To us, unless our years have stolen our wit, you seem to say what you say
wisely.HaemonFather, the gods implant reason in men, the highest of all things that we
call our own. For my part, to
state how you are wrong to say those things is beyond my power and my
desire, although another man, too, might have a useful thought. In any
case, it is my natural duty to watch on your behalf all that men say, or
do, or find to blame. For dread of
your glance forbids the ordinary citizen to speak such words as would
offend your ear. But I can hear these murmurs in the dark, how the city
moans for this girl, saying: No woman ever merited death
less—
none ever died so
shamefully for deeds so glorious as hers, who, when her own brother had
fallen in bloody battle, would not leave him unburied to be devoured by
savage dogs, or by any bird. Does she not deserve to receive golden
honor?
Such is the rumor
shrouded in darkness that silently spreads. For me, father, no treasure
is more precious than your prosperity. What, indeed, is a nobler
ornament for children than the fair fame of a thriving father, or for a
father than that of his children? Do not, then, bear one mood only in yourself: do not think that your
word and no other, must be right. For if any man thinks that he alone is
wise—that in speech or in mind he has no peer—such a soul, when laid
open, is always found empty. No,
even when a man is wise, it brings him no shame to learn many things,
and not to be too rigid. You see how the trees that stand beside the
torrential streams created by a winter storm yield to it and save their
branches, while the stiff and rigid perish root and all?And in the same way the pilot who keeps
the sheet of his sail taut and never slackens it, upsets his boat, and
voyages thereafter with his decking underwater. Father, give way and
allow a change from your rage. For if even from me, a younger man, a
worthy thought may be supplied, by
far the best thing, I believe, would be for men to be all-wise by
nature. Otherwise—since most often it does not turn out that way—it is
good to learn in addition from those who advise you well.ChorusMy king, it is right, if he speaks something appropriate, that you should
learn from him and that you, in
turn, Haemon, should learn from your father. On both sides there have
been wise words.CreonMen of my age—are we, then, to be schooled in wisdom by men of his?HaemonNot in anything that is not right. But if I am young, you should look to
my conduct, not to my years.CreonIs it worthy conduct to honor
disrupters?HaemonI could not urge anyone to show respect for the wicked.CreonAnd is she not in the grasp of that disease?