Prologos
Antigone
Ismene, my sister, true child of my own mother, do you know any evil out
of all the evils bequeathed by Oedipus that Zeus will not fulfil for the
two of us in our lifetime? There is nothing—no pain, no ruin,
no shame, nor dishonor—that I have not
seen in your sufferings and mine. And now what is this new edict that
they say the general has just decreed to all the city? Do you know
anything? Have you heard? Or does it escape you that
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evils from our enemies are on the march against
our friends?
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Ismene
To me no word of our friends, Antigone, either bringing joy or bringing
pain has come since we two were robbed of our two brothers who died in
one day by a double blow.
And since
the Argive army has fled during
this night, I have learned nothing further, whether better fortune is
mine, or further ruin.
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Antigone
I knew it well, so I was trying to bring you outside the courtyard gates
to this end, that you alone might hear.
Ismene
Hear what? It is clear that you are
brooding on some dark news.
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Antigone
Why not? Has not Creon destined our brothers, the one to honored burial,
the other to unburied shame? Eteocles, they say, with due observance of
right and custom, he has laid in the earth
for his honor among the dead below. As for the poor
corpse of Polyneices, however, they say that an edict has been published
to the townsmen that no one shall bury him or mourn him, but instead
leave him unwept, unentombed, for the birds a pleasing store
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as they look to satisfy their hunger.
Such, it is said, is the edict that the good Creon has laid down for you
and for me—yes, for me—and it is said that he is coming here to proclaim
it for the certain knowledge of those who do not already know. They say
that he does not conduct this business lightly,
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but whoever performs any of these rites, for him the
fate appointed is death by public stoning among the entire city. This is
how things stand for you, and so you will soon show your nature, whether
you are noble-minded, or the corrupt daughter of a noble line.
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Ismene
Poor sister, if things have come to this, what would I
profit by loosening or tightening this knot?
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Antigone
Consider whether you will share the toil and the task.
Ismene
What are you hazarding? What do you intend?
Antigone
Will you join your hand to mine in order to lift his corpse?
Ismene
You plan to bury him—when it is forbidden to the city?
Antigone
Yes, he is my brother, and yours
too, even if you wish it otherwise. I will never be convicted of
betraying him.
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Ismene
Hard girl! Even when Creon has forbidden it?
Antigone
No, he has no right to keep me from my own.
Ismene
Ah, no! Think, sister, how our father
perished in hatred and infamy, when, because of the crimes that he
himself detected, he smashed both his eyes with self-blinding hand; then
his mother-wife, two names in one, with a twisted noose destroyed her
life;
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lastly, our two brothers
in a single day, both unhappy murderers of their own flesh and blood,
worked with mutual hands their common doom. And now we, in turn—we two
who have been left all alone—consider how much more miserably we will be
destroyed, if in defiance of the law
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we transgress against an autocrat’s decree or his powers.
No, we must remember, first, that ours is a woman’s nature, and
accordingly not suited to battles against men; and next, that we are
ruled by the more powerful, so that we must obey in these things and in
things even more stinging.
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I, therefore, will
ask those below for pardon, since I am forced to this, and will obey
those who have come to authority. It is foolish to do what is
fruitless.
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Antigone
I would not encourage you—no, nor, even if you were willing
later,
would I welcome you as
my partner in this action. No, be the sort that pleases you. I will bury
him—it would honor me to die while doing that. I shall rest with him,
loved one with loved one, a pious criminal. For the time is
greater
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that I must serve the
dead than the living, since in that world I will rest forever. But if
you so choose, continue to dishonor what the gods in honor have
established.
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Ismene
I do them no dishonor. But to act in violation of the
citizens’ will—of that I am by nature incapable.
Antigone
You can make that your pretext!
Regardless, I will go now to heap a tomb over the brother I love.
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Ismene
Oh no, unhappy sister! I fear for you!
Antigone
Do not tremble for me. Straighten out your own destiny.
Ismene
Then at least disclose the deed to no one before you do it.
Conceal it, instead, in secrecy—and so,
too, will I.
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Antigone
Go on! Denounce it! You will be far more hated for your silence, if you
fail to proclaim these things to everyone.
Ismene
You have a hot heart for chilling deeds.
Antigone
I know that I please those whom I am most bound to please.
Ismene
Yes, if you will also have the
power. But you crave the impossible.
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Antigone
Why then, when my strength fails, I will have finished.
Ismene
An impossible hunt should not be tried in the first place.
Antigone
If you mean that, you will have my hatred, and you will be subject to
punishment as the enemy of the dead.
But leave me and the foolish plan I have authored to suffer this
terrible thing, for I will not suffer anything so terrible that my death
will lack honor.
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Ismene
Go, then, if you so decide. And of this be sure: though your path is foolish, to your loved ones your love is straight and true. Exit Antigone on the spectators’ left. Ismene exits into the palace.