You will regret your unwise instructions in wisdom.HaemonIf you were not my father, I would
have called you insane.CreonYou woman’s slave, do not try to cajole me.HaemonDo you want to have your say and then have done without a reply?CreonIs that so? By Olympus above—know this well—you will have no joy for
taunting me over and above your censures. Bring out that hated thing, so that with him looking on
she may die right now in her bridegroom’s presence and at his side!HaemonNo, not at my side will she die—do not ever imagine it. Nor shall you
ever look at me and set eyes on my face again. Indulge in your madness now with whomever of your
friends can endure it.Exit Haemon.ChorusThe man is gone, King Creon, in anger and haste. A young mind is fierce
when stung.CreonLet him do—no!—let him plan something more immense than befits a man.
Farewell to him! Still he will not save these two girls from death.ChorusThen the pair of them, you really
intend to kill them both?CreonNot the one who did not put her hands to the burial. You are right.ChorusAnd by what mode of death do you mean to kill the other?CreonI will take her where the path is deserted, unvisited by men, and entomb
her alive in a rocky vault, setting out a ration of food, but only as much as piety requires so
that all the city may escape defilement. And praying there to Hades, the
only god she worships, perhaps she will obtain immunity from death, or
else will learn, at last, even this late, that it is fruitless labor to revere the
dead.Exit Creon.
ChorusLove, the unconquered in battle, Love, you who descend
upon riches, and watch the night through on a girl’s soft cheek, you roam over
the sea and among the homes of men in the wilds. Neither can any
immortal escape you, nor any man
whose life lasts for a day. He who has known you is driven to
madness.
ChorusYou seize the minds of just men
and drag them to injustice, to their ruin. You it is who have incited
this conflict of men whose flesh and blood are one.