ANTIGONE
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
Summary
SCENE 1:
Antigone enters from city path (CP); Ismene enters from skenê.
ANTIGONE
My dear heart, Ismene, more than blood-sister,
is there even one thing from the evils of Oedipus
that Zeus doesn't inflict on the two of us still living?
There is no pain or disaster,
shame or dishonor that I have not seen
among these evils of yours and mine.
Now what is the new proclamation they say
the commander has just made to the whole city?
Did you hear anything? Or didn't you notice
that evils from our enemies advance upon our kin?
ISMENE
No word of our family, sweet or painful,
has come to me, Antigone,
not since the two of us lost our two brothers,
dead in one day by each other's hands.
Since the Argive army left this very night,
I know nothing more,
whether my fortune is brighter or doomed.
ANTIGONE
I thought so. I took you outside
the courtyard gate so you alone could hear.
ISMENE
What is it? You look like you're brooding over some news.
ANTIGONE
Well, hasn't Kreon honored one of our brothers
with proper rites, while refusing the other burial?
They say he buried Eteokles
with true observance of justice and custom,
honored below among the dead.
But the wretched corpse of Polynices?
They say, by proclamation to the citizens,
that no one may bury him or cry aloud,
that he be left unmourned, unburied, a sweet treasure
for birds spying him to eat at their pleasure.
- Type
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- Information
- Sophocles' AntigoneA New Translation, pp. 1 - 64Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2011
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