Antigone
Sophocles
Sophocles the plays and fragments, Part 3: The Antigone. Jebb, Richard Claverhouse, Sir, translator. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1891.
- Shall Thebes prescribe to me how I must rule?
- See, there, how you have spoken so much like a child.
- Am I to rule this land by the will of another than myself?
- That is no city, which belongs to one man.
- Does not the city by tradition belong to the man in power?
- You would make a fine monarch in a desert.
- This boy seems to be fighting on the side of the woman.
- If you are a woman, for, to be sure, my concern is for you.
- You traitor, attacking your father, accusing him!
- Because I see you making a mistake and committing injustice.
- Am I making a mistake when I respect my own prerogatives?
- Yes. You do not respect them, when you trample on the gods’ honors.
- Polluted creature, submitting to a woman!
- You will never catch me submitting to shamelessness.
- You do. Your every word, after all, pleads her case.
- And yours, and mine, and that of gods below.
- You can never marry her, not while she is still alive.
- Then she will die, and in death destroy another.
- What! Does your audacity run to open threats?
- How is it a threat to speak against empty plans?