You will regret your unwise instructions in wisdom.HaemonIf you were not my father, I would have called you insane.CreonYou woman’s slave, do not try to cajole me.HaemonDo you want to have your say and then have done without a reply?CreonIs that so? By Olympus above—know this well—you will have no joy for taunting me over and above your censures. Bring out that hated thing, so that with him looking on she may die right now in her bridegroom’s presence and at his side!HaemonNo, not at my side will she die—do not ever imagine it. Nor shall you ever look at me and set eyes on my face again. Indulge in your madness now with whomever of your friends can endure it. Exit Haemon. ChorusThe man is gone, King Creon, in anger and haste. A young mind is fierce when stung.CreonLet him do—no!—let him plan something more immense than befits a man. Farewell to him! Still he will not save these two girls from death.ChorusThen the pair of them, you really intend to kill them both?CreonNot the one who did not put her hands to the burial. You are right.ChorusAnd by what mode of death do you mean to kill the other?CreonI will take her where the path is deserted, unvisited by men, and entomb her alive in a rocky vault, setting out a ration of food, but only as much as piety requires so that all the city may escape defilement. And praying there to Hades, the only god she worships, perhaps she will obtain immunity from death, or else will learn, at last, even this late, that it is fruitless labor to revere the dead. Exit Creon.

ChorusLove, the unconquered in battle, Love, you who descend upon riches, and watch the night through on a girl’s soft cheek, you roam over the sea and among the homes of men in the wilds. Neither can any immortal escape you, nor any man whose life lasts for a day. He who has known you is driven to madness.

ChorusYou seize the minds of just men and drag them to injustice, to their ruin. You it is who have incited this conflict of men whose flesh and blood are one. But victory belongs to radiant Desire swelling from the eyes of the sweet-bedded bride. Desire sits enthroned in power beside the mighty laws. For in all this divine Aphrodite plays her irresistible game.

Enter Antigone under guard from the palace.ChorusBut now, witnessing this, I too am carried beyond the bounds of loyalty. The power fails me to keep back my streaming tears any longer, when I see Antigone making her way to the chamber where all are laid to rest, now her bridal chamber.

AntigoneCitizens of my fatherland, see me setting out on my last journey, looking at my last sunlight,and never again. No, Hades who lays all to rest leads me living to Acheron’s shore, though I have not had my due portion of the chant that brings the bride, nor has any hymn been minefor the crowning of marriage. Instead the lord of Acheron will be my groom.

ChorusThen in glory and with praise you depart to that deep place of the dead, neither struck by wasting sickness, nor having won the wages of the sword. No, guided by your own laws and still alive, unlike any mortal before, you will descend to Hades.

AntigoneI have heard with my own ears how our Phrygian guest, the daughter of Tantalus, perished