THE GREEK TRAGEDY

IN NEW TRANSLATIONS
GENERAL EDITORS
Peter Burian and Alan Shapiro

SOPHOCLES: Antigone
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SOPHOCLES

Antigone
Translated by
REGINALD GIBBONS
and
CHARLES SEGAL

OXJORD
UNIVERSITY PRESS

2003
OXJORD
UNIVERSITY PRESS

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Sophocles.
[Antigone. English]
Antigone / Sophocles ; translated by Reginald Gibbons and Charles
Segal.
p. cm.
ISBN 0-19-514373-6
1. Antigone (Greek mythology) —Drama. I. Gibbons, Reginald.
II. Segal, Charles, 1936- III. Title.
PA4414.A7 G53 2003
882'.01—dc2i 2002008966

The translations of the odes on Man, on the House

of Labdakos, and to Eros were first published in
Poetry magazine.

987654321
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
EDITORS' FOREWORD

"The Greek Tragedy in New Translations is based on the conviction

that poets like Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides can only be prop-
erly rendered by translators who are themselves poets. Scholars may, it
is true, produce useful and perceptive versions. But our most urgent
present need is for a re-creation of these plays—as though they had
been written, freshly and greatly, by masters fully at home in the En-
glish of our own times."
With these words, the late William Arrowsmith announced the pur-
pose of this series, and we intend to honor that purpose. As was true
of most of the volumes that began to appear in the 19705 —first under
Arrowsmith's editorship, later in association with Herbert Colder—
those for which we bear editorial responsibility are products of close
collaboration between poets and scholars. We believe (as Arrowsmith
did) that the skills of both are required for the difficult and delicate
task of transplanting these magnificent specimens of another culture
into the soil of our own place and time, to do justice both to their
deep differences from our patterns of thought and expression and to
their palpable closeness to our most intimate concerns. Above all, we
are eager to offer contemporary readers dramatic poems that convey as
vividly and directly as possible the splendor of language, the complexity
of image and idea, and the intensity of emotion and originals. This
entails, among much else, the recognition that the tragedies were
meant for performance—as scripts for actors—to be sung and danced
as well as spoken. It demands writing of inventiveness, clarity, musi-
cality, and dramatic power. By such standards we ask that these trans-
lations be judged.
This series is also distinguished by its recognition of the need of
nonspecialist readers for a critical introduction informed by the best
recent scholarship, but written clearly and without condescension.

V
EDITORS' FOREWORD

Each play is followed by notes designed not only to elucidate obscure

references but also to mediate the conventions of the Athenian stage
as well as those features of the Greek text that might otherwise go
unnoticed. The notes are supplemented by a glossary of mythical and
geographical terms that should make it possible to read the play without
turning elsewhere for basic information. Stage directions are suffi-
ciently ample to aid readers in imagining the action as they read. Our
fondest hope, of course, is that these versions will be staged not only
in the minds of their readers but also in the theaters to which, after so
many centuries, they still belong.

A NOTE ON THE SERIES FORMAT

A series such as this requires a consistent format. Different translators,
with individual voices and approaches to the material in hand, cannot
be expected to develop a single coherent style for each of the three
tragedians, much less make clear to modern readers that, despite the
differences among the tragedians themselves, the plays share many con-
ventions and a generic, or period, style. But they can at least share a
common format and provide similar forms of guidance to the reader.

i. Spelling of Greek names

Orthography is one area of difference among the translations that re-
quires a brief explanation. Historically, it has been common practice
to use Latinized forms of Greek names when bringing them into En-
glish. Thus, for example, Oedipus (not Oidipous) and Clytemnestra
(not Klutaimestra) are customary in English. Recently, however, many
translators have moved toward more precise transliteration, which has
the advantage of presenting the names as both Greek and new, instead
of Roman and neoclassical importations into English. In the case of so
familiar a name as Oedipus, however, transliteration risks the appear-
ance of pedantry or affectation. And in any case, perfect consistency
cannot be expected in such matters. Reader will feel the same discom-
fort with "Athenai" as the chief city of Greece as they would with
"Platon" as the author of the Republic.
The earlier volumes in this series adopted as a rule a "mixed" or-
thography in accordance with the considerations outlined above. The
most familiar names retain their Latinate forms, the rest are transliter-
ated; -os rather than Latin -us is adopted for the termination of mas-
culine names, and Greek diphthongs (such as Iphigenem for Latin
Iphigenia) are retained. Some of the later volumes continue this prac-
tice, but where translators have preferred to use a more consistent prac-
tice of transliteration of Latinization, we have honored their wishes.

vi
EDITORS' FOREWORD

2. Stage directions
The ancient manuscripts of the Greek plays do not supply stage direc-
tions (though the ancient commentators often provide information rel-
evant to staging, delivery, "blocking," etc.). Hence stage directions must
be inferred from words and situations and our knowledge of Greek
theatrical conventions. At best this is a ticklish and uncertain proce-
dure. But it is surely preferable that good stage directions should be
provided by the translator than that readers should be left to their own
devices in visualizing action, gesture, and spectacle. Ancient tragedy
was austere and "distanced" by means of masks, which means that the
reader must not expect the detailed intimacy ("He shrugs and turns
wearily away," "She speaks with deliberate slowness, as though to em-
phasize the point," etc.) that characterizes stage directions in modern
naturalistic drama.

3. Numbering of lines
For the convenience of the reader who may wish to check the trans-
lation against the original, or vice versa, the lines have been numbered
according to both the Greek and English texts. The lines of the trans-
lation have been numbered in multiples of ten, and those numbers
have been set in the right-hand margin. The (inclusive) Greek nu-
meration will be found bracketed at the top of the page. The Notes
that follow the text have been keyed to both numerations, the line
numbers of the translation in bold, followed by the Greek lines in
regular type, and the same convention is used for all references to
specific passages (of the translated plays only) in both the Notes and
the Introduction.
Readers will doubtless note that in many plays the English lines
outnumber the Greek, but they should not therefore conclude that the
translator has been unduly prolix. In some cases the reason is simply
that the translator has adopted the free-flowing norms of modern Anglo-
American prosody, with its brief-breath-and emphasis-determined lines,
and its habit of indicating cadence and caesuras by line length and
setting rather than by conventional punctuation. Even where translators
have preferred to cast dialogue in more regular five-beat or six-beat
lines, the greater compactness of Greek diction is likely to result in a
substantial disparity in Greek and English numerations.

Durham, N.C. PETER BURIAN

Chapel Hill, N.C. ALAN SHAPIRO
2003

vii
PREFACE

The final stages of my work on the play overlapped with a Fellowship

from the National Endowment for the Humanities, which was awarded
for another project, but nevertheless contributed to the efficient com-
pletion of the book. I am deeply grateful to the Endowment for their
support.
I completed work on this volume at a time when Antigone's lament
about being between upper and lower worlds took on an intensely
personal meaning as I faced a life-threatening illness. I cannot list all
the friends, colleagues, and students, past and present, who offered
their help, encouragement, and prayers, but they are all gratefully re-
membered. I would like particularly to thank my Harvard colleagues
for their many kindnesses, especially Kathleen Coleman, Albert Hen-
richs, and Richard Thomas, chair of the department. I am deeply grate-
ful to the medical professionals whose expertise and concern enabled
me to finish my share in the volume and indeed to continue looking
on the light of the sun: Drs. Christopher Colie, Keith Stuart, and David
S. Rosenthal and Ms. Judith Podymatis, RN. My collaborator, Reg Gib-
bons, not only made several long trips so that we could work together
in the best possible way, by face-to-face discussions, but remained a
steadfast and involved friend on whom I could also count for support.
I am grateful to George Steiner for taking the time to read the man-
uscript at a time when he was busy delivering the Norton Lectures at
Harvard. To my wife, Nancy Jones, my gratitude for her ever-present
love and devotion at a period of particular adversity goes beyond what
words can express.

Cambridge, Massachusetts CHARLES SEGAL

September 2001

viii
CONTENTS

Introduction, 3
On the Translation, 37
Antigone, 51
Notes on the Text, 117
Appendices
1. The Date of Antigone, 183
2. The Myth of Antigone, to the End of the Fifth Century BCE, 184
3. The Transmission of the Text, 187
Glossary, 189
Suggestions for Further Reading, 197

ix
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ANTIGONE
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INTRODUCTION

For the nineteenth-century idealist German philosopher Hegel, Antig-

one is "one of the most sublime, and in every respect most consum-
mate, workfs] of art human effort ever produced. Not a detail in this
tragedy but is of consequence."1 Hegel's dazzling accolade is typical of
the high esteem for the play in the early nineteenth century.2 For
Hegel, Antigone plays a major role in the evolution of European con-
sciousness, one of whose early stages is exemplified by Antigone's con-
flict between State and individual, or more accurately between "the
public law of the State and the instinctive family-love and duty towards
a brother." This division in turn is an aspect of a larger conflict between
Nature and Spirit and so a step toward the emergence of Spirit (Geist).
The individual bearer of such consciousness is essentially tragic be-
cause he or she enters into the division between the divine law, em-
bodied in the polis or state, and the human law, embodied in the
family, and in entering into that division is destroyed. And yet "it is
precisely this destruction," as George Steiner explains Hegel's view,
"which constitutes man's eminent worth and which allows his pro-
gression towards the unification of consciousness and of Spirit on 'the
other side of history.' "3 In terms of Hegel's emphasis on action and his
conception of fate in Greek tragedy, Antigone, rather than Kreon, is
the full bearer of the tragic because she self-consciously decides to act
and therefore chooses the path of her destiny.4 The "classical" perfec-
tion of Antigone lies not only in the clarity and purity with which it
develops this conflict but also in its representation of divinity, which

1. G. W. F. Hegel, Philosophy of Fine Art, quoted from the Osmaston translation (London 1920),
in Anne and Henry Paolucci, eds., Hegel on Tragedy (Garden City, N.Y., 1962), 178.
2. See George Steiner, Antigones (Oxford, 1984), 1-19.
3. Ibid., 31.
4. Ibid., 36.

3
INTRODUCTION

goes beyond the horrific chthonic gods of the old myths and the old
religion to more impersonal gods, who do not appear on the stage as
anthropomorphic beings and are more important for the principles they
endorse than for any visual effects.
The weaknesses of Hegel's reading have long been clear.5 It is as
simplistic to identify Kreon with "the law of the State" as it is to identify
Antigone with individualism tout court. Even Antigone's devotion to
family love, or philia, is problematical, given the incestuous bonds
within this family and her harsh treatment of her sister, Ismene. Antig-
one, to be sure, may be identified with the emergence of an individual
ethical consciousness that resists the domination of certain laws that
have been imposed by Thebes' present ruler, but the play calls into
question whether these laws may be associated with an abstract, im-
personal Law of the State. It is questionable to identify a small fifth-
century city-state or polls with the modern abstract notion of State. The
polis of Antigone is rather the total civic space in which the religious
and the political, the private and the public are closely intertwined,
and the fact that they are so intertwined creates the tragedy. Each
protagonist sees only half of the whole, and each acts as if the two
realms are independent of the other.
Nevertheless, Hegel's influence should not be taken lightly, and his
articulation of his position in his earlier work offers a more nuanced
and profound reading. In Hegel's dialectical thinking of this period,
the position of human and divine changes places. The family, in its
honoring of the dead, can also embody the divine law, while the city-
state's law, as the creation of human beings and as the visible regulator
of day-to-day affairs, can embody the human. In the fact that the two
sides share in both human and divine law lies the irreconcilably tragic
nature of the conflict. And this conflict is also gendered between the
"feminine-ontological" and the "masculine-political," between the
woman's domestic world of hearth and home and the man's public
world of civic assemblies and legislative bodies.6
Political, historical, and social considerations add further nuances.
Antigone is opposing not the city's Law (nomos) as a totality, but rather
Kreon's specific "decree" forbidding the burial of her brother's body.
She is primarily the champion not of the individual against the State
but of the ties of blood and birth that rest on the solidarity of the family.

5. Among the earliest criticism is Goethe's, in J. W. von Goethe, Conversations with Eckermann,
trans. John Oxenford (1850; reprint New York, 1998), 174-78 (March 28, 1827). For further discus-
sion see, e.g., Steiner, Antigones, 49-51; T. C. W. Oudemans and A. P. M. H Lardinois, Tragic
Ambiguity (Leiden, 1987), 110-17.
6. Steiner, 34-35.

4
INTRODUCTION

More specifically, she opposes to Kreon's authority the traditional au-

thority of the old aristocratic families to honor and bury their dead.
The care for the dead was especially the prerogative of women, and it
was increasingly restricted in Athens in the sixth and fifth centuries as
the democracy sought to limit the power of the aristocratic clans, but
it was nevertheless widely respected.7 The Athenian institution of the
public, city funeral for warriors who died in battle, established around
the middle of the century, sharpened the conflict between the family's
mourning and the public ceremony, and this conflict is doubtless in
the play's background.8 Against Kreon's laws (nomoz) Antigone sets the
"unwritten laws" that pertain to the burial of the dead, which are also
the "custom-laws" (another meaning of nomoz or nomima) that have a
place within every city and rest on the sanctity, as she says, of "Justice,
who resides in the same house with the gods below the earth" and on
the authority of Zeus himself (translation 495-501 / Greek 450-5 5 ).9
Thus, while she is so human and moving in the fragile strength of her
defiance of the ruler, she has on her side the weight of religious tra-
dition, the universal recognition of the rights of burial, and the perfor-
mance of those offices for the dead that traditionally belong to women
in the polis and in the family.
Viewed more broadly, Antigone brings down to earth and to purely
human characters some of the conflicts of Aiskhylos' Oresteia. Antig-
one's position has some affinities with that of the Furies in Aiskhylos'
conflict between Olympian and chthonic, upper and lower worlds, in
the last play of the Oresteia, the Eumenides. Here the newer and
younger Olympians, Apollo and Athena, who belong to the reign of
Zeus, are identified with the male-dominated political institutions of
the city, whereas the ancient gods, the Erinyes or Furies, daughters of
primordial Night, defend the bonds of blood and birth and the rights
of the mother and of Earth in their vengeful pursuit of the matricide,
Orestes. To be sure, the issue of Antigone is burial, not vengeance; the
cosmic order is in the background, not the foreground; and the focus
is on the family as a whole and not on the rights of the father as against
those of the mother. Antigone also presents the conflict in terms of the
more impersonal "eternal laws of the gods" rather than through the

7. For the importance of female lament in the play see my Sophocles' Tragic World: Divinity,
Nature, and Society (Cambridge, Mass., 1995), 119-20, 125-27, 135-36.
8. This aspect of the play is stressed by William Tyrrell and Larry Bennett, Recapturing Sophocles'
Antigone (Lanham, Md., 1998), especially 5-14, 115-17.
9. Bernard Knox, The Heroic Temper (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1964), 97, shows that the (literally)
"unwritten and secure custom-laws (nomima) of the gods" of which Antigone speaks in 500-501 /
454-55 refer primarily to the sanctity surrounding burial rites. Yet her word nomoi, literally "laws,"
in 498 / 452, also indicates that broader issues are involved.

5
INTRODUCTION

awe-inspiring mythical presences of the Furies. Nevertheless, the fram-

ing of this conflict between male and female and between civic order
and primordial religious tradition bears comparison with the Oresteia.
Antigone too looks for support from the divinities of the lower world
(in the lines cited above; also in 593 / 542), and her vindication comes,
finally from Hades and the Furies (1145-47 / 1074-75).
Comparison with the Oresteia, however, also reveals how poorly the
Hegelian scheme of thesis-antithesis-synthesis fits the play. Antigone has
none of the resolution that ends the Eumenides, where the Furies fi-
nally accept the Olympian persuasion of Athena and consequently are
reconciled with the polis of Athens and transform themselves into the
more benign and acceptable Eumenides, the "Kindly Ones." In Antig-
one the conflict between the blood ties within the family, to which the
women are particularly devoted, and the realm of political action that
belongs to men is played out almost entirely on the human level. The
gods appear only as the remote agents of retributive justice; and the
mortal representatives of family ties and civic duty respectively both
suffer a terrible doom, Antigone by the despairing suicide of her death
in her cave-prison, Kreon by the blows that leave him disoriented,
isolated, and totally crushed at the end.
The Hegelian notion, however, that both sides have some degree of
right on their side —or, as A. C. Bradley will later rephrase it, that there
is a division in the ethical substance with a resultant "violent self-
restitution of the divided spiritual unity"10 —has the merit of getting us
into the fundamental issues of the play. Conflict is the heart of this
work, which is so structured that each protagonist can act only by at-
tacking and destroying the central values of the other. The play offers
conflicting definitions, explicit or implicit, of the basic terms of the
human condition: friend and enemy, citizen and ruler, father and son,
male and female, justice and injustice, reverence and irreverence, pu-
rity and pollution, honor and dishonor, and even (in the Ode on Man)
conflicting judgments of what is anthropos, a human being—powerful
or helpless, something "wonderful" or "terrible" (both of these, mean-
ings of the same word, deinon). Not only are the definitions in conflict,
but the terms themselves become ambiguous or (as in the case of An-
tigone's "holy wrongdoing") paradoxical.11 Antigone and Kreon use the
same words to mean different things, like philos and ekhthros, "dear

10. A. C. Bradley, "Hegel's Theory of Tragedy" (1909), in Paolucci (above, n. i), 385.
11. On these conflicts and ambiguities in the larger context of the nature of Greek tragedy, see
Jean-Pierre Vemant, "Tensions and Ambiguities in Greek Tragedy," in J.-P. Vernant and Pierre
Vidal-Naquet, Myth and Tragedy in Ancient Greece (1972, 1986), trans. J. Lloyd (New York, 1990),
29-48, especially 41-43.

6
INTRODUCTION

one" and "enemy," or nomos, law. Antigone's incestuous birth compli-

cates these ambiguities of language by confusing the basic terms of
kinship: in the family of Oidipous, son and husband, brother and son,
sister and daughter horribly coincide. What in fact sets the plot into
motion is the mutual slaughter of the incestuously begotten sons/broth-
ers, Polyneikes and Eteokles, who are simultaneously too close in their
claims on the inherited throne and too distant in their murderous strug-
gle, simultaneously the nearest of "dear ones," philoi, and the most
bitter of "enemies," ekhthroi. The play's obsessive harping on words for
"self-," "common," "one another" is the verbal expression of this deadly
fusion of same and opposite that underlies the tragedy of the house of
Oidipous.
The ambiguities of philia, being near-and-dear, in this house are
enacted in the opening scene between the two sisters. The language
of intimate kinship in Antigone's opening address to Ismene is painfully
fractured by the end of that scene, and Antigone's virtual identification
with her sister in the opening line, with its untranslatable juxtaposition
of koinon autadelphon, literally, "shared/sharing self-sister," has turned
to scorn and near hatred by the time the two young women leave the
stage.
In this opening scene Antigone not only sets out the main issues but
also displays all the contradictions and dangers that define her char-
acter: her intensity of feeling, the single-mindedness of her devotion to
family, her unbending will, her readiness to defy the entire city in the
name of what she believes, her involvement with the dead, and her
willingness to face death if necessary. With sarcasm she shows her
independence and bitterness when she recounts that "the noble Kreon
has proclaimed" his order against the burial of Polyneikes (39-43 / 31-
34), while at the same time she personalizes the conflict and dramatizes
its immediacy and the consequent need to act decisively. She has a
visceral sense of Polyneikes' exposed corpse —she not only recounts that
"no one may hide it inside a grave, wail over it or weep for it," but
she also pictures it as horribly desecrated by vultures, "a sweet-tasting
treasure that birds will spy and feed on with their greedy joy" (34-38 /
27-30). That this image is distinctive, we see from comparing Kreon's
otherwise similar description of his decree later (229-35 / 203-6).12
The paradox of what Antigone calls her "holy crime" (90 / 74) shows
her understanding of her isolation but also signals the moral complexity

12. Kreon says "eaten by birds and dogs" and adds the epithet "shameful for anyone to see" (or
literally the detail of "disfigurement" or "outrage"), but he does not use Antigone's more vivid
expression.

7
INTRODUCTION

of her forthcoming act.13 When Ismene refuses to help, Antigone turns

abruptly from affection to hatred. She openly accepts the folly of her
own resolve, and she is determined to die the "noble death" of the
male warrior, on the model of the Homeric hero. Her claim to the
honor that she will win from her deed, her determination to "lie be-
side" her brother in death in her "holy wrongdoing," and her open
defiance of the city at a time of crisis, would almost certainly alarm
the audience of male Athenian citizens, accustomed to the view that
women do not challenge men (as Ismene states in 76-77 / 61-62),
especially in the all-male areas of politics and public life.
The ensuing ode, sung by the chorus of Theban elders, reveals the
one-sidedness of Antigone's position in the context of the city's fears
and so sets the stage for an initially sympathetic view of Kreon. The
chorus describes the battle of the preceding night in images of ani-
mality, blood, madness, and fire that show the horror of what the city
might have suffered had the fierce enemy warriors broken through the
walls. Entering directly after the ode, Kreon vehemently denounces
Polyneikes, the attacker who came to "burn their country and the tem-
ples with columns around them and the offerings inside" (328-29 /
285-87). On the other hand, the absolute refusal to bury a traitor's body,
though legally justified, could be perceived as harsh. A traitor's corpse
was often cast outside the city walls, where family members might bury
it and where the danger of pollution to the city would be avoided. This
is in fact the punishment specified for Polyneikes' corpse by Aiskhylos
in Seven against Thebes and by Euripides in Phoinikian Women.14 Else-
where too in Greek tragedy the refusal of burial is regarded as cruel
and impious, as in Sophokles' Aias and Euripides' Suppliants.15 In the
latter play, Theseus, the civilizing hero and model king of Athens,
heeds his mother's plea to defy Kreon and the victorious Thebans, bury
the fallen Argive warriors, and thereby "stop them from overturning the

13. With 90/74 see the similar phrasing of 990-91 / 924 and 1011 / 943.
14. Aiskhylos, Seven against Thebes, 1013-25; Euripides, Phoinikian Women, 1629-30. See Patricia
E. Easterling, "Constructing the Heroic," in Christopher Felling, ed., Greek Tragedy and the
Historian (Oxford, 1997), 26-28, who argues that Kreon's punitive treatment does not correspond
precisely to any known historical situation in the fifth century. The Aiskhylean version, however,
though specifying burial outside, does nevertheless include exposing the body to dogs (no birds,
however) and the prohibition against burial by the family (Seven, 1013-15). The date of the ending
of the Seven, however, remains controversial, and it may have been influenced by Sophokles: see
Appendix 2. For further discussion of the problem of the justification of Kreon's decree, see Steiner,
Antigones, 114-20, and Oudemans and Lardinois, Tragic Ambiguity, 101-2, 162-63.
15. For Euripides' Suppliants see the Note on 1153-58 / 1080-83. In Antigone, 1133-61 /1064-86,
Teiresias is probably referring to the tradition that Theseus, King of Athens, intervened against
Kreon for the burial of the exposed corpses of the attacking Argive warriors: see Griffith's note on
Greek lines 1080-83.

8
INTRODUCTION

custom laws (nomima) of all Greece" (Suppliants 311-12). The Kreon

of Antigone even seems to relish his punitive authority as he dwells on
the details of exposing Polyneikes' corpse and on his specific steps to
ensure that body will remain unburied (230-35 / 203-6, 248 / 217, 451-
58 / 408-14). He gives four lines (in the Greek) to the honors due to
Eteokles, nine to the defiling of the traitor's body (217-35 /194-206) —a
touch of a cruelty that will be seen again later when he sends Antigone
to her death.16 The repeated first-person statements of his opening
speech too, though innocuous enough in their context, also sound a
note of authoritarian willfulness and self-important sententiousness that
will emerge more ominously later (214-15 / 191, 223-24 / 198, 238-40 /
209-10).17
Both protagonists turn out to have a relation to the city-state (polls]
different from what the opening scenes might suggest. Kreon's view of
nomos, law, one of the crucial words in the play, proves to rest on too
narrow a vision of the city. The word nomos also means "custom" and
can refer to "practice" or "convention" so embedded in society that it
has virtually the authority of the "laws" that derive from formal legis-
lation. (The two meanings of nomos are particularly important in So-
phokles' time, in democratic Athens of the fifth century, which is very
much aware of the sovereign power of the assembled citizenry, the
demos, to create new laws, abolish old, and replace or modify tradi-
tional "laws," and thereby codify as statute or written decree what had
been more loosely defined as "custom-law.")
Both protagonists, however, assume that the gods defend their nomos.
Kreon increasingly regards the law of the city as an extension of his
own authority and assumes, erroneously, that the order of the gods is
congruent with what he sees as the order of the polis. Antigone, in
defying Kreon's laws on the grounds of the "unwritten laws" of the
gods, opens up the definition of both law and the city in directions
that Kreon does not understand. The city does, in fact, have obligations
to the dead and to the chthonic divinities who protect them and watch
over the rituals that separate the dead citizens from the living and move
them to their appropriate realm in Hades. Later in the play the prophet
Teiresias will announce the dire effect of violating these "unwritten
laws" (1133-61 / 1064-86); and he will show that Kreon's attempt to
absorb ritual practice and the politics of the gods into his own politics
of the city rests on a one-sided vision of both the city and the gods.

16. See, e.g., 838-42 / 777-80 and 944-50 / 885-90, and the Notes on these passages.
17. On the reservations that the language of Kreon's opening speech may cause the spectator, see
Felix Budelmann, The Language of Sophocles (Cambridge, Eng., 2000), 75-78.

9
INTRODUCTION

If Antigone seems initially to disregard the legitimate claims and

needs of the polls, the course of the action dissipates the sympathy for
Kreon aroused by the first ode and by the civic sentiments of his open-
ing speech. The turning point is the scene with Haimon, who, for the
first time, allows other voices in the city to be heard (747-55 / 692-
700). Antigone, defying Kreon to his face earlier, had said that the
elders of the chorus shared her view but had their mouths sealed by
fear of Kreon, whose rule she describes as turannis, "one-man rule"
(556-58 / 506-7). The word does not yet carry the full associations of
our word "tyranny," but it does connote autocratic power, the absolute
rule of a single man, and it begins to undercut Kreon's claims to rep-
resent the city as a whole. Knowing his father, Haimon cannily begins
with a declaration of loyalty and obedience but then endorses Antig-
one's position with increasing force. He might be thought a biased
reporter of the citizens' sentiments when he echoes Antigone's words
and defends her as one who merits "golden honor" (754 / 699). Tei-
resias' warnings, however, will validate this other voice and give it the
authority of the gods.
In condemning Antigone to death, Kreon callously disregards her
marriage with Haimon. "It's Hades who will stop this wedding for me,"
Kreon says to Ismene (626 / 575). But Hades in fact fulfills this mar-
riage, later, in its way; as the messenger recounts, Haimon "in the end
has had his wedding ceremony—but in the house of Hades" (1325-27
/1240-41). "It's Hades who desires these laws" for the living and for the
dead, Antigone says earlier, in defending herself before Kreon (570 /
519). Yet Kreon begins with confidence in his power to use Hades —
that is, death —as an instrument of political control. However, Hades'
laws operate more terribly on living and dead than even Antigone had
imagined. "Only from Hades will he not procure some means of es-
cape," the chorus had sung in their ode on the achievements of human
civilization (403-5 / 361-62), and their pronouncement is spectacularly
fulfilled in Kreon's doom.
Kreon carefully arranges Antigone's death to leave himself and his
city free of pollution. But her suicide in the cave doubly undoes his
schemes. She takes control of her own death and turns it into a pol-
luting death after all.18 She thereby initiates a cycle of pollutions in
Kreon's house parallel to the pollutions that his nonburial of Polyneikes
has brought to the city. At the end, when Kreon's wife's suicide leaves
him totally bereft, he cries out, "Ah, Harbor of Hades never to be

18. On Antigone's polluted death, see Nicole Loraux, Tragic Ways of Killing a Woman (1985),
trans. Anthony Forster (Cambridge, Mass., 1987), 31-32.

10
INTRODUCTION

purified! Why, why do you destroy me?" (1371-72 / 1284-85). His house
has now taken on the pollutions from Hades that he had tried to avoid
for the city, and these will not be cleansed.
In his prophecy, Teiresias explains how Kreon has done violence to
his own favored realm of the gods above, the Olympians, because he
kept on earth what did not belong to them (1140-44 / 1070-73). As a
result, the "late-punishing" avengers, the Furies of both Hades and the
gods, lie in ambush for him (1145-47 / 1074-75)- Like Antigone, he
now suffers an immersion, while alive, in the realm of Hades, for he
enters the tomb and sees her dead and his son mad with grief, and
then also dead; and, like Antigone, Kreon suffers the deaths of his
closest kin. This man of the city is left, like Oidipous, in a house
emptied by the suicide of a wife and the bloody deaths of two sons.
Kreon's wife, Eurydike, in her dying curse, calls him "killer of sons"
and so makes him, like Oidipous, responsible for the death of his two
sons (1391-92 / 1304-5)19 In his first speech Kreon had referred to his
intimate kinship with Oidipous as the basis for the legitimacy of his
rule (194-95 / 173-74), but this close tie with Oidipous' house takes on
a sinister meaning by the end of the play. In the tragic irony of his
reversal, Kreon gains not just the city of Oidipous but the house of
Oidipous as well.
Antigone, silenced by her being immured in the cave, is symbolically
present at both stages of Kreon's doom, first in the recognition of the
symmetries between upper and lower worlds in Teiresias' prophecy,
which hark back to her defiant speech to Kreon on the Justice that
dwells with the gods below (495-518 / 450-70), and later in the cries
of lament that Eurydike utters over her last son, for these echo Antig-
one's cries over the body of her last brother.20 Antigone's suicide too
both anticipates Eurydike's suicide and motivates Haimon's. Yet the
gods who have vindicated Antigone's chthonic Justice and her demand
for the equal burial of both her brothers do not intervene for her as
an individual. Their absence suggests Sophokles' deeply tragic world
view, which includes the remoteness and inaccessibility of the divine

19. Although Oidipous' curse on his two sons is not explicitly mentioned in the play, it is a familiar
feature of the myth from at least the sixth century BCE on and is dramatized by Sophokles in his
Oidipous at Kolonos. It was also prominent in Aiskhylos' Seven against Thebes. In our play Antigone
also alludes to the curse in her opening lines, and it is probably also in the background of the
third ode (642-50 / 594-603). The "Fury in the mind" mentioned here (650 / 603) also suggests
the curse, as parents' curses on children are regularly fulfilled by the Erinyes or Furies. Compare
Teiresias' prediction later that the "Furies, who avenge Hades and the gods" (1146-47 / 107-76)
will lie in wait for Kreon.
20. Compare 1389 / 1302 and 1402 / 1316 (of Eurydike) with 35-36 / 28 and 468-72 / 422-27 (of
Antigone).

11
INTRODUCTION

beings who permit the catastrophic waste and loss of the courageous
and passionate young people who have championed their cause.
In retrospect, Antigone's unyielding commitment to her beliefs and
the dignity and courage of her defiance of Kreon are perhaps the only
things that illuminates the darkness of this tragic world. Hence to
many, influenced by the highly politicized versions of Jean Anouilh
and Bertolt Brecht in the 19405, the history of the play is "the history
of the European conscience."21 And yet, in Sophokles' play, Antigone's
very intensity of commitment has triggered the disaster. Given her de-
votion to her family and her passionate nature, the fact that she re-
sponds as she does bears the Sophoklean stamp of tragic inevitability.
She resembles other Sophoklean tragic protagonists—Aias, Elektra,
Philoktetes: admirable in her inner strength and integrity, but also dan-
gerous to herself and to others in her one-sidedness, violent emotions,
and unbending will.22 Kreon, of course, is just as rigid as Antigone.
Fresh in his authority, eager to display his full control of a crisis barely
averted, and determined to assert his newly gained power, he cannot
afford failure in this first challenge to his command. To be faced down
by a woman, and in public, is particularly humiliating. He has, how-
ever, more options than Antigone, more space for yielding or finding
areas for compromise. But in these heated circumstances and between
these two personalities, no compromise is possible.
Interpreters of the play after Hegel have often idealized Antigone for
her heroism and love of family. Jebb's remark, in the preface to his
great commentary, is typical: "It is not without reason that moderns
have recognized her as the noblest, and the most profoundly tender,
embodiment of woman's heroism which ancient literature can show."
Some half a century later, Cedric Whitman offered a brilliant reading
of Antigone as the exemplar of an existential hero who holds bravely
to her integrity and her grandeur of spirit in total isolation.23 "In a
world of hollow men, she is real." More recent critics, however, have
increasingly questioned Jebb's alleged "tenderness" and stressed her
darker side. With her "heart that's hot for what is chilling" (105 / 88),
she is more involved with her dead relatives than with her living sister

21. See Pierre Vidal-Nacquet, Le miroir brise: Tragedie athenienne et politique (Paris, 2001), 47-51;
also Steiner, Antigones, 170-71, 193-94. See also Maria-Grazia Ciani, ed., Sofocle, Anouilh, Brecht:
Variazione sul mito (Venice, 2001).
22. On these and related qualities in the Sophoklean hero, see Bernard Knox, Heroic Temper, 10-
27, especially i6ff.
23. C. H. Whitman, Sophocles: A Study in Heroic Humanism (Cambridge, Mass., 1951), 88-91.
The following quotation is from p. 90. In order to save Antigone's heroic perfection, however,
Whitman has to delete lines 905-12 of the Greek text. See the Notes on 967-79 / 905-15. For
views of Antigone similar to Whitman's, see Oudemans and Lardinois, 107-10.

