Epeisodion 2
Guard
but she made no denial of anything—at once to my joy and
to my pain. For to have escaped from trouble one’s self gives the
greatest joy, but it stings to lead friends to evil. Naturally, though,
all such things are
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of less account to me than my own safety.
440
Creon
You, you with your face bent to the ground, do you admit, or deny that
you did this?
Antigone
I declare it and make no denial.
Creon
You can take yourself wherever you please,
free and clear of a heavy charge. Exit
Guard.
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You, however, tell me—not at length, but briefly—did you know that an
edict had forbidden this?
Antigone
I knew it. How could I not? It was public.
Creon
And even so you dared overstep that law?
Antigone
Yes, since it was not Zeus that
published me that edict, and since not of that kind are the laws which
Justice who dwells with the gods below established among men. Nor did I
think that your decrees were of such force, that a mortal could override
the unwritten
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and unfailing statutes given us by the gods. For their
life is not of today or yesterday, but for all time, and no man knows
when they were first put forth. Not for fear of any man’s pride was I
about to owe a penalty to the gods for breaking these.
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Die I
must, that I knew well (how could I not?). That is true even without
your edicts. But if I am to die before my time, I count that a gain.
When anyone lives as I do, surrounded by evils, how can he not carry off
gain by dying?
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So for me to meet this doom is a grief of no account.
But if I had endured that my mother’s son should in death lie an
unburied corpse, that would have grieved me. Yet for this, I am not
grieved. And if my present actions are foolish in your sight,
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it may
be that it is a fool who accuses me of folly.
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Chorus
She shows herself the wild offspring of a wild father, and does not know
how to bend before troubles.
Creon
Yet remember that over-hard spirits most often collapse. It is the
stiffest iron, baked to
utter hardness in the fire, that you most often see
snapped and shivered. And I have witnessed horses with great spirit
disciplined by a small bit. For there is no place for pride, when one is
his neighbors’ slave.
475
This girl was already
practiced in outrage when she overstepped the published laws. And, that
done, this now is a second outrage, that she glories in it and exults in
her deed. In truth, then, I am no man, but she is,
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if this victory rests with her and brings no penalty.
No! Whether she is my sister’s child, or nearer to me in blood than any
of my kin that worship Zeus at the altar of our house, she and her
sister will not escape a doom most harsh. For in truth
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I charge that other with an equal share
in the plotting of this burial. Call her out! I saw her inside just now,
raving, and not in control of her wits. Before the deed, the mind
frequently is convicted of stealthy crimes when conspirators are
plotting depravity in the dark.
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