellence in the case of his own household will be found righteous in
his city as well. But if anyone oversteps and does violence to the laws,
or thinks to dictate to those in power,
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such a one will never win praise from me. No, whomever
the city may appoint, that man must be obeyed in matters small and great
and in matters just and unjust. And I would feel confident that such a
man would be a fine ruler no less than a good and willing
subject,
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and that beneath a
hail of spears he would stand his ground where posted, a loyal and brave
comrade in the battle line. But there is no evil worse than
disobedience. This destroys cities; this overturns homes; this
breaks
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the ranks of allied spears into headlong rout. But the
lives of men who prosper upright, of these obedience has saved the
greatest part. Therefore we must defend those who respect order, and in
no way can we let a woman defeat us. It is better to fall from power, if
it is fated, by a man’s hand,
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than that we be called weaker than
women.
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Chorus
To us, unless our years have stolen our wit, you seem to say what you say
wisely.
Haemon
Father, the gods implant reason in men, the highest of all things that we
call our own.
For my part, to
state how you are wrong to say those things is beyond my power and my
desire, although another man, too, might have a useful thought. In any
case, it is my natural duty to watch on your behalf all that men say, or
do, or find to blame.
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For dread of
your glance forbids the ordinary citizen to speak such words as would
offend your ear. But I can hear these murmurs in the dark, how the city
moans for this girl, saying: No woman ever merited death
less—
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none ever died so
shamefully for deeds so glorious as hers, who, when her own brother had
fallen in bloody battle, would not leave him unburied to be devoured by
savage dogs, or by any bird. Does she not deserve to receive golden
honor?
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Such is the rumor
shrouded in darkness that silently spreads. For me, father, no treasure
is more precious than your prosperity. What, indeed, is a nobler
ornament for children than the fair fame of a thriving father, or for a
father than that of his children?
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Do not, then, bear one mood only in yourself: do not think that your
word and no other, must be right. For if any man thinks that he alone is
wise—that in speech or in mind he has no peer—such a soul, when laid
open, is always found empty.
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No,
even when a man is wise, it brings him no shame to learn many things,
and not to be too rigid. You see how the trees that stand beside the
torrential streams created by a winter storm yield to it and save their
branches, while the stiff and rigid perish root and all?
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And in the same way the pilot who keeps
the sheet of his sail taut and never slackens it, upsets his boat, and
voyages thereafter with his decking underwater. Father, give way and
allow a change from your rage. For if even from me, a younger man, a
worthy thought may be supplied,
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by
far the best thing, I believe, would be for men to be all-wise by
nature. Otherwise—since most often it does not turn out that way—it is
good to learn in addition from those who advise you well.
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Chorus
My king, it is right, if he speaks something appropriate, that you should
learn from him
and that you, in
turn, Haemon, should learn from your father. On both sides there have
been wise words.
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Creon
Men of my age—are we, then, to be schooled in wisdom by men of his?
Haemon
Not in anything that is not right. But if I am young, you should look to
my conduct, not to my years.
Creon
Is it worthy conduct to honor
disrupters?
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Haemon
I could not urge anyone to show respect for the wicked.
Creon
And is she not in the grasp of that disease?
Haemon
All the people of this city of Thebes deny it.
Creon
Shall Thebes prescribe to me
how I must rule?
Haemon
See, there, how you have spoken so
much like a child.
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Creon
Am I to rule this land by the will of another than myself?
Haemon
That is no city, which belongs to one man.
Creon
Does not the city by tradition belong to the man in power?
Haemon
You would make a fine monarch in a desert.
Creon
This boy seems to be fighting on
the side of the woman.
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Haemon
If you are a woman, for, to be sure, my concern is for you.
Creon
You traitor, attacking your father, accusing him!
Haemon
Because I see you making a mistake and committing injustice.
Creon
Am I making a mistake when I respect my own prerogatives?
Haemon
Yes. You do not respect them, when you trample on the
gods’ honors.
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Creon
Polluted creature, submitting to a woman!
Haemon
You will never catch me submitting to shamelessness.
Creon
You do. Your every word, after all, pleads her case.
Haemon
And yours, and mine, and that of gods below.
Creon
You can never marry her, not while
she is still alive.
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Haemon
Then she will die, and in death destroy another.
Creon
What! Does your audacity run to open threats?
Haemon
How is it a threat to speak against empty plans?
Creon
You will regret your unwise instructions in wisdom.
Haemon
If you were not my father, I would
have called you insane.
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Creon
You woman’s slave, do not try to cajole me.
Haemon
Do you want to have your say and then have done without a reply?
Creon
Is that so? By Olympus above—know this well—you will have no joy for
taunting me over and above your censures.
Bring out that hated thing, so that with him looking on
she may die right now in her bridegroom’s presence and at his side!
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Haemon
No, not at my side will she die—do not ever imagine it. Nor shall you
ever look at me and set eyes on my face again.
Indulge in your madness now with whomever of your
friends can endure it. Exit Haemon.
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Chorus
The man is gone, King Creon, in anger and haste. A young mind is fierce
when stung.
Creon
Let him do—no!—let him plan something more immense than befits a man.
Farewell to him! Still he will not save these two girls from death.
Chorus
Then the pair of them, you really
intend to kill them both?
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Creon
Not the one who did not put her hands to the burial. You are right.
Chorus
And by what mode of death do you mean to kill the other?
Creon
I will take her where the path is deserted, unvisited by men, and entomb
her alive in a rocky vault,
setting out a ration of food, but only as much as piety requires so
that all the city may escape defilement. And praying there to Hades, the
only god she worships, perhaps she will obtain immunity from death, or
else will learn, at last, even this late,
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that it is fruitless labor to revere the
dead. Exit Creon.
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