12
INTRODUCTION

or fiance. In the grandeur of her unshakable certainty she towers above

everyone else in the play, but as Bernard Knox has emphasized, she
shares the harshness and intransigence of most Sophoklean protago-
nists, and precisely because of her nobility and integrity she brings
terrible suffering to herself and those around her.24
One can agree with the later Hegel that Kreon (initially, at least)
may have some "right" on his side, but the tragic situation consists in
the intertwined, interactive responsibility of both protagonists. The
play, like most of Sophokles' extant plays, as we now increasingly ac-
knowledge, has not one but two foci of tragic concern.25 In the uncom-
promising sharpness of her personality, and the brazenness and stiffness
of her defiance, Antigone undercuts whatever hope of compromise
there might have been and calls forth from Kreon a complementary
intransigence that destroys them both. The passions of the young —
Antigone's all-absorbing family loyalty in this moment of loss and Hai-
mon's love and despair—meet the stubbornness and inflexibility of
their elders at a crisis when the city's safety has only just been secured.
Interpreters who view Kreon as a champion of civic values and com-
munal solidarity stumble against his increasingly autocratic behavior
and the final judgment of the gods. Their intervention, as expounded
by Teiresias, retrospectively clarifies and supports Antigone's instinctive
knowledge of what she had to do and why.
As always in Sophokles, the interaction of human circumstances and
human character are sufficient to account for the tragedy. Sufficient,
perhaps, but not final —for in Sophokles' tragic view, human life is
always part of a larger continuum, which includes the natural world
and the divinities whose power, immanent in the world, makes it what
it is. Antigone follows and reveres her values with an intensity for which
she is ready to pay with her life. Yet she lives in a world defined by
the needs of a city that she rejects. Both antagonists have limited ho-
rizons, but Kreon ultimately proves to be more disastrously limited,
and he must finally yield to Teiresias' larger prophetic vision. His power
buckles, but too late for Antigone to be saved.

DRAMATIC STRUCTURE
In the prologue Ismene sets out the weakness of Antigone's position.
Should she persevere in her plan to bury Polyneikes, she, a mere

24. Knox, Heroic Temper, chapter i, especially 19-23, and also 62-67; R- P- Winnington-Ingram,
Sophocles (Cambridge, 1980), 128-29, *35-
25. This important point is established by Albert Machin, Coherence el continuite dans le thedtre
de Sophocle (Hauteville, Quebec, Canada, 1981), especially 366—76. See my review in American
Journal of Philology 107:3 (1986), 594-99.

13
INTRODUCTION

woman, with a woman's weakness, will be defying men and the male
authority of the city (75-79 / 61-64). We should keep in mind that for
fifth-century Athens political life is an area of male autonomy, freedom,
and control. Women are excluded from direct political activity, may
not control or administer property (including their own property), can-
not enter into contracts, or represent themselves in a court of law, and
remain subject to the authority of their male relatives (which of course
does not mean that they were without respect, rights, and influence of
other kinds).26 Except for religious festivals, they are expected to remain
inconspicuously in the house (oikos), which is their domain.27 The
polls is a male work of art, an artificial system of rules, limitations, and
eligibilities of man's own making, a creation of intellect and conven-
tions, located within its natural setting, to be sure, but also separate
from it in the special kind of secondary order that the city imposes on
its world by its walls, temples, monuments, and of course its institu-
tions. Yet the city also depends on the order of nature for its fruitful
and harmonious relation with the land, and it depends on its women
for the procreation of new citizens.28 With procreation come sexual
desire, maternity, and the strong ties of family. All these have an im-
portant role in Antigone and shape its tragic form.
Kreon's polls proves to be not so autonomous after all, and his role as
father and husband throws him back into the network of the unpredict-
able, biological bonds that his construction of his world and of himself
would exclude. Although he harshly rejects the ties of blood and mar-
riage that connect him to his niece, Antigone, and views her "crime"
solely in terms of the law she has violated, he cannot escape the power of
those bonds of blood. As his wife's last words show (as reported by the
Messenger at 1387-92 /1301-5), Kreon has lost his elder son, Megareus,
who, presumably, sacrificed himself, or was sacrificed, to save the city.29
Kreon never speaks of this loss, but the silenced grief returns in the sor-
row of the mother, first in an oblique hint (1265-66 / 1191) and then in

26. This is not to say that women were completely without rights or various forms of personal
power and influence. For a good survey of women in fifth-century Athens see Elaine Fantham,
Helene Foley, Natalie Kampen, Sarah Pomeroy, and Alan Shapiro, eds., Women in the Classical
World (Oxford, 1994), chapter 3, especially 74-75, 79-83; Roger Just, Women in Athenian Law and
Life (London, 1989), especially chapters 2 and 3.
27. It remains controversial whether women were allowed to attend the dramatic performances at
the City Dionysia, the festival in honor of Dionysos. See the discussion and references in my
Oedipus Tyrannus: Tragic Heroism and the Limits of Knowledge, second edition (New York, 2001),
21-22, with n. 8, p. 23.
28. The "interconnectedness" of man and nature, with the latter's uncontrollable ambiguities, in
contrast to their rationalistic separation, is a main theme of Oudemans and Lardinois, e.g., chapters
3-4-
29. See the Note on 1387-92 /1301-5.

14
INTRODUCTION

the outburst of emotional and physical violence with which she ends her
life. And everywhere in the background is the house of Oidipous, de-
stroyed by just those bonds of blood that Kreon dismisses. The power of
the tragic reversal, as we have observed, consists in part in the fact that
Kreon's house comes increasingly to resemble that of Oidipous.
Like many tragedies of divine retribution, the action has an hourglass
shape (though not completely symmetrical) as the power flows from
Kreon to Antigone. He is tested by a series of challenges until he is
completely destroyed in the last scene. The encounter with Haimon
brings the challenge closer to home as his own son questions his au-
thority over both city and house. In sending Antigone to her death in
the cave, Kreon reasserts his power, but the entrance of Teiresias shifts
the balance back to Antigone. The reversal (peripeteia) reaffirms the
two areas that Kreon has tried to subordinate to his civic authority, the
underworld and family ties. He enters the dark cave where he has
ordered Antigone immured and where both she and Haimon kill them-
selves. He thereby makes a symbolical journey to the underworld, par-
allel to Antigone's, and this subterranean space now wreaks its ven-
geance on him and fulfills Antigone's parting curse (992-96 / 925-28).
The crushing blow comes from the house and particularly from fe-
male mourning and sorrow within the house. His wife, Eurydike,
whom he never actually confronts alive within the play, comes on stage
from the house just long enough to hear the news of Haimon's death.30
Her subsequent suicide inside the house demonstrates the power of
everything that Kreon had disvalued in his single-minded exaltation of
civic values: women's emotions and their intense involvement in the
bonds of family and in pollution, lament, and death itself. The last
third of the play centers on Kreon; yet his collapse is implicitly mea-
sured against the absent Antigone's strength and integrity.
Kreon's entrance immediately after the first ode consolidates the
weight of authority that now rests on him as commander-in-chief of a
city that has survived a deadly attack. His presence intimidates the
elders of the chorus, and he obviously savors his new role as leader of
the city and spokesman for the civic ethos, on which he moralizes
expansively in his platitudinous opening speech. The Guard who ar-
rives soon after with the bad news of the "burial" of Polyneikes —in
fact, a ritual sprinkling of dust—is also terrified of Kreon's power but
not entirely cowed. When the Guard returns with Antigone as his pris-

30. Eurydike is presumably played by the same actor who played Antigone. For her role at the
end, see my Tragedy and Civilization (Norman, Okla., 1999), 194-95, and my Sophocles' Tragic
World, 133-36.

15
INTRODUCTION

oner after the first stasimon (the second ode), he is relieved to escape
any further expression of Kreon's wrath, although he also has a small
word of sympathy for Antigone (481-84 / 436-39).
Antigone's defiance of Kreon in the following scene contrasts with
the submissiveness of both the chorus and the Guard. Her rejection of
Ismene's attempt to claim a share in the crime increases her isolation.
If, with the manuscripts, we assign to Ismene line 619 / 568, in which
she asks if Kreon will "kill [his] own son's bride-to-be," then the im-
plication of this line is that Antigone is so completely absorbed in her
determination to bury her brother, despite the threatened punishment
by death, that she herself seems to have no thoughts of Haimon. At
this crisis of her spiritual life, Haimon lies below the horizon of her
moral vision. We admire Ismene's courage too, for Kreon, in response
to her expressed solidarity with her sister, quickly arrests her as a co-
conspirator and will not release her for some two hundred lines (830-31
/ 770-71). But Ismene's gesture does nothing to help Antigone and in
fact separates her even further from her one remaining blood relative.
Haimon's entrance after the second stasimon brings the first open
defense of Antigone's position, and for the first time stymies Kreon in
his attempt to suppress opposition. His encounter with Haimon for-
mally resembles his encounter with Antigone. In both scenes, initial
statements of principle are followed by sharp antithetical debates in the
line-by-line exchange known as stichomythia. In the previous scene,
that statement of principle was Antigone's powerful assertion of her
reverence for the gods below, which Kreon answered by asserting the
authority of the city's and his laws (495-518 / 450-70 and 521-47 / 473-
96, respectively). Haimon's challenge strikes more deeply at Kreon's
basic conception of himself. Kreon is pleased and relieved at his son's
opening expression of loyalty, which encourages him to make a char-
acteristically expansive speech on his favorite virtues, after the manner
of his first speech in the play: Kreon's view of the proper order in the
family exactly matches his view of the proper order in the city, for both
rest on hierarchy and absolute obedience (686-95 / 639-47, 709-34 /
659—80). The young and impetuous Haimon, however, is very different
from the timid chorus of elders. He sketches an image of the city that
infuriates his authoritarian father—a city that holds and utters voices
and opinions antithetical to Kreon's.
The angry exchange pushes Kreon to his revealing statement, "Isn't
the city held to be his who rules?" to which Haimon replies, "You'd
do well as the single ruler of some deserted place." Kreon rebuts him
with "It seems this man is fighting on the woman's side!" (798-800 /
738-40), extending his authoritarian principles to another area of

16
INTRODUCTION

hierarchy, the subordination of female to male with which he had

ended his previous tirade on obedience (731-34 / 677-80).
Haimon's open challenge to Kreon's rule in fact exposes the latter
as very close to the turannos, the man who seizes sole power in the
city and concentrates it entirely in his own hands. Kreon is not actually
a "tyrant," for he has gained his authority legitimately, through inher-
itance, not through force or trickery. Yet his behavior emerges increas-
ingly as that of a turannos in his identification of the polls with himself
and his obsession with obedience, conspiracy, and money.31 (Some
interpreters have suggested that Sophokles has thus expressed an un-
derlying criticism of Perikles' control over Athens, which technically
was shared with the other elected officials, but in fact approached au-
tocratic power.32 In a famous passage of his History of the Peloponnesian
War Thukydides describes Athens under Perikles as "in word a de-
mocracy but in deed rule by the first man" [2.65.10].) Kreon makes no
attempt to engage in a serious discussion of Haimon's arguments. In-
stead he unleashes a series of ad hominem insults, culminating in the
threat that Haimon will never marry Antigone while she lives (810 /
750), an ironic foreshadowing of the marriage-in-death that will in fact
occur.
The scene begins and ends with fatal misunderstandings.33 Although
Haimon explicitly begins by putting his father ahead of his fiancee
(684-85 / 637-38; cf. 801 / 741) and never appeals to the marriage as
an argument for saving Antigone, Kreon, finally, can see his son only
as Antigone's betrothed. Kreon's response escalates the violence to a
new level. Taking an oath by Olympos, he orders his guards to lead
Antigone out and kill her at once, "beside her bridegroom" (821 / 761).
This cruel order, although not carried out, both provokes and fore-
shadows the couple's subsequent marriage-in-death.
Haimon begins with praise of his father's counsel and ends by ac-
cusing him of madness (824-25 / 765). It adds to the irony that he urges
Kreon to yield in terms that are not wholly dissimilar from Kreon's own
statements to Antigone about a stubborn will being broken (cf. 521-28
/ 473-79 and 768-75 / 710-14). Haimon's nautical metaphors also hark
back to Kreon's sententious posturing in his opening speech (cf. 775-

31. On Kreon's concern with money as characteristic of the turannos, see Richard Seaford, "Tragic
Money," Journal of Hellenic Studies 118 (1998), 132—34. For Kreon as turannos, see Winnington-
Ingram, Sophocles, 126-27.
32. For this view and other aspects of Kreon's possible connections with Perikles, see Victor
Ehrenberg, Sophocles and Pericles (Oxford, 1954), 95-98, 145-49.
33. For good comments on the misunderstandings in this scene, see David Scale, Vision and
Stagecraft in Sophocles (Chicago, 1982), 97-98.

17
INTRODUCTION

77 / 715-17 and 212-13 I 189-90). But passion, not reason, now domi-
nates, and no voice of calm and clarity will be heard again —until it
is too late.
A scene that opened with broad generalizations about obedience and
submission ends with wild threats whose meaning will be revealed only
later. Sensitive to any questioning of his authority, Kreon misconstrues
as a threat to his own person Haimon's promise that Antigone's death
will kill someone else.34 When Haimon exits, the chorus comments,
"The man has gone off quickly in his anger! The mind, at his age, can
become weighed down by grief (826-27 I 766-67), unknowingly fore-
shadowing Haimon's probable meaning, suicide, for elsewhere in So-
phokles the verb translated here as "he has gone," bebeke, often refers
to death; and the mind "weighed down," or "heavy" or "resentful,"
foreshadows the ominous silent exit of Eurydike (1342 /1256).35 Kreon,
however, remains impervious to criticism. Although he agrees to release
Ismene, he continues with his intended execution of Antigone, and he
ends with a cruel remark that "she'll learn at last what pointless waste
of effort it is to worship what is down below with Hades" (840-42 /
779-80).
Eros is the subject of the immediately following ode. Eros is not
"love" in our sense but the dangerous, irresistible, elemental force of
passion. The ode stands at the midpoint of the play and sets the tone
for the rest. The irrational forces of the previous ode, on the sufferings
in the house of Oidipous, now become dominant. Begun as an ode
sung by the chorus, the Eros ode leads directly into a lengthy lyrical
exchange (known as a kommos) between the chorus and Antigone. This
song echoes the play's opening exchange between Ismene and Antig-
one and, to lesser extent, the debate between Kreon and Antigone, but
it takes those previous exchanges to a new register of emotional inten-
sity. Antigone now expresses the pathos of what it means to become
"Hades' bride." She will leave this world unlamented by any friends or
family (935-41 / 876-82) — exactly the fate that she has tried to prevent
for Polyneikes at the cost of her life.
Still intimidated by Kreon, the chorus offers only grudging and fleet-
ing sympathy.36 They cannot hold back their tears at the sight of the

34. Haimon's threat at 811 / 751 is in fact left somewhat ambiguous, for at the end he does attack
Kreon with his sword, presumably to kill him (1316-17 / 1232-34).
35. Cf. the similar ominous exit of lokasta in Oidipous Turannos, 1073-75, and the similar phrasing
in the account of Deianeira's death in Trakhinian Women, 813-14 and 874-75.
36. Some scholars have thought that Kreon is present on stage during this ode, but it seems to us
unlikely that he is there during Antigone's lament, which follows directly upon the ode: see the
Note on 838-42 / 777-80.

18
INTRODUCTION

girl about to be led off to the cave to die, but they continue to identify
themselves with the collective political consciousness of the city. In the
one place where they acknowledge her "reverence," they contrast it
with the "power" of the ruler, which must not be transgressed (931-34
/ 872-75). Kreon, who probably reenters just as Antigone is finishing
her lament, hardheartedly dismisses her mournful song as an attempt
to delay the inevitable, and his brusque response deepens the pathos
of her isolation (942-43 / 883-84). He sends her to her death satisfied
that he is ritually "pure," that is, unpolluted by shedding the blood of
kin; but the ending will show his failure to escape so easily from
pollution.
Antigone's last speech, once more in the dialogue meter of iambic
trimeter, is addressed to the cave/tomb/bridal chamber that she is about
to enter. Cut off from the human world, she turns to her dead family
members in Hades. She addresses Polyneikes three times, once by
name (964 / 902) and twice by the untranslatable periphrasis, literally
"head of my brother" (960-61 / 899, 978 / 915), a phrase that echoes
her address to Ismene in her opening line and so serves as another
measure of her present isolation from the living. She already looks back
at her mortal existence from the perspective of death. Forgetting Is-
mene, she sees herself as the last of her family whom Persephone,
queen of the dead, has received in the underworld (954-56 / 894-96).
In the context of her absorption into the world below, Antigone
makes the famous assertion that she would not have sacrificed her life
to bury a husband or a child but only a brother, for with her parents
dead she can have no other siblings. This is the nomos, the "law" or
"custom," she says, by which she dared to become a criminal in Kreon's
eyes (976-79 / 913-15). This "law" seems very different from those eter-
nal, god-given, unwritten laws on which she based her earlier defiance
of Kreon (495-518 / 450-70). The apparent contradiction between the
two statements has troubled interpreters, some of whom, following
Goethe's romantic reading, would excise the lines as a later inter-
polation based on a similar line of argument in Herodotos.37 But

37. Herodotos, Histories, 3.119. Goethe objected that the passage was unworthy of Antigone's "no-
ble motives . . . and the elevated purity of her soul" and that it "disturbs the tragic tone and appears
to me very far-fetched —to savor too much of dialectical calculation." He also says, "I would give
a great deal for an apt philologist to prove that it is interpolated and spurious": Conversations with
Eckermann (above, n. 5), 178 (March 28, 1827). Goethe has found many champions, and these
lines have often been regarded as a later interpolation based on Herodotos. But, as Herodotos was
working on his History in the late 4405, there is no serious chronology problem with his priority.
See the Note on lines 967-79 / 905-15. The authenticity of the lines is also supported by the
citation of part of the passage in Aristotle, Rhetoric, 3.1417329-33. For a cogent defense of the

19
INTRODUCTION

Antigone's two accounts of her motives are complementary, not con-

tradictory. Now she reveals that more personal, emotionally vulnerable
side that she had already expressed in the preceding lyrical exchanges
with the chorus.38
That more intimate tone is also appropriate to her present situation.
Not only is she on the verge of death, but she is addressing her dead
kin, particularly her mother and brothers, whom she expects to join
imminently in the underworld. In the poignancy of these last, reflective
moments, she finally expresses her bitterness and sorrow at her loss of
marriage and children. The speech obviously wins sympathy for her as
the young victim of cruelty and injustice. In this loneliness and despair,
she even questions the gods, who have thus let her die, when her
"reverence has earned [her] charges of irreverence" (990-91 / 924), but
she does not forget her anger as she asks the gods to make her enemies
suffer no more, and no less, than they have made her suffer (992-96 /
925-28).
In this final moment when we see her alive, Antigone reveals again
her capacity for hatred and steely determination alongside her softer
side of devotion to the intimate bond ofphilia or family love. We recall
the curses of other Sophoklean good haters in their last moments, no-
tably Aias as he commits suicide.39 Her curse, though uttered at her
lowest ebb of despair, also looks ahead to the shift in the balance of
power that will take place when the gods, through Teiresias, do in
effect answer her plea for vengeance and justice. But evidently they
will not act on behalf of the girl who has served them. Antigone leaves
the stage, and the mortal world, with a final, hopeless appeal to the
city and citizens of Thebes, once more singing in lyric meter to the
chorus (1005-11 / 937-43). Her isolation is total as she regards herself,
again as if Ismene did not exist, as the only survivor of "the royal house"
of Thebes (1008-9 I 941)- At the end of her previous speech, in the
dialogue meter of iambic trimeter, she looked to the gods for justice
(992-96 / 925-28). Now she looks for sympathy to the human world
that has punished her for her "pious impiety," her third use of such
an expression and her last utterance in the play. Yet in all of her long
lament she expresses sorrow but no regret and no weakening of resolve.
The following ode, the fourth stasimon, is one of the most complex

authenticity of the lines see Knox, Heroic Temper, 104-7. Some authoritative contemporary scholars
still regard them as spurious, e.g., Winnington-Ingram, Sophocles, 145, with n. 80.
38. On Antigone's more vulnerable and so sympathetic side in this scene and the preceding
lament, see Winnington-Ingram, Sophocles, 138-46.
39. Sophokles, Aias, 835-44. Cf. also Oidipous' curse on his sons in Oidipous at Kolonus, 1370-
96, and Polyphemus' curse on Odysseus, Odyssey, 9.528-35.

20
INTRODUCTION

and controversial in Sophokles. The chorus continue to distance them-

selves from Antigone, but their mythical exempla have a potential mul-
tiplicity of meanings that is appropriate at this critical moment in the
action. All three of the myths they allude to illustrate imprisonment
and so can easily point to Antigone. Yet all three also have implications
that extend to Kreon as well.
The enclosure of Danae in her tower of bronze seems clearly enough
to refer to Antigone. Yet the moral drawn from it, the inevitable power
of the gods, will also come to refer to Kreon, particularly as Danae's
myth includes the destruction of the powerful older king, Akrisios, who
imprisoned her.40 The chorus's next example, the Thracian king Ly-
kourgos who persecutes Dionysos and is punished with a madness in
which he kills his own son, has even stronger relevance to Kreon,
whose anger and folly cause the death of his son. The third myth, a
less familiar tale of jealousy between a wife and an ex-wife that results
in the bloody blinding of two sons, evokes the sufferings of the house
of Oidipous, but it also has implications for the doom that is about to
overtake the house of Kreon, in which an angry, vengeful wife will
wreak self-destruction with a bloody instrument. The chorus, of course,
does not know what is going to happen and does not understand the
full implications of their mythical exempla. As often in Sophokles, and
in the Greek tragedy generally, the chorus members say more than
they know; and the full meaning of their words appears only later, in
retrospect.
The ode's closing reference to "the Fates, that live long ages" sets
the tone for the entrance of the old blind prophet of Thebes, Teiresias,
led on stage by a young boy or slave. After previous scenes with the
Guard, Antigone, and Haimon, Kreon now meets a fourth challenge
to his authority, but this time from an older rather than a younger man,
and from the gods rather than from mortals. The prophet's opening
address, "Lords of Thebes" (1050 / 988), like Antigone's last address to
the leaders of Thebes (1008 / 940), in itself implies a less autocratic
view of the city's government than Kreon had assumed, as he has been
addressed earlier as the single "lord" of the land (e.g., 254 / 223, 319 /
2y8).41 Kreon responds to Teiresias, as before to the previous challenges,

40. For the death of Akrisios at the hands of Danae's son by Zeus, Perseus, see Apollodoros,
Library of Mythology, 2.4.4.
41. Kreon himself addresses the elders of the chorus merely as "men," andres, whereas Antigone
calls them "citizens of my native land" (866 / 806), "men of the city, with all your possessions"
(902-3 / 843-44), and "you rulers of Thebes" (1008 / 940). It may be that she does not want to
address Kreon, from whom she can expect no sympathy, and wants to empower those whom she
still has some hope of moving; but she also seems to envisage a government more broadly shared
among the Thebans than Kreon's autocratic or tyrannical model.

21
INTRODUCTION

with angry and defensive accusations of bribery and conspiracy (cf. 321-
59 / 280-314). Teiresias, however, is not Kreon's subordinate, but truly an
authoritative spokesman for the divine order, and he replies to Kreon's
insults with a prophet's foreknowledge, which takes even Kreon aback
(1133-72 / 1064-97). For the first time Kreon acknowledges weakness
("my mind is confused," 1170 /1095), asks for advice, and submits to an-
other's advice: "What must I do? Tell me! I will obey" (1174 /1099).
Even in yielding to the divine message, however, Kreon still gets his
priorities wrong. The chorus's advice is clear: first release Antigone,
then bury the body (1175-76 / 1100-1101). With a misplaced concern
for the political rather than the personal and for the soldier rather than
the girl, he attends to the corpse first. By the time he reaches Antigone,
it is too late.42
Kreon exits with the promise to release Antigone: "I am afraid it's
best to observe the established laws through all one's life, to the end"
(1189-90 / 1113-14). These "established laws" look back to the religious
laws (or customs) pertaining to burial that Antigone had cited in her
great speech of defiance (495-501 / 450-55), and in Kreon's mouth the
word "laws" now tacitly acknowledges her victory. Yet the phrase "to
the end" is ominous and foreshadows the horror that is approaching.
(In contrast to Antigone, who remains steadfast, Kreon is afraid and
"gives way." True heroism, of the unbending Sophoklean type, rests
with her, not with him.43 Her last words are about piety, his about fear.)
The fifth stasimon, the sixth and last regular ode in the play, is a
prayer to Dionysos for help and purification at this time of crisis for
Thebes. Dionysos is a major divinity of Thebes, his birthplace; but the
ode also invokes the god's broader association with Italy and Eleusis,
associations that point to mystery cults that promise initiates happiness
in the afterlife. The allusion to Dionysos' maenads, his frenzied female
worshipers (1201-5 / 1126-30), also reminds us of the female emotions
that Kreon has tried to suppress by violence and imprisonment. It is as
if these Dionysiac figures, like the murderous wife of the previous ode,
become nightmarish projections of the female "madness" that Kreon

42. Kreon's reply inverts the order of events but nevertheless suggests that he might in fact go first
to Antigone while his attendants go to bury Polyneikes (1183-90 / 1108-14). As we learn later,
however, he accompanies his attendants first to Polyneikes' corpse and then goes to Antigone's
cave (1271-83 /1196-1205). F.J.H. Letters, The Life and Work of Sophocles (London, 1953), 157-59,
attempts to defend Kreon's choice on the grounds that Teiresias' prophecy has emphasized the
importance of burying Polyneikes for the welfare of the city. But this view does not take account
of the advice of the elders, who are equally concerned with the city, nor that part of Teiresias'
prophecy that includes the burial alive of Antigone as part of the disruption of the relation between
upper and lower worlds (1133-44 /1064-73).
43. See, in general, Knox, Heroic Temper, 62-75, 109-10.

22
INTRODUCTION

attributes to Antigone and Ismene (see 542-43 / 491-92; 612-13 / 561-

65). In the myths about these maenads, such as that of Pentheus dram-
atized in Euripides' Bakkhai, the god's female followers eventually tri-
umph over resistance from a king. The chorus ends with a character-
istically Dionysiac prayer for the god's epiphany, calling to him: "O
You that lead the dance of the stars that breathe out fire, You that
watch over the voices sounding in the night" (1218-20 / 1146-48). They
thus point toward the powers of nature, the gods, and the world-order
beyond human control.
In the play's first ode the chorus invoked Dionysos primarily as the
local god of Thebes, to be honored in the all-night choruses of the
citizens' victory celebrations (171-73 / 152-54). But the Dionysos of the
last ode reaches far beyond the city of Thebes. His all-night choruses
consist not of Theban citizens but of the fiery stars in the heavens. The
fire-bearing enemy Kapaneus, trying to scale Thebes' walls in the first
ode, was compared to a bakkhant in the madness of his wild rush
against the city (152-55 /134-37); but the fiery bakkhantic madness of
this last ode belongs to the god and will not be driven away from the
city. The bright ray of the sun that heralded Thebes' salvation in that
first ode is now answered by nocturnal dancers outside the city; and
the whole city, far from enjoying victory (167 / 148) or salvation, is in
the grip of a "sickness" that may cause its doom (1214-15 / 1140-41).44
Once Kreon acknowledges his mistake, events move rapidly. The
answer to the chorus's prayer for release from pollution is the Messen-
ger's entrance with the news of a polluting death within Kreon's own
house. Kreon is now in a state of living death (1238-40 / 1166-67), a
fitting punishment for one who confused the relation between the liv-
ing and his dead (cf. 1137-44 / 1068-73). At first the Messenger gives
only the barest account of Haimon's suicide, until Eurydike, Kreon's
wife, enters from the palace. Sophokles has carefully contrived this
scene so that the Messenger makes his full report not to the chorus
but to Eurydike. He thus makes us witness the bloody violence in
Antigone's cave through the eyes of the mother and wife who will soon
become the instrument of completing Kreon's tragedy.
The Messenger's narrative is one of the most powerful in Greek
tragedy, and it vividly brings before us the ruin of Kreon's house. Hav-
ing buried Polyneikes first, Kreon and his attendants approach Antig-
one's cave. He enters and finds her dead and Haimon in a frenzy. Now

44. The contrast between the first and last odes is also suggested by the earlier joyful invocation
to "Nike, the goddess of victory, with great name and glory" (167 /148), in a mood very different
from the desperate invocation to Dionysos here as the "god of many names" (1191 / 1115).

23
INTRODUCTION

in the role of supplicant (1313 / 1230), not an all-commanding father,

Kreon begs his son to leave the cave; but the boy, looking "wildly at
him with fierce eyes," spits in his face, lunges at him with drawn sword,
and, after he misses, stabs himself. He then falls in a dying embrace
on Antigone's lifeless body, matching, as bridegroom, her role as a bride
of death itself (1317-23 / 1234-39).
Antigone's defiance of Kreon is now fulfilled in Haimon's, and it is
a defiance that utterly undoes Kreon's authority over his son, over An-
tigone, and over his city. Kreon prided himself on his patriarchal au-
thority, his good sense, his rational approach to life, and his superiority
to women. Haimon overturns all these principles. He rejects the father
for the promised bride, surrenders to the wild passions surrounding love
and death, and chooses the cave's Hades-like prison of a condemned
woman over the po/is-world where he should succeed his father in
ruling the city. The two houses, Kreon's and Antigone's, are joined
together by a fearful marriage-in-death; and it is as if with that union
Antigone, the heiress, transfers to the house of Kreon all the pollutions
in the house of Oidipous: the suicide of the mother, the death of two
sons, and the fulfillment of a terrible prophecy.45
The Messenger concludes with a generalization about the dangers
of foolish behavior, but Eurydike makes no reply. She slips away in
silence, like lokaste in Oidipous Turannos, and it is a silence that strikes
both the Messenger and the chorus as ominous. But before they can
absorb its meaning, Kreon enters with the body of Haimon, either
actually in his arms, as the chorus says (1344 / 1258), or on a bier or
wagon that Kreon accompanies with his arms around his dead son. It
is a mournful tableau, and the contrast with Kreon's first entrance is
shocking. Instead of making authoritative civic pronouncements in the
proud bearing of a victorious ruler, he utters cries of lament and misery.
Instead of generalizations about statecraft he sings a funeral dirge, the
traditional task of women, punctuated by sharp cries of grief, indicated
in the Greek text by aiai aiai, oimoi, or pheu pheu (1354 / 1267, 1358 /
1271, 1362 / 1276). This is also the first time in the play that he sings
extensive lyrical passages, accompanied by the aulos, the double wind
instrument (probably with a reed, like a clarinet or oboe) that was felt
by the Greeks of Sophokles' era to be particularly emotional.46 This
change of musical and emotional registers marks his shift from absolute

45. On hearing the cry from the cave Kreon had exclaimed, "Am I a seer?" (1291 /1212; cf. 1252 /
1178).
46. Prior to this passage, Kreon has only two short anapestic exchanges with the chorus about
sending Antigone into the cave (999-1000 / 931-32, 1003-4 / 935-36); otherwise, he speaks only
in iambic trimeters.

