Antigone

Sophocles

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

  1. Ah, my brother, the marriage you made was doomed, and by dying you killed me still alive!
Chorus
  1. Your pious action shows a certain reverence, but an offence against power can no way be tolerated by him who has power in his keeping.
  2. Your self-willed disposition is what has destroyed you.
Antigone
  1. Unwept, unfriended, without marriage-song, I am led in misery on this journey that cannot be put off. No longer is it permitted me, unhappy girl,
  2. to look up at this sacred eye of the burning sun. But for my fate no tear is shed, no friend moans in sorrow.
Enter Creon.
Creon
  1. Do you not know that dirges and wailing before death would never be given up, if it were allowed to make them freely?
  2. Take her away—now! And when you have enshrouded her, as I proclaimed, in her covered tomb, leave her alone, deserted—let her decide whether she wishes to die or to live entombed in such a home. It makes no difference, since our hands are clean so far as regards this girl.