Herald
It is my duty to announce the will and decrees of the council on behalf of the people of this our Cadmean city. It is decreed, first, that Eteocles here, on account of his goodwill towards the city, is to be buried in a kindly grave in its soil; for hating the enemy he chose death in the city and driven by piety towards his ancestral shrines, he died without reproach where it is an honor for the young to die. This is how I was commanded to speak regarding him. But as for his brother, it is decreed that this corpse of Polyneices is to be cast out of the city unburied to be torn by dogs, since he would have been the destroyer of the land of the Cadmeans, if one of the gods had not used his brother’s spear to prevent him. Even in death he will retain the stain of his guilt against his fathers’ gods, whom he dishonored when he launched a foreign army against the city to take it. For this reason it is decreed that he will receive his reward by being buried without honor beneath the winged birds; and that no labor of the hands shall attend him by building up a burial mound nor shall anyone offer him reverence in shrill-sung laments. He is to be refused the honor of being carried in funeral procession by his loved ones. Such is the decree of the Cadmean authorities.
Antigone
I at least will say something to the rulers of the Cadmeans: even if no one else is willing to share in burying him, I will bury him alone and risk the peril of burying my own brother. Nor am I ashamed to act in defiant opposition to the rulers of the city. A thing to be held in awe is the common womb from which we were born, of a wretched mother and unfortunate father. Therefore, my soul, willingly share his evils, even though they are unwilling, and live in kindred spirit with the dead. No hollow-bellied wolves will tear his flesh—let no one decree that! Even though I am a woman, I will myself find the means to give him burial and a grave, carrying the earth in the fold of my linen robe. With my own hands I will cover him over—let no one decree it otherwise. Take heart, I will have the means to do it.
Herald I forbid you to act thus in violation of the city.
Antigone I forbid you to make useless proclamations to me.
Herald And yet a citizenry that has escaped evil can be harsh.
Antigone Let it be harsh! This man will not be unburied.
Herald What! Will you honor with burial a man whom the city detests?
Antigone For a long time now the gods have ceased to hold him in honor.
Herald No, he was honored until he put this land in jeopardy.
Antigone He suffered evil and gave evil in return.
Herald But this act was against all the citizens, not only one man.
Antigone Discord is the last of the gods to close an argument. I will bury him. Put an end to your big talk.
Herald Well then, follow your own rash plan, but I forbid it.
Chorus Ah, misery! O Erinyes, far-famed destroyers of families, goddesses of death who have thus laid ruin to the family of Oedipus, digging it up from the roots! What will happen to me? What should I do? What plan shall I devise? How can I have the heart neither to weep for you nor escort you to your tomb? But I am afraid and turn away in terror of the citizens. You, at least, Eteocles, will have many mourners, while he, wretched man, departs without lamentation and has a dirge sung only by one sister. Now who could comply with that?
First Half-Chorus Let the city take action or not take action against those who lament for Polynices. We, at all events, will go and bury him with her, following the funeral procession. For this grief is shared by all our race, and the city approves as just different things at different times.
Second Half-Chorus We will go with this other corpse, as the city and justice, too, approves. For after the blessed gods and powerful Zeus, he it was who saved the city of the Cadmeans from being capsized and flooded by a wave of foreign men—he beyond all others.
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