24
INTRODUCTION

power to total helplessness, and he continues to sing in lyrics to the

end of the play.
More suffering lies in store. The messenger returns from the royal
house to announce the death of Eurydike. The manner of her end
intensifies Kreon's pain, for she has killed herself in a particularly hor-
rible way, stabbing herself at the household altar in the courtyard, curs-
ing her husband as the killer of both his sons—Haimon and an elder
son who died earlier, here called Megareus, who is left obscure but is
possibly to be identified with the Menoikeus of Euripides' Phoinikian
Women, who leaps from the walls of Thebes to fulfill a prophecy that
only the voluntary death of a descendant of Thebes' autochthonous
inhabitants could save the city.47
Eurydike's curse turns the two generative roles in the house, mater-
nity and paternity, toward death, the appropriate punishment of one
who has interfered with the basic ties of family in Antigone's house.
The messenger calls her pammetor nekrou, literally "the all-mother" of
the corpse, the mother in the fullest sense of the word ("mother ab-
solute," at 1368 / 1282).
Also, Eurydike's final, suicidal lament recalls the cries of Antigone
over the body of Polyneikes at the moment when she was caught, and
in fact Sophokles uses the same verb of both women's cries (468 / 423,
1389 /1302). Again like Antigone, Eurydike combines lament with curse
(473 / 427 and 1391-92 / 1304-5). The close verbal parallels bring
Kreon's suffering into direct causal connection with his actions in a
way that is expressive of the retributive justice that the Greeks call dike.
Taking full responsibility for the deaths that he has caused, Kreon now
sees himself as "no more than nothing" (1408 / 1325). The man who
spoke in metaphors of keeping things straight and upright now finds
his whole world awry: he says, "everything is twisted in my hands"
(1425-26 / 1342).

MYTHS AND ODES

The six odes of the play are among the most poetically elaborate of
those in the extant Sophokles and provide a commentary parallel to
the main action on the ambiguities of Kreon's controlling power and
the atmosphere of doom surrounding Antigone.48 The parodos, as we
have noted, celebrates the city's victory over its enemies and so sets the

47. See Griffith's note on 1302-3 and our Note on 1387-92 / 1301-5. Eurydike's accusatory epithet
for Kreon, "killer of sons," may refer only to the death of Haimon, but the passage can also be
read as implying that Eurydike holds Kreon responsible for the deaths of both sons.
48. For the place of the odes in the rhythm of the action, see my Tragedy and Civilization, 197-
206.

25
INTRODUCTION

stage for Kreon's entrance. Yet its Dionysiac language and the all-night
civic choruses return with very different meanings in the last ode, when
something of the emotional violence and frenzy that also belong to
Dionysos make their appearance.
The first stasimon, sometimes called the Ode on Man, is one of the
most famous passages of all Greek literature (377-416 / 332-75).49 Its
triumphant list of the achievements of human civilization is often read
as a hymn to the confidence, humanism, and rationalism of the Per-
iklean Age, which saw so many advances in the arts and sciences. Yet
the opening words, "At many things—wonders, terrors —we feel awe,
but at nothing more than at man," are deeply ambiguous, as the trans-
lation of the word deinon implies, for deinon means "wonderful" but
also "fearful," "strange," "terrible," "uncanny." Antigone uses it, for
example, of the "terrible" suffering that she is ready to undergo for
defying Kreon (114 / 96) and the Guard of the "terrible" things he fears
from Kreon (278 / 243). The ode's opening, furthermore, echoes the
beginning of a famous ode of Aiskhylos' Libation Bearers on the de-
structive passions and crimes of evil women (Libation Bearers 585ff).
It is tempting to associate with Kreon the Ode on Man's attitude of
proud, rationalistic domination of the world. Yet both he and Antigone,
in different ways, embody the quality of the "wonderful/terrible" with
which the ode begins; and both protagonists ambiguously shift between
being "high in his city" and "outside any city" (412-13 / 370). Many of
the items listed as the proud achievements of humanity return later
with their meaning reversed. The human conquest of earth, sea, and
the birds of the skies returns later as a human failure to control. The
conquest of disease, for example, comes back ominously in the disease
of pollution with which Kreon's acts afflict the city (1079 /1015; cf. 1215
/ 1141 and 467 / 421). The juxtaposition of "inventive" (literally "all-
devising") and "without invention" or "device" 401-2 / 360 points to
the paradoxical collocation of the human strength and weakness en-
acted by both protagonists. The qualification of human power in the
next line, "Only from Hades will he not procure some means of es-
cape" (403-5 / 361-62), looms large in a play so much concerned with
the underworld and the ways in which the dead destroy the lives of
the living. Kreon's tragedy in particular follows a trajectory from his
confident assertion of authority over love and marriage ("It's Hades who
will stop this wedding for me," 626 / 575) to his miserable cry that his
house is a "harbor of Hades" whose pollution he cannot cleanse (1371
/ 1284). The ode's insistence on human cleverness and intellect con-

49. For further discussion and references, see my Tragedy and Civilization, 152-54.

26
INTRODUCTION

trasts, of course, with the bad judgment of the ensuing action. In their
closing lyrics, the members of the chorus blame the absence of "good
sense" for the tragic outcome (1427 / 1348, 1431 / 1353).
The taming of "Gaia, the Earth, forever undestroyed and unweary-
ing, highest of all the gods" (382-83 / 337-39) by agriculture comes
early in the ode, paired with the conquest of the sea. However, it is
not Earth as highest but as it is associated with both the realm of the
dead below and with the dust of burial that determines the course of
the tragedy. When Antigone is apprehended performing burial rites for
Polyneikes' body, a mysterious whirlwind, as the Guard describes it,
lifts the dust from the earth as a "storm of trouble high as heaven,"
which "filled up the whole huge sky," so that those watching the body
suffer a "supernatural plague" (462-67 7415-21), as if some divine power
were inverting upper and lower realms. The next ode describes the
murderous curse in the house of Oidipous in the bold metaphor of
the "blood-red dust of the gods under the earth" (if we can trust the
manuscript text) reaching up to "reap" "the last rootstock of the House
of Oidipous" (647-50 / 599-602). This second stasimon begins by as-
sociating the dark sand stirred from the depths by violent storms at sea
with the doom of the house of Oidipous (633-44 / 582-95) and then
contrasts that submarine turbulence with the immutable radiance of
Zeus high above on Olympus (651-57 / 604-10). At the peripeteia or
reversal, Teiresias traces the spread of pollution to Kreon's inversion of
what belongs above and below the earth (1133-48 / 1064-76).50
In fact, the mood of this second stasimon is virtually the reverse of
that of the first stasimon. The Ode on Man begins with the conquest
of the sea; but the second stasimon, as we have noted, uses the sea as
a metaphor for exactly the opposite meaning, associating the dark,
stormy Thracian sea with the irrational sufferings that have afflicted
Antigone's family. Taking the afflictions of the ancient house of Oi-
dipous as its paradigm, this ode dwells on the irrational aspects of mor-
tal life. Its tone proves justified, for the chorus immediately introduces
Haimon (673-77 / 626-30), who is now the bearer of the uncontrol-
lable passions in Kreon's own house.
From this point on, the odes run parallel to the increasing emotional
and physical violence of the action. The third stasimon (fourth ode),
on the invincible power of Eros, forms the transition between the fatal
quarrel of Haimon and Kreon and Antigone's final lament with the
chorus. It thus joins the two destructive forces operating in the back-
ground, Eros and Hades, love and death. The complex fourth stasimon

50. For the upper/lower axis in the play, see my Tragedy and Civilization, 170—73, 178—79.

27
INTRODUCTION

(fifth ode), as we have already noted, narrates myths of passion and

violence that are applicable, in different degrees, to both protagonists.
Finally, the Dionysiac themes of the last ode, suggesting a possible
fusion between the city and the natural world, are different from the
views of both the parodos (the first ode, on Thebes' victory) and the
Ode on Man. Dionysos' maddened female worshipers here (1222-24 /
1150-52) also anticipate the release of dangerous female passion in the
play's closing movement, the suicides of both Antigone and Eurydike.
If Kreon implies that he sees the sisters as something like maenads,
maddened or running wild (see 542-43 / 491-92 and 630 / 579), Antig-
one on the contrary sees herself as a bride of Hades, that is, as Kore,
the Maiden, who is also called Persephone, carried off to the under-
world.51 Young women who die before marriage are conventionally
regarded as "marrying" Hades. For Antigone, however, the motif of
wedding Hades is part of a dense network of associations. She will not
just wed Hades figuratively, for by the manner of her death she will
actually go underground, entering Hades while alive. And there in fact
a marriage of sorts will be enacted in Haimon's bloody embrace of her
corpse as he dies from his self-inflicted wound. Her death as a bride
of Hades makes horribly literal what is only a convention of speaking.
She is being sent to her Hades-like cave, moreover, because she has
valued the dead and their gods above her life on earth; and, as we have
observed, she is vindicated by Teiresias' accusation of Kreon's interfer-
ence with the relation between upper and lower worlds.
As a bride of Hades, Antigone is a Persephone carried off violently
by the god of the lower world. Yet she is a Persephone who will remain
unmarried and will never return to the upper world in the seasonal
alternations of winter and spring that are essential to the Demeter-
Persephone myth, as told in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter. "Go send
the girl (kore) up from her deep-dug house," the chorus advises Kreon
when he finally gives in to Teiresias (1175-76 / 1100-1101). Their word,
"send up," evokes the motif of Persephone's ascent when Hades must
return her to Demeter with the return of the earth's fertility in the
spring.52 Yet the Kore/Persephone that Antigone envisages is a goddess

51. For the role of Persephone and Demeter in the mythical background of the play, see my
Tragedy and Civilization, 179-81. For the fusion of marriage and death in tragedy, see Richard
Seaford, "The Tragic Wedding," Journal of Hellenic Studies 107 (1987), 106-30; Gail Holst-
Wahrhaft, Dangerous Voices: Women's Laments and Creek Literature (London and New York,
1992), 41-42; Rush Rehm, Marriage to Death (Princeton, 1994), especially 59-71.
52. In the Homeric Hymn to Demeter the verb "send up" describes Demeter's allowing the grain
to grow on earth (lines 307, 332, 471).

28
INTRODUCTION

of death, not of renewed life, she who "has received [Antigone's] dead
among the shades" (954-55 / 893-94).
Antigone's role as an unrisen Persephone parallels that of Haimon
as the young man who dies "out of season," aoros, a term that is used
of youths who will not make the transition between the bloom of ad-
olescence and adulthood but will die before their time. In this respect
the two suicides are symmetrical in their perversion of the normal
pattern of life-generating marriage. Antigone remains too close to her
house of origin. Instead of going to the house of the bridegroom —the
usual pattern of patrilocal marriage in classical Athens —she goes to
the Hades that holds her parents and brother. She thereby reenacts the
introverted kin ties characteristic of the house of Oidipous.53 Marrying
Hades, staying in her house of origin, and being the child of an in-
cestuous marriage are all in a way equivalent aspects of Antigone's
tragic situation, her sacrifice of the normal progression to womanhood
to the bonds of family and to devotion to the dead. The incest of her
parents is the inverse of her nonmarriage, but it belongs to a similar
failure of "normal" family life. The excessive closeness of incest (same
staying with same) short-circuits the union of same and other in normal
marriage and so parallels Antigone's refusal to separate herself from her
natal family in a union with a bridegroom of another house. Haimon,
analogously, undoes all the expectations of the groom. He not only
goes to his bride's "house" (instead of bringing her to his) but also
attacks his father (recalling Oidipous' patricide) and then consummates
the marriage in an act of reverse penetration that leads to the spilling
of his blood, like the maiden's, instead of seed.
In Antigone's long lyrical lament as she prepares to enter the cave,
she looks to another female model from the realm of myth, Niobe, the
grieving mother who weeps incessantly for her lost children and is
turned into a rock from which streams of water flow perpetually (883-
93 / 823-33). The chorus objects that Niobe is a god and Antigone a
mere mortal, and in response Antigone feels pain at what she takes to
be mockery ( 8 9 9 f f . / 839ff.). There is irony too in the fact that Niobe
is the mother of many children, Antigone of none. Yet Antigone can
identify with the eternity of lament into which this mater dolorosa is
frozen forever. Both the eternity and the stony end speak to her con-
dition. The image of Niobe is also a negation of the fruitful aspect of

53. For the way in which the house of Oidipous is characteristic of a Theban pattern of introverted
family ties, see Froma I. Zeitlin, "Thebes: Theater of Self and Society in Athenian Drama," in
J. J. Winkler and F. I. Zeitlin, eds., Nothing to Do with Dionysus? (Princeton, 1990), 130-67,
especially 150-52.

29
INTRODUCTION

the mother figure in the Demeter-Persephone myth. It evokes De-

meter's role as a mother of sorrows, lamenting her lost daughter, Per-
sephone, as she wanders over the earth in her desperate search for the
abducted girl. This is also the aspect of Demeter that applies to the
other mother figure in the play, Kreon's wife, Eurydike, whose name,
literally "of broad justice," or "wide-ruling," is also an epithet for the
queen of the dead. As the "all-mother" of the dead Haimon, as we have
noted, she is associated with grieving maternity. Antigone, doomed to
die childless, is also drawn into the model of the grieving mother when
she laments over the body of Polyneikes like a mother-bird that finds
her nest emptied of fledglings (469-71 7423-25). The simile of grieving
motherhood once more points to the unfulfilled life of this bride of
Hades. She is a Persephone who will not ascend and a sorrowing De-
meter/Niobe who will always lament.
The images of the mother in this play, in fact, are all of the mourn-
ing, dying, or murderous mother, not the fertile mother. This is true
even of the fourth stasimon's myth of Danae, imprisoned like Antigone
and "made to exchange the light of the sky for a dark room bolted with
bronze" (1012-14 / 944-47). She will, of course, be impregnated by
Zeus' golden shower and bear his son, Perseus (1017-18 / 950), but the
ode dwells rather on her imprisonment and on the ineluctable doom
given her by the Fates or Moirai (1018-20 / 951-53). The final strophe
of the ode tells the story of another imprisoned mother and centers on
the blinding of her two sons by the jealous stepmother. And in the
background is lokaste, who "violently disfigured her own life" by sui-
cide (67-68 / 53-54) but by whom Antigone feels loved and whom she
hopes to see soon in the underworld (960 / 898).
Of the six formal odes, only the first stasimon, the Ode on Man,
seems to have no immediate connection with the events enacted on
stage. Yet on further reflection it has profound implications for the
meaning of the play as an interpretation of the human condition.54
The ode's celebration of the confident domination of nature by human
intelligence and technology is undercut by the themes of the subse-

54. For further discussion, see my "Sophocles' Praise of Man and the Conflicts of Antigone," in
my Interpreting Greek Tragedy (Ithaca, N.Y., 1986), 137-61. Noteworthy is Martin Heidegger's
celebrated existentialist interpretation of the ode as a reflection on the mysterious and "uncanny"
nature of our humanness, which makes us both violent and creative, both citiless outcasts and all-
powerful conquerors of a world that, nevertheless, eludes and defeats us as we are "tossed back
and forth between structure and the structureless," between order and the ultimate nothingness
of death: Martin Heidegger, An Introduction to Metaphysics, trans. Ralph Manheim (New Haven,
1959), 146-65, conveniently accessible in Thomas Woodard, ed., Sophocles: A Collection of Critical
Essays (Englewood Cliffs, N.J., 1966), 86-100. The quotation is on 97. See also Steiner, Antigones,
»74-77-

30
INTRODUCTION

quent odes and by the subsequent actions. Sophokles' contemporaries

might well read this contrast as a critique of the human-centered ra-
tionalism of Athens' Periklean Age. The achievements of this extraor-
dinary period include the high classical art and architecture that extol
the human form (especially the male body) as the standard of beauty
and a rationalistic view of religion, law, medicine, history, language,
and the founding of cities, and so on, as creations of human intelli-
gence and progress, not gifts of the gods. Influential here are the the-
ories of the Sophists, such as Protagoras or Hippias, and of scientists
and philosophers, such as Anaxagoras, Parmenides, or the atomist Leu-
kippos, and of medical writers such as Hippokrates.
While it would be simplistic to identify this spirit of scientific inquiry
with Kreon, the play does insist on his materialism and shallow ration-
alism. In the face of events that might have a supernatural cause, like
the initial burial of Polyneikes, where there are no signs of human or
animal presence (284-94 / 249-58), or Teiresias' announcement of
widespread pollution, Kreon's first response is an accusation of bribery
and conspiracy. Men, he assumes, always act for "profit," one of his
favorite words. But in Antigone, as later in Haimon and Teiresias, he
encounters motives that cannot be reduced to material gain or to his
mode of reasoning. Antigone dismisses all calculation of personal ad-
vantage, including life itself. "If I die before my time," she says in her
speech of defiance to Kreon, "I count that as my profit" (508-10 / 461-
62). Until he finally backs down in the face of Teiresias' prophecy,
Kreon assumes that he understands the ways of the gods and that their
values coincide with his. Hence his anger and scorn at the chorus's
suggestion that the gods might have buried Polyneikes (319-20 / 278-
79), a possibility that the play in fact leaves open.55 Such too is his

55. On the much discussed question of the so-called double burial, see H. D. F. Kitto, Form and
Meaning in Drama (London, 1956), 138-44, 152-54, and my Tragedy and Civilization, 159, with
the references cited in n. 25, 442-43. In favor of possible divine intervention are the absence of
any marks of human agency, the fact that the first watch of the day (288 / 253) finds the body
while Ismene and Antigone are still speaking in "this very night" (21 / 16), and Antigone's return
to bury the body on the occasion when she is caught, even though the first "burial" would suffice
for the funerary ritual (290-93 / 255-56). On the other hand, interpreters have argued that Antig-
one's response when she sees the body uncovered and her curses on those who have uncovered
it (468-73 / 423-28) imply her having performed the initial burial: see Winnington-Ingram, Soph-
ocles, 125, with n. 31. Yet Sophokles' language even here is vague enough to leave open other
possibilities. In any case, the gods seem to be working through Antigone, even if they do not
intervene directly, and the play offers a double perspective on the events in the contrast between
the mysterious details in the background and Kreon's insistence on what is visible and tangible:
so Scale, Vision and Stagecraft, 87-91. Kitto, 154, suggests that the gods and Antigone "are working
on parallel paths." Analogously, Ruth Scodel, Sophocles (Boston, 1984), 55-56, suggests that
the gods may not directly intervene in either burial but help Antigone's success in performing
the rites on both occasions. In any case, the chorus's explicit suggestion of divine intervention

31
INTRODUCTION

confidence in the narrow legalism of putting Antigone to death in a

manner that avoids pollution to the city (in contrast to his original
threat of punishment by public stoning, 46-47 / 36), his bold assertions
of what can and cannot bring pollution, and his use of death or Hades
as an instrument of political control.
All these views turn on him with terrible consequences. The Ode
on Man warns that death is the one thing that humankind's techno-
logical progress cannot overcome. The marriage that Kreon thinks Ha-
des will stop (626 / 575) takes place in the Hades-like cave, from which
comes the final wave of death and pollution that submerges Kreon's
life. The association of Eurydike's name with the underworld, noted
earlier, further suggests that death and Hades, far from being something
that Kreon can inflict on others, are already deep within his own house.
The Ode on Man suggestively links Kreon's attitude of domination and
control with a larger worldview in which nature is an inert resource to
be exploited by human technology. The ode's description of yoking the
horse, for example, echoes Kreon's metaphor of the yoke for power
over the Thebans (336 / 291-92). His first response to Antigone's speech
of defiance is also a metaphor of tempering iron by fire and taming
horses with the bit (521-28 / 473-79). When Haimon offers alternative
images of trees by a flooding river that bend with the current or ships
that slacken sails in high winds instead of fighting the winds (768-77
/ 710-17), Kreon responds with anger at being chastised by a younger
man (786-87 / 726-27).
The sharpest opposition comes, of course, from Antigone, who values
the invisible world of the dead over the surface, material world that
Kreon would dominate as the plow of the Ode on Man wears down
the surface of the inexhaustible earth and renders it serviceable for
humankind. Kreon translates his political and legal conflict with her
into a conflict of genders, male versus female. He may be reflecting
some of the anxieties of Greek males about strong women's assertion
of power; but he also reflects a deeper polarization of worldviews.56

(319-20 / 278-79) is particularly important, for it strongly signals the possibility of divine interaction.
It suffices for the play that the possibility is raised and has some plausibility, even if the play offers
no definitive answer.
56. On the male-female conflicts in the play, see my Tragedy and Civilization, 183-86. Helene P.
Foley, "Antigone as Moral Agent," in Michael S. Silk, ed., Tragedy and the Tragic (Oxford, 1996),
49-73, drawing in part on the work of Carol Gilligan, suggests that the two protagonists represent
contrasting notions of moral responsibility; she contends that Antigone thinks in terms of specific
and personal contexts, involving "care and responsibility," whereas Kreon operates with more
abstract and impartial notions of rights and justice (64). See, however, the critique by Michael
Trapp, ibid., 74-84, and Mark Griffith, "Antigone and her Sister(s): Embodying Women in Greek
Tragedy," in Andre Lardinois and Laura McClure, eds., Making Silence Speak: Women's Voices
in Greek Literature and Society (Princeton, 2001), 117-36, especially 126-35, on tne range and

32
INTRODUCTION

Where Kreon stresses differentiation by political allegiance, Antigone

stresses the unifying bonds of kinship, notably in her famous exchange
of 562-76 / 511-25. Where he insists on the political labels of "friend"
or "enemy" as the defining terms, Antigone insists that both her broth-
ers have an equal right to burial under "Hades' laws," and asserts, "My
nature's not to join in hate but to join in love" (574 / 523).57
In comparing herself to Niobe, as we have seen, Antigone conveys
her image of eternal devotion to family, lament for dead kin, and fu-
nerary ritual. But her comparison also suggests a dissolution of the
barrier between the human form and the natural world. Niobe is a
grieving mother whose body has now become an ivy-covered mountain
from which the waters flow as tears would flow down a human face.
In Antigone's insistence on the sanctity of death, she also affirms, in-
directly, the sanctity of life and the value of those bonds within the
family that derive from generation and blood kinship, not political and
legal institutions.58 Yet if Kreon forgets that the civic institutions also
rest on smaller, more intimate units like the family, Antigone equally
forgets that the family is also part of the city. That the ties within her
own family are so fraught with the double pollutions of incest and
fratricidal self-slaughter is one of the play's deep tragic ironies. Her
convoluted family ties, as the second stasimon, on the house of Oidi-
pous, indicates, belong to what is dark, mysterious, and irrational in
human life. The chorus's first two odes celebrate, respectively, the vic-
tory of the city over wild, bakkhantic aggression and of human intel-
ligence over the physical and animal world. But the play ends with the
darker vision of catastrophe unleashed by the uncontrollable passions
of grief and love, bad judgment, and irreverence.
The final lines on good sense, piety, cautious speech, and learning
wisdom by great suffering in old age offer little comfort. Kreon's old
age is the bleakest possible; but the tragedy has also afflicted the young,
the new generation of the two houses, who come together only for
violent death, whether at the gates of Thebes, as do Polyneikes and
Eteokles, or in the Hades-like cave of perverted union, as do Haimon
and Antigone. Ismene, of course, is still alive, but she has not been
mentioned for some six hundred lines (since (830-31 / 770-71), and
her survival hardly counts.

fluidity of the female voice in tragedy and the problems of constructing a model of "female"
behavior or language.
57. See the Note on 574 / 523.
58. Steiner, Antigones, 287, remarks of the play, "No poet or thinker, I believe, has found a greater,
a more comprehensive statement of the 'crime against life.' "

33
INTRODUCTION

The chorus's closing advice, far from offering consolation, implies a

world hedged about by dangers and limits, a world that is far removed
from the triumphant domination of nature in the Ode on Man. The
Hades that seemed only a secondary qualification or an afterthought
in the Ode on Man is now frighteningly near, and the "gleaming mar-
ble heights" of Olympos, where Zeus rules in his timeless power, hope-
lessly remote (651-57 / 604-10).59
To return to Hegel, the play does not show any synthesis of two
antithetical positions, but it does reveal the terrible wholeness of a
reality of which Kreon and Antigone separately perceive only a part.
Each ignores the modicum of truth that the other's worldview might
hold. And yet Antigone has a reverence for the hidden powers of the
divine world that Kreon increasingly flouts, carried away as he is by
the arrogance of his human power, until his open defiance of the
spokesman of the divine order provokes the curse that seals his punish-
ment. Indeed, Antigone speaks of the gods more than does any other
character in the play.60 Unshaken in her convictions, she is cast in the
mold of the true Sophoklean hero. Kreon, when we see him last, is a
broken man. The emptiness that surrounds him at the end contrasts
with the spiritual fullness of Antigone's death, lonely and despairing as
it is.61 It is interesting to compare his cries of utter misery at the end
with those of Oidipous in the Oidipous Turannos, written a decade or
so later. Oidipous gives voice to similar utterances of despair and misery
at the moment of tragic reversal, but these are not his final words. His
play, unlike Kreon's, continues for another 300 verses, in which he
discovers a new kind of strength and a new kind of heroism. No such
discovery awaits Kreon.62
The ending justifies Antigone, but too late to save her life; it brings
learning to Kreon but too late to protect him from the polluted "Harbor
of Hades" into which he has fallen. "Good sense is the first principle
of happiness," the chorus moralizes as it moves toward closure (1427—
28 / 1347-48). But whatever "good sense" Kreon has learned "in old

59. The "weariless passing of the months" (653-54 /607), or more literally, "the untiring months"
(akamatoi mines) associated with these remote, eternal gods, may evoke Earth the "unwearying"
(akamatan) of the Ode on Man (383 / 339). The succession of the months is beyond human
control and thus a sign of the ultimate human frailty rather than human power. See also the
similar description of the Olympian realm in the second stasimon of Oidipous Turannos (863-72).
60. See Budelmann, Language of Sophocles, 175-79.
61. See Karl Reinhardt, Sophocles (1947), trans. H. and D. Harvey (Oxford, 1979), 93.
62. Compare especially 1403-26 /1317-46 with Oidipous Turannos 1307-68. For further discussion,
see my Oedipus Tyrannus: Tragic Heroism and the Limits of Knowledge, 132-33.

34
INTRODUCTION

age," in the play's final lines, contains no trace of happiness, only the
dazed, barren, and lonely old age into which we see him frozen as his
attendants lead him offstage.

CHARLES SEGAL

35
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ON THE T R A N S L A T I O N

PERFORMANCE
Some nuances of the text of Antigone, as of every Greek tragedy, must
have been thrown into view by performance, especially since this was
so stylized — the language markedly different from speech, many pas-
sages chanted or sung to accompanying music and dance, the dialogue
exchanges punctuated by commentary within the play itself in the form
of the choral odes. And the actors' masks would have shifted all facial
expressiveness to the voice and body. The very artificiality of ancient
performance could not help calling attention to the language itself
rather than to action or the apparent personalities of the characters
(something in which we take more interest than did the ancient Greek
poets, for whom the play was an exploration not so much of character
as of ultimate questions of human fate and freedom). We do not know
how ancient audiences reacted to the theatrical convention of actors
changing roles, yet surely the stagecraft would have had some effect
on the audience's sense of the language they were hearing. For ex-
ample, how could one not listen very keenly to such remarkably staged
moments as the beginning? —when, as George Steiner concisely de-
scribes it, "the masked male actor who impersonates Antigone addresses
the masked male actor who impersonates Ismene" (206). Then it is
very probably the actor who plays Antigone who also returns as her
betrothed, Haimon —and then as Teiresias, and then as Haimon's
mother, Eurydike! This actor's changing of roles enacts a striking idea:
that each character who in vain challenges Kreon brings back on stage
the futile challenges of the others. This theatrical practice is scarcely
ever repeated today, nor, on the page, is there any way to "translate"
the effect of that actor appearing in different roles, or of the actor
playing Ismene returning as the Guard and the Messenger. Or to
"translate" the strange stubbornness of role of the one actor who plays

37
ON THE T R A N S L A T I O N

only the stubborn Kreon: he remains on stage for most of the play,
while the other figures appear and disappear around him. (The Greek
text includes no stage directions, but in this translation we provide
them to give the reader our conjectures about what is likely to be
happening on stage.)

LANGUAGE AS AN ELEMENT OF STRUCTURE

Antigone opens after the slaughter and fright of war have come to the
very gates of Thebes but have been kept outside. The heroine's two
brothers have already killed each other, one heroically defending their
native Thebes, the other cruelly attacking it. These life-and-death bod-
ily conflicts are an emblem of the intense conflicts of words and beliefs
with which the play begins and continues—which is only to say that
Antigone (like all Greek tragedy) includes much argument, and that
the argument arises from, and leads to more of, an inordinate amount
of dying and death and suicide. Warfare has left rotting bodies outside
the city walls, and then come the suicides of three of the six main
characters of the play—Antigone, Haimon, and Haimon's mother Eu-
rydike. (Still alive but offstage at the conclusion are Ismene, of whom
we see nothing in nearly the last two-thirds of the play, and Teiresias,
the seer; on stage at the end is Kreon, whose self-satisfaction in his rule
and whose emotional investments in life have been utterly destroyed.)
Returning again and again to dire confrontations and conflict, and
to descriptions of appalling acts, the play repeatedly returns also to
certain ideas and words. Some of the individual words themselves are
sites of struggle between the new ruler Kreon and his series of antag-
onists, as he and they fight from opposite points of view to control the
meaning of the language they use. For instance, Kreon and Antigone
argue over who can properly be called "friend" and who "enemy," over
what is just and honorable and reverent, and what is unjust and dis-
honorable and irreverent. Sometimes the characters launch competing
words at each other, so that, for example (in the words of Mark Grif-
fith):

[W]e can trace an implicit struggle for validation between the calcu-
lating "intelligence," "counsel," and "thought" . . . recommended by
Kreon and other (male) characters, as against Antigone's intuitive
"knowledge" and "certainty" . . . and among the male characters, we
may contrast Kreon's emphasis on "calculation" and rigid "straightness"
with Haimon's and Teiresias' recommending of "learning" and "bend-
ing." (42)

(I have translated the Greek word here represented by "bending" as

"yielding" and also "giving way.")

