Enter Antigone and Ismene from the Palace
Antigone
Enter ANTIGONE and Ismene from the palace.
ANTIGONE:
Ismene, my dear sister through common blood, do you know of any evil from Oedipus
Zeus will not perform on us who still live?
For I have seen nothing—nothing painful, nothing mad or shameful or dishonorable—(5) that is not among your or my sorrows.
And now what do they say? The general has just put an edict over the whole city.
Have you heard it? Or have you avoided learning how our friends suffer the fate of foes?(10)
ISMENE:
No word of friends, Antigone, either sweet or painful, has come to me since we two sisters were robbed of our two brothers, both dying the same day by doubled hand.
But since the army of the Argives departed last night, I 've seen nothing else,(15) either to cause me to rejoice or to weep.
ANTIGONE:
I knew it! For this reason I brought you outside the gates, that you alone might hear.
ISMENE:
What? You seem to ponder something deeply.
ANTIGONE:
Indeed! For of our two brothers, Creon(20) gives honorable burial to one, but dishonors the other. They say that he hid Eteocles beneath the earth with well-deserved pomp and circumstance, as one honored among the dead below;(25) but the corpse of Polynices, who died so sadly, they say it has been declared to the citizens that no one may bury or mourn him, but must see him unlamented, unburied, a sweet find for birds to feast upon.(30)
Such things they say our good Creon decreed for you and me—for me, I say!
And he is coming here to announce it clearly to anyone who hasn 't heard, for he considers it no small matter,(35) but for the one who does any of it, the penalty is death by public stoning.
There you have it, and soon you will show how nobly you honor your noble birth.
ISMENE:
But what more, my poor girl, in times like these,(40) could I do that would not tangle the knot further?
ANTIGONE:
Will you share in the labor and the deed?
ISMENE:
What is the venture? Where
Enter ANTIGONE and Ismene from the palace.
ANTIGONE:
Ismene, my dear sister through common blood, do you know of any evil from Oedipus
Zeus will not perform on us who still live?
For I have seen nothing—nothing painful, nothing mad or shameful or dishonorable—(5) that is not among your or my sorrows.
And now what do they say? The general has just put an edict over the whole city.
Have you heard it? Or have you avoided learning how our friends suffer the fate of foes?(10)
ISMENE:
No word of friends, Antigone, either sweet or painful, has come to me since we two sisters were robbed of our two brothers, both dying the same day by doubled hand.
But since the army of the Argives departed last night, I 've seen nothing else,(15) either to cause me to rejoice or to weep.
ANTIGONE:
I knew it! For this reason I brought you outside the gates, that you alone might hear.
ISMENE:
What? You seem to ponder something deeply.
ANTIGONE:
Indeed! For of our two brothers, Creon(20) gives honorable burial to one, but dishonors the other. They say that he hid Eteocles beneath the earth with well-deserved pomp and circumstance, as one honored among the dead below;(25) but the corpse of Polynices, who died so sadly, they say it has been declared to the citizens that no one may bury or mourn him, but must see him unlamented, unburied, a sweet find for birds to feast upon.(30)
Such things they say our good Creon decreed for you and me—for me, I say!
And he is coming here to announce it clearly to anyone who hasn 't heard, for he considers it no small matter,(35) but for the one who does any of it, the penalty is death by public stoning.
There you have it, and soon you will show how nobly you honor your noble birth.
ISMENE:
But what more, my poor girl, in times like these,(40) could I do that would not tangle the knot further?
ANTIGONE:
Will you share in the labor and the deed?
ISMENE:
What is the venture? Where