would that Cithaeron, it ought, had sunk to the bottomless chasms of Tartarus, for that it did not destroy me; but the God fixed it my lot to serve under Polybus my master:  but I unhappy man, having slain my own father, ascended the bed of my wretched mother, and begat children, my brothers, whom I destroyed, having received down the curse from Laius, and given it to my sons.  For I was not by nature so utterly devoid of understanding, as to have devised such things against my eyes, and against the life of my children, without the interference of some of the Gods.  Well!—­what then shall I ill-fated do? who will accompany me the guide of my dark steps?  She that lies here dead! living, well know I, she would.  But my noble pair of sons?  I have no sons.—­But still in my vigor can I myself procure my sustenance?  Whence?—­Why, O Creon, dost thou thus utterly kill me? for kill me thou wilt, if thou shalt cast me out of the land.  Yet will I not appear base, stretching my hands around thy knees, for I can not belie my former nobleness, not even though my plight is miserable.

CRE.  Well has it been spoken by thee, that thou wilt not touch my knees, but I can not permit thee to dwell in the land.  But of these corses, the one we must even now bear to the house; but the body of Polynices cast out unburied beyond the borders of this land.  And these things shall be proclaimed to all the Thebans:  “whoever shall be found either crowning the corse, or covering it with earth, shall receive death for his offense.”  But thou, ceasing from the groans for the three dead, retire, Antigone, within the house, and behave as beseems a virgin, expecting the approaching day in which the bed of Haemon awaits thee.

ANT.  Oh father, in what a state of woes do we miserable beings lie!  How do I lament for thee! more than for the dead!  For it is not that one of thy ills is heavy, and the other not heavy, but thou art in all things unhappy, my father.—­But thee I ask, our new lord, [wherefore dost thou insult my father here, banishing him from his country?] Why make thy laws against an unhappy corse?

CRE.  The determination of Eteocles this, not mine.

ANT.  It is absurd, and thou a fool to enforce it.

CRE.  How so?  Is it not just to execute injunctions?

ANT.  No, if they are base, at least, and spoken with ill intent.

CRE.  What! will he not with justice be given to the dogs?

ANT. No, for thus do ye not demand of him lawful justice.

CRE. We do; since he was the enemy of the state, who least ought to be an enemy.

ANT.  Hath he not paid then his life to fortune?

CRE.  And in his burial too let him now satisfy vengeance.

ANT.  What outrage having committed, if he came after his share of the kingdom?

CRE.  This man, that you may know once for all, shall be unburied.

ANT.  I will bury him; even though the city forbid it.