38
ON THE T R A N S L A T I O N

The play is not a long text, and its diction is repetitive, so as Sopho-
kles draws out the complexity of meaning in attitudes, beliefs, and
words, many of the associations and connotations around each key
Greek word are eventually brought to light, sometimes with grim and
sorrowful tragic irony. The structural effect of such language is of a
highly deliberate wovenness (a favorite ancient metaphor for poetry)
that is both intellectually beautiful and artistically effective; to achieve
an analogous effect in translation, the translator can try to repeat an
English word to match the repetitions of a particular Greek word. For
example: "You'd do well as the single ruler of some deserted place,"
Haimon bitterly tells his father (799 / 739), using the same word (ere-
mos) that Sophokles will just afterward give to Kreon, both when he
plans to "lead [Antigone] out to some deserted place" (833 / 773) and
when he specifically orders her to die "alone, deserted" (946 / 887);
finally Sophokles gives the word to Antigone herself, who laments that
she has been "deserted by those close" to her (984 / 919).
However, working against the translator is the dispiriting historical
fact that any particular word in contemporary English has its own as-
sociations and connotations that have nothing whatever to do with the
Greek ones, but instead are the traces of centuries of use in other times
and cultures, and of our own particular, present-day linguistic environ-
ment. The word that is repeated several times in Greek, turned by
Sophokles this way and that to reveal the nuances and implications of
its use in different phrases and circumstances, is necessarily represented
by a word in English without those nuances and implications and with
a number of new implications that are irrelevant. However, there is no
other way but repetition —when this is possible without forcing English
to be unidiomatic —to signal Sophokles' method of bringing words
back in new contexts to show which underlying ideas are relevant to a
moment of struggle between characters. Fundamentally, the repeated
words structure the play both in that weaving way I mentioned earlier
and also in setting out the binary oppositions between which Sophokles
dramatizes a conflict of belief, feeling, and real power. (For example,
when Kreon utters with contempt the word "woman," an ideological
axis of the play comes immediately into view.)
Standing on the shoulders of Charles Segal and the scholarly edi-
tions of Antigone, I offer below just a few key words with some of their
connotations and associations in Greek—on which I myself am far
from being an authority.
(i) It turns out to be impossible to echo consistently in English the
repetitions of the several words derived from or related to Greek philos.
"Loved," "beloved," "those close to us," and so on, are among the

39
ON THE T R A N S L A T I O N

different articulations of this idea in English that I have used for the
same word in Greek, because no one word in English is adequate. As
Griffith notes, "Given the wide semantic field occupied by philos —
covering 'family member/ 'loved one,' 'friend,' 'ally,' even 'one's own'
(limbs, etc.), and extending even further with the usage of [related
words]—contradictions constantly arise, as members of the same family
or political group (= philoi, by definition) become 'hateful/hostile' to
one another as a result of their behavior" (40-41). Kreon even uses a
derivative of philos, translated as "money-loving," when accusing Tei-
resias of greed (see point 5, below). And to Kreon —whose character
Sophokles convincingly portrayed, even if character as such was not
foremost among the poet's interests —a form of philos can quickly sug-
gest its opposite: hatred and the enemy.
(2) The famously untranslatable first line of the play uses three of
the often repeated key words of the play: koinos, meaning what is shared
in common; autadelphon, a word for sister or brother that includes as
prefix the root word autos, meaning "self; and kara, a noun meaning
"head," but used idiomatically as an elevated periphrasis expressing
endearment and emotional involvement. Every use of the word "self
in the translation —such as "self-killing," "self-will," "he himself/' and
so on—echoes Sophokles' use of some form of autos in the Greek, as
I tried to represent Sophokles' restless inquiry into how much of suf-
fering is brought on oneself by one's own decisions, as opposed to how
much is ordained by the gods. In this translation, koinos is represented
by the words "shared" and "common" singly or together (and these
English words are not used to represent any other Greek word); and
the noun kara by the adjectives "dear" or "true," as when Antigone
calls the dead Polyneikes her "own dear brother" (978 / 915).
(3) The polar opposites that I have rendered as "reverence" and "ir-
reverence," and related forms, appear often, but if my goal had been
to achieve variety in the diction of the translation, the Greek words
could have been translated at least some of the time as the opposites
"pious" and "impious." Kreon believes it is impious or irreverent with
respect to the gods of the city—presumably Dionysos and Zeus, among
others —to give funeral rites to Polyneikes, because the latter made
himself an enemy of the city, while Antigone believes it is irreverent
or impious to the gods of the underworld, Hades their chief, not to
give proper ritual burial to the dead. However, the action of the play
finally implies that Kreon has been blasphemous; since Kreon is de-
stroyed, we do not doubt that some of the gods, at least, are punishing
him.
(4) I have used the words "right" and "straight" and related words to

40
ON THE T R A N S L A T I O N

represent the Greek word orthos and its derivations (and have not used
"right" otherwise). Orthos is one of Kreon's favorite words. In following
his "straight" course, Kreon manifests his rigid and stubbornly mistaken
thinking. He claims he stands for what is "right" and he tries to estab-
lish the authority of his concept.
(5) Kreon is convinced that the reason people do what they do is for
kerdos, "profit," material gain. His reiterations of this word, sometimes
even when it does not appear to be relevant, make it seem that So-
phokles wished to show how, as we might say in our day, Kreon keeps
attributing to others a motive of his own that he keeps secret, even
from himself; perhaps he is excited that he may profit from his having
come into the position of ruler of Thebes. We cannot know; the play
is not psychological in this way. Antigone counters that her profit, by
contrast, is not material but instead is a noble or honorable death (508-
12 / 462-64). Perhaps the idea of profit is on the mind of the culture
itself, so to speak. After all, even though Teiresias was not present ear-
lier to learn of Kreon's rage at the guards' presumed willingness to be
bribed, the seer happens to conclude his opening speech by urging
Kreon to accept a metaphorical "profit" from good advice. Kreon,
though, takes the word literally and he bitterly accuses everyone, in-
cluding Teiresias himself, of profiting somehow by betting on his de-
cisions. With a devastating turn, the word kerdos is used last by the
chorus, who in effect say to Kreon (1409 / 1326): you were obsessed
with profit; well, your own has finally come, but only in the form of
your agonized and belated understanding.
(6) A Greek word for the worst of fates is ate. Griffith glosses it this
way: "Ate is a rich and evocative term, especially in tragedy, suggesting
both outcome ('delusion,' 'ruin,' 'misery'), and cause (often a mixture
of human folly and supernatural sabotage)" (121). Later, Griffith adds
that ate is an "inescapable complex of delusion, error, crime and ruin"
(219). Since the idea of the cause of ruin effectively implicates human
decisions, whether these seemed bad or even good when made, ate
also suggests the emotional state, the mistaken impulse, the ill-
advisedness or foolishness, that leads someone to ruin. Yet the ancient
Greeks often regard this bad impulse as having been sent, for some-
times unknowable reasons, by the gods. I have used "ruin" to represent
ate, throughout.
(7) The idea of human folly leads me to two other structures of polar
opposites informing the play that deserve brief comment. In Antigone,
events seems to turn on whether decisions by a man—or a woman—
are sensible or foolish. A large family of words denoting these ideas is
based on the Greek root boul- but cannot be translated so as to echo

41
ON THE TRANSLATION

a single root word in English. The repeated echoing of boul- in various

forms in Greek, I have had unfortunately to disperse in the translation
into disparate English words, but I hope that the polarity of concept-
well-advised versus ill-advised, good counsel versus bad, and so on —
remains visible. In fact, in the repetition of the large number of Greek
words for mind, thought, judgment, ascertainment, and so on, we seem
to see a cultural preoccupation different from our own.
Another structure of opposites has to do with freedom versus slavery.
For example, Kreon relegates women to the status of slaves when he
speaks contemptuously of how Antigone's ambition to violate his order
is not only wrong but also inconceivable, since she is not a man (526-
28 / 478—79). Again, Antigone argues passionately that the brother who
died and still lies unburied outside the city walls "was no slave" (568
/ 517). But although the same Greek word for enslaved war captives
may be used also for the servants and attendants of Kreon and his wife
Eurydike, I have translated many instances as "servant" or simply "man"
in the sense of "Kreon's man" (or "men"), because while slavery was a
notable part of the social and political fabric of Sophokles' Athens, the
complex differences between Athenian and American slavery make it
unwise to imply in the American linguistic, historical, and political
context an easy identification of these two "peculiar institutions."

RHYTHMS
One great problem of translating ancient Greek poetry is that, for un-
avoidable historical and cultural reasons, the language we ourselves
speak and write no longer makes any use of a poetic lexicon—a special
register of word-choice that is generally felt to be "poetic." So a trans-
lator can create scarcely any effects at all that are analogous to those
that the ancient poets created for their audiences (and conversely, some
of the effects created by the translation would be unrecognizable to
ancient audiences). Also, we live in a world of print and media images
that can override our sense of the rich complexity of linguistic expres-
sion; compared to the consciousness of the ancient Greeks, our con-
sciousness is saturated proportionally less by the rhythms of language
spoken between living human beings and more by language aimed by
media at passive listeners. Furthermore, for the translator, the difficul-
ties of representing the intensity and liveliness of the language of the
ancient Greek stage, and of particular words or kinds of words, are
really only first problems; next comes the problem of the different man-
ner of speaking of each of the characters in the ancient play, and then
the problem of differences between sorts of stage language in general —
dialogue, chanted lines, and sung lines. Sung lines appear both in odes

42
ON THE T R A N S L A T I O N

and in certain scenes, when it's as if the sheer intensity of feeling—in

Antigone, as she is about to be sealed up alive in a tomb, and then in
Kreon, after the deaths of Haimon and Eurydike—pushes them from
agitated speech into anguished singing.
In this play, especially, agon, contest, is nearly everything—a debate,
after war, for new life-and-death stakes. When the characters are speak-
ing to each other in one-line utterances (the stichomythia), I would
have liked to produce iambic lines all of the same length, but this was
impossible because of the extraordinary compression of ancient Greek
in general and especially of Sophokles' language. For the sake of faith-
fulness to the pace of the play in Greek, I have kept all these utterances
to one line in English too, but the length of that line varies from five
to six or occasionally seven metrical feet. And the stichomythia is not
the only contest of words in the play—the characters, each using a
particular tone and diction, dispute each other in longer speeches also.
In these, Sophokles sometimes creates structural symmetries—two lines
from one character are answered by two from another, or forty-two
spoken by Kreon answered by forty-two spoken by Haimon, and so on.
To preserve the symmetries of the number of lines in the briefer ex-
changes, I have sometimes lengthened lines to fit everything in, but in
longer speeches I considered instead that the consistent rhythm of
blank verse was more important than the precise length of the speech.
The ancient dynamic of argument points to a larger difference be-
tween Greek tragedy and the modern theater (although psychologi-
cally, Antigone does seem among the most "modern" of all the surviv-
ing tragedies), which is the way the Greek writers saw the play as both
an action on stage and also as word-work, the performance of language.
Andrew Brown notes that Sophokles and Euripides almost always in-
clude a messenger speech in their (surviving) plays, and says that these,
"with their opportunities for vivid and exciting narrative, were delib-
erately cultivated by the tragedians, and not regarded as regrettable
necessity imposed by the limitations of the Greek stage" (217). These
narrative passages require a rhythm at least distantly related to epic
poetry, but the odes sung by the chorus, and the sung portions of the
play's final moments, require a markedly different rhythm, and they
too are composed and structured rhythmically, thematically, and by
diction and symmetries of length. I have put the rich and densely
figurative lines of sung passages into free verse, using hemistichs, or
half-lines, to produce more opportunities in English for word-emphasis
and more vigorous rhythmic movement. I have also reproduced sym-
metries of stanza-size and a few other symmetries in the pairs of
matching ode-stanzas called strophe and antistrophe.

43
ON THE TRANSLATION

LANGUAGE LITERAL AND SENSUOUS

Of the odes, Griffith writes, "If it is characteristic of lyric poetry in
general to be dense and ambiguous, these odes must be counted among
the most opaque —as well as the most adventurous — in all of Greek
tragedy" (18). Sophokles is known for the compression of his effects,
both of metaphor and syntax. (Rather than calling some of his most
difficult metaphors "mixed" —which is what we could call them, given
our contemporary expectations of poetic practice —classicists call them
"bold," since they belong to a somewhat different, ancient, aesthetic.
And yet the wonder is how much of Sophokles' practice as a poet—
apart from meter—is immediately comprehensible, in technical terms,
to us, 2,500 years after he composed the play.) What has struck me
most about Sophokles' language is its density of metaphor and image —
its cognitive boldness, to be sure, but also at other moments its liter-
alism of effect—especially when words (either abstract or concrete) are
brought back to achieve also that effect of wovenness. Perhaps when
classicists themselves do not always translate very literally, it is because
they believe some of the metaphors in the Greek to have been already
dead in Sophokles' time or because they are intent on conveying to
readers of their translations the general sense of an utterance rather
than its texture. (An example is that word kerdos, profit, mentioned
earlier. In rendering the moment at the end of the play when the
chorus turn this word against Kreon as a metaphor, two of the classicists
on whose great scholarship I have depended resort to paraphrases that
entirely lose the effect of this devastating reiteration.) Even more com-
plicated is Sophokles' use of metaphor in the odes.
My goal in translating metaphors was not to smooth out the language
of the play but to get as close to the Greek as I could, in an English
that can reproduce at least some of the poetic qualities of this magnif-
icent long poem-for-performance. An example: at the beginning, after
Antigone has slipped out of the city in the dark and Ismene has reen-
tered the royal house, the chorus of Theban elders see Kreon approach-
ing and they wonder why he has assembled them. At Greek line 158,
literally they say, "What plan [or counsel or thought] does he stir-as-
with-an-oar?" Sophokles frequently makes use of metaphors that are
this vivid if taken literally, but yet are ordinary in his linguistic context;
these are difficult to catch hold of in our contemporary American En-
glish, which has almost completely lost touch with the immediacy of
the pre-technological physical world that was basis of ancient Greek
figures of speech. For this line, Sir Richard Jebb gives us (in his mar-
velous 1900 edition of the play: "What counsel is he pondering?" Mary
Whitlock Blundell, in her excellent scholarly translation, writes, "What

44
ON THE T R A N S L A T I O N

plan is he plying?" To provide more information, she annotates the

line —an option that literary translators must avoid if they want to pro-
duce a text that is playable. Like Blundell, two other classicists preserve
the oar's movement, but not with the implication of an oar, specifically:
Andrew Brown offers, in the literal version accompanying his edition
of the Greek, "What plan is he putting in motion?" (and he annotates
the line) and Elzabeth Wyckoff (in David Grene's well-known edition
of 1954) translates, "What plan . . . beats about his mind?" So what is
the translator to do with that stirring-as-with-an-oar? Is it worth trying
to keep hold of?
The problem with the stirring or rowing lies not only in its vital
immediacy in ancient Greece, where the sea was the path of the Ath-
enians' trade and military conquests, but also in its lack of immediacy
in our lives. Merchant ships and naval triremes had both oars and sails,
but in our epoch sails belong to pleasure boats and oars are mostly
thrown underneath beached, overturned aluminum rowboats awaiting
an energetic vacationer. To put the word "rowing" or "oar" into the
translation of the Greek line is to try to catch hold of something both
vigorous and solemn, something telling, in Sophokles, and simultane-
ously to throw that meaning away because of the bathos of our oar.
The translator is always translating both out of and into, and the lack
of a fit can be found on either end of the transaction, or on both at
once.
I say solemn, because after the chorus has thought of the stirring of
water when the oarsman propels his boat or turns it, Kreon immediately
launches (182 / 162) his own principle metaphor—his ship of state —
for the seriousness of what faces Thebes in the aftermath of the failed
attack by the traitorous Polyneikes. (Note also that following this
scene —in which Kreon hears from the newly arrived guard that Po-
lyneikes' body has been given a funeral ritual, although not a full bur-
ial, against Kreon's orders and under penalty of death —the stasimon
that follows [the Ode to Man], one of the great poems in all of ancient
Greek, says of man that among his wondrous accomplishments is that
in his ships he courageously "sails the gray- / White sea running before
/ Winter storm-winds, he / Scuds beneath high / Waves surging over
him / On each side.") And in Kreon's ship of state, everyone must pull
at the oars together and in the same direction, especially through dan-
gerous waters. But Antigone refuses to do so, or even to use this kind
of language.
Later, Sophokles writes for Ismene, in the scene when Antigone,
Ismene, and Kreon are all on stage, a line of pained fellow-feeling for
her sister that brings that ship and that rowing back into our minds;

45
ON THE T R A N S L A T I O N

Ismene uses another nautical verb (592 / 541) when she says, "But
amidst your troubles I am not ashamed / To sail beside you through
your suffering." (The verb is in an untranslatable number, neither sin-
gular nor plural but dual —meaning that only she and Antigone have
done this, against all others.) So we would not want to have missed,
in English, the sense that the earlier "stirring-as-with-an-oar" evokes
seafaring, for out of echoes like this Sophokles builds the language of
his play. My own solution (178-79 /158), as much to avoid "oar" and
"rowing" as to capture the idea of a boat, is merely like Blundell's:
"What course does he plan to steer?" —all I have done is point the
metaphorical sense of the line toward the ocean, so that Kreon can
then imagine his metaphorical ship of state sailing across dangerous
seas, and thus initiate in English, too, Sophokles' sequence of nautical
metaphors. This sequence will lead eventually to Haimon's metaphor
of a sailing ship that has capsized and must be captained upside down
(775-77 / 715-17). In fact, once Kreon's house has been turned upside
down by death, he is incapable of serving as captain any longer. In an
outburst of anguished metaphor that concludes Sophokles' nautical se-
quence, Kreon sees Hades as a harbor clogged with the bodies of the
dead (1371 /1284).
There is an important contrasting metaphor that is all too easy to
leave buried. (And in a play about burial, a translator should think
twice about what should be buried and what most certainly should
not—Antigone should not be buried at all, much less alive, nor should
the living vividness of Sophokles' language. A translator is tempted to
say that Antigone the character is, among other things, a figure for the
very livingness in language, which is an irrepressible gesture of resis-
tance—in this case, Antigone's resistance to Kreon's attempt to control
not only her life but also her language and thought.) Hugh Lloyd-Jones
translates the chorus's line about thinking as a kind of rowing (the same
Greek line I have just discussed) as "What plan is he turning over?"
But if "turning over" suggests anything in the physical world, it is not
the oars reaching out from the sides of a Greek ship, feathered as the
oarsmen turn them before attacking the water on the next stroke, but
rather the plow that turns over the soil. Yet for what the chorus says,
an implicitly landlocked image about Kreon could not be more wrong,
for the soil is associated by Sophokles with Antigone and her fierce
allegiance to the gods of the earth —as, for example, when she is de-
scribed as having poured handfuls of dust on the dead body of her
brother Polyneikes, or when she thinks of the reiteration of the doom
of her father as (literally) "thrice-plowed" (of which, more later), or

46
ON THE T R A N S L A T I O N

even when she is associated in Kreon's mind with the passivity of cul-
tivated soil; he uses a brutal metaphor, when, with Ismene and Antig-
one standing before him, he says —echoing language of the ancient
patriarchal Athenian marriage-contract, according to Griffith (216) —
that Haimon can find another bride: "There are other furrows he can
plant" (620 / 569). Antigone's tripolistos (919-20 / 859), "thrice-plowed,"
is often rendered in English translations as "repeatedly." Even if this
metaphor is already dead in Sophokles' time, he revives it: the word
"thrice" numbers the generations of Antigone's family who have borne
an apparent curse of the gods; and the word "plowed" suggests the gods
of the earth, of dirt and dust, to whom Antigone gives reverence. To
me it would seem a mistake to erase this repeated plowing with the
generality "repeatedly." After all —to refer once more to the Ode to
Man —the play says that one of the characteristics of this strange crea-
ture, man, who is so ingenious at both good and evil, is that the most
ancient of the gods, Gaia (who deserves greatest reverence from men
because without her there is no world at all), is also for man merely
dirt to be plowed again and again, as if he sought to wear Her out
(382-86 / 337-41).
I describe these few word-motifs to emphasize that a poetic transla-
tion usually cannot afford to go right through a metaphor as if it were
transparent and arrive at some general sense behind it. It is bad enough
that the intricate patterns of the play of sounds in ancient Greek are
far beyond any possible translating. To lose also most of the meta-
phorical compression and synthesizing of ideas, themes, motifs, and so
on would be to drain the lifeblood out of the poem. It seems to me
that when translating, metaphor above all is what has to be lifted safely
past a tempting explanatory, general language, for it to be grasped in
its vividness and multiple signifying. It is a common practice of schol-
arship and criticism, in general, to read poetry for the ideas, themes,
even information, that it contains, but readers turn to poetry for pleas-
ures—of being engaged with language that signifies richly through its
diction, its rhythms and sound, and the ways it is structured —pleasures
of language that heighten our somber reflection on even the most tragic
of subjects. This play, above all —which for 2,500 years, for all sorts of
readers, has resisted giving away a definitive sense of how to resolve
the conflict between Antigone and Kreon—would be travestied if one
cared only about decoding the positions that Sophokles gives to his
characters, or guessing what he himself, behind them, believes. The
complexity of the characters' stances is in the very density and beauty
of the language, which is not just an aspect of the play but is itself the

47
ON THE TRANSLATION

meaning of the play—the difficulty of the language continually enacts

at the level of word and syntax and rhythm the uncertainty and acutely
competing forces represented by the play as a drama.
I could unfortunately give many more examples of metaphors of
literal and sensuous immediacy in Greek that I could not quite unbury
in English, any more than Haimon —or even Kreon, once his mind
was able to think right again—could rescue Antigone.

METHOD AND SOURCES

Working with- Charles Segal, first on Euripides' Bakkhai and then on
Sophokles' Antigone, has led me in a new way to the deep pleasures
of artistic problems. Our method was for me to produce successive
drafts of the translation, to each of which Charlie brought suggestions,
corrections, nuances, and clarities of interpretation, while also pointing
out verbal reiterations in the Greek that were too subtle or distant from
each other for me to have noticed on my own. Together we wished to
produce a translation as "fine-woven" (1303 / 1222) as Antigone's fatal
veil. There were some problems we could not solve —one was the fre-
quently repeated interjections (omoi, pheu, id, and so on) for which
almost nothing in contemporary English will do, since the choices are
between the outdated "alas!" and many contemporary expressions lack-
ing gravity. Another unsolved problem is the reliance of the language
of tragedy on relatively few words, often repeated, for people who have
been ruined, are miserable, wretched, ill-fated, and so on. Scarcely any
of the available words in English for a bad fate have the ring of deeply
felt, ultimate misfortune —partly because our sense of "unhappy" no
longer includes anything of fate in it, but instead refers to feeling.
Another problem is avoiding the chance occurrence in English of
words sounding too much alike—which is why, since the translation
must often use the word "profit," I did not use "prophet" but "seer,"
and why I tried to minimize the use of the word "counsel," an idea
which is so necessary to the play, because it sounds like "council."
As in translating Euripides' Bakkhai, I have preferred to use translit-
erations of Greek for proper names except for the most familiar Lat-
inized names and the occasional word, like "chorus." For help with
the Greek text I relied above all on Charles Segal, but I also drew on
sources to which he sent me: Griffith, Jebb, and Brown, cited at the
head of the Notes, and Hugh Lloyd-Jones's edition and translation
(Sophocles II, Cambridge, Mass., 1998), and Mary Whitlock Blundell's
translation of Sophocles' Antigone (Newburyport, 1998). I have also con-
sulted Charles Segal's masterful Sophocles' Tragic World (Cambridge,
Mass., 1995), his Tragedy and Civilization (1981; reprinted Norman,

48
ON THE T R A N S L A T I O N

Okla., 1999), and separate essays. Also important to my understanding

of the play, and of what might be made of it today, was George Steiner's
remarkable Antigones (Oxford, 1984). Although Charles Segal provided
me with characteristically wise and kind counsel regarding every aspect
of meaning and interpretation, and of course made all necessary de-
cisions regarding textual problems and variants, whatever flaws of sense
and sound that may remain in the translation should be ascribed solely
to me.
I end this brief essay with thanks—to good fortune, to Oxford Uni-
versity Press, and to series editors Alan Shapiro and Peter Burian for
the opportunity to translate the play with a scholar of such great learn-
ing and wisdom. Much too soon after finishing his introduction and
notes to this Antigone, and after he and I had completed our work
together on the translation, Charles Segal died on January i, 2002. I
have known no one else who achieved a longer, more Sophoklean view
of human life and death, or who gave more thoughtful attention to
those around him; Charlie believed that the value of scholarship and
poetry was deep and that at their best these have added wise counsel,
humane ideals, and intellectual beauty to our entire civilization, and
will continue to do so. In a way, this book is a most fitting memorial
to Charlie, for it represents by his example the good of seeking to
understand and revivify elements of the human past that belong to us
all. This is a good in which Charlie believed wholeheartedly. Our
Antigone also exemplifies Charlie's supreme learning and intelligence
and his gift for bringing Sophokles to light for others.

REGINALD GIBBONS

49
This page intentionally left blank
ANTIGONE
 CHARACTERS

ANTIGONE a young woman of about sixteen to eigh-

teen years of age, daughter of Oidipous
ISMENE her sister, probably younger
CHORUS OF ELDERLY THEBAN MEN citizens who counsel Kreon, sometimes
speaking singly, sometimes together
KREON ruler of Thebes, maternal uncle of Antig-
one and Ismene
GUARD a low-ranking soldier
HAIMON the young son of Kreon, betrothed to his
cousin Antigone
TEIRESIAS an aged, blind seer
MESSENGER one of Kreon's men
EURYDIKE the wife of Kreon and mother of Haimon
VARIOUS MALE ATTENDANTS servants; slaves
 PROLOGUE / SCENE I

ETEOKLES and POLYNEIKES, sons of self-blinded OIDIPOUS, have been at war,

ETEOKLES having refused to alternate the rule of Thebes with his brother, as he
had promised, and POLYNEIKES having led an army of military allies from Argos
against the city. OIDIPOUS had put a curse on his two sons that they would kill
each other, and in fact, on the day before the play opens, amidst battles surround-
ing the city, these two older brothers of ANTIGONE and ISMENE — ETEOKLES, de-
fending one of the seven gates of Thebes, and POLYNEIKES, leading the attack
against him —have fought and killed each other. Now, well before dawn in
Thebes, the sisters ANTIGONE and ISMENE are standing—surprisingly—outside the
great main doors of the house where they were bom and where, under the guard-
ianship of their uncle, KREON (their dead mother's brother), they have again been
living since the death of OIDIPOUS. POLYNEIKES' Argive alliance has now retreated
during the night and abandoned the war and its dead warriors, whose bodies lie
on the plains outside the walls of Thebes.

ANTIGONE Ismene, my own true sister, O dear one, 1

Sharing our common bond of birth, do you know
One evil left to us by Oidipous,
Our father, that has not been brought down on
The two of us by Zeus, while we still live?
Among our woes, both yours and mine, there's
nothing
Painful to us, nothing that's not weighed down
By ruin, no shame and no dishonor, that I
Have not already seen. And now, what is
This proclamation they say the general 10
Has issued for all the citizens —the men?
Have you heard anything? Or have you not
Noticed that evils of our enemies
Are marching now against our friends and dear ones?

ISMENE No talk of friends we love has come to me,

Antigone —neither welcome nor painful,

53
 ANTIGONE [1 3-38]

Since that moment when we two sisters were

Dispossessed of our own two brothers—killed
On one day by twin blows of each other's hands.
And since the Argive army went away 20
This very night, I know no more, nor whether
I'm closer to good fortune or to ruin.

ANTIGONE I thought so! That's why I called you outside

The courtyard gates, alone, to listen to me.

ISMENE What is it? It's certain your words will be as dark

as dye.

ANTIGONE But hasn't Kreon honored only one

Of our two brothers with a tomb and dis-
Honored the other? They say he has covered
Eteokles with earth, as justice and law
Require, so down below among the dead 30
He will be honored. But the body of poor
Polyneikes, who died so wretchedly—
They say a proclamation has been cried
To all the citizens that no one may
Hide it inside a grave, wail over it
Or weep for it, it must be left unmourned,
Unburied, a sweet-tasting treasure that birds
Will spy and feed on with their greedy joy.
And this is the very order that they say
The noble Kreon has proclaimed to you 40
And me—to me, to me he says it!—and then
To make it clear to those who don't yet know,
He's coming here, and he does not treat this
As some small matter: anyone who does
What he has now forbidden will be put
Before the people and by public stoning
Murdered.
There you have how things stand, and soon
You will show whether you are noble, or—
Despite high birth —are low and cowardly.

54
 ANTIGONE [39-65]

ISMENE O, my poor sister! —but if things are knotted up 50

This way, then how could I unravel them?

ANTIGONE Consider joining in my action and my burden!

ISMENE What sort of dangerous act? What have you decided?

ANTIGONE Will you join with this hand of mine to lift the body?

ISMENE What? You're thinking you will bury him,

When this has been forbidden to the city?

ANTIGONE My brother, yes—and yours —if you don't want to!

I will not be caught betraying him.

ISMENE Hard, headstrong girl!—even though Kreon bans it?

ANTIGONE It's not for him to keep me from my own. 60

ISMENE Oh! But sister, you must understand—

Our father, after beating out his eyes
Himself, with his own self-striking hand, then died
Infamous and detested, because of crimes
That he himself discovered he'd committed!
Then his mother and wife—the woman had
Two titles—with a twisted loop of rope
Violently disfigured her own life.
Third, our two brothers on a single day,
A wretched pair, with hands aimed at each other, 70
Killing themselves have shared a doom in common.
And now we two, the last ones left—consider
How much worse death will be for us if we
Defy the law and flout the rulers' vote
And power—we must keep in mind that first,
We're born as women, we're not brought into being
To war with men; and second, that we are ruled
By those whose strength is greater, and we must yield
To this—and to much that's worse than this. So I

55
 ANTIGONE [65-89]

Will plead with those under the earth to feel 80

For us and pardon us, because I'm forced
To act as I do, and I'll obey the rulers,
For it makes no sense to do things that are futile.

ANTIGONE I won't insist. And even if you wished

To do this, now, it wouldn't make me happy.
So be as you decide to be—but I
Will bury him. For me it's noble to do
This thing, then die. With loving ties to him,
I'll lie with him who is tied by love to me,
I will commit a holy crime, for I 90
Must please those down below for a longer time
Than those up here, since there I'll lie forever.
But you, if that is what you decide, then leave
Dishonored that to which the gods give honor!

ISMENE I don't dishonor them! But to defy

The citizens is beyond what I can do.

ANTIGONE Offer that excuse. But I will go heap earth

In a grave-mound for my beloved brother.

ANTIGONE begins to leave.

ISMENE Oh poor Antigone—I'm frightened for you.

ANTIGONE Don't fear for me! It's your life you should put right. 100

ISMENE At least don't tell a soul what you will do,

But keep it secret, and with you, I'll do the same!

ANTIGONE Oh—denounce me! I'll hate you even more if you

Keep quiet and don't proclaim all this to
everyone.

ISMENE You have a heart that's hot for what is chilling.

ANTIGONE But I know I'm pleasing those I must please most.

56
 ANTIGONE [90-1 06]

ISMENE If you succeed! But you're in love with what's

impossible.

ANTIGONE Then when I'm out of strength —but only then —I will
be stopped.

ISMENE But it's wrong to go hunting for what's impossible.

ANTIGONE If you say that, you will be hated by me. no

And justly to the dead man you'll remain
A hated enemy. So let me and
This ill-considered plan of mine endure
This terrible thing—for I will suffer nothing
So bad as to deny me a death with honor.

ANTIGONE leaves, on the side leading out beyond

the city walls.

ISMENE If you think so, then go. But know you're foolish
To go, yet rightly dear to your dear ones.

ISMENE goes into the royal house. The CHORUS of fif-

teen elderly Theban men, Kreon's counselors, enter from
the side that leads in from the city, while performing
their choreographed song.

CHORUS Flashing ray of Parados

Sun, most beautiful strophe a
Light ever to
Appear at seven-
Gated Thebes, at
Last you, the 120
Eye of golden
Day, appeared —
You came
Slanting over
The River Dirke,
You made that
Argive warrior

57
ANTIGONE [ 1 06-1 23]

With silver-
White shield run
Headlong in
Frightened flight,
His armor heavy
And a sharp bit
Stabbing him!

Chanting.

Urged on by
Furious two-sided
Quarrels of divisive
Polyneikes,
He had risen and
Flown to our land, he had 130
Come against us
Shrieking like
An eagle that
Spreads out its snow-
White wings, its
Weapons, over
Us, and with all his
Horse-tailed helmets.

Singing.

Over our rooftops he antistrophe a

Loomed, with blood-
Thirsty gaping he
Surrounded us, his
Murderous spear-
Talons at our seven
Gates, but then he was
Gone before he could
Glut his jaws with
Our streaming blood and
Before pine-fed flames
Of the fire-god could HO

58
ANTIGONE [1 23-1 40]

Seize our city's crown

Of towers. The loud
Clashing of war was
Stretched taut at
His back, for this wrestling
Was too hard
For one who matched himself
Against the Theban serpent!

Chanting.

For Zeus utterly

Hates the noise
Of an arrogant bragging
Tongue, and as He
Watched those men
Come like a flood at us
In their brazenness of
Clanging gold, He
Struck with His
Hurled fire one
Man who already had
Raced to his goal iso
Atop our walls to
Shout of victory.

Singing.

This man was tumbled strophe b

Crashing to the hard ground —
He who panting with
Bakkhic fury had leapt
At us bearing torch-
Fire and blew his breath
Of hatred on us like
Hot winds. But finally
These things went
Otherwise: Instead,
Ares the great war god,

59
ANTIGONE [ 1 40-1 53

Strong as a charioteer's
Lead horse, struck men
Hard and gave to some
Men one fate and
To others, another.

Chanting.

Seven captains attacking

Seven gates abandoned ieo
Their bronze weapons
That now become
A tribute to battle-turning
Zeus, the god of trophies —
Except for those two
Doomed, cursed men who
Though born from one father
And one mother thrust
Their two mutually
Victorious spears into
Each other and shared one death in common.

Singing.

But—since Nike, the goddess of victory, antistrophe b

With great name and glory
Has come, and her
Joy answers the
Joy of Thebes,
City of many
Chariots, let us
Forget this war 170
That is over and
Let us go
To the temples of all
The gods to celebrate
In whirling dance
All night and may

60
 ANTIGONE [ 1 54-1 73]

Dionysos, Earth-shaker
Of Thebes, lead us!

The CHORUS notice the unannounced approach of

KREON, with attendants, from the side that leads
in from the city.

Chanting.

But now comes the

King of the land,
The son of Menoikeus,
Kreon,
Newly crowned in these
New circumstances
That the gods have given us.
What course
Does he plan to steer, that
He would convene
This special conclave
Of elders, IBO
Having sent us all a summons in common?

FIRST EPISODE / SCENE II

KREON Men, the gods have tossed our ship of state

On rolling seas and set it upright again.
I sent my messengers to summon you,
Away from everyone else, because I know
That you always honored the power of the throne
Of Laios, and also that you did the same
When Oidipous set this city right, and also
That when he died, you held his children steadfast
In your own thoughts. And since both of his sons, 190
Doubly destined, have died on the same day,
With their own hands both striking and struck down
In their own polluting murder of one another,
Now I hold all the power and the throne,

61
ANTIGONE [1 74-203]

Because of my close kinship to the dead.

