The scene is Thebes, in front of Creon's palace, just as the dawn is breaking. Antigone and Ismene enter hastily.
Antigone
Ismene, quick, come here!
What's to become of us?
Why are we always the ones?
There's nothing, sister, nothing
Zeus hasn't put us through
Just because we are who we are –
The daughters of Oedipus.
And because we are his daughters
We took what came, Ismene,
In public and in private,
Hurt and humiliation –
But this I cannot take.
No, wait.
Here's what has happened.
There's a general order issued
And again it hits us hardest.
The ones we love, it says,
Are enemies of the state.
To be considered traitors –
Ismene
How so? What do you mean?
Antigone
I mean – have you not heard?
Ismene
What I heard was enough.
Our two brothers are dead,
The Argos troops withdrawn
And the pair of us left to cope.
But what's next, I don't know.
Antigone
That's why I came outside.
The walls in there have ears.
This is for your ears only.
Ismene
What is it? You have me scared.
Antigone
And right you are to be scared.
Creon has made a law.
Eteocles has been buried
As a soldier, with full honours,
So he's gone home to the dead.
But not Polyneices.
Polyneices is denied
Any burial at all.
Word has come down from Creon.
There's to be no laying to rest,
No mourning, and the corpse
Is to be publicly dishonoured.
His body's to be dumped,
Disposed of like a carcass,
Left out for the birds to feed on.
If you so much as throw him
The common handful of clay
You'll have committed a crime.
This is law and order
In the land of good King Creon.
This is his edict for you
And for me, Ismene, for me.
And he's coming to announce it.
'I'll flush 'em out,' he says.
'Whoever isn't for us
Is against us in this case.
Whoever breaks this law,
I'll have them stoned to death.'
I say,
He has put it to us.
I say
It's a test you're facing,
Whether you are who you are,
And true to all you belong to,
Or whether –
Ismene
Antigone…
Antigone,
What do you mean, a test?
If things have gone this far
What is there I can do?
Antigone
You can help me do one thing.
Ismene
And what thing is that?
Antigone
His body… Help me to lift
And lay your brother's body.
Ismene
And bury him, no matter…?
Antigone
Are we sister, sister, brother?
Or traitor, coward, coward?
Ismene
But what about Creon's order?
Antigone
What are Creon's rights
When it comes to me and mine?
Ismene
Easy now, my sister.
Think this through for a minute.
Think of the line we come from:
We're children of Oedipus –
Daughters of the man
Who fathered us on his mother –
The king they drove from their city.
No matter he didn't know.
No matter it was Oedipus
Brought his own crimes to light
And then reached into his eyes
And tore them out of their sockets –
Still they drove him out.
Oedipus had to perish.
And then his wife, the mother
Who bared her breasts for him
In the child-bed and the bride-bed,
She hanged herself in a noose.
And now this last thing happens.
The doom in our blood comes back
And brother slaughters brother –
The two of them, dead in a day.
Are you and I to be next?
How do you think they see us?
How do you think we'd fare
If we went against the order?
Two women on our own
Faced with a death decree –
Women, defying Creon?
It's not a woman's place.
We're weak where they are strong.
Whether it's this or worse,
We must do as we're told.
In the land of the living, sister,
The laws of the land obtain –
And the dead know that as well.
The dead will have to forgive me.
I'll be ruled by Creon's word.
Anything else is madness.
Antigone
You and the laws of the land!
Sister, let me tell you:
From now on, and no matter
How your mind may change,
I'll never accept your help.
I will bury him myself.
And if death comes, so be it.
There'll be a glory in it.
I'll go down to the underworld
Hand in hand with a brother.
And I'll go with my head held high.
The gods will be proud of me.
The land of the living, sister,
Is neither here nor there.
We enter it and we leave it.
The dead in the land of the dead
Are the ones you'll be with longest.
And how are you going to face them,
Ismene, if you dishonour
Their laws and the gods' law?
Ismene
Dishonour them I do not.
But nor am I strong enough
To defy the laws of the land.
Antigone
Live, then; and live with your choice.
I am going to bury his body.
Ismene
I fear for you, Antigone.
Antigone
Better fear for yourself.
Ismene
Oh stop! This must never get out.
Antigone
No. No. Broadcast it.
Your cover-ups sicken me.
I have nothing to hide
From the powers that see all.
I'm doing what has to be done.
Ismene
What are you, Antigone?
Hot-headed or cold-blooded?
This thing cannot be done.
Antigone
But it still has to be tried.
Ismene
You're mad. You don't have a chance.
Antigone
Here and now, Ismene,
I hate you for this talk.
And the dead are going to hate you.
Call me mad if you like
But leave me alone to do it.
If Creon has me killed,
Where's the disgrace in that?
The disgrace would be to avoid it.
Exit Antigone.
Ismene
Nothing's going to stop you.
But nothing's going to stop
The ones that love you, sister,
From keeping on loving you.
