Ismene, my sister, true child of my own mother, do you know any evil out
 of all the evils bequeathed by Oedipus that Zeus will not fulfil for the
 two of us in our lifetime? There is nothing—no pain, no ruin, no shame, nor dishonor—that I have not
 seen in your sufferings and mine. And now what is this new edict that
 they say the general has just decreed to all the city? Do you know
 anything? Have you heard? Or does it escape you that evils from our enemies are on the march against
 our friends? Ismene To me no word of our friends, Antigone, either bringing joy or bringing
 pain has come since we two were robbed of our two brothers who died in
 one day by a double blow. And since
 the Argive army has fled during
 this night, I have learned nothing further, whether better fortune is
 mine, or further ruin. Antigone I knew it well, so I was trying to bring you outside the courtyard gates
 to this end, that you alone might hear. Ismene Hear what? It is clear that you are
 brooding on some dark news. Antigone Why not? Has not Creon destined our brothers, the one to honored burial,
 the other to unburied shame? Eteocles, they say, with due observance of
 right and custom, he has laid in the earth for his honor among the dead below. As for the poor
 corpse of Polyneices, however, they say that an edict has been published
 to the townsmen that no one shall bury him or mourn him, but instead
 leave him unwept, unentombed, for the birds a pleasing store as they look to satisfy their hunger.
 Such, it is said, is the edict that the good Creon has laid down for you
 and for me—yes, for me—and it is said that he is coming here to proclaim
 it for the certain knowledge of those who do not already know. They say
 that he does not conduct this business lightly, but whoever performs any of these rites, for him the
 fate appointed is death by public stoning among the entire city. This is
 how things stand for you, and so you will soon show your nature, whether
 you are noble-minded, or the corrupt daughter of a noble line. Ismene Poor sister, if things have come to this, what would I profit by loosening or tightening this knot? Antigone Consider whether you will share the toil and the task. Ismene What are you hazarding? What do you intend? Antigone Will you join your hand to mine in order to lift his corpse? Ismene You plan to bury him—when it is forbidden to the city? Antigone Yes, he is my brother, and yours
 too, even if you wish it otherwise. I will never be convicted of
 betraying him. Ismene Hard girl! Even when Creon has forbidden it? Antigone No, he has no right to keep me from my own. Ismene Ah, no! Think, sister, how our father perished in hatred and infamy, when, because of the crimes that he
 himself detected, he smashed both his eyes with self-blinding hand; then
 his mother-wife, two names in one, with a twisted noose destroyed her
 life; lastly, our two brothers
 in a single day, both unhappy murderers of their own flesh and blood,
 worked with mutual hands their common doom. And now we, in turn—we two
 who have been left all alone—consider how much more miserably we will be
 destroyed, if in defiance of the law we transgress against an autocrat’s decree or his powers.
 No, we must remember, first, that ours is a woman’s nature, and
 accordingly not suited to battles against men; and next, that we are
 ruled by the more powerful, so that we must obey in these things and in
 things even more stinging. I, therefore, will
 ask those below for pardon, since I am forced to this, and will obey
 those who have come to authority. It is foolish to do what is
 fruitless. Antigone I would not encourage you—no, nor, even if you were willing
 later, would I welcome you as
 my partner in this action. No, be the sort that pleases you. I will bury
 him—it would honor me to die while doing that. I shall rest with him,
 loved one with loved one, a pious criminal. For the time is
 greater that I must serve the
 dead than the living, since in that world I will rest forever. But if
 you so choose, continue to dishonor what the gods in honor have
 established. Ismene I do them no dishonor. But to act in violation of the
 citizens’ will—of that I am by nature incapable. Antigone You can make that your pretext!
 Regardless, I will go now to heap a tomb over the brother I love.