It is impossible to know completely
The soul, the mind, the judgment of a man
Until we see his mettle tested against
His duties and his way with the laws. In my view,
A helmsman of the city as a whole 200
Who fails to lay his hand on the best advice
Yet is afraid of speaking and locks up
His tongue seems now and always the worst of men.
And any man who feels that someone close
To him is more important than his own
Fatherland—him I count as belonging nowhere.
May great all-seeing Zeus now be my witness:
If I saw doom instead of deliverance
Marching against my fellow citizens,
I would not be silent, nor would I love 210
An enemy of my land as a close friend—
Knowing that this ship keeps us safe, and only
When it sails upright can we choose friends for
ourselves.
These are the laws with which I make our city
Grow strong. And like a brother to these is the one
I have proclaimed to the citizens concerning
The sons of Oidipous: that Eteokles,
Greatest in glory with his spear, who died
In battle for this city, we will bury,
We will perform all pure and proper rites 220
And we will make the offerings to be sent
Down to the noblest of the dead, below;
But his brother by blood—I'm speaking now
Of Polyneikes—an exile who came back,
Who wanted to set fire to his fatherland
And to the gods of his own people and burn
Everything down from high to low, who wanted
To devour the blood he shared with his own kin,
And to enslave the others—this man!: for him
It has been proclaimed throughout the city 230
That no one is permitted to honor him
With burial or funeral gifts, or to wail

62
 ANTIGONE [204-226]

For him with grief, that he must lie unburied,

A corpse eaten by birds and dogs and torn
To pieces, shameful for anyone to see.
That's my intention. Never from my hand
Will come a greater honor for the evil
Than that which goes to the just. But him who bears
Good will toward this city—I honor him
Equally whether he is dead or living. 240

CHORUS Son of Menoikeus, it pleases you

To do as you wish to him who bears ill will
Toward the city and him who's friendly. No doubt
You have the power to use any law
In dealing with the dead or us the living.

KREON Make certain, then—watch over what I ordered!

CHORUS Appoint some younger man to take this task.

KREON Guards are on watch already near the corpse.

CHORUS Then what else are you commanding us to do?

KREON Not to join with those who disobey this. 250

CHORUS No one's such a fool as to be in love with dying.

KREON And that will be the price! But often, hope

For profit has destroyed men utterly.

Approaching hesitantly from the side that leads in

from beyond the city walls, a GUARD speaks as
he nears KREON.

GUARD My Lord, I cannot say that I'm arriving

Quite out of breath from running rapidly
And with light feet—I have had numerous
Worries along the way that made me halt,
And revolve myself, to go back whence I came.

63
 ANTIGONE [227-253]

My spirit spoke to me, quite often, saying

"Pathetic creature, why are you on the way 260
To where you'll have to pay the penalty?
And once more you cease your locomotion, fool?
And yet—if Kreon comes to know of this
From someone else, won't you be subject to pain?"
And as I cogitated this in my thoughts
I quickly kept on going, slowly, and so
I turned a short path into a long road.
What won at last was coming here to you.
If what I say is nothing—still, I'll say it,
Because I'm holding to the hope that what 270
I'll suffer can't be more than what's my due.

KREON Why then do you show such a lack of heart?

GUARD First, I'd like to tell you about myself:

I didn't do this thing, or see who did,
Nor would it be just if I were harmed.

JCREON You're aiming carefully—and yet you fence the thing

Around. But clearly you've got something new to
reveal.

GUARD What is terrible makes one hesitate.

KREON Out with it! Then take yourself away.

GUARD I'm telling you! That corpse—just now some person 280
Has buried it and gone, and he sprinkled it
With thirsty dust and performed the proper rites.

KREON What are you saying? What man dares do this?

GUARD I do not know! There's no mark of a pickax,

No dirt dug up with a mattock. No—the ground
Is hard and dry, unbroken, without wheel tracks.
Whoever did this left no sign at all.
And when the first man of the day-watch showed us,

64
 ANTIGONE [254-282]

We all were much alarmed and amazed. The corpse

Had disappeared —not covered with a mound 290
But with a little dust thrown over him,
As if by someone trying to avoid
Pollution. There was not a sign of beast
Or dog that might have dragged and torn the body.
Then came an uproar of evil words among us,
With guard accusing guard; and we might have come
To blows, in the end, without someone to stop us —
It was as if each one of us had done it,
Yet none of us was clearly the one, but each
Of us pleaded that he knew nothing of it. 300
All of us were ready to pick up
A lump of red-hot iron in our own hands,
Ready to walk through fire, ready to swear
By all the gods we hadn't done this thing,
We didn't know who had conspired in it
Nor did we know who was the one who did it.
But after all our searching turned up nothing,
One of us said something that made us hang
Our heads toward the ground in fear. We had
No answer, and no matter what we did, 310
We saw no way to come out well, for what
He said was that we must report to you
What had been done, not hide it. And this gained
The day, and I, the unluckiest—I won
The grand prize when we shook lots from a helmet,
So here I am —most unwelcome, I know.
Against my own will, too, since no one loves
A messenger who brings with him bad news.

CHORUS LEADER My Lord, my own thoughts have advised me anxiously

For a while that this was all directed by the gods. 320

KREON To CHORUS LEADER.

Stop! —before your words give me my fill

Of anger, or you will be taken for fools
As well as elders. What you say is not

65
ANTIGONE [ 2 8 2 - 3 1 4]

To be tolerated, when you say the gods

Care about this corpse. So was it they
Who covered it because they honored him
For his good deeds toward them? —he who came here
To burn their country and the temples with columns
Around them and the offerings inside,
He who came to shatter laws and customs? 330
Or in your eyes, do the gods give honor
To persons who are evil? That cannot be!
Yet for a long time in this city, men
Who barely can put up with me have raised
A secret uproar, they've been tossing their heads,
They haven't kept their necks under the yoke —
As justly they should have done —and been content
With me. I know what all this is about.
Those are the ones who bribed the guards to do this.
For nothing current grows among us worse 340
For men than silver: money ravages
The cities, it forces men to leave their homes,
It teaches mortals with good thinking to turn
To shameful deeds, it shows men how to commit
All crimes, and know all kinds of irreverence.
But those who hired themselves out to do this thing
Have now made sure they'll pay the penalty.

To GUARD.

If Zeus gets any reverence from me,

Know this —I swear it on my oath!: if you guards
Don't find out who with his own hand has done 350
This burying, and bring him into my sight,
Then Hades won't be punishment enough,
And before you're dead you'll hang alive until
You throw some light on this outrage. And that
Will teach you in the future where to get
Your profit from when you steal, and teach you not
To love this profiting from anything
And everything. One sees more people ruined
Than rescued by such shameful earnings as yours.

66
 ANTIGONE [3 1 5 - 3 3 1]

GUARD Will you allow me to say a word, or should I turn

and go? 360

KREON Do you still not know how much your words annoy
me?

GUARD Would it be your ears or your spirit that they sting?

KREON Why are you trying to diagnose where I feel pain?

GUARD He who did it hurts your mind; I hurt your ears.

KREON Ugh! It's plain that you were born to talk and talk!

GUARD That may be so. But I never did this thing.

KREON Yes, you did! What's more, you sold your spirit for
some silver.

GUARD Ah!
It's terrible for him who believes to believe what's
false.

KREON Be clever with the word "believe" —but if

You don't reveal who did this, you'll admit 370
That dirty profits make for suffering!

KREON goes into the royal house with his men.

GUARD Speaking to the departing KREON, who does

not hear him.

May he definitely be caught! But whether

He is or is not found—which chance will decide —
You won't see me come here again! Beyond
My hopes and calculation, I've been saved!
And now I owe the gods great gratitude!

67
 ANTIGONE [332-347]

He leaves on the same side from which he entered,

heading out beyond the city walls again.

The CHORUS perform their choreographed song.

Second ode I first stasimon

CHORUS At many things—wonders, strophe a

Terrors—we feel awe,
But at nothing more
Than at man. This
Being sails the gray-
White sea running before
Winter storm-winds, he
Scuds beneath high 380
Waves surging over him
On each side;
And Gaia, the Earth,
Forever undestroyed and
Unwearying, highest of
All the gods, he
Wears away, year
After year as his plows
Cross ceaselessly
Back and forth, turning
Her soil with the
Offspring of horses.

The clans of the birds, antistrophe a

With minds light as air,
And tribes of beasts of
The wilderness, and water-
Dwelling sea creatures —
All these he
Catches, in the close-
Woven nets he 390
Throws around them,
And he carries them
Off, this man, most

68
ANTIGONE [347-369]

Cunning of all.
With devices he
Masters the beast that
Beds in the wild and
Roams mountains—he harnesses
The horse with shaggy
Mane, he yokes
The never-wearied
Mountain bull.

He has taught himself strophe b

Speech and thoughts
Swift as the wind;
And a temperament for
The laws of towns;
And how to escape
Frost-hardened bedding
Under the open 400
Sky and the arrows
Of harsh rain — inventive
In everything, this
Man. Without invention he
Meets nothing that
Might come. Only from
Hades will he not
Procure some means of
Escape. Yet he has
Cunningly escaped from
Sicknesses that had
Seemed beyond his devices.

Full of skills and antistrophe b

Devising, even beyond
Hope, is the intelligent
Art that leads him
Both to evil and
To good. Honoring the
Laws of the earth
And the justice of 410
The gods, to which

69
 ANTIGONE [369-385]

Men swear, he stands

High in his city.
But outside any
City is he who dares
To consort with
What is wrong: let
Him who might do
Such things not
Be the companion
At my hearth nor have
The same thoughts as I!

SECOND EPISODE / SCENE III

The CHORUS notice the GUARD returning on the side

that leads in from beyond the city walls, as he
brings ANTIGONE with him as his prisoner.

CHORUS LEADER Chanting.

What monstrous thing is this,

Sent by the gods?—
My mind is divided —how can I
Say this girl is not
Antigone, when I recognize
That she is?
O unfortunate child of your
Unfortunate father, 420
Oidipous, what does this mean?
Can it be you
They are bringing here,
For having dis-
Obeyed the laws of
The king—You,
Seized at the height of your folly?

GUARD Here's who did the deed! We caught this girl

In the act of burying. But where is Kreon?

CHORUS As they speak, KREON comes out of the royal house

with attendants.

70
 ANTIGONE [386-409]

Just when we need him, here he comes from the

house.

KREON What is it? What has chanced to make my coming

timely?

GUARD My Lord, mortals should not swear anything's

Impossible! —since later thoughts can prove 430
One's judgment quite mistaken: after your threats
Came coldly storming at me, I resolved
That I would be reluctant to return,
But due to the fact that the happiness for which
One prays, beyond one's very hopes, exceeds
All other pleasures, here I am again —
Although I solemnly swore I never would be.
I bring this girl! We caught her at the grave
Performing funeral rites. This time we cast
No lots —this piece of luck belongs to me 440
And no one else. So now, My Lord, you take her
Yourself, question and convict her. By rights,
I should be free to be let off this trouble.

KREON This woman whom you bring, how did you catch her?
Where?

GUARD She was burying the man herself. Now you know
everything.

KREON Do you grasp—are you saying right—the things you

speak?

GUARD Yes! I saw her burying the corpse against

Your orders. Now is what I'm saying clear and plain?

KREON How was she spotted and then seized while doing it?

GUARD Well, what happened was, when we went back there— 450
After those awful threats you made—we brushed
Off all the dust that was on the corpse, we did

71
 ANTIGONE [409-442]

A good job of uncovering the body,

Which was slimy; and then upwind, on top
Of a hill, we sat, to keep ourselves away
From the stink, so that it wouldn't hit us. Each man
Helped by keeping another awake and warning
Him loudly if he seemed to shirk the task.
This lasted till the time when the blazing circle
Of the sun had put itself at the midpoint 460
Of the sky and we were melting in the heat.
Then suddenly a whirlwind raised a pillar
Of dust from the ground, a storm of trouble high
As heaven, it spread across the lowland, it tore
Away the leaves of the trees and it filled up
The whole huge sky. We shut our eyes and endured
This supernatural plague.
After a long while
The thing died down and this wailing child is seen . . .
The way a bird will give sharp cries when she finds
That her nest and bed are empty and her babies 470
Are gone —it was like that when this girl sees
The corpse all bare, she moaned with wailing grief,
She cursed those who had done this, and at once
She carries in her hands the thirsty dust
And holds up high a fine bronze pitcher and then
She pours libations three times round the corpse.
When we see this, we rush to hunt her down
But she was not afraid, and we accused her
Of what she'd done, before, and what she now
Was doing. She did not at all deny it— 480
Which to me brought both satisfaction and pain,
Because to flee bad things yourself feels good,
But it is painful to lead one of your own
To something bad.
Of course, all of these things
Are less to me than safety for myself.

KREON To ANTIGONE.

You! You turning your head away, to the ground—

Do you admit or deny that you did this?

72
 ANTIGONE [443-470]

ANTIGONE I admit I did it; I do not deny it.

KREON To GUARD.

You can take yourself wherever you want

To go—you're freed from serious charges, now. 490

As the GUARD leaves, KREON turns to ANTIGONE.

You — answer briefly, not at length — did you know

It was proclaimed that no one should do this?

ANTIGONE I did. How could I not? It was very clear.

KREON And yet you dared to overstep the law?

ANTIGONE It was not Zeus who made that proclamation

To me; nor was it Justice, who resides
In the same house with the gods below the earth,
Who put in place for men such laws as yours.
Nor did I think your proclamation so strong
That you, a mortal, could overrule the laws soo
Of the gods, that are unwritten and unfailing.
For these laws live not now or yesterday
But always, and no one knows how long ago
They appeared. And therefore I did not intend
To pay the penalty among the gods
For being frightened of the will of a man.
I knew that I will die —how can I not? —
Even without your proclamation. But if
I die before my time, I count that as
My profit. For does not someone who, like me, 510
Lives on among so many evils, profit
By dying? So for me to happen on
This fate is in no way painful. But if
I let the son of my own mother lie
Dead and unburied, that would give me pain.
This gives me none. And now if you think my actions
Happen to be foolish, that's close enough
To being charged as foolish by a fool.

73
 ANTIGONE [ 4 7 1 -491 ]

CHORUS LEADER To KREON.

It's clear this fierce child is the offspring of her fierce

Father! She does not know to bend amidst her
troubles. 520

KREON To CHORUS LEADER.

Understand that rigid wills are those

Most apt to fall, and that the hardest iron,
Forged in fire for greatest strength, you'll see
Is often broken, shattered. And with only
A small sharp bit, I've noticed, spirited
Horses are disciplined. For grand ideas
Are not allowed in someone who's the slave
Of others. . .
First, this girl knew very well
How to be insolent and break the laws
That have been set. And then her second outrage 530
Was that she gloried in what she did and then
She laughed at having done it. I must be
No man at all, in fact, and she must be
The man, if power like this can rest in her
And go unpunished. But no matter if
She is my sister's child, or closer blood
Relation to me than my whole family
Along with our household shrine to Zeus himself,
She and her sister by blood will not escape
The worst of fates—yes, I accuse her sister 540
Of conspiring in this burial, as much
As she.

To his men.

Go get her!

A few of KREON'S men go into the royal house

to find ISMENE.

74
 ANTIGONE [491 -513]

To CHORUS LEADER.

Earlier I saw her

Inside, raving, out of her wits. The mind
Of those who plan in the dark what is not right
Will often find itself caught as a thief.
But I hate even more those who when captured
In evil acts then want to make them noble.

ANTIGONE Now you've caught me, do you want something more

than my death?

KREON I don't. If I have that, then I have everything.

ANTIGONE Then why delay? To me, your words are nothing 550
Pleasing, and may they never please me; likewise,
My nature displeases you. And yet, for glory,
What greater glory could I have gained than by
Properly burying my own true brother?
These men would say it pleases them — if fear
Did not lock up their tongues. But one-man rule
Brings with it many blessings —especially
That it can do and say whatever it wants.

KREON You alone among the Thebans see it this way.

ANTIGONE These men see it, but shut their craven mouths
for you. 560

KREON You feel no shame that you don't think as they do?

ANTIGONE No —no shame for revering those from the same

womb.

KREON Wasn't he who died against him of the same blood?

ANTIGONE Of the same blood—the mother and the father, the

same.

75
 ANTIGONE [5 14 - 5 2 7 ]

KREON Why do you grace with irreverent honor that other

one?

ANTIGONE Eteokles' dead body won't testify to that.

KREON It will, if you honor him the same as the irreverent

one.

ANTIGONE It was no slave —it was my brother who died!

KREON Attacking this land! —the other stood against him, in

defense.

ANTIGONE And yet it's Hades who desires these laws. s/o

KREON But the good should not get equal honor with the
evil.

ANTIGONE Who knows if down there that is not considered holy?

KREON An enemy, even when he's dead, is not a friend.

ANTIGONE My nature's not to join in hate but to join in love.

KREON Then go down there and love those friends, if you

must love them!
But while I am alive, a woman will not rule!

The doors of the royal house open, and ISMENE is led

on stage by the men who had gone in search of her
inside the house.

CHORUS Chanting.

And here, outside the

Courtyard gates,
Ismene has come,
With tears of sister-

76
 ANTIGONE [527-551]

Love falling from her.

A storm-cloud over
Her brow mars
Her flushed face 580
And wets her lovely cheeks.

KREON To ISMENE.

And you —hiding unnoticed in the house

Like a snake that drank my blood! I didn't know
I raised a double ruin to bring down
The throne! Come, tell me, do you admit your part
In this burial, or swear that you know nothing?

ISMENE I did this deed—if she will allow me that—

And I too take the blame for my part in it.

ANTIGONE But Justice won't let you, because you did not wish
To act with me, nor did I share this with you. 590

ISMENE But amidst your troubles I am not ashamed

To sail beside you through your suffering.

ANTIGONE Hades and those below know whose the deed is.
I don't like a loved one who only loves with words.

ISMENE Sister, no! Do not dishonor me by not

Letting me die with you and purify our dead!

ANTIGONE Do not share my death, do not take as your own

That which you did not touch! My death will be
enough!

ISMENE How can I want to live if I am left without you?

ANTIGONE Ask Kreon! He's the one whose side you take! 600

ISMENE Why do you grieve me so, when it doesn't help you?

ANTIGONE Yes, mocking you hurts me instead, if I am mocking.

77
 ANTIGONE [552-572]

ISMENE Then how can I still try to help you now?

ANTIGONE Save yourself! I won't resent your escaping.

ISMENE Must I, in my misery, fall short of your fate?

ANTIGONE Yes—because you chose to live, and I to die.

ISMENE But I did not leave these words of mine unsaid!

ANTIGONE To one side you seemed right; to the other, I did.

ISMENE Yet we are both blamed equally for doing wrong!

ANTIGONE Be brave! You are alive—but my life has died 610

Already, for the sake of helping the dead.

KREON I'd say one of these girls now stands revealed as out
Of her senses, and the other one was born that way.

ISMENE Yes, My Lord, good sense that is innate

In people deserts them in the midst of troubles.

KREON Yours did, when you chose to do evil with evildoers.

ISMENE How can I live my life alone without her?

KREON Don't speak of her—for she does not exist.

ISMENE But will you kill your own son's bride-to-be?

KREON There are other furrows he can plant. 620

ISMENE Not the way he and she were fitting for each other.

KREON Evil wives for my son are something I detest!

ISMENE Dearest Haimon, how your father dishonors you!

78
 ANTIGONE [573-591 ]

KREON You irritate me too much!—you and your marriage-

bed.

ISMENE And will you really rob your son of her?

KREON It's Hades who will stop this wedding for me.

ISMENE It seems decided then, that she will die —

KREON By you and by me! No more delays! You men! —

Take them inside. From now on they must be
Women —not to be let run loose, for even 630

Bold men will try to make their escape when they

See Death begin to come too near their lives.

Some of KREON s men take ISMENE and ANTIGONE into

the royal house. KREON remains on stage with the rest
of his attendants.

The CHORUS perform their choreographed song.

Third ode I second stasimon

CHORUS Fortunate are they whose strophe a

Lives do not
Taste of woe; but among
Those whose house the gods
Shake, no ruin is absent
As it creeps over a
Multitude of generations like
A storm tide of the salt
Sea driven by northern
Gales from Thrace—waves
That speed over the ocean
Depths dark as the under-
World and churn
Up black sand from the sea-

79
ANTIGONE [591-613]

Bed and with harsh

Winds hurl it beating 640
Against headlands
That groan and roar.

From ancient times come antistrophe a

These afflictions of the
House of the Labdakids
That I see falling one
After another on yet
Earlier afflictions of the dead;
Nor does one generation
Release another, but some
God batters them instead; nor
Do they have any
Way to be set free.
The last rootstock of the
House of Oidipous,
In light that was spreading,
Is reaped by blood-
Red dust of the gods
Under the earth, for foolishness
Of speech and a Fury in the mind. eso

Zeus, what transgression strophe b

Of men could overcome
Your power? Neither
Sleep that catches
Everyone in its nets
Nor the weariless passing
Of the months named
For gods can
Overcome it—You,
The Generalissimo immune
To time, hold
The gleaming marble heights
Of Mount Olympos.
For what is now and
What comes after and
What came

80
 ANTIGONE [61 3-629]

Before, only one

Law can account,
Which is that into the life
Of mortal beings comes 660
Nothing great that lies
Beyond the reach of ruin.

It is wide-wandering antistrophe b
Hope that brings
Benefit to many
Men, but it deceives
Many others with desires
Light as air. When
It comes upon
A man, he cannot
See clearly until already
He has burnt his
Foot on live coals.
Wisely someone has
Kept before us the
Famous saying that
A moment will come
When what is bad
Seems good to the
Man whom some 670
God is driving toward
Ruin. Only a short
Time does he stay
Beyond the reach of ruin.

HAIMON enters from the side leading in from the city.

CHORUS LEADER Chanting.

Here is Haimon, your

Last and youngest offspring.
Does he come here
Grieving over the fate
Of Antigone, whom he
Would wed, and to rage

81
 ANTIGONE [629-658]

At the great pain of

Being cheated of his
Royal marriage to the
Girl he had betrothed?

THIRD EPISODE / SCENE IV

KREON Soon we'll know, better than the seers. My son,

Do you come to rage at your father, having heard
My final vote on your bride-to-be? Or are we 680
Still loved as your own, whatever we may do?

HAIMON Father, I'm yours. And as your judgments are

Both good and upright, then I'll follow them.
No marriage could be a greater prize for me
To win than being guided well by you.

KREON Yes, what's best is for you to hold that, son,

In your heart and stand behind your father's will
In everything. For this is why men pray
To bring up dutiful offspring and to keep them
At home: so they'll pay back a hated foe 690
With trouble, and giving honor, love the friends
Of their father as he does. Of him who breeds
Useless children, what else can you say but that
He only begets more burdens for himself,
And more mockery among his enemies?
So do not, son, throw out your own good sense
For the sake of pleasure in a woman—you
Should know an evil wife in bed with you
At home is something that soon enough grows cold
Wrapped in your arms. What could fester deeper 700
Than someone closely tied to you who's evil?
So spit this girl out as an enemy!
And let her marry someone else —in Hades.
Now that I've caught her as the only one
In all the city who openly defied me,
I won't be seen as false to my own word
By all the city—I'll kill her.

82
 ANTIGONE [658-688]

In the face
Of that, let her sing her hymns in praise of Zeus
The god of bonds of blood! If those I've raised
And kept become rebellious, then those outside 710
The family will become so, even more.
He who is a good man in his own house
Will also be seen to be just in public life.
A man like that—I'm confident he would
Rule well and wish to be well ruled; he'd stand
His ground where ordered, even in a storm
Of spears — a just and worthy fellow soldier.
But any criminal who violates
The laws or thinks he can give orders to those
Who rule, will not get any praise from me. 720
Whoever is put into power by
The city must be obeyed in everything—
In small things, and what's just, and the opposite.
There is no greater evil than lack of rule.
This is what brings cities to ruin, it's this
That tears the household from its roots, it's this
That routs the broken ranks of allied spears!
No—what does save the skins of most of those
Who act right is obedience! Therefore —
We must safeguard the orders of the rulers, 730
And we must never be defeated by
A woman —better to be overthrown,
If we must be, by a man; then we will not
Be said to have been beaten by the women.

CHORUS If age has not misled us, you seem to speak

Sensibly about the things you speak of.

HAIMON Father, the gods endow men with good sense —

Highest of all the things that we possess.
And I could not say in what way your words
Are wrong—and may I never be capable 740

Of knowing how to say that. But someone else

Might have a good thought, also. My natural role

83
ANTIGONE [ 6 8 8 - 7 2 1]

Is to watch out for you—for the things that people

Might say or do, or what they might blame you for.
And to the common citizen, when you
Dislike some word he says, your eye becomes
A terror. But I hear what's in the shadows —
How the city mourns for this girl, and how
She of all women least deserves the worst
Of deaths for the most glorious of deeds — 750
Since she did not allow her own true brother,
Fallen in slaughter, still unburied, to be
Destroyed by flesh-eating dogs and birds of prey.
Isn't golden honor what she merits?
Such talk is spreading secretly in the dark.
To me, father, there's no possession more
To be sought than your well-being—for in what
Could children feel a greater pride than in
A father with a flourishing reputation?
Or what is greater for the father than 760
The sons of whom he's proud? So don't invest
Your being in one single way to feel —
That what you say, but nothing else, is right.
Whoever thinks that only he himself
Owns all good sense, that he and no one else
Has such a tongue and mind—when men like that
Are opened up, it's seen that they are empty.
Even a man who's clever should feel no shame
In learning things—however many they are —
And in not keeping himself so tightly strung. 770
You see how all along a river swollen
By winter rain, the trees that bend with the current
Save themselves and even their twigs, but those
That stand straight are annihilated, root
And branch. And a man who pulls his rigging tight
And will not slacken it capsizes and then . . .
He simply has to sail on —upside down.
Let go of your anger, allow yourself to change.
Now, if there's judgment in the young, like me,
Then I would say it's best by far if a man 780
Is completely filled with knowledge by his nature.

84
 ANTIGONE [722-741]

But since things aren't inclined to be that way,

It's also good to learn from what's well said.

CHORUS My Lord's it's only fair, if he speaks to the point, that

you learn
From him—and Haimon, you likewise. Both sides
speak well.

KREON Should men of my age be instructed in right thinking

By someone who has only reached as yet his age?

HAIMON In nothing that's not just. If I am young,

Do not look at my age, but at what I do.

KREON Oh — is what you do revering rebels? 790

HAIMON I'd never tell you to revere an evildoer.

KREON Isn't that the sickness that infects this girl?

HAIMON That's not what people of Thebes, who share

this city, say.

KREON Should this city tell me what commands to give?

HAIMON See how you say that like a young new lord?

KREON Must I rule this land for someone else, not myself?

HAIMON There is no city that belongs to one man only.

KREON Isn't the city held to be his who rules?

HAIMON You'd do well as the single ruler of some

deserted place.

KREON It seems this man is fighting on the woman's side! soo

HAIMON If you're the woman—for it's you I'm looking after.

85
 ANTIGONE [742-757]

KREON By unjust accusations of your father, you worst

of men?

HAIMON Because I see you doing wrong to justice.

KREON So I'm doing wrong to show some reverence for

my rule?

HAIMON You show no reverence trampling on the honors the

gods deserve!

KREON A filthy way to think—submitting to a woman!

HAIMON At least you won't find me brought down by some-

thing shameful.

KREON What you say is all on her behalf, though.

HAIMON And yours! And mine! And that of the gods down
below!

KREON You will never marry this girl while she's alive. 810

HAIMON Then she will die. And dying, she'll destroy—

someone else.

KREON Are you so insolent as to attack me with threats?

HAIMON What threat is it to speak against such empty thinking?

KREON You'll regret lecturing when your own thoughts

were empty.

HAIMON If you were not my father, I'd say that you can't think.

KREON You slave of a woman—don't you prate at me!

HAIMON You want to speak, but never hear the one you
speak to?

86
 ANTIGONE [758-776]

KREON What!? By high Olympus you won't keep on

Abusing me so freely!

To his men.

Lead in the girl —

The hateful thing—so she may die at once! 820
Here, beside her bridegroom, in his sight!

Some of KREON s men go into the royal house in search

0f ANTIGONE.

HAIMON As he leaves to the side leading out beyond

the city walls.

No! Don't even think she'll die beside me!

And you will never see my face again
With your own eyes—so go rave on among
Whoever would still want to be your friend!

CHORUS My Lord, the man has gone off quickly in his anger!
The mind, at his age, can become weighed down
by grief.

KREON Let him do it! Let him go and have grand thoughts
Too big for a man. He won't save those girls from
their fate!

CHORUS Is it your thought, then, to kill both of them? 830

KREON Not the girl who did not touch the deed—well said!

CHORUS And with what sort of death do you plan to kill her?

KREON I'll lead her out to some deserted place

Where mortals do not go, and seal her up,
Still living, in a tomb dug into the rock,
With just enough to eat—for our expiation,
So that the city as a whole avoids

87
 ANTIGONE [776-795]

Pollution. There, where she can pray to Hades,

The only god whom she reveres, perhaps
She will be spared from dying—or else she'll learn MO
At last what pointless waste of effort it is
To worship what is down below with Hades.

KREON goes into the royal house with the rest of his
men; the CHORUS perform their choreographed song.

Fourth ode I third stasimon

CHORUS Eros, unconquered in strophe a

Combat! Eros, that
Leaps down upon
The herds! You
That pass the night-
Watch on a girl's
Soft cheeks, You
That cross the
Open sea and
Roam from hut to
Hut in the far
High fields —neither
The immortals nor
Man, who lives only a day, can escape
From you, and he
Who has you 850
Inside himself
Goes mad.

You that pull antistrophe a

The reins of just
Minds toward in-
justice, disfiguring
Men's lives; You
That stir up this
Strife between two
Men of the same
Blood, while victory

88
 ANTIGONE [795-81 0]

Goes to the force

Of love in the gaze: the
Desiring eyes of
The bride shine with
Wedding joy—this Power on its throne
rules
Equally with the great
Laws, for the goddess
Aphrodite at her play
Cannot be conquered. 860

ANTIGONE is brought out of the royal house

by KREON'S men.

CHORUS Chanting.

But I myself, at the sight

Of this, swing wide off
The track, beyond the
Limits of what the Laws allow.
Now I can no longer hold
Back the streams of
My tears when I see Antigone
Fulfilling this final journey-
To that bridal chamber where all must sleep, at last.

FOURTH EPISODE / SCENE V

ANTIGONE Singing.

Look at me, strophe b

Citizens of my native land! —I
Am walking
The last road,
I am seeing for
The last time
The radiance
Of the sun and
Never again!
While I am 870

89
 ANTIGONE [810-827]

Still alive, Hades,

Who makes us all
Sleep, at last,
Is leading me to
The banks of the River
Akheron. I have
No share of marriage
Rites, nor did
Any hymn of marriage
Sing me to
My wedding.
Instead my marriage will be to Akheron.

CHORUS Chanting.

Do you not go with glory and

Praise when you disappear
Into that place where the
Bodies of the dead are
Hidden? Not struck down by
Diseases that waste one
Away, not having earned
The deadly wages of 880
The sword, but answering only
To the law of yourself, you
Are the only mortal who
Will go down alive into Hades.

ANTIGONE Singing.

I have heard it antistrophe b

Told that the pitiable Phrygian stranger,
Daughter of Tantalus,
Died at the
Peak of Mount
Sipylos—rock
That grew like
Ivy wound
Around her
Tightly till it

90
 ANTIGONE [827-844]

Stilled her, and

Men say that
She, melting in
Rain and snow
That never cease,
Dissolves into 890
Tears running
Down the mountain
Ridges beneath
Her brow: divine
Power takes
Me, who am most like her, to bed.

CHORUS Chanting.

But you know she is a goddess and

Was born of gods, and we
Are mortals born of mortals.
Yet for a woman who
Has died it is a great thing
Even to be spoken of as having
The same fate as those
Who are like gods,
Both when alive and
Then afterward, when dead.

ANTIGONE Singing.

Ah, I am laughed at! strophe c

Why, by the gods of my fathers, do you
Insult me not
When I have gone 900
But when you see
Me still before you?
O city, O men
Of the city, with
Your many possessions!
Ah, springs of Dirke
And sacred ground

91
 ANTIGONE [844-862]

Of Thebes of the
Beautiful chariots —at least
You will be
Witnesses to how I go, un-
Lamented by any
Friends, and because of what
Kinds of laws, to the high-
Heaped prison of my
Tomb, my strange and
Dreadful grave. Ah,
Unfortunate that I am —
Neither living among those
Who are alive, nor 910
Dwelling as a corpse
Among corpses, having
No home with either
The living or the dead.