Exit Ismene.
Enter Chorus of Theban elders.
Chorus
Glory be to brightness, to the gleaming sun,
Shining guardian of our seven gates.
Burn away the darkness, dawn on Thebes,
Dazzle the city you have saved from destruction.
Argos is defeated, the army beaten back,
All their brilliant shields
Smashed into shards and smithereens.
Like a golden eagle, the enemy came swooping,
Like an eagle screaming down the sky,
Hoping to set fire to the seven towers.
But the dragon of Thebes had grown teeth.
We overwhelmed him on the walls
And Zeus blasted his overbearing.
A god of war stiffened our will
And locked our arms, so the line held.
Glory be to brightness, to the gleaming sun.
Seven guardians at our seven gates
Bore the brunt and broke the charge.
Our attackers
Were struck down and stripped of their armour.
Their spears and helmets are the spoils of war.
We have hung their shields among the trophies.
But Polyneices and Eteocles:
The only trophies they took at Thebes
Were each other's deaths. Their doom was sealed.
Their banners flew, the battle raged
And they fell together, their father's sons.
Glory be to brightness, to the gleaming sun.
Glory be to Victory. I can feel her wings
Fanning the air.
The joy in my eyes is like the joy in hers
Dazzling the city she has saved from destruction.
Race the chariots and run to the temples.
Drum the earth from early until late.
Give glory to the god of the dance.
Let Bacchus lead us and burn away the dark!
Glory be to brightness, to the gleaming world.
Enter Creon with his guards.
King Creon. All hail to Creon.
He's a new king but he's right
For this city at this moment.
Now we will know what's what,
Why he has sent for us
To be privy to his thinking.
Creon
Gentlemen. We have entered calmer waters.
Our ship of state was very nearly wrecked
But the gods have kept her safe.
So, friends, well done.
You from the start have been a loyal crew.
You stood by Oedipus when he was at the helm
And when his sons stepped in to take his place
You stood by them as well. But now they're gone,
Two brothers badged red with each other's blood,
And I, as next of kin to those dead and doomed,
I'm next in line. The throne has come to me.
Until a man has passed this test of office
And proved himself in the exercise of power,
He can't be truly known – for what he is, I mean,
In his heart and mind and capabilities.
Worst is the man who has all the good advice
And then, because his nerve fails, fails to act
In accordance with it, as a leader should.
And equally to blame
Is anyone who puts the personal
Above the overall thing, puts friend
Or family first. But rest assured:
My nerve's not going to fail, and there's no threat
That's going to stop me acting, ever,
In the interests of all citizens. Nor would I,
Ever, have anything to do
With my country's enemy. For the patriot,
Personal loyalty always must give way
To patriotic duty.
Solidarity, friends,
Is what we need. The whole crew must close ranks.
The safety of our state depends upon it.
Our trust. Our friendships. Our security.
Good order in the city. And our greatness.
Understand therefore that I intend
To make good what I say by what I do.
And hear this first. This ordinance is binding.
Concerning the sons of Oedipus:
Eteocles, who fell in our defence,
Eteocles will be buried with full honours
As a hero of his country.
But his brother
Polyneices, an exile who came back
To visit us with fire and sword, a traitor,
An anti-Theban Theban prepared to kill
His countrymen in war, and desecrate
The shrines of his country's gods, hear this
About Polyneices:
He is forbidden
Any ceremonial whatsoever.
No keening, no interment, no observance
Of any of the rites. Hereby he is adjudged
A carcass for the dogs and birds to feed on.
And nobody, let it be understood,
Nobody is to treat him otherwise
Than as the obscenity he was and is.
This is where I stand when it comes to Thebes:
Never to grant traitors and subversives
Equal footing with loyal citizens,
But to honour patriots in life and death.
Chorus
Loud and clear, King Creon,
You have laid down the law.
You exercise the power.
Your regulations hold
For the living and dead.
Creon
And that is why I regard you from now on
As agents of the law.
Chorus
Younger men
Would be better for that job.
Creon
I don't mean
You should do work on the ground. Naturally
I have guards out there already as we speak.
Chorus
Then why do you call us 'agents of the law'?
Creon
I mean you're not to lend the least support
To anyone who'd go against the order.
Chorus
But who'd do that?
Who would choose to be dead?
Creon
Death, yes, it would be. But you never know.
There's always money lurking and I never
Underestimate the lure of money.
Enter Guard.
Guard
Sir, I wouldn't exactly say I was panting to get here. Far from it. As a matter of fact, I was more for turning back. I was over a barrel. One part of me was saying, 'Only a loony would walk himself into this,' and another part was saying, 'You'd be a bigger loony not to get to Creon first.' It was, 'You take the high road, I'll take the low road,' then, 'What's your hurry?', then, 'Get a move on.' But when all was said and done there was only one thing for it: get here, get it out and get it over, no matter what. So here I am, the old dog for the hard road. What will be, says I, will be.
