Antigone

Sophocles

Sophocles the plays and fragments, Part 3: The Antigone. Jebb, Richard Claverhouse, Sir, translator. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1891.

  1. Why do you torture me like this, when it does not help you?
Antigone
  1. No, if I mock you, it is to my own pain that I do so.
Ismene
  1. Tell me, how can I help you, even now?
Antigone
  1. Save yourself. I do not grudge your escape.
Ismene
  1. Ah, misery! Will I fall short of sharing your fate?
Antigone
  1. Your choice was to live, it was mine to die.
Ismene
  1. At least your choice was not made without my protests.
Antigone
  1. One world approved your wisdom, another approved mine.
Ismene
  1. Nevertheless, the offense is identical for both of us.
Antigone
  1. Take heart! You live. But my life has long been
  2. in Death’s hands so that I might serve the dead.
Creon
  1. One of these maidens, I declare, has just revealed her foolishness; the other has displayed it from the moment of her birth.
Ismene
  1. Yes, Creon. Whatever amount of reason nature may have given them does not remain with those in dire straits, but goes astray.
Creon
  1. Yours did, I know, when you chose dire actions with dire allies.
Ismene
  1. What life would there be for me alone, without her presence?
Creon
  1. Do not speak of her presence. She lives no longer.
Ismene
  1. What? You will kill your own son’s bride?