CHORUS Singing.

Stepping ahead to the very

Limits of audacity,
You have struck your foot
And fallen against
The throne of Justice,
O child! And for
Some torment of your
Father's, you are paying, still!

ANTIGONE Singing.

Of all my cares, you antistrophe c

Have touched the one most painful
to me:
My father's doom —recurring
Like the plowing
Of a field three
Times —and the ruin
Of us all — the famed
Family of the Labdakids! 920

92
 ANTIGONE [863-876]

Ah, my mother's disaster

Of a marriage bed,
And the self-incestuous
Coupling of my father
With my ill-fated
Mother! From such
As they, I-
Who have been made
Miserable in my mind—
Was begotten! Under a
Curse, unmarried, I
Go back to them, having
No other home but
Theirs. Ah, my brother! —
You who aimed at
And won a marriage
That brought doom,
You have died
And then killed
Me, who am still alive! 930

CHORUS Singing.

To show reverence
Is indeed some reverence.
But power, in him
Who holds power,
Is absolutely
Not to be opposed —
Your self-willed temper
Has destroyed you.

As ANTIGONE sings these last verses of her lament,

KREON comes out of the royal house with
more of his men.

ANTIGONE Singing.

Without anyone's epode

Weeping, without friends,

93
 ANTIGONE [876-899]

Without a marriage-
Song, I in my
Misery am
Led to the road
Prepared for me,
No longer am
I allowed to
See this fiery
Eye of heaven. For
My fate, there are 940
No tears or cries from any
Beloved friend.

KREON Don't you know that no one would stop their singing
And moaning before death if they didn't have to?

To his men.

Take her off! Quickly! Let the close-walled tomb

Wrap arms around her, as I've ordered, leave
Her there alone, deserted, where she can choose
Either to die, or in that sort of house
To go on living, in the tomb —as for us,
We're pure as far as that girl is concerned.
But she'll be deprived of any house up here! 950

ANTIGONE O tomb! O bridal bedchamber! O deep

Cave of a dwelling-place, under guard forever,
Where I must go to be with my own dear ones,
Most of whom Persephone has received
Dead among the shades! And I, the last
Of them, will go in the worst way of all
Down there before my portion of this life
Comes to me.
But as I go I hold strong hopes
That I will arrive as one loved by my father,
Loved by you, mother, loved by you, my own 960

94
ANTIGONE [899-928]

Dear brother—for when you died I washed and

laid out
Your bodies properly with my own hands
And poured libations at your graves.
And now! —
Polyneikes —for tending to your body,
This is my recompense! And yet to those
With clear thoughts I did well to honor you.
For I would never have assumed this burden,
Defying the citizens, if it had been
My children or my husband who had died
And had been left to rot away out there. 970
In deference to what law do I say this? —
Were my husband dead, there could be another,
And by that man, another child, if one
Were lost. But since my mother and my father
Are hidden now in Hades, no more brothers
Could ever be born —
This was the law by which
I honored you above all others, O
My own dear brother, but Kreon thought that I
Did wrong, that things I dared were terrible.
And now by force of hands he's leading me 980
Away, without a nuptial bed, without
A wedding ceremony, and receiving
No share of marriage nor of rearing children.
Deserted by those close to me, and destined
For ill, I come while still alive to the cave
Of the dead dug deep underground.
And what
Justice of the gods have I transgressed? And why
Should I, in my misfortune, keep looking to
The gods for help? To whom should I call out
To fight as my ally, when my reverence 990
Has earned me charges of irreverence?
If all this does seem good to the gods, then I
Through suffering would know within myself
That I did wrong; but if these men do wrong,
May the evils that they suffer be no more
Than what they are unjustly doing to me!

95
 ANTIGONE [929-939]

CHORUS Chanting.

The same storms of

Her spirit, hurling
The same blasts,
Still possess this girl.

KREON Chanting, KREON'S men having been reluctant to lead

ANTIGONE out.

And these men

Leading her will
Soon begin to wail,
Because of their slowness! 1000

ANTIGONE Chanting.

Oh! That pronouncement

Comes very near
To death!

KREON Chanting.

I cannot encourage
Anyone to be so bold as
To think that these
Orders are not final.

KREON goes into the royal house.

ANTIGONE Chanting.

O city of Thebes, of
My fathers and my land!
O gods of my ancestors!
I'm not going
To be led away—I'm
Led away now!

96
 ANTIGONE [940-954]

KREON'S men begin to take ANTIGONE toward the side

leading out beyond the city walls.

Look!—you rulers of Thebes —

On the last, solitary
Member of the royal
House, what things,
From what men,
I must suffer 1010
For having been
Reverent toward reverence!

The men and ANTIGONE leave. The chorus perform their

choreographed song, addressing ANTIGONE even though
she is absent.

Fifth ode I fourth stasimon

CHORUS Even Danae's lovely strophe a

Form was made to
Exchange the light of
The sky for a dark
Room bolted with
Bronze. Yoked by
Force, she suffered —Oh
Child, child! —imprisonment
As in a chamber like
A tomb, although
She was of much-
Honored descent and entrusted with the
raining gold
Of the seed of
Zeus. But the power
Of fate — whatever that is —
Fills us with terror and
Awe. Neither wealth nor
Weapons nor high walls 1020
Nor dark sea-battered
Ships can escape it.

97
ANTIGONE [955-976]

Likewise tamed under antistrophe a

A yoke was
The king of the
Edonians, the angry
Son of Dryas, for
Mocking with quick temper
The god Dionysos, who
Confined him in a
Prison of rock. What he
Had done, the terrible
Blooming of his madness,
Drained out of him there. Then he
recognized the god
Whom he had madly
Assaulted with his
Mocking words. He had
Tried to suppress the women
Quickened by the god,
And their fire of Dionysos; 1030
That god's Muses, who
Love the flute, he enraged.

Where indigo waters strophe b

Of two seas beat against shores of the
Bosporus
Is the Thracian
Place called Salmydessos, and there,
From his neighboring
Land, Ares saw
An accursed
Blinding wound
Fall on the
Two sons of
Phineus, their wide
Eyes—that would
Demand reprisals —
Beaten blind by
His savage wife
With her sharp

98
 ANTIGONE [976-993]

Shuttlepoints in her
Blood-stained hands. 1040

Wasting away in antistrophe b

Sadness, they lamented their sad fate,
these sons
Of a mother cast
Out of her marriage. And yet she
And her seed
Reached back to
The ancient family of
The Erekhtheids and in
Faraway caverns she had
Been raised among the
Storms and gales of Boreas,
Her father—she was a
Child of gods, flying as
Fast as horses over peaks
Too steep to be crossed
On foot. But on her, too,
The Fates, that live long ages,
Pressed hard, O child!

FIFTH EPISODE / SCENE VI

As the blind seer TEIRESIAS, an old man led by a boy,

enters from the city, he calls out to the CHORUS
of elders.

TEIRESIAS Lords of Thebes!—we come here sharing the road, 1050

Two persons seeing through the eyes of one. Thus go
The blind, with someone else to show the way.

KREON enters abruptly from the royal house,

with attendants.

KREON What news do you have, old Teiresias?

TEIRESIAS I will explain—and you will obey the seer!

KREON I never shunned your thinking, in the past.

99
 ANTIGONE [994-1 023]

TEIRESIAS That is why you captained this ship of a city rightly.

KREON I am a witness, from experience, to your services.

TEIRESIAS Know that your fortunes stand once more on the

razor's edge!

KREON What is it? What you say gives me a shudder!

TEIRESIAS You'll understand if you attend to the signs 1060

Of my craft. For as I sat at the ancient site
Of my bird-divining, where all sorts of hawks
Gather, I heard an unknown noise as they
Screeched their barbaric maddened gibber-jabber!
I knew that with their talons they were tearing
Murderously at each other—for the flurry
Of wings was not without significance.
At once, frightened, I tried to sacrifice
On an altar blazing properly. However,
Fire-god Hephaistos did not flare brightly up wo
From the offerings — instead, the fatty thighbones
Oozed slime onto the embers, that smoked and
sputtered;
And gall exploded, spewing high in the air,
The thighbones dripped with grease and lay exposed,
Without the fat that had covered them.
These things —
Failed signs from rites that did not signify—
I learned from this boy who's leading me, as I
Lead others. And it's from your thinking that
The city is sick. Our altars and our hearths
Are filled with food brought by the birds and dogs 1080
From the dead ill-fated son of Oidipous!
And this is why the gods still won't accept
Our prayers at holy sacrifice or the flames
That burn on thighbones, nor are the clamorous
shrieks
That birds cry out good omens, for they have eaten
The blood-streaked fat of a slaughtered man!
Know this,
My son: making bad choices is something shared

100
 ANTIGONE [1 023-1 050]

By all men, but when a man goes wrong, he's not

Still ill-advised and not ill-situated
If he tries to rectify the evil he 1090
Has fallen into and stops insisting that
He will not move. Stubbornness will earn
The charge of botching things! Give way to the dead.
Don't keep stabbing at him who is destroyed.
What prowess can there be in killing the dead
Yet again?
I do regard you well, so I
Speak well to you. It's sweetest to learn from one
Who speaks well, if his speaking assures your profit.

KREON Old man—you all, like archers, shoot your arrows

At me as if I were some target! You work 1100
Against me even with your divinations.
By people like you I have been bought and sold
And shipped like merchandise. So take your profit!
Go trade in silver alloys and in gold
From India, if that is what you wish.
But you will not put that man in a grave.
And even if the eagles of Zeus want
To seize him and to carry him as food
Up to the throne of their god! —not even then,
From fear of pollution will I let this man mo
Be given burial! For I know well
That no man has the power to stain the gods.
And even mortal men of striking, awe-
Some skill take shameful falls, Teiresias,
You old man, when they make a lovely speech
Of shameful language for the sake of profit.

TEIRESIAS Ah!
Does no man know, does no man understand —

KREON What is this great shared truth that you're

expounding?

TEIRESIAS —to what extent the best of all we own is prudence?

101
 ANTIGONE [ 1 0 5 1 - 1 070]

KREON Yes—to the same degree wrong thinking is the worst. 1120

TEIRESIAS But that's the very sickness that fills you!

KREON I do not wish to return the seer's insult.

TEIRESIAS But you do, when you say my oracles are false!

KREON Since the whole breed of seers is money-loving.

TEIRESIAS And that of tyrants loves its shameful profiting.

KREON Do you not know that your words blame your

sovereign?

TEIRESIAS I know. It was through me that you have saved this

city.

KREON You are a skillful seer—but you love what's unjust.

TEIRESIAS You'll make me say what should stay deep within my

mind.

KREON Do it!—so long as you don't speak for the sake of

profit. 1130

TEIRESIAS Is that what you think I have done, so far?

KREON Know that you will never buy and sell my judgment!

TEIRESIAS Then know this well: that you will not complete
Many swift courses of the racing sun
Before you yourself, from your own gut, will give
One corpse for other corpses, in exchange,
Because you thrust down there someone from here
Above, dishonorably compelling her,
A human spirit, to live inside a tomb,
While here you're keeping someone who belongs mo
Below—a body with no share of the gods,

102
 ANTIGONE [ 1 070-1 098]

No share of a tomb, no holiness—and this

Has nothing to do with you or the gods above,
And yet by you, violence is done to them!
And that is why the devastating late-
Destroying ones, the Furies, who avenge
Hades and the gods, now lie in wait for you,
So you will be caught up in these same horrors.
Ponder whether I would tell you this
Because I was given silver! Time will test mo
My mettle and will soon reveal much wailing
For the men and women of your own household.
And all the cities are rioting with hatred
Because only dogs, beasts, and winged birds
Of prey have purified in burial
The torn and mangled bodies of their dead,
Carrying back to the city and its hearths
A stench of unholiness.
With anger, now,
And like an archer, I have let these arrows
Fly at your heart, since you torment me so— 1160
And you will not outrun their hot pain.
Boy!
Lead me home, so that this man may let fly
His anger at some younger men and learn
To keep his tongue more quiet and his mind
Much better at thinking than it is right now.

TEIRESIAS and the boy leave, on the side leading

out of the city.

CHORUS My Lord, he's gone—with terrible predictions.

And since this hair—now white, which once was
black—
Has covered my head, I know that never yet
Has he pronounced a thing untrue to this city.

KREON I myself know this; and my mind is confused: 1170

It's terrible to give way. But to resist
And strike my soul with ruin —is terrible.

CHORUS Son of Menoikeus, be well-advised!

103
 ANTIGONE [ 1 099-1 1 20]

KREON What must I do? Tell me! I will obey.

CHORUS Go send the girl up from her deep-dug house!

Build a tomb for the one who lies there, dead!

KREON Do you approve of this? You think I should give way?

CHORUS As fast as possible, My Lord! The gods' swift-footed

Bringers-of-Harm cut down the evil-minded.

KREON Oh! This is hard —but I change my heart. I'll do it! mo

One cannot fight against necessity.

CHORUS Then go and do these things! Do not leave them

to others!

KREON I'm going immediately, right now! You men!

All of you here and all the others, too!
Go! Go! Take tools and hurry to the place
You see out there! And I, since my decision
Has taken this turn —I who have put her there
In prison will be there to set her free
Myself. I am afraid it's best to observe
The established laws through all one's life, to the end. 1190

KREON and his men rush out of the city.

The CHORUS perform their choreographed song.

Sixth ode I fifth stasimon

CHORUS God of many names! — strophe a

Glory of the young wife from the clan
Of Kadmos, child
Of thundering Zeus,
Guardian of magnificent
Italy, ruling where
The folds of the
Hills pleat the lap

104
ANTIGONE [ 1 1 2 0 - 1 1 3 9]

Of Eleusinian Demeter,
Shared by all,
You, O Bakkhos,
That live in
Thebes, mother-city
Of the Bakkhai,
By the flowing
Waters of Ismenos
And on the very
Ground where the
Savage serpent's teeth
Were planted; 1200

You, whom the sputtering antistrophe a

Smoking flames of pine torches
have seen,
Up beyond the
Double peak of
Rock, where the
Korykian nymphs
Walk with Bakkhic
Step and Kastalia
Flows down;
You that the ivy
Slopes of Nysaian
Hills send forth
To lead them in
Procession, and the
Green coast rich with
Grapes, while immortal
Followers cry out
The Bakkhic chant as
You watch over
The Sacred Ways of Thebes— 1210

This place that strophe b

You and Your
Mother, she who
Was struck by
Lightning, honor

105
 ANTIGONE [1 1 4 0 - 1 1 62]

As highest of all
Cities: now, when
The force of
Disease holds the
City fast and all
Its people, come
Cleanse us! Stride over
The slopes of Parnassos or
Cross the moaning narrows to us,

O You that antistrophe b

Lead the dance
Of the stars that breathe
Out fire, You that
Watch over the voices
Sounding in the night, 1220
Child of Zeus, His
Son, show us Your
Presence as a god, O
Lord, with Your
Bakkhantic Nymphs who
Whirl around You in worship
And celebrate You in frenzied dance
All the long night, lakkhos! Generous
giver!

SIXTH EPISODE / SCENE VII

Arriving from the side leading in from beyond the city

walls, a MESSENGER addresses the CHORUS.

MESSENGER All you who live near the houses of both Kadmos
And Amphion—there is no person's life
That I would praise or blame, no matter what
The circumstances of it now, because
Fortune puts right and fortune topples down,
Always, the fortunate and unfortunate. 1230
Of things that stand established for us mortals,
No seer can predict what is to come.
Once, in my view, Kreon was enviable—
Because he saved this land of Kadmos from

106
 ANTIGONE [1 1 62-1 1 82]

Its enemies, and took sole, absolute

Command of this domain and governed it,
Having sown the seeds of noble children.
All that has flown. For when a man's enjoyment
Betrays him, I don't think of him as living
But as a dead man who can still draw breath. 1240
Pile up your wealth at home, if you so wish,
And live in the style of a king—but if enjoyment
Of things like these is absent, I wouldn't pay
The shadow of thin smoke to anyone
For what's left afterward, compared to joy.

CHORUS But what new grief of the royal house do you bring
with you?

MESSENGER They're dead. And for their dying, the living are
to blame.

CHORUS Who is the murderer? And who lies dead? Tell us!

MESSENGER Haimon is killed—bloodied by a hand close to him.

CHORUS By his father's hand? Or was it by his own? 1250

MESSENGER His own, against himself, in fury at his father for

murder.

CHORUS O seer! How rightly you fulfilled your prophecy!

MESSENGER Since things are so, you must prepare for what's to
come.

Unexpectedly, EURYDIKE—HAIMON'S mother—comes out

the door of the royal house, alone.

CHORUS Yes, I see poor Eurydike nearby—

The wife of Kreon. She comes here, perhaps,
Because she heard about her son—or by chance.

107
 ANTIGONE [1 1 8 3 - 1 2 1 4]

EURYDIKE Men of the city! —as I was at the door,

To go in supplication and in prayer
To the goddess Pallas, I overheard some talk,
And when I chanced to loosen and pull back 1260
The bolts of the outer door to open it,
Word of dire harm to this house struck my ears,
And I fell against my women slaves, afraid,
And fainted. But no matter what report
Has come, tell it again! And I will listen
As one who has lived through adversity.

MESSENGER I myself was nearby, my dear mistress,

And will tell you, and won't hold back a word
Of the truth—for why should I soften for you
What would show me to be a liar, later? 1270
Always, the truth is the right thing.
I went
As guide with your husband to the highest place
On the plain, where the body of Polyneikes
Still lay, unpitied and torn apart by dogs.
We prayed to the goddess of crossroads and Pluto
To restrain their anger and to be benign,
Then we washed the body with pure water,
And what was left of him we put with young,
Freshly broken branches and burned, and then
With earth of his own land we built a mound 1280
For burial, straight and true, and afterward
We went toward the young girl's hollowed-out
Bridal crypt of Hades with its floor of rock.
And near that chamber without funeral rites,
One man hears a shrill wailing that sounds
Far off, and he comes rushing up to tell
My master Kreon—who, as he creeps nearer,
Hears all around him pitiful shouts that cannot
Be understood, and he groans aloud and cries
These anguished words of grief: "O miserable me, 1290
Am I a seer? Am I traveling along
A path that's more unfortunate than all
The roads I've taken? What greets me is the voice

108
ANTIGONE [1214-1 243]

Of my son. You men! Come here quickly! Closer!

Go to the tomb! Go look inside the mound,
There where those fitted stones have been torn out,
Go right up to the mouth of it to find
If what I'm hearing is the voice of my son
Haimon—or if the gods are tricking me!"
At these commands from our despairing master, 1300
We looked. And at the back of the tomb we saw
The girl there, hanging by her neck in a noose
Tied of fine-woven linen, and the boy
Pressing against her, falling with his arms
Around her waist and moaning because the bed
Of his bride had been despoiled, down below,
And because of his father's actions and his own
Ill-fated marriage. When Kreon sees them, he goes
Inside toward him, moaning sadly, then
With wailing cries he shouts, "You desperate boy— 1310
What a thing you've done! What was in your mind?
What happened that spoiled your reason? Come out,
son!
I beg you, like a supplicant!" But the boy
Looks wildly at him with fierce eyes and spits
In his face and without giving him an answer
Draws his sharp, two-edged sword, but as his father
Fled rushing out, the blow missed. Instantly
The boy, ill-fated and furious at himself,
Leaned over his sword, pushing it half its length
Into his side, and still in his senses, he wraps 1320
The girl in the weak crook of his arm, pulling
Her close, and gasping he spurts a quick stream,
Blood-red drops on her white cheek.
One corpse
Atop another corpse, he lies there now,
Desolate boy, who in the end has had
His wedding ceremony—but in the house
Of Hades, having shown to all men that
Sheer folly is much the worst of all man's evils.

EURYDIKE turns and goes into the royal house.

109
 ANTIGONE [1 244-1 260]

CHORUS What do you think this means? The lady has gone
back
Inside again, without a word, either good or bad. 1330

MESSENGER I too am amazed. I cherish, though, the hope

That having heard of her son's pain, she will
Not wail her cries in public in the city,
But in the shelter of her own house she
Will lead the private grieving among her servants.
She's not without good judgment, and won't do
wrong.

CHORUS I do not know. But too much silence seems

To me as weighty as loud pointless weeping.

MESSENGER But I will learn, once I am in the house,

If she is keeping hidden some close secret 1340
In her raging heart. You speak well—too much
silence
Can also point to what weighs heavily.

FINAL EPISODE / SCENE VIII

The MESSENGER goes into the house, while from the

side that leads in from beyond the city, KREON and
some of his attendants arrive with the body
of HAIMON.

CHORUS Chanting.

And here is our Lord,

Himself, arriving
With a conspicuous sign
In his arms, a memorial,
His own ruin —
No one else's (if it is
Lawful for us to say so),
Having himself done wrong.

110
 ANTIGONE [1261-1276]

KREON Singing.

Oh! strophe a
The stubborn wrong-
Doing and death-
Dealing of mistaken
Thinking!
Here you see
Kindred who have 1350
Killed and been
Killed! Oh my
Foolish heedlessness!
O my young,
Son, dead
So young,
Aiee!
Aiee!
You died, you were
Torn away from us
Because of my
Foolishness, not yours!

CHORUS Speaking.

Ah, you seem to recognize what justice is, too late!

KREON Singing.

Oh! strophe b
In my desolation, I have
Learned! Then, then, some god
Leapt with all his heavy
Weight and struck me in the 1360
Head and sent me spinning
Down savage roads, over-
Turning my joy to be trampled
On! Oh no! No!
The burden of being mortal —
The sad, exhausting burden!

111
 ANTIGONE [1 277-1 290]

The MESSENGER returns from within the house

and sees KREON.

MESSENGER Speaking.

Master, you hold and you possess the woes

You bear now in your arms, and yet I think
You will see even more inside the house.

KREON Speaking.

What worse woe is there, following on these woes?

MESSENGER Speaking.

Your wife, poor woman —the mother absolute

Of this corpse —is dead of knife wounds just inflicted.

KREON Singing,

Ah! antistrophe a mo
Ah, Harbor of Hades
Never to be purified!
Why, why do
You destroy me?

To MESSENGER.

You bringer of bad

Tidings for me—what
Words are you saying?
Aiee! You have killed
A destroyed man
Twice over! Speak,
Boy! Of what new
Killing do you tell me?
Aiee!
Aiee! —

112
 ANTIGONE [1291-1 306]

A woman's
Sacrificial
Death piled on
Top of death?

SERVANTS open the palace door, revealing the body

of EURYDIKE.

CHORUS Speaking.

See her! She is no longer hidden deep within. mo

KREON Singing.

Ah! antistrophe b
Miserable me, I see this
Second horror! What fate,
What fate, is waiting for me still?
Only now I held my
Son in my arms,
Miserable me, and now
I see her body before me.
Ah! Ah!
Pitiful mother!
Ah! My son!

MESSENGER Speaking.

At the altar, with a sharp-edged, pointed blade

She stabbed herself with sudden force and allowed
Her eyes to close on darkness—after she wailed
For the empty bed of dead Megareus 1390
And for this son, too; and last, she chanted hymns
Of evil curses on you, killer of sons.

KREON Singing.

Aiee! Aiee! strophe c

113
 ANTIGONE [1 307-1 325]

I shake with dread!

Why has no one
Stabbed straight
Into my chest with a two-
Edged sword?
Desolate me, aiee!
Desolate the anguish
That is now mixed into me!

MESSENGER Speaking.

Yes—you were charged by the dead woman here

With blame for this death and the other one.

KREON Speaking.

How was she torn away from us so bloodily? 1400

MESSENGER Speaking.

With her own hand, she struck herself below her liver,
When she learned of her son's bleak end, that brought
sharp wailing.

KREON Singing.

Ah me! Because of my strophe d

Guilt, these things will
Never be fitted to
Any other man. It was
I, I, who killed you,
In my helpless misery!
I speak the truth.
You servants! Lead
Me quickly, lead me
Away from everything,
I who am no more
Than nothing!

114
 ANTIGONE [1 326-1 340]

CHORUS Speaking.

If woes bring profit, then you advise what's profitable.

When woes are in our path, the briefest are the best. mo

KREON Singing.

Let it come! Let it come! antistrophe c

May it appear to me —
That best of fates
That brings my
Final day,
The most perfect!
Let it come! Let it come!
So that I will not
See another day!

CHORUS Speaking.

That's in the future. We must do what lies before us.

Those who take care of these things will take their
care.

KREON Speaking.

But I have prayed for everything I long for.

CHORUS Speaking.

Don't pray for anything—for from whatever good

Or ill is destined for mortals, there's no deliverance. 1420

KREON Singing, as he looks from HAIMON'S body

to EURYDIKE S.

Lead me away antistrophe d

From everything, a useless
Man, who killed you,
My child!—although not

115
 ANTIGONE [ 1 340-1 353]

By my intent. And I killed

You, also. Ah, my helpless misery!
I do not know which one
To look at or where to
Lean now to find support.
Everything is twisted in
My hands, while onto my head
Unbearable fate has leapt down!

KREON'S MEN lead him away.

CHORUS Chanting.

Good sense is the

First principle
Of happiness. We
Must not act
Disrespectfully
Toward the gods.
Grand words of arrogant
Men, paid back with 1430
Great blows, in old age
Teach good sense.

116
 NOTES ON THE T E X T

I [Charles Segal] have profited from the commentaries of Andrew Brown, Sophocles:
Antigone (Warminster, 1987), Mark Griffith, Sophocles: Antigone (Cam-
bridge, 1999), and Richard Jebb, Sophocles, The Plays and Fragments,
III (Cambridge, 1900); and also from R. D. Dawe, ed., Sophokles, Tra-
goediae, vol. 2 (Leipzig, 1985); from J. C. Kamerbeek, The Plays of
Sophocles, Commentaries, Part III, The Antigone (Leiden, 1978); and
from H. Lloyd-Jones and N. G. Wilson, Sophoclea (Oxford, 1990).

Line numbers are given in this order: translation (bold type) / Greek text. Quotations
from the translation are in italics; paraphrases or other renderings are
in quotation marks.

CHARACTERS
ISMENE: probably a little younger than Antigone, as the latter is to
be married first, but the play gives no clear indication.
THE CHORUS: Sophokles has chosen a chorus of elderly citizens, men
of stature and importance, to emphasize the civic and political aspects
of his theme. One should keep in mind that classical Athens also con-
tains a large population of resident aliens ("metics") and slaves, and
that neither are citizens. Freeborn Athenian women, though they have
many rights, do not have the right to vote, hold public office, or own
property in their own names. They are expected to remain primarily
in the house and to be concerned with the rearing of children and the
management of domestic affairs. They do, however, have important
religious functions (many cults had priestesses), particularly in the area
of funerary ritual.
MESSENGER, and VARIOUS MALE ATTENDANTS; SERVANTS; SLAVES:
Though the Guard is probably a lower-class citizen, the other minor
figures on the stage are probably slaves. Slavery was an accepted part

117
 NOTES ON THE TEXT

of Athenian life and an essential part of the ancient economy. Slaves

did much of the menial work in the household and were often the
manual workers in agriculture, the various trades, and mining. Slavery
is not particularly an issue in the play, except in those cases in which
it appears as an insult in angry exchanges between characters (e.g., 527-
28 / 479, 568 / 517, 816 / 756).

1-2 /1 Ismene, my own true sister.. . sharing our common bond of birth Antigone's
dense opening first line addressing Ismene suggests both her intense
involvement in kin ties and the disastrously involuted nature of these
ties within the house of Oidipous. The English can only approximate
the effect of what in the Greek is, literally, "common self-sistered head
of Ismene," i.e., my very own sister. This formulation, "head of some-
one, is fairly common in tragedy and is a somewhat more emotional,
loftier, and more dignified form of address than the ordinary. The
phrasing is significant, for the words "common" and "self-" (in various
compounds, or sometimes translated in such form as "with their own
hands," 192 /172), recur throughout the play to describe the incest and
self-blinding of Oidipous and the mutual fratricide of the two brothers;
see note on 61-71 / 49-57.

3/2 one evil left to us by Oidipous The play at once reminds us of the sufferings
of the house of Oidipous, which include King Oidipous' murder of his
father, Laios, and his incestuous marriage with his mother, Queen lo-
kaste, from which have been born Ismene and Antigone and their
brothers Polyneikes and Eteokles. In many versions of the myth, the
death of the two brothers at one another's hands results from Oidipous'
curse on them. In Antigone, Oidipous has presumably died at Thebes;
in Oidipous at Kolonos, composed some thirty-five years after Antigone,
Oidipous wanders for many years in exile, blind and impoverished,
attended by a devoted Antigone, until he arrives at Athens, where he
curses the brothers shortly before his death. The curse is to be fulfilled
soon afterwards at Thebes, and the play ends with Ismene and Antigone
returning to Thebes, the point where Antigone begins. In Euripides'
Phoinikian Women (409 BCE) Oidipous is still alive at the time of the
brothers' quarrel and death. Also see Appendix 2.

7-8 / 4 nothing that's not weighed down by ruin The reading of the manuscripts
here is uncertain. We adopt a widely accepted nineteenth-century
emendation.

118
 NOTES ON THE TEXT

10 / 8 the general Throughout the play Antigone avoids calling Kreon, "the new
ruler of Thebes/' "king," or "lord." For an Athenian audience, the term
"general" could also suggest one of the ten generals elected each year,
who had broad powers in the field. Most Greek tragedies are set in the
remote time of Mycenaean kingdoms, with their mythical atmosphere,
but allow anachronistic references to Athenian political institutions.
See note on 680 / 632.

13-14 / 10 evils of our enemies .. . against our friends and dear ones Antigone ends
her speech with the two terms whose definition becomes a central issue
in the play. "Friends," philoi (which we translate as "dear ones," also),
is a particularly important term. It can include loved ones in the inti-
macy of the family, or "friends" in our broader and looser sense, or
those on one's side in politics, one's "allies." The play exploits this
range of meanings very fully. The connotations of intimacy are espe-
cially strong, as the underlying meaning of philos is what lies in the
realm of one's own, in contrast to the other or the outsider. "Evils of
our enemies" here can mean either the evil that Kreon intends for one
of Antigone's "friends" or "dear ones," i.e., her brother Polyneikes, or
the sufferings appropriate to her family's enemies, including perhaps
the Argive attackers.

18-19 / 13-14 two brothers . . . twin blows The repeated numerals emphasize both the
pathos and the horror of the mutual fratricide and recall the dark back-
ground of the kin ties in this accursed house. Similar collocations recur
later: 62-72 / 49-57, 190-91 / 170-71.

21 / 16 This very night It is presumably just before dawn, after the night battle. See
note on 118-81 / 100-61.

28-29 / 23-24 The manuscript text of these lines is probably corrupt; we have fol-
lowed a widely accepted emendation.

33-38 / 27-30 proclamation . .. left unmounted, unburied... their greedy joy Here
and elsewhere in the play Sophokles echoes Homeric language for the
exposure of a warrior's corpse. Whether Kreon is legally justified so to
maltreat the body is left open, and this gray area enables the tragic
conflict to develop. Homeric warriors often threaten to maltreat an
enemy's body (as Achilles, notably, does to that of Hector at the end
of the Iliad), but in fact do not often do so. In the fifth century each
side was generally allowed to gather and bury their dead, but in Athens

119
 NOTES ON THE TEXT

the bodies of traitors could be denied burial within its borders. We

learn of Kreon's treatment of the body first from this description by
Antigone, which of course puts his behavior in the worst light. She
stresses the two major components of proper burial, the keening or
lament over the body and covering it in a tomb or grave (see notes on
472-76 / 427-31, 962-65 / 900-903, and 1275-81 /1199-1204). Her vivid
language depicting its violation by birds of prey, the most horrible fate
a Greek can imagine for a corpse, conveys at once her intense emo-
tional involvement. Kreon's announcement of his decree in 230-35 /
203-6 echoes the language of Antigone here, but adds dogs to her birds
and omits her vivid image of the sweet-tasting treasure. See note on
1080-81 / 1016-18.

40 / 31 The noble Kreon Antigone's irony, following immediately on her description

of the exposed body of Polyneikes, intimates her hatred of Kreon that
will emerge increasingly in the course of the action.

46-47 / 35-36 by public stoning murdered This is the punishment for traitors in
Athens. Kreon's decree later, however, refers only to Antigone's under-
ground burial, with its many thematic and poetic advantages for the
play. Although our sources for the myth of Antigone are very scanty, it
is possible that her underground burial is Sophokles' invention. See
note on 944-50 / 885-90.

