She was burying the man. You know all there is to tell.CreonAre you clear and sure about what you are saying?GuardI am. I saw her burying the corpse that you had forbidden to bury. Is that plain and
sufficient?CreonAnd how was she observed? How taken in the act?GuardIt happened like this. When we had come to the place with those fierce
threats of yours still in our ears, we swept away all the dust that
covered the corpse and bared
the damp body well. We then sat down on the brow of the hill to
windward, fleeing the smell from him, lest it strike us. Each man was
wide awake and kept his neighbor alert with torrents of threats, if any
one should be careless of this task. So time passed, until the disk of the sun stood bright
in mid-sky and the heat began to burn. And then suddenly a whirlwind
lifted from the earth a storm of dust, a trouble in the sky, and it
filled the plain, marring all the foliage of its woods. Soon the wide air was choked with it. We closed
our eyes, and endured the plague from the gods. When, after a long
while, this storm had passed, the girl was seen, and she wailed aloud
with the sharp cry of a grieving bird, as when inside her
empty nest she sees the bed
stripped of its nestlings. So she, too, when she saw the corpse bare,
broke into a cry of lamentation and cursed with harsh curses those who
had done it. Immediately she took thirsty dust in her hands,and from a pitcher of beaten bronze held
high she crowned the dead with thrice-poured libations. We rushed
forward when we saw it, and at once closed upon our quarry, who was not
at all dismayed. We then charged her with her past and present
doings, 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 of less account to me than my own safety.CreonYou, you with your face bent to the ground, do you admit, or deny that
you did this?AntigoneI declare it and make no denial.CreonTo the Guard.You can take yourself wherever you please, free and clear of a heavy charge.Exit
Guard.