Then said the King, “’Tis well spoken, my son.  This is a thing to be desired, that a man should have obedient children.  But if it be otherwise with a man, he hath gotten great trouble for himself, and maketh sport for them that hate him.  And now as to this matter.  There is nought worse than an evil wife.  Wherefore I say, let this damsel wed a bridegroom among the dead.  For since I have found her, alone of all this people, breaking my decree, surely she shall die.  Nor shall it profit her to claim kinship with me, for he that would rule a city must first deal justly with his own kindred And as for obedience, this it is that maketh a city to stand both in peace and in war.”

To this the Prince Haemon made answer, “What thou sayest, my father, I do not judge.  Yet bethink thee, that I see and hear on thy behalf what is hidden from thee.  For common men cannot abide thy look if they say that which pleaseth thee not.  Yet do I hear it in secret.  Know then that all the city mourneth for this maiden, saying that she dieth wrongfully for a very noble deed, in that she buried her brother.  And ’tis well, my father, not to be wholly set on thy own thoughts, but to listen to the counsels of others.”

“Nay,” said the King; “shall I be taught by such an one as thou?”

“I pray thee regard my words, if they be well, and not my years.”

“Can it be well to honour them that transgress?  And hath not this woman transgressed?”

“The people of this city judgeth not so.”

“The people, sayest thou?  Is it for them to rule, or for me?”

“No city is the possession of one man only.”

So the two answered one the other, and their anger waxed hot.  And at the last the King cried, “Bring this accursed woman, and slay her before his eyes.”

And the Prince answered, “That thou shalt never do.  And know this also, that thou shalt never see my face again.”

So he went away in a rage; and the old men would have appeased the King’s wrath, but he would not hearken to them, but said that the two maidens should die.  “Wilt thou then slay them both?” said the old men.

“’Tis well said,” the King made answer.  “Her that meddled not with the matter I harm not.”

“And how wilt thou deal with the other?”

“There is a desolate place, and there I will shut her up alive in a sepulchre; yet giving her so much of food as shall quit us of guilt in the matter, for I would not have the city defiled.  There let her persuade Death, whom she loveth so much, that he harm her not.”

So the guards led Antigone away to shut her up alive in the sepulchre.  But scarcely had they departed when there came the old prophet Tiresias, seeking the King.  Blind he was, so that a boy led him by the hand; but the Gods had given him to see things to come.  And when the King saw him he asked, “What seekest thou, wisest of men?”