Antigone
Sophocles
Sophocles the plays and fragments, Part 3: The Antigone. Jebb, Richard Claverhouse, Sir, translator. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1891.
- That is not what I meant—the guards for the corpse are already in place.
- Then what is this other command that you would give?
- That you not give way to the breakers of my commands.
- There is no one so foolish as to crave death.
- I assure you, that is the wage for disobedience. Yet by just the hope of it, money has many times corrupted men.
- My king, I will not say that I arrive breathless because of speed, or from the action of a swift foot.
- For often I brought myself to a stop because of my thoughts, and wheeled round in my path to return. My mind was telling me many things: Fool, why do you go to where your arrival will mean your punishment? Idiot, are you dallying again? If Creon learns it from another, must you not suffer for it?
- So debating, I made my way unhurriedly, slow, and thus a short road was made long. At last, however, the view prevailed that I should come here—to you. Even if my report brings no good, still will I tell you,
- since I come with a good grip on one hope, that I can suffer nothing except what is my fate.
- And what is it that so disheartens you?
- I want to tell you first about myself—I did not do the deed, nor did I see the doer,
- so it would be wrong that I should come to any harm.
- Like a bowman you aim well at your target from a distance, and all around you hedge yourself off well from the deed. It is clear that you have some unheard-of thing to tell.
- That I do, for terrible news imposes great hesitation.
- Then tell it, will you, and so unburdened go away?
- Well, here it is. The corpse—some one has just given it burial and disappeared after sprinkling thirsty dust on the flesh and performing the other rites that piety demands.
- What are you saying? What man dared do this?