48-49 / 37-38 whether you are noble . . . cowardly Antigone espouses what are tra-
ditionally male heroic values of nobility or honor: see notes on 87-90
/ 72-74 and 114-15 / 96-97.

52 / 41 joining in my action and my burden Antigone's repetition, in the Greek, of

two verbs beginning with the prefix sun- (or syn-), "together with,"
expresses her sense of family solidarity (which, however, will soon frac-
ture). "Burden," ponos, means "suffering" as well as "work," "toil," or
"effort." That meaning recurs emphatically at the end of the play in
Kreon's outcry at the magnitude of his "burden," 1363 / 1276. The
burden/suffering that Ismene here refuses but later will attempt to share
proves greater than either sister can anticipate in this opening scene.

53-60 / 42-48 What sort of dangerous act. . . not for him to keep me from my
own This exchange at once depicts the contrast between Ismene's ti-
midity and Antigone's defiance of authority.

120
 NOTES ON THE TEXT

61 / 49 Oh! These exclamations recur throughout the play and are part of the con-
ventionalized language of emotional expression here and in all of
Greek tragedy. The Greek interjection, as here, is often oimoi, which
has no easy English equivalent. It is often rendered "alas" but may
express a wide range of emotions, including sorrow, annoyance, im-
patience, or anger. It is possible that these words in our text may have
been merely a shorthand indication to the actor of the need for an
emotional cry of some sort whose exact tone he would indicate by
gesture and inflection of voice. We have rendered these terms differ-
ently as the various contexts seem to require.

61-71 / 49-57 But sister. . . shared a doom in common See note on 1-2 / 1. The
vocabulary of "self," "each other," "common," etc. recalls the crimes
and pollutions that mark the misfortunes of Oidipous' family. The
phrase "self-striking hand" is echoed several times later in the play for
violence directed against the self (192 / 172, 3507 306, 1249 / 1175, 1401
/ 1315, and compare also 62-65 I 51-52 here), thus suggesting the con-
tinuation of the sufferings of the accursed family into the next gener-
ation. This turning of the family against itself is also the subject of the
second stasimon (633-77 / 582-630). The language here, recalling An-
tigone's opening lines, associates the suffering of the two living sisters
with the too closely intertwined dooms of the dead incestuous parents
and the fratricidal brothers.

62-68 / 49-54 Our father, after beating out his eyes . . . mother and wife . . . violently
disfigured her own life Sophokles is referring to the familiar story of
Oidipous and lokaste, the subject of his Oidipous Turannos (written at
least a decade later). Oidipous discovers that he has unwittingly killed
his father, Laios, and married his mother, lokaste. After this discovery,
he blinds himself and lokaste hangs herself. Sophokles will repeat some
of his language for the hanging and blinding in the Oidipous Turannos
(1266-78).

74-75 / 59-60 rulers' vote and power The Greek word for "vote" suggests analogies
with fifth-century BCE Athenian political institutions; see note on 680
/ 632. The word for "rulers" is turannoi, which does not mean "tyrant"
in our sense but nevertheless may carry a pejorative association of au-
tocratic and illegitimate power; see note on 556 / 506.

76-77 / 61-62 born as women . . . war with men Ismene introduces the conflict of
genders that is developed further in Kreon's obsession with being de-
feated by a woman.

121
 NOTES ON THE TEXT

87-90 / 72-74 For me it's noble. . . tied by love. . . holy crime Noble (kalos) is an
important value term in classical culture. It includes physical beauty,
but also denotes what is beautiful, admirable, or (in an earlier idiom)
fine. Antigone here reveals some of the principal springs of her actions.
She combines her concern with the heroic values implicit in kalos,
beautiful or noble, with her commitment to the bonds of family love
(philia) and her paradoxical situation of committing what she regards
as a justifiable crime. As a woman who espouses masculine heroic
values and defies male authority to commit a holy crime, she at once
defines herself as a paradoxical figure, and hence as tragic. See notes
on 53-60 / 42-48 and on 114-15 / 96-97 and 345 / 301.

91-92 / 75-76 those down below. . . those up here. . . forever This is the play's first
statement of the contrast between upper and lower worlds, and it comes
appropriately in the context of Antigone's devotion to the dead. This
contrast recurs in her important speech of defiance to Kreon in 495-
518 / 450-70, in her lament in 910-12 / 850-53, and in Teiresias' warn-
ing in 1135-43 /1066-73.

105 / 88 heart that's hot for what is chilling Ismene's reproach implies Antigone's
eagerness for actions that should make one "chilled" with fear. In Oz-
dipous at Kolonos 621-22 the aged Oidipous predicts that his "chill
corpse" will drink the "warm blood" of Athens' enemies. The associa-
tion of "chilling" with death reinforces Ismene's repugnance to Antig-
one's plan.

110-12 / 93-94 hated by me... to the dead man . . . a hated enemy These words
indicate the harsher side of Antigone, in sharp contrast to her devotion
to the ties of family love or philia.

113 / 95 ill-considered plan The contrast of supposed good sense and Antigone's "fool-
ish" sacrifice of her life to bury her brother becomes a major motif in
the conflict between Antigone and Kreon and a major component of
her tragedy. Compare also Ismene's objection in 83 / 68, that Antig-
one's intended act makes no sense. When Ismene exits, the scene ends,
in fact, with the contrast between Antigone's "foolishness" and love or
philia within the family (116-17 / 99).

114-15 / 96-97 suffer nothing so bad as to deny me a death with honor The accu-
mulation of three negatives in a single line in the Greek syntax perhaps
expresses Antigone's passionate determination to overcome the obsta-

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cles on which Ismene has insisted. Death with honor, Antigone's last
words in the prologue, reaffirm the heroic ethos of the male warrior
that she has espoused. See note on 53-60 / 42-48.

117 / 99 rightly dear to your dear ones The motif of family love (philia) ends the
scene, along with a contrast of "love" and "death" (115 / 97). See note
on 113 / 95.

118-81 / 100-161 Parodos (first ode) The chorus of elderly Theban citizens enters
the orchestra singing what is essentially a hymn of celebration for the
victory over Polyneikes and his Argive army. It begins with the Sun
and ends with Dionysos, one of Thebes' major divinities. In between
it mentions Zeus, whose fiery lightning wards off the fire of the attack-
ers (148-49 / 131; compare 140 / 122-23, 154 / 135), Ares, god of war, and
Victory. Choruses of citizens regularly sang and danced in such civic
rituals, and the ritual character of the ode is clearly indicated by the
exhortation in 171-72 / 152-54 to visit all the temples of the gods in
thanksgiving. The chorus's opening words mark the new dawn (see
note on 21 / 16), and the sun's radiance symbolically expresses the joy
of the city's new lease on life. The chorus depicts the attackers both
as bloodthirsty birds of prey and as furious madmen, seething with the
wildness of the followers of Dionysos (153-54 / 135-36). By contrast, the
ode ends with the city's celebration of Dionysos, born in Thebes and
a major protective divinity (174 /154). The ode introduces a perspective
very different from Antigone's in the opening scene, revealing the terror
of the threatened city and the anxiety of the citizens about their very
survival. It thus helps frame the play's fundamental conflict between
loyalty to family and loyalty to the city. Appropriately, the ode intro-
duces Kreon, the new ruler of the city (175-81 / 155-61). The ode
contains a number of verbal echoes of Aiskhylos' Seven against Thebes
(467 BCE), probably Sophokles' most influential predecessor in dram-
atizing the myth. That play became famous for its depiction of martial
valor in defense of the city.

119-20 / 101-2 seven-gated Thebes The struggle over the city focuses on the defense
of its seven gates. See note on 160 / 141.

124 / 106 Argive warrior The reading is not completely certain. If it is correct, it is
probably to be understood collectively as the Argive army that Poly-
neikes is leading against his native city. In 148ff. I 131ff. the enemy is
individualized in the ferocious attacker, Kapaneus.

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 NOTES ON THE T E X T

127 / 108-9 sharp bit stabbing him The metaphor of the bit is common in Greek
tragedy and recurs later in the play. Although riders today use the bit
to restrain the horse, the metaphor here seems to imply its use to drive
the animal forward with greater urgency, as the Argive warrior is rush-
ing in headlong flight.

128-34 / 110—16 Chanting After the highly lyrical meters of the preceding lines, the
chorus changes to anapests, the marching meter that often accompa-
nies their entrance. They continue this alternation of anapests and
lyrical meters throughout the ode. Here and elsewhere we have used
the term "chanting" to indicate the anapests.

129 / no Quarrels of divisive Polyneikes The phrase in Greek plays on the second
part of Polyneikes's name, neikos, "quarrel." The reading of the man-
uscripts presents problems, and we here adopt a widely accepted
emendation.

140 / 123 fire-god Hephaistos is the god of fire, here mentioned metonymically.

144 / 126 the Theban Serpent Kadmos founded Thebes by slaying the serpent or
dragon that guarded its spring, Dirke. He then sowed the creature's
teeth in the ground, and from these sprung the original warrior-race of
Thebes, the Spartoi (Sown Men or Planted Men). They immediately
fought one another, anticipating the internal conflicts of Thebes' royal
house, and only five survived to become the first citizens and founding
race of Thebes. In the background may be the Homeric image of an
eagle fighting a serpent, but a metaphorical wrestling is also implied.
The text is not entirely certain. Variant readings would give the sense
"a hard-won victory of his (the Argive's) snake antagonist" (Griffith) or
"the attack of the Serpent antagonist against which the Argive could
not prevail" (see Jebb).

152 / 134 tumbled crashing to the hard ground This attacker is probably to be iden-
tified with the fiercest of the attackers, the boastful Kapaneus, who,
however, stands for the fury and savagery of the enemy army as a whole.

153 / 136 Bakkhic fury Though not referring specifically to Dionysos, the phrase
draws on the image of the ecstatic wildness and madness of the devo-
tees of this god in their dances and processes. The language recurs in
the last ode with much more specific Dionysiac associations: see notes
on 1196/1121 and 1221-247 1149-52.

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 NOTES ON THE TEXT

157-58 / 139-40 the great war god.. . lead horse Ares, god of war, is compared to
the horse on the right-hand side of a team of horses, the position given
to the strongest horse.

160 / 141 Seven captains One opponent is matched to each of the seven gates of
Thebes. Sophokles here (as elsewhere in the ode) may have in mind
the celebrated description of the attack in Aiskhylos' Seven against
Thebes, 375-676, where Eteokles, in a long speech, appoints one cap-
tain to guard each gate against his adversary, keeping the seventh post,
tragically, for himself against his brother, Polyneikes. See note on 118-
81 / 100-161.

162 / 143 battle-turning Zeus Zeus Tropaios receives the dedication of the "trophies,"
the enemies' armor or weapons that the victors set up on the field, at
the place where the enemy made their "turning" (trope) in flight.

163-66 /144-47 two doomed, cursed men . .. one father. .. one mother. . . one death
in common Sophokles again uses the contrast of one and two and the
language of mutuality to interweave the death of brother by brother
with the incestuous union of Oidipous and lokaste. The density of the
language itself in Greek represents the disastrously introverted nature
of the kin ties in this family. See note on 18-19 / 13-14.

170 / 150-51 Forget this war Sophokles may be alluding here to the ancient motif of
song as bringing forgetfulness of grief: e.g., Hesiod, Theogony, 54-55,
99-103.

174 / 154-55 Dionysos, Earth-shaker of Thebes Dionysos, one of the major divinities
of Thebes, often manifests himself by earthquakes. His appearance as
a savior here contrasts with the Dionysiac madness of the attackers in
x
53-54 /135-36-

182-240 / 162-210 Kreon's first speech reveals the basic lines of his character, his
concern with the state, authority, and power. His emphasis on the safety
of the city in a time of danger would probably win him the sympathy
of the audience of Athenian citizens. At the same time his vehement
insistence on his own authority (conveyed by his repeated use of the
first person) and his reference to all the power and the throne (194/ 173)
are disquieting hints of the authoritarian mood that will become in-
creasingly visible later and so cast at least a shadow of doubt on the
full justice of exposing Polyneikes' corpse. His sententious language,

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 NOTES ON THE TEXT

though appropriate to a political figure, contains more than a hint of

self-righteousness .

193 / 172 own polluting murder of one another Pollution, an important theme in the
play, is often caused, as here, by the shedding of blood between kin.
Sophokles again uses the language of "self-" for this intra-familial blood-
shed: see notes on 1-2 / 1, 61-71 / 49-57, 944-50 / 885-90, 1078—79 /
1015, 1107-12 / 1040-43, 1153-58 / 1080-83, and 1371 /

204-5 / 182-83 any man who feels that someone close to him Kreon's word here is
philos, which can mean "loved one," "personal friend," or political ally.
For the multiple meanings of philos, see note on 13-14 / 10. Here, as
a few lines later in 210-11 / 187, Kreon defines philos wholly in terms
of loyalty to the city. The strong contrast to Antigone's definition in
the prologue sets up the conflict between them in the next scene.

214-15 / 191 These are the laws . . . make our city grow strong It turns out that Kreon's
view of the "laws" has just the opposite effect on his city. See note on
495-518 / 450-70.

230-35 / 203-6 If has been proclaimed ... for anyone to see See note on 33-38 / 27-
30. Whereas Antigone in the prologue is emotionally involved in the
proper burial of a brother's body, Kreon is concerned with the assertion
of his authority.

244-45 / 213-14 use any law in dealing with the dead This proposition is exactly what
Antigone challenges in the name of a different law, particularly about
the dead. See note on 495-518 / 450-70.

246-47 / 215-16 Make certain . . . some younger man The chorus initially understands
Kreon's "watch over" literally, as if they were to guard Polyneikes'
corpse.

252-53 / 221-22 And that will be the price . . . hope for profit Kreon characteristically
reasserts his power to inflict the death penalty. This statement about
profit is the first of many such remarks and indicates his obsession with
plots against him and the material gain that allegedly motivates them.

254ff. / 223ff. Guard Greek tragedy occasionally gives a vivid personality to minor
figures, for example, the Nurse in Aiskhylos' Libation Bearers. The
Guard's breathless entrance prepares us for something unusual. He
might be a slave, but his freedom of expression suggests rather that he

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is a free citizen, perhaps an example of the independent Athenian of

the lower classes. A practical man, he is wary of Kreon's authority but
is not completely intimidated. In any case, his elaborate garrulousness,
in counterpoint to Kreon's self-important urgency, injects an element
of humor into the scene, while his earthy and canny frankness about
saving his own skin contrasts with Antigone's idealistic readiness to die.

276 / 241 You're aiming carefully Some take this line to mean "aiming at me," in
the sense of "trying to figure me out" or "trying to confuse me." Others
take the word to be a metaphor from hunting.

290 / 255 not covered with a mound The phrase can also mean "buried in a tomb,"
but so elaborate an interment cannot be in question here. The same
root can denote a tomb. Kreon uses it for Antigone's underground tomb
in 944 / 886, and she soon after begins her last iambic speech by
addressing her tomb (951 / 891). When Kreon does finally bury Poly-
neikes at 1280 / 1203, the messenger uses this word to mean mound.

292-93 / 256 as if by someone trying to avoid pollution Anyone who passed an un-
buried corpse without covering it with dust was considered polluted
and so could bring a curse on himself, his family, and his city. Pollu-
tion will prove to be a major concern of the play: see notes on 193 /
172 and 467 / 421. The guard, of course, has no idea that the actual
perpetrator had motives rather different from what he here supposes.

319-20 / 278-79 my own thoughts . . . directed by the gods The chorus's mild sug-
gestion raises the question of possible divine intervention in the first
burial of Polyneikes, the problem of the so-called "double burial." The
absence of marks on the ground, according to the Guard's description
(284ff. / 249ff.), might lend credence to the chorus's suggestion. It has
also been suggested that the reference to the first man of the day-watch
(288 / 253) points to the gods, for Antigone is still speaking to Ismene
before dawn (this very night, 21 / 16) and so presumably cannot yet have
buried the body. The gods' burial of Niobe's slain children in Iliad,
24.610-12 is a famous example of divine intervention of this kind. If
Antigone did bury the body the first time, she has returned to cover it
up again, as the next scene shows, and one must ask why she returns
a second time, for the previous sprinkling of dust (as the Guard implies)
would presumably have sufficed for the ritual. But it is easy enough to
supply Antigone's motives for returning to the body a second time,
although there is no explicit evidence for these in the text: she may
have felt that the guards' uncovering of the body was an indignity to

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the corpse that she would not tolerate, or, as some have suggested, she
actually wants to get caught. Some have objected that the questions
suggested by the mention of the two burials would not have been no-
ticed by an audience in live performance. The controversy remains
open. The chorus's remark here, however, indicates how a spectator
might feel: at the very least, the gods might have buried the body the
first time. Perhaps it suffices for the play that the possibility is raised,
if not decided. Kreon's angry reply to the chorus's suggestion is the first
of many indications of his arrogant assumption that the gods are en-
tirely on his side and that his will coincides with theirs, see 321ff. /
280ff.

321ff. / 280ff. Kreon's somewhat grandiose language stresses the enormity of the attack
and so of Polyneikes' crime. Kreon's gods are the visible, public gods
of the city, who are worshiped in temples with columns around them,
in contrast to the less visible gods of the underworld and of family cult,
to whom Antigone primarily looks. And he increasingly identifies these
civic gods with his own authority.

333-38 / 289-92 Yet for a long time. . . raised a secret uproar. . . been content with
me Kreon expresses his obsession with plots against his authority in
terms of the imagery of subduing animals characteristic of his concern
with hierarchy and control. The recurrence of this theme in the first
stasimon (393-96 / 347-51) links that ode with issues of human au-
thority, power, and autonomy in the play as a whole. Sophokles is
rather vague about the time it took for this dissatisfaction to develop
and find expression in the city, as the edict has only recently been
proclaimed (see 28-49 / 23-38)- For dramatic effect, Sophokles obvi-
ously has to condense the sense of time, as he does later in Haimon's
remarks about popular sentiment in favor of Antigone (747-55 / 692-
700). What exactly Kreon has in mind is also somewhat vague. Some
interpreters think that the Thebans' dissatisfaction is at Kreon's recent
edict about the exposure of Polyneikes' body; others suppose the ref-
erence is to his regency in general, about which the play is also vague.
Kreon's assumption that there are supporters of Polyneikes within the
city who may still cause trouble is in keeping with the internal politics
of Greek city-states in the fifth century.

340-45 / 295-301 For nothing current. . . silver. . . all kinds of irreverence Kreon char-
acteristically focuses on material gain as the main motive for wrong-
doing. His words would resonate with an audience accustomed to ac-
cusations of bribery in civic affairs, but they also indicate the narrow

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 NOTES ON THE TEXT

rationalism and materialism with which he views the world. He will

be stymied by the very different motivations of Antigone's actions.

345 / 301 All crimes . . . all kinds of irreverence The Greek word, panourgia (from
pan, "every/' and ergon, "act" or "deed"), means an unscrupulous dis-
regard for the laws and for the rights of others that would lead one to
do "any and every act." The word carries unsavory associations of the
meanness of a common criminal: see Bernard Knox, The Heroic Tem-
per (Berkeley, Calif., 1964), 93. Kreon further emphasizes his law-and-
order point of view by repeating the constituent parts of the word in
"every act" (pantos ergon) in the next line. The verbal form of pan-
ourgia is also Antigone's word for her holy crime or "holy villainy" in
90 / 74 (hosia panourgesasa), combining the verb with its opposite,
hosia, "holy."

348 / 304 If Zeus gets any reverence Kreon appeals self-righteously to Zeus. This
elaborate periodic sentence expresses the vehemence of his anger. Rev-
erence for the gods becomes a major motif in the play, along with the
accusations of irreverence (see note on 345 / 301). Kreon's reverence is
entirely for the Olympian gods of the public religion; Antigone has her
own reverence for the gods of the lower world.

355-59 / 310-14 where to get your profit from . . . profiting . . . shameful earnings
Kreon ends his tirade with more generalizations about the dangers of
profit, greed, and money.

362-65 / 317-20 Would it be your ears . . . diagnose where I feel pain . . . bom to
talk There is a touch of humor here that both points up and undercuts
Kreon's passionate assertions of his authority.

372-76 / 327-31 May he definitely be caught. . . owe the gods great gratitude The
Guard's remarks are addressed to himself (and the chorus) and not
intended for Kreon's hearing. In any case, the Guard's practical con-
cern with his own safety contrasts with Antigone's total disregard for
hers in the next scene (when, contrary to his expectations, he will
return). There are no stage directions in the manuscripts. It is probable,
though not absolutely certain, that Kreon exits immediately after 371 /
326.

377-416 / 332-75 At many things—wonders, terrors —we feel awe The first stasimon
(second ode), one of the most celebrated choral odes of Greek tragedy,
is known as the Ode on Man. See the Introduction, 26-27. Sophokles

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 NOTES ON THE TEXT

here draws on contemporary theories of the origins of civilization as-

sociated with Sophists like Protagoras and Presocratic philosophers like
Democritus. But he also models the opening of the poem on the cen-
tral ode of Aiskhylos' Libation Bearers (458/457 BCE), substituting a
praise of human intelligence for Aiskhylos' accusations of the deadly
lust of women. The ode has multiple levels of meaning. The conser-
vative elders of the city chorus speak in pious generalities, separating
themselves from any criminal who would be outside any city; but their
words, like almost everything in the ode, carry meanings that reach
beyond what they can know at this moment. Three words of the open-
ing phrase in the translation, awe, terror, and wonder, translate the am-
biguity of the single Greek word deinon, which may refer to both Kreon
and Antigone and, more broadly, to the ambiguous capacities of hu-
man beings generally, who, as the ode says (and as the play shows)
may move both to evil and to good (409 / 367). The echo of Aiskhylos
can evoke the dangerous and destructive passions of women and so
point to Antigone. Yet the praise of mankind's control of nature also
points to Kreon, particularly because the ode's language of taming,
trapping, and hunting resonates with the authoritarian language of
Kreon and his will to power and domination. The warnings about
mankind's impotence before Hades, or Death (403-5 / 361-62), also
evoke the area of conflict between Kreon and Antigone that will, in
fact, reveal Kreon's inability totally to control and dominate his world.
The pointed rhetorical juxtaposition of inventive in everything and with-
out invention (401-2 / 360) in these lines encapsulates the play's tragic
ambiguity of human power. It is echoed in the similar syntactical pat-
tern of high in his city . . . outside any city (412-13 / 370).

382-83 / 338 Earth . . . highest of all the gods Here highest has the sense of "su-
preme," "most revered," because, as the foundation of all being, Earth
is the oldest: see Hesiod, Theogony, 117-18, 126-33. Nevertheless, the
adjective may have a certain paradoxical ring, which may suggest the
interplay between upper and lower realms that is so important to the
play: see note on 737-38 / 683-84.

394-95 / 350 harnesses the horse The manuscript reading for harnesses is corrupt,
and this is a plausible emendation. Other editors emend to "fetters" or
"hobbles."

409-11 / 368-69 Honoring the laws of the earth and the justice of the gods We are
reminded of Kreon's and Antigone's very different views of which laws

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 NOTES ON THE TEXT

and gods to obey and also of their very different ways of understanding
"earth": for Kreon "earth" is the political territory of Thebes, defined
by human laws; for Antigone it is the realm of the gods below, who
protect the rites of the dead: compare her speech in the next scene,
495-518 / 450-70. The manuscripts here read "weaving" or "threading
in the laws," which is barely possible but unlikely, and so we have
adopted the widely accepted emendation, honoring,

413 / 371 he who dares to consort This "dares" recurs to describe Antigone's trans-
gression, in Kreon's view: 494 / 449, 979 / 915.

420 / 379-80 O unfortunate child of your unfortunate father The chorus's address to
Antigone again recalls the family misfortunes, which will also be the
subject of the next ode.

422-23 / 382 disobeyed the laws of the king Antigone, of course, looks toward a dif-
ferent kind of law: see note on 495-518 / 450-70.

425-632 / 384-581 The direct, on-stage conflict between Antigone and Kreon is the
only scene in the play that requires the use of all three actors permitted
by the conventions of Greek tragedy. The actor who plays the Guard
exits at 490 / 445 and returns at 577 / 526 in the role of Ismene.

425-26 / 384-85 Here's who did the deed The Guard's clipped phrasing expresses his
eagerness to exculpate himself, which he expresses again at the opening
of his speech to Kreon (429-43 / 388-400).

434-35 / 392 Happiness . . . beyond one's very hopes The manuscripts read "happiness
outside and beyond one's hopes," but syntactical difficulties are in favor
of the emendation, for which one prays, which is also in keeping with
the Guard's elation at escaping blame.

45off. / 4O7ff Well, what happened was As the Guard recounts the capture of Antig-
one, he becomes expansive. His narrative gives a vivid picture of the
remote place, outside the city walls, where Polyneikes' corpse has been
left to rot. The details of the whirlwind that raised a pillar of dust. . .
high as heaven (462ff. / 417ff.) and this supernatural plague (467 / 421)
suggest the mysterious powers of nature and the gods that are not as
controllable as the previous ode has implied. The motif of dust thrown
into the sky also continues a pattern of interaction between upper and
lower worlds that runs throughout the play. The hints of supernatural
intervention remain consistent with the possibility (never more than

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 NOTES ON THE TEXT

that) that the gods have had a role in the burial; see note on 319-20 /
278-79. The dust storm, in any case, has helped Antigone to achieve
her aim and casts an aura of mystery about this event.

463-64 / 418 trouble high as heaven Literally, "a woe, or grief, in the sky." The
phrase can also mean "a trouble rising to the sky" or "a trouble sent
from the sky." Sophokles has probably left some deliberate openness to
other meanings to suggest the possibility of divine intervention: see the
previous note.

467 / 421 this supernatural plague The phrase can mean both "sent by the gods" or
merely "supernatural," "marvelous." "Plague" or "disease," which the
Guard here uses in a general sense, becomes much more specific later
in the dangerous "plague" of pollution from the exposed corpse. The
Guard's description here, along with the storm of trouble high as
heaven, foreshadows that pollution carried into the sky by the carrion-
eating birds in Teiresias' prophecy in 1079-86 / 1015-22. See notes on
1078-79 / 1015 and 1107-11 / 1040-43.

472—76 / 427-31 she moaned. . . pours libations Antigone fulfills two of the offices
to the dead that Kreon has forbidden, the ritual lamentation and the
covering of dust; see notes on 961-62 / 901, 1275-85 / 1199-1204. The
language of lamentation here is echoed later in the laments of Haimon
in 1305 / 1224 and of Eurydike in 1389-92 / 1302-5, which, like Antig-
one's lament here, are offstage events reported by a narrator. The simile
comparing Antigone's lament to the cries of a bird whose fledglings
have been taken conveys her emotional intensity and also underlines
her involvement in the traditional female role of lamenting the dead.
It may also suggest some sympathy for her on the part of the narrator,
the Guard, in contrast to Kreon's harshness; see note on 481 / 436. The
comparison to the bird also suggests her identification with the subdued
natural world of the Ode of Man, whose first antistrophe begins with
the netting of birds ( 3 8 7 f f . / 342ff.). Note too the Guard's metaphor of
"hunting her down" in 477 / 433. His use of the passive, this wailing
child is seen, in 468 / 423 also adds to the pathos of Antigone's help-
lessness. In his eagerness to recreate as vividly as possible an event that
is so important to him (and to us), the Guard switches from past to
present tense and back again.

479-80 / 434-35 what she'd done, before, and what she now was doing While the
Guard emphasizes the two separate acts of defiant burial, he does not
explicitly say that Antigone performed both acts, only that she made

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no denial. The careful phrasing still leaves open the possibility of divine
agency for the first burial.

481 / 436 both satisfaction and pain Despite his joy for himself, the Guard still pities
Antigone —the first expression of sympathy for her, and from an un-
expected quarter.

484-85 / 439-40 all of these things are less to me than safety for myself The Guard's
attitude contrasts with Antigone's defiant lack of concern for her per-
sonal safety.

486 / 441 turning your head away, to the ground Here Sophokles implies a stage
direction to the actor playing Antigone. Antigone's gesture expresses
defiance: she refuses to look at Kreon.

495-518 / 450-70 It was not Zeus ... to being charged as foolish by a fool In contrast
to her silent entrance and clipped answers to Kreon just before, Antig-
one now bursts forth in a torrent of high idealism. In this important
speech she frames her motives in the largest and most general terms,
expressing her defense of principles of justice and behavior. She iden-
tifies these both with the gods below the earth and with laws of the gods,
that are unwritten and unfailing, in contrast to the manmade procla-
mation of Kreon. She thus raises the question of whether a "good"
citizen has the right to disobey what she or he perceives as unjust
authority, in the name of higher, more universal laws. She has in mind
both the universally recognized right of the dead to burial (her "un-
written laws") and the particular rights of the gods beneath the earth,
the chthonic divinities, like Hades and Persephone, who are concerned
with the proper burial of the dead.

508-10 / 461-62 But if I die before my time, I count that as my profit Antigone's
defiance of death and her notion of profit contrast with and undercut
Kreon's views of the power of both.

513-15 / 466-67 But if I let the son of my own mother lie dead and unburied Here
Antigone cites her intimate family ties as part of her motivation, parallel
to the more abstract statement of principle at the opening of her
speech. The former reasoning will dominate her last speech (967ff. /
905ff.).

517-18 / 469-70 foolish ... to being charged as foolish by a fool Antigone ends her
speech with the recurrent motif of sensible behavior, but her notion

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of good sense again contrasts with Kreon's narrowly materialistic and

rationalistic view of human behavior.

519-20 / 471-72 fierce child is the offspring of her fierce father The chorus returns to
Antigone's heredity from Oidipous to account for her behavior, harking
back to their same point earlier (see note on 420 / 379-80). Despite
the chorus's repetition of this idea in the next ode, it would be an
oversimplification to regard family heredity or the family curse as the
sole key to the meaning of the tragedy. It is a contributing factor, to
be sure, but one must keep in mind that the chorus functions as an
actor among actors; their hypotheses are on the same level as those of
the other characters' attempts to account for the suffering. Offspring
here is the reading of most of the manuscripts. It is also the word that
the chorus uses to introduce Haimon at 673 / 627. Here some editors
amend to a word for "spirit" or "temper": Antigone shows "the fierce
temper of a fierce father."

521-28 / 473-79 rigid wills . .. hardest iron . .. a small sharp bit.. . someone who's
the slave of others Kreon characteristically responds to the challenge to
his authority with harsh images of technological mastery and taming
animals, both of which hark back to the Ode on Man. His references
to slavery and, sarcastically, to Antigone as the man (534 / 484) are also
typically vehement assertions of hierarchy and increasing indications of
his authoritarian views.

535-38 / 486-87 no matter if she is my sister's child. . . our household shrine to

Zeus Kreon's dismissal of family ties takes the form of rejecting Zeus
Herkeios, "Zeus of the courtyard," one of the gods who presides over
and protects the family. The defiance of Zeus is part of a pattern in
Kreon's speeches (see notes on 348 / 304 and 1107-12 / 1040-43), and
in this case verges on a dangerous impiety. In fact, Kreon's statement
sounds even more blasphemous than the translation can convey, for
Zeus Herkeios stands as a metonym for the family that Zeus's altar
sanctifies and protects. Literally, he says, "not even if she is a closer
relation than Zeus Herkeios entire."

544-45 / 493-94 plan in the dark . . . as a thief Kreon returns to his favorite idea of
secret plotting and wrongful gain.

550-54 / 499-504 Then why delay. . . what greater glory... my own true brother
Antigone defies Kreon's greatest token of power, the ability to put her
to death. She again claims the traditionally masculine heroism, or

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glory, that she had looked to in the prologue (see note on 48-49 / 37-
38).

555-56 / 505 if fear did not lock up their tongues Compare Kreon's denunciation of
anyone who is afraid of speaking and locks up his tongue in his opening
speech, 202-3 / 180. Antigone's point is just the reverse of Kreon's —
she accuses him of silencing, rather than encouraging, the citizens to
speak out.

556 / 506 one-man rule Antigone's word, turannis, though it does not carry the fully
pejorative notions of "tyranny" that develop with Plato, nevertheless
associates Kreon with "tyrannical" behavior, that is, with the arbitrary
exercise of power that lacks the full, legitimate authority of endorse-
ment by all the people. "Tyrannies" developed in many Greek cities
in the course of the sixth century, as influential men allied themselves
with the people and took over power from the dominant aristocratic
families. They often promoted large building programs and expanded
religious and cultural institutions, such as festivals and public cults, to
ingratiate themselves with the people, and were not necessarily seen as
"tyrannical" in the modern sense. Peisistratos in Athens and Polykrates
of Samos were particularly successful and noteworthy examples. Kreon
has succeeded to his rule through the ties of kinship, as he says (194-95
/ 173-74), but as a new ruler he is still insecure and afraid of conspir-
acies, a common concern of "tyrants." See note on 74-75 / 59-60.

