So time passed, until the disk of the sun stood bright
 in mid-sky and the heat began to burn. And then suddenly a whirlwind
 lifted from the earth a storm of dust, a trouble in the sky, and it
 filled the plain, marring all the foliage of its woods. Soon the wide air was choked with it. We closed
 our eyes, and endured the plague from the gods. When, after a long
 while, this storm had passed, the girl was seen, and she wailed aloud
 with the sharp cry of a grieving bird, as when inside her
 empty nest she sees the bed
 stripped of its nestlings. So she, too, when she saw the corpse bare,
 broke into a cry of lamentation and cursed with harsh curses those who
 had done it. Immediately she took thirsty dust in her hands, and from a pitcher of beaten bronze held
 high she crowned the dead with thrice-poured libations. We rushed
 forward when we saw it, and at once closed upon our quarry, who was not
 at all dismayed. We then charged her with her past and present
 doings, but she made no denial of anything—at once to my joy and
 to my pain. For to have escaped from trouble one’s self gives the
 greatest joy, but it stings to lead friends to evil. Naturally, though,
 all such things are of less account to me than my own safety. Creon You, you with your face bent to the ground, do you admit, or deny that
 you did this? Antigone I declare it and make no denial. Creon To the Guard. You can take yourself wherever you please, free and clear of a heavy charge. Exit
 Guard. To Antigone. You, however, tell me—not at length, but briefly—did you know that an
 edict had forbidden this? Antigone I knew it. How could I not? It was public. Creon And even so you dared overstep that law? Antigone Yes, since it was not Zeus that
 published me that edict, and since not of that kind are the laws which
 Justice who dwells with the gods below established among men. Nor did I
 think that your decrees were of such force, that a mortal could override
 the unwritten and unfailing statutes given us by the gods. For their
 life is not of today or yesterday, but for all time, and no man knows
 when they were first put forth. Not for fear of any man’s pride was I
 about to owe a penalty to the gods for breaking these. Die I
 must, that I knew well (how could I not?). That is true even without
 your edicts. But if I am to die before my time, I count that a gain.
 When anyone lives as I do, surrounded by evils, how can he not carry off
 gain by dying? So for me to meet this doom is a grief of no account.
 But if I had endured that my mother’s son should in death lie an
 unburied corpse, that would have grieved me. Yet for this, I am not
 grieved. And if my present actions are foolish in your sight, it may
 be that it is a fool who accuses me of folly. Chorus She shows herself the wild offspring of a wild father, and does not know
 how to bend before troubles. Creon Yet remember that over-hard spirits most often collapse. It is the
 stiffest iron, baked to utter hardness in the fire, that you most often see
 snapped and shivered. And I have witnessed horses with great spirit
 disciplined by a small bit. For there is no place for pride, when one is
 his neighbors’ slave. This girl was already
 practiced in outrage when she overstepped the published laws. And, that
 done, this now is a second outrage, that she glories in it and exults in
 her deed. In truth, then, I am no man, but she is, if this victory rests with her and brings no penalty.
 No! Whether she is my sister’s child, or nearer to me in blood than any
 of my kin that worship Zeus at the altar of our house, she and her
 sister will not escape a doom most harsh. For in truth I charge that other with an equal share
 in the plotting of this burial. Call her out! I saw her inside just now,
 raving, and not in control of her wits. Before the deed, the mind
 frequently is convicted of stealthy crimes when conspirators are
 plotting depravity in the dark. But, truly, I detest it, too, when one who has been caught in
 treachery then seeks to make the crime a glory. Antigone What more do you want than to capture and kill me? Creon I want nothing else. Having that, I have everything. Antigone Why then do you wait? In none of your maxims is there anything that pleases me—and may there never
 be! Similarly to you as well my views must be displeasing. And yet, how
 could I have won a nobler glory than by giving burial to my own brother?
 All here would admit that they approve, if fear did not grip their tongues. But tyranny, blest
 with so much else, has the power to do and say whatever it pleases.