ANTIGONE
A monologue from the
play by Sophocles
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NOTE: This monologue is reprinted
from Greek Dramas. Ed. Bernadotte Perrin. New York: D.
Appleton and Company, 1904. |
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ANTIGONE: Tomb, bridal chamber, eternal prison in the
caverned rock, whither I go to find mine own, those many who
have perished, and whom Persephone hath received among the dead!
Last of all shall I pass thither, and far most miserably of all,
before the term of my life is spent. But I cherish good hope
that my coming will be welcome to my father, and pleasant to
thee, my mother, and welcome, brother, to thee; for, when you
died, with mine own hands I washed and dressed you, and poured
drink-offerings at your graves; and now, Plyneices, 'tis for
tending thy corpse that I win such recompense as this. And yet
I honoured thee, as the wise will deem, rightly. Never had I
been a mother of children, or if a husband had been mouldering
in death, would I have taken this task upon me in the city's
despite. What law, ye ask, is my warrant for that word? The husband
lost, another might have been found, and child from another,
to replace the first-born; but, father and mother hidden with
Hades, no brother's life could ever bloom for me again. Such
was the law whereby I held thee first in honour; but Creon deemed
me guilty of error therein, and of outrage, ah brother mine!
And now he leads me thus, a captive in his hands; no bridal bed,
no bridal song hath been mine, no joy of marriage, no portion
in the nurture of children; but thus, forlorn of friends, unhappy
one, I go living to the vaults of death. And what law of Heaven
have I transgressed? Why, hapless one, should I look to the gods
any more--what ally should I invoke--when by piety I have earned
the name of impious? Nay, then, if these things are pleasing
to the gods, when I have suffered my doom, I shall come to know
my sin; but if the sin is with my judges, I could wish them no
fuller measue of evil than they, on their part, mete wrongfully
to me.
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MONOLOGUES BY SOPHOCLES |