559-74 / 508-23 The line-by-line exchange, or stichomythia, sharply sets out the
diametrically opposed viewpoints of Kreon and Antigone, particularly
with regard to their valuing of family ties (philia) versus the demands
of the city. In connection with the former, Antigone also asserts the
importance of the laws of Hades (570 / 519), that is, the rights of burial
that belong to the gods of the lower world (see note on 495—518 / 450—
70).

559 / 508 alone among the Thebans Kreon emphasizes Antigone's isolation, but his
view will be challenged later by Haimon, who suggests that Kreon's
position is the isolated one: 793-99 / 733-39.

563 / 512 he who died against him Kreon is referring to Eteokles.

567 / 516 honor him the same as the irreverent one Here, as throughout this debate,
Kreon insists on differentiating the two brothers on the basis of their

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opposite loyalties to the city, whereas Antigone insists on their equality

in terms of the bonds of family and the rights due to the dead.

568 / 517 my brother who died Antigone means Polyneikes, although, of course, both
brothers have died.

570 / 519 these laws A variant reading has "Hades wishes equal laws," which some
editors accept, although it has weaker manuscript authority.

574 / 523 not to join in hate but to join in love Sophokles gives Antigone's response
great rhetorical force by apparently coining two new words for her,
sunekthein and sumphilein. Antigone reasserts her commitment to fam-
ily ties, her "friends" or "dear ones," philoi, but she does so with a
particular emphasis on "sharing" or "joining in" the relationship of kin
ties (sum-philein), in contrast to Kreon's sharp differentiation of
"friends" and "enemies." For her, the supreme value is her bond of
"joining with" those she regards as her "friends" or "loved ones," and
she rejects Kreon's concern with separating her loved ones (philoi) as
political "enemies" (ekhthroi). Knox, Heroic Temper, 82, catches this
point well in his paraphrase, "I was born to join not in their political
hatred for each other but in their love for each other as blood broth-
ers"—to which one must add also her own bond of family love (philia)
to both brothers. Karl Reinhardt, Sophokles (1947), trans. H. and D.
Harvey (Oxford, 1979), 78-79, paraphrases, "I was not born into the
circle which believes 'Hate your enemy,' but into the one where love
between blood relations knows itself to be in harmony with its like."
And he comments, "Not that Antigone is the personification of love,
but her hate and love spring from a different level from that which
produces Creon's friendships and enmities." Lloyd-Jones, in his Loeb
edition, also calls attention to the importance of birth, rather than on
"inborn nature," in Antigone's verb, ephun, and translates, "I have no
enemies by birth, but I have friends by birth." While it is important to
keep in mind the specific reference of philein to the ties of family and
so not make Antigone indulge in a saccharine declaration of a univer-
sally loving nature, Lloyd-Jones's interpretation seems to give insuffi-
cient force to the repeated sun-, "sharing in" love or hate.

575-76 / 524-25 Then go down there. . . a woman will not rule! Kreon impatiently
and sarcastically dismisses Antigone's concern with the gods of the
lower world. He treats her with increasing cruelty and callousness,
which probably contribute to our declining sympathy for him in the
middle third of the play.

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 NOTES ON THE TEXT

584-85 / 533 I raised a double ruin to bring down the throne Kreon again focuses on
maintaining his power, which may, in turn, reflect his insecurities
about his new position.

587ff. / 536ff. The exchange between the two sisters, which has many echoes of their
dialogue in the prologue, exhibits the fierceness of Antigone's com-
mitment to her independence of action and her devotion to the dead
and the realm of the dead (e.g., 610f. / 559f).

600 / 549 Ask Kreon . . . whose side you take The last phrase uses a word that means
both "kin" and "mourner" of the dead, implying perhaps Antigone's
view of herself as the only one entitled to mourn Polyneikes, but also
harshly insulting Ismene, as if Ismene regarded only Kreon as her "kins-
man." So devoted to the bonds of kinship, Antigone is cruel and un-
generous to the last of her living kin.

602 / 551 This dense line has a number of possible meanings, as the verb can mean
both "laugh" and "mock," and Antigone may be referring to "mocking"
Ismene or "mocking" (laughing at) Kreon. Some have assumed that a
line or two has dropped out.

619 / 568 kill your own son's bride-to-be This is the first allusion in the play to
Haimon, and it comes from Ismene, not Antigone. The latter never
speaks directly of Haimon, although, in her last scene on the stage, she
laments the loss of marriage. See note on 623 / 572.

620 / 569 other furrows he can plant The crude agricultural metaphor may allude
to the Athenian marriage formula, which stipulates "the sowing of le-
gitimate children." In Oidipous Turannos, Sophokles makes heavy use
of such agricultural metaphors for the incestuous union of Oidipous
and lokaste. At the same time, the metaphor reveals Kreon's tendency
to depersonalize and devalue intimate emotional ties by objectification,
generalization, or cliche.

621 / 570 Not the way he and she were fitting for each other The word "fitting"
belongs to the language of betrothal and so may imply the "appropri-
ateness" of this marriage between first cousins, which is considered
highly desirable when the girl's father has died without male heirs and
so leaves only daughters to inherit the property. Her marriage to her
uncle's son (or even to the uncle himself, if he is unmarried) keeps
the property in the family. "Fitting" can also mean that Haimon and

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 NOTES ON THE TEXT

Antigone are particularly "well suited" to one another, a "good fit."

Both meanings may be present simultaneously.

623 / 572 Dearest Haimon This line has provoked considerable controversy. The
manuscripts attribute it to Ismene, which we believe to be correct, as
Ismene is the first to introduce the subject of Haimon. Having failed
to soften Antigone, she now brings up the marriage in the hope of
softening Kreon. Antigone, resolved to die for her devotion to her fam-
ily of origin, shows no interest in Haimon and, as we have noted, never
mentions him. By your marriage-bed in the following line, Kreon then
means, "the marriage that you, Ismene, speak of," referring to her words
immediately preceding. Attributions of speakers in the manuscripts,
however, are not always reliable, and the first printed edition of So-
phokles, the Aldine text of 1502, attributes the line to Antigone, and
some editors have accepted this.

627-28 / 576-77 Ismene: It seems decided, then, that she will die—Kreon: By you and
by me! The Greek word for "decided," which can also mean "de-
creed," has the sense of a political decision. Some interpreters take
Kreon's reply to be in an ironic tone, which also reflects his tyrannical
nature. Others think that Kreon understands Ismene's verb in an alter-
native sense, "it seems good," and, again, replies in an ironic tone of
voice, but this meaning seems less probable, given the perfective verb
form that Ismene uses. Some manuscripts attribute 627 / 576 to the
chorus leader, and some editors accept this. If this is so, then Kreon
would be including them in his decision ("Yes, it has been decided by
you [chorus leader] and by me"), which seems less likely. Kreon's re-
marks in the rest of the scene are also sarcastic and callous. He adopts
the same tone later in 942-43 / 883-84.

633-77 I 582-630 Second stasimon (third ode) Coming directly after the condem-
nation of Antigone to death, the mood of this ode is darker, in every
sense, than that of the previous two odes. This mood, along with the
emphasis on the gods of the lower world and the remote power of
Olympian Zeus, leads into the next phase of the action, where the
tragic catastrophe begins to unfold. The chorus here develops its earlier
explanation of Antigone's imminent death in terms of the accursed
house of her ancestors, the Labdakids. Labdakos is the father of Laios
and so the great-grandfather of Antigone and Ismene.

635-36 / 585 creeps over a multitude of generations The chorus's allusion to the
family curse working over many generations recalls Antigone's opening

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 NOTES ON THE TEXT

lines of the play, about the sufferings of Oidipous that have now af-
flicted his daughters.

636-41 / 586-92 The image of the stormy, turbulent northern sea contrasts with the
tamed sea of the first stasimon, the Ode on Man; this difference is
indicative of the growing sense of disaster.

642-44 / 594-95 afflictions. . . yet earlier afflictions of the dead The chorus means
that the woes of the living Labdakids, i.e., Antigone and Ismene, are
being added to those of the already dead members of the family, from
Laios through Eteokles and Polyneikes. It is also possible to construe
these dense lines to mean that the woes of the dead Labdakids are
being added to those of their living kin, but this is rather less likely.

647-50 / 598-603 rootstock of the House of Oidipous . . . reaped by blood-red dust of

the gods under the earth . . . a Fury in the mind These are among the
most difficult and controversial lines of the play. The image of the
bloody dust "reaping" or "mowing down" the root of Oidipous' house
is bold, too bold for many editors, who emend the word "dust" (konis,
the reading of all the manuscripts) to "knife" (kopis). But the manu-
script reading is in keeping with the play's emphasis on the powers of
the lower world; and the bloody dust evokes the death of the two broth-
ers, the continuing doom of the house in Antigone's sprinkling of dust
over Polyneikes' body, and perhaps also the dust storm in which she
performs that burial (see 291 / 256, 451-52 / 409, 474 / 429). The emen-
dation kopis, moreover, would refer to a "chopper," or sacrificial knife,
which does not seem particularly appropriate here. Further support for
the manuscript reading comes from Aiskhylos' Seven against Thebes,
which focuses on the death of the two brothers and is almost certainly
in the background here. Aiskhylos' chorus describes how, at the mutual
slaughter of the two brothers, "the earth's dust drinks the red clotted
blood" (Seven, 734-37). In the next strophe Aiskhylos' chorus goes on
to describe Oidipous' patricide and incestuous marriage, in which he
"endured the bloody root" (referring to the incest and its conse-
quences). That strophe ends with "the madness of mind" that "brought
together" Oidipous and lokaste as bride and bridegroom (Seven, 756-
57), and Sophokles may also be referring to that passage in Aiskhylos'
antistrophe here, foolishness of speech and a Fury in the mind (650 /
603). The Furies, or Erinyes, are the avenging deities of the lower world
who typically punish the crime of bloodshed within the family. In this
function they are also often the instruments that fulfill a family curse.
They typically bring madness upon their victims. Thus, Antigone's Fury

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in the mind here seems to refer to her ritual burial of Polyneikes and
its aftermath where (as the chorus sees it) reason and good sense give
way to the destructive madness and folly that persist in the house of
Oidipous as the result of the inherited curse (e.g., 420 / 379-80, 612-
13 / 561-62, 913ff / 853ff) The reference to a Fury also picks up the
motif of the dangerous power of the gods of the nether world who will
eventually punish Kreon; see note on 1145-46 /1074. Sophokles' mor-
alizing use of the agricultural imagery here also recalls Aiskhylos, Per-
sians, 821-22, where King Dareios accounts for Xerxes' fall in similar
terms: the latter's "outrage" (hubris) against Greece "mows down
(ex-amdi) the much-lamenting harvest" that sprang up from the exces-
sive overgrowth of his destructive folly (ate).

6 5 1 f f . / 604ff. The second strophe contrasts the remote, eternal power of the gods
with the sufferings of human beings and the mortal generations of the
family and its sufferings. The chorus gives particular prominence to
Zeus, and we may recall Kreon's dangerous dismissal of Zeus's power
at various points in the play; see notes on 495-518 / 450-70 and 708-
9 / 658-59.

652-53 / 606 sleep that catches everyone in its nets This epithet of "sleep" is an
emendation of the manuscript reading, "sleep the all-aging," which
makes little sense here and is regarded as corrupt by most editors.

659-661 / 613-14 only one law . . . beyond the reach of ruin This divine law contrasts
with Kreon's insistence on the human law of the city that he sees
himself as representing. The text of this passage has some uncertainties,
and we adopt a plausible and widely accepted emendation.

664 / 617 desires light as air Sophokles also uses this adjective of the birds trapped
by human cleverness in the Ode on Man (387 / 342), perhaps signaling
here two opposite possibilities of human behavior. Desires also points
ahead to the next ode, in which the force of erotic desire will emerge
as one of the ingredients of the tragedy.

665-67 / 618-19 he cannot see clearly until already he has burnt his foot Sophokles
seems to be adapting two traditional sayings —knowing one's disastrous
situation only when it is too late, and walking on ashes as a metaphor
for dangerous and foolish behavior.

668 / 622 famous saying The chorus refers to a sentiment that occurs in various
forms in early Greek literature and tragedy, that the gods destroy the

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judgment of the person bent on evil and destruction. As we might

phrase it in our more psychologizing terms, the gods collaborate with
the evil tendencies of the prospective criminal to lead him to his ruin.
We would probably understand "god" as standing for all the invisible
forces that twist a person's mind to destructive and self-destructive
crimes.

671-72 / 624-25 The ode ends with a strong repetition of the word ruin, ate, which
can also mean the folly or infatuation that leads to ruin. The same
word also ends the previous strophe (661 / 614). See also notes on 1344-
45 /1258-60 and 1345 / 1260.

673 / 626-27 last and youngest offspring The phrase hints at the dark motif of family
ties in the background and also at the death of Kreon's other son,
Megareus, mentioned in 1390 / 1303 (see note on 1387-92 / 1301-5).
The ominous associations of the phrase are also suggested by the use
of last for the doomed race of Antigone's family in 647 / 599 and her
last road in 867 / 807.

678-842 / 631-780 The scene between Haimon and his father comes at roughly the
midpoint of the play and marks a major shift of emphasis. It confirms
the autocratic side of Kreon, introduces a new perspective on Antigone,
and exposes the vulnerable area of Kreon's life, his own family ties. It
also reflects his insensitivity in this area of family ties, for Kreon mis-
understands his son's genuine concern for him and gradually allows
his suspicion of Haimon's devotion to Antigone to overshadow his son's
filial loyalty. Hence the brutal ending of the scene, with Kreon's further
misunderstanding of Haimon's threat at his exit; see note on 811-12 /
751-52, and also Introduction, 10, 16-18.

678 / 631 better than the seers Sophokles is adapting a proverbial phrase indicating
direct and immediate knowledge, but he may also be foreshadowing
the importance of seers in the ensuing action.

680 / 632 final vote This is another term, like general in 10 / 8, that would resonate
with the contemporary Athenian audience, for whom voting is an im-
portant part of the democracy. See note on 74-75 / 59-60.

682 / 635 Father, I'm yours Haimon, knowing his father's temperament, wisely be-
gins with an affirmation of total allegiance, which he will totally reverse
by the end of the scene. Here he encourages Kreon to expatiate, char-
acteristically, on some of his favorite themes: obedience, hierarchy, the

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analogy between authority in the family and in the city, the dangers of
subjection to women, and total commitment to the city.

699-700 / 650 that soon enough grows cold wrapped in your arms This striking phrase
consists of only two words in the Greek, literally, "a cold embracing."
The tragic irony in the phrase is that Kreon unwittingly foresees the
way in which Haimon will, finally, wrap his arms about Antigone's
corpse in 1320-21 /1237; and this irony is made more pointed by Kreon's
having expressed an expectation of knowing better than seers what his
son would do (678 / 631).

707 / 658 I'll kill her Kreon's phrase, as brutal in the Greek as it is in English, is
not only tactless, addressed as it is to Antigone's betrothed, but also
shows his cruelty and his tendency to associate the rule of law in the
city with his personal authority; compare his similar first-person state-
ment in 833 / 773, I'll lead her out. (But see note on 833-34 I 773-74.)
We may contrast the emphasis elsewhere on her execution as the action
of the entire city; compare 46-47 / 36, 837-38 / 776. Haimon's restraint
in the light of this brutal announcement is remarkable. Only at the
end of the scene does he lose patience.

708-9 / 658-59 let her sing her hymns in praise of Zeus the god of bonds of
blood! Kreon's dismissal of family bonds in favor of absolute obedience
to the city once more takes the form of a dangerous defiance of Zeus;
see notes on 348 / 304, 535-38 / 486-87, 651ff. / 604ff. We are reminded
particularly of his scorn of Zeus Herkeios in 535-38 /486-87. His scorn
of women's lament recurs in his taunts to Antigone later; compare 942-
43 / 883-84. It is perhaps part of the tragic irony that the Greek word
for "sing her hymns" recurs in Eurydike's "hymn" of curses against
Kreon at the end (1391-92 / 1305) — a lament that he cannot dismiss
this time; see note on 1387-92 /1301-5.

714-23 / 663-71 A man like that. . . With many editors since the nineteenth cen-
tury, we accept the transposition of some of these lines (especially 718-
23 / 663—67) to a later place in the speech. The problem, however,
may lie more with Kreon than with the manuscripts. After his peremp-
tory resolution to kill Antigone in 707 / 658, he can still go on with
his gnomic generalizations, oblivious to the devastating effect that it
must have on Haimon.

722-23 / 666-67 must be obeyed in everything . . . what's just, and the opposite Some
editors have suspected that these lines are spurious and deleted them.

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 NOTES ON THE TEXT

Yet they are in character, and they come at the point when Kreon,
warming to his favorite subject, is carried away to excess. If they are
authentic, they are revealing of Kreon's absolutist notion of "law,"
which for him is to be identified with obedience to authority, not
justice. Contrast Antigone at 495-518 / 450-70.

731-34 / 679-80 Kreon ends with a restatement of another of his favorite themes:
not being subject to women (compare 6 9 6 f f . I 648ff., also Ismene at
76-77 / 61-62). His last three lines contain a word play hard to render
into English, for to be "defeated by" and "weaker than" are both from
the same root (hetton, worse than, inferior to), so that to be "defeated
by a woman" is also to be "weaker than a woman" or "inferior to a
woman." On this note he ends his speech. See also 806 / 746.

737-83 / 683-723 Haimon again begins moderately, with neutral generalizations, but
is soon on more delicate ground with his report of the city's secret
praise of Antigone (747ff. / 691ff), which, for the first time, offers a
public perspective on Antigone contrary to Kreon's. Haimon is careful
to phrase these views as the city's, not his own; but his remarks here
endorse what Antigone herself, in her defiance of Kreon at 555-56 /
504-5, had said about other, hidden voices in the city and what Kreon
had himself said about voices of dissatisfaction among the citizens (see
note on 333-38 / 289-92). Haimon also indirectly validates Antigone's
claims to "glory" or "honor" in the prologue (compare 87ff. / 72ff., 114-
15 / 96-97, 552-54 / 502-4, and see note on 550-54 / 499-504).

737-38 / 683-84 good sense —highest of all the things that we possess Haimon's high-
est echoes the epithet of Earth in the Ode on Man (383 / 338). May
there be some tragic irony in this exaltation of the two things that
Kreon, as it proves, scorns?

742-44 / 688-89 A variant reading, which has weaker manuscript support, would
make Kreon the subject and give the sense, "You are not naturally
disposed to foresee everything that people say or do or have (as reasons)
for blame." But, aside from the stronger manuscript support for the first
reading, it seems more appropriate for Haimon at this point to speak
of his own limitations rather than those of his father, whom he still
hopes to win over by persuasion.

745—47 / 690—91 to the common citizen . . . your eye becomes a tenor The syntax of
the Greek is slightly harsh, and some editors have supposed that at least

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one line has dropped out. But the syntax, though awkward, is within
the realm of possibility.

766-67 / 708-9 when men like that are opened up. . . empty The metaphor here
refers to a folded writing tablet that would be read on being unfolded
or opened up. The figure of "opening" the interior of a person so as to
reveal the hidden truth of character recurs frequently in classical Greek
literature and tragedy.

771-83 / 712-23 The metaphors of pliancy and yielding to nature recall Kreon's
warnings to Antigone in terms of the hardness of metals, 521-24 / 473-
76. The sailing metaphor recalls Kreon's very different use of the same
figure in his opening speech (212-13 / 189-90). But the son's plea for
a hearing from the father despite his youth upsets Kreon's emphasis on
hierarchy and obedience. Nor is Kreon, who prides himself on his
"good sense/' likely to welcome Haimon's closing suggestion that wis-
dom might reside in someone other than his father.

784-842 / 724-80 The chorus, as often in such debates, attempts a compromise

position, but the division between father and son is now out in the
open, and the set speeches give way to the tense line-by-line conflict
(stichomythia), like that between Ismene and Antigone in the prologue
and in 599-609 / 548-58, or between Antigone and Kreon in 559-74
/ 508-23.

810 / 750 never marry this girl while she's alive Another instance of Sophoklean tragic
irony: Haimon will in fact "marry" Antigone when she is no longer
alive (1322-28 / 1234-41). See note on 699-700 / 650.

811-12 / 751-52 destroy—someone else . . . attack me with threats Kreon understands

Haimon's words as a threat against his own life, whereas what follows
indicates that here Haimon (despite his later attack on his father) is
probably thinking already of his own suicide.

824 / 765 rave on The motif of "raving" or madness becomes prominent in the next
two odes (851 / 790, 1027-28 / 960), but it has already appeared in the
rage of the attackers in the parodos and in the Fury in the mind in the
second stasimon (650 / 603).

827 / 767 weighed down by grief An echo (in English, weighty) will sound for Eu-
rydike at her silent exit near the end (1338 / 1251).

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 NOTES ON THE TEXT

828-29 / 768 grand thoughts too big for a man A similar warning about mortal
presumption recurs in the chorus's final lines, but with reference to
Kreon — another of the reversals in his situation.

831 / 771 did not touch Although the Greek verb for "touch" is used in a general
sense and has no expressed direct object in the original, it might imply
actual contact with the forbidden corpse, as in 598 / 546-47.

833-34 / 773-74 I'll lead her out • • • and seal her up Although Kreon says that he
himself will lead Antigone to her cave, he later delegates this task to
his attendants at 944 / 885.

838-42 / 777-80 where she can pray to Hades . . . pointless waste . . . to worship what
is down below with Hades Kreon's repetition of Hades reflects his scorn
of Antigone's involvement with the gods of the lower world (compare
her Justice, who resides in the same house with the gods below the earth
in 49611. / 451ff.). Teiresias' prophecy in the next scene ominously an-
swers Kreon's taunt (1133-48 / 1064-76).

843-65 / 781-805 Third stasimon (fourth ode) This ode on the invincible power of
passion or desire (eros, here personified as the god Eros), following
directly on the conflict between father and son, marks the rising tide
of emotional violence in the play. It suggests Haimon's erotic motiva-
tions, even though he only hinted at these in his previous exchange
with his father. His anger there offers a glimpse of a passion that (in
retrospect) the chorus seems to see as fueled by eros. Nevertheless, eros
is kept in the background of the play. Antigone's love for Haimon is
never made explicit, although Ismene's remarks on the betrothal might
be construed as implying it. It is probable, though not certain, that
Kreon exits just before the ode, at 842 / 780, which sounds like an exit
line. It is easier to envisage Antigone's lyrical lament with the chorus
at 861-941 / 801-82, following the Eros ode, without Kreon's presence
on the stage. Kreon then reenters no later than 942 / 883 for his last
scene with Antigone, and gives the final command to have her led
away to her death (999—1004 / 931—36). There is, however, considerable
disagreement about Kreon's presence during the odes, especially the
third and fourth stasima: for discussion see R. P. Winnington-Ingram,
Sophocles: An Interpretation (Cambridge, 1980), 136-37, with n. 58;
H. D. F. Kitto, Form and Meaning in Drama (London, 1956), 146-47.

843-44 / 782 that leaps down upon the herds We have adopted the widely accepted
emendation herds for the manuscripts "possessions." The destruction

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of "possessions" or wealth by Eros seems less plausible here than its

universal power over beasts, human, and gods.

848—50 / 787—88 neither the immortals nor man, who lives only a day, can escape
from you The language here recalls the inescapable power of death in
the Ode on Man (403-5 / 361-62) and so reminds us offerees in human
life that intelligence and technology cannot overcome. In contrast to
death in the Ode on Man, in this ode it is desire that rules both gods
and mortals. Sophokles here alludes to the numerous myths of gods
and goddesses mating with mortals, familiar from the poetry of Homer,
Hesiod, Pindar, and others.

857-58 / 795-97 love in the gaze . . . wedding joy The dense language of this passage
permits several different interpretations. It can refer to the Greeks' be-
lief that desire is an active force that emanates from the eyes of the
loved one, in this case the new bride, and inspires desire in the be-
holder. Or it can refer to the lover's desire for the bride's beauty, or to
the eyes' desire for the bride. It is possible that aspects of all three
meanings are present simultaneously. In any case, these lines empha-
size the erotic side of marriage, over which Aphrodite presides (860 /
800), preparing for the eroticized death of Haimon in his Liebestod
later.

858—59 / 797-98 rules equally with the great laws Editors have suspected a corrup-
tion because the claims for Eros seem exaggerated and because there
is not a full metrical correspondence with the relevant line in the
strophe. A more serious problem is that one would expect Eros to be
the destroyer or transgressor of these "laws." Yet such grandiose claims
are appropriate to the hymnic style, and no satisfactory emendation has
been suggested. We keep the manuscript text. The word for "laws"
here, thesmoi, is different from the "laws" of the city (nomoi) that the
play uses elsewhere. It has a more solemn ring and suggests the exis-
tence of a divine power that cannot be controlled or legislated by hu-
man structures. The play uses it only here and at 862 / 801.

860 / 799-800 Aphrodite at her play "Play," which one perhaps does not expect at
this moment of approaching crisis, is frequently associated with the
lighter side of love, the "game" of seduction and persuasion over which
Aphrodite, as goddess of love, presides. In this sense, it is common in
lyric poets like Anakreon (middle of the sixth century BCE) and con-
trasts with the more dangerous aspect of the "invincible" power of
desire that is the ode's main subject.

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 NOTES ON THE TEXT

861-65 I 801-5 The chorus's brief description of Antigone, in the marching meter
of anapests, marks the transition from the formal ode on Eros to the
lyrical exchange with Antigone that follows.

861-62 / 801-2 7 myself. . . swing wide off the track. . . what the Laws allow The
reference to the Laws harks back to the power of desire a few lines
before (858-59 / 797-98). Although the men of the chorus for the most
part identify with the city and are, besides, intimidated by Kreon, they
are moved by sympathy for Antigone, whom they see now led in for
immuring in the cave, and so emotionally they veer beyond what they
consider permitted by the laws. In describing the cave where she will
be walled up to die as her bridal chamber, the chorus harks back to
previous ode on the power of desire and the bride and also prepares
for its lyrical exchange with Antigone, which is much concerned with
her figurative "marriage" to Hades, god of the underworld.

866-941 / 806-82 This long lyrical exchange between Antigone and the chorus,
technically known as a kommos, is one of the most emotionally intense
passages of the play. Antigone sings in lyric meters, and the chorus
replies in anapests and then changes to the more emotionally expressive
lyric meters at 913-16 / 853-56 and 931-34 / 872-75. Antigone, hitherto
firm and courageous in her resolve to die for her loyalty to family, now
expresses her grief at the prospect of death in her rocky tomb, which
she describes as a negated bridal chamber. The contrast with the pre-
ceding ode on the power of desire, with its fleeting allusion to the
"playful" side of love at the end, enhances the pathos of her situation.
We are here reminded of the youth and vulnerability of Antigone as
an orphaned young girl on the verge of marriage. Even the stern, civic-
minded elders of the chorus are moved to pity (see note on 861-62 /
801-2).

866 / 806 Look at me, citizens of my native land Characters in Greek tragedy often
call attention to the way they are viewed by others, in part because of
a self-consciousness of the play itself as spectacle, in part because of a
sensitivity to being exposed to public humiliation in a "shame culture"
in which one's appearance in society defines one's rank and the respect
one has (compare our "saving or losing face," or the Italian "bella/bruta
figura"). Close parallels occur at the beginning of Aiskhylos' Prome-
theus Bound and Sophokles' Aias. Antigone turns to the chorus as
members of the city (polls), from which she now feels totally isolated.
Here, as in her cry to the polis and its powerful citizens in 902-3 /
842-43 and in her final address to the chorus in 1005-8 / 937-40,

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Antigone can still regard herself as belonging to and having legal rights
in the polis — another indication that the absolute dichotomy of indi-
vidual and "state" does not completely fit her situation. It enhances the
pathos that, despite this appeal to the citizens, she has not heard Hai-
mon's report of their sympathy (747-55 / 692-700).

873-76 / 813-16 I have no share . . . hymn of marriage . . . Akheron Throughout her

lyrical lament Antigone contrasts her "marriage to Death" with the
marriage of which she is being deprived. Her present song of lamen-
tation makes a poignant contrast with the songs that would have been
sung at her wedding. Girls who died before marriage were said to be
"brides of Hades," and Akheron, the river that leads to the underworld,
here stands for Hades' realm in general. In fact, Greek tragedy often
exploits an association between marriage and death, in part because of
the pathetic contrast, in part because the young girl's removal from her
house of origin to the house of her husband in this virilocal marriage
system was perceived as separation and loss both to the girl and her
family and so could be the occasion for lament. For extensive discus-
sion of this motif, see Gail Holst-Wahrhaft, Dangerous Voices: Women's
Laments and Greek Literature (London and New York, 1992) and Rush
Rehm, Marriage to Death (Princeton, 1994). Hymn of marriage sing
me to my wedding in 875-76 / 815-16 emphasizes the ritual songs of
marriage that Antigone will never hear. In this play hymns of marriage
are replaced by funeral "hymns" and by the chanting of curses, the
latter in Eurydike's "hymns" of imprecation against Kreon as she dies
in 1391-92 / 1305. See notes on 708-9 / 658-59, 1309-10 / 1226-27, and
1387-92 / 1301-5.

877-79 I 817-18 Do you not go with glory. . . hidden? The chorus harks back to
Antigone's own earlier reasons for burying Polyneikes, but the glory she
had hoped to win in the opening scene (see notes on 48-49 / 37-38,
87-90 / 72-74, and 114-15 / 96-97) seems less satisfying to her when
she is on the point of death. Instead of looking to masculine, heroic
values, she will reply with the example of a pitiable, maternal women.
The shift to this more vulnerable and feminine mood increases the
pathos and sense of tragic loss surrounding her. The chorus itself here
vacillates between sympathy and disapproval. Hence, while it recog-
nizes her claim to honor, it also criticizes her as answering only to the
law of [herself], autonomos (the first occurrence of this word in extant
Greek literature), that is, disobeying the laws (nomoi) of the city, to
which the chorus feel primary allegiance. But in her speech of 495—
518 / 450-70, Antigone regards herself as the champion not of her "own

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laws" but of laws of the gods higher than those of the city. Note also
her complaint about the "laws" under which she dies in her lament at
907 / 847.

883 / 824 pitiable Phrygian stranger Antigone here compares herself to Niobe,
daughter of Phrygian Tantalos and wife of Amphion, an earlier king of
Thebes. Comparing her numerous children boastfully to the two chil-
dren of Leto, Niobe is punished by Leto's children, the gods Apollo
and Artemis, who kill all of hers, whereupon in her grief she is trans-
formed into the stony form of Mt. Sipylos in Phrygia (now western
Turkey). This stony sleep of death harks bark to the epithet of Hades
as making us all sleep in the previous strophe (871-72 / 810-11, and
compare 865 / 804). There are numerous points of contact with Antig-
one's story—the lament and particularly the comparison of Niobe's
petrification and her own enclosure in the stone prison of her cave —
but Antigone, childless and unmarried, dies in a contrast of tragic irony
with Niobe's fate. Homer has Achilles tell the myth of Niobe in Iliad,
24.602-17, and there is a more detailed version in Ovid, Metamorpho-
ses, 6.148-312.

899 / 839 Ah, 1 am laughed at With her sensitivity to insult at this vulnerable mo-
ment, Antigone interprets pejoratively the chorus's qualification of her
comparison of herself to Niobe, although the chorus also recognizes,
again, the special honor that she gains by her death (895-98 / 836-
38). The Greek word for laughed at is also used at 602 / 551 (see note)
when Antigone acknowledges her own mocking of Ismene.

903 / 844 springs of Dirke Dirke is the fountain of Thebes closely associated with
the origins and life of the city; it is mentioned first by the chorus in
the parodos (123 / 104).

906-7 / 847 unlamented by any friends This absence of friends (which, as often,
here translates the word philoi, the intimate relations of the family) is
exactly what Antigone tried to avoid for Polyneikes, at the cost of her
life. The tragic irony enhances the pathos of her lament.

907-9 / 848-49 the high-heaped prison . . . dreadful grave There is some uncertainty
about the text of these intricate lines, but the sense is clear. The ac-
cumulating words for piling up the earth and rocks for a grave all
suggest various forms of imprisonment and burial and reinforce Antig-
one's growing horror of being entombed alive. See also 1175—76 / 1100—
1101.

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 NOTES ON THE TEXT

913-16 / 853-56 Stepping ahead. . . fallen against the throne of Justice . . . some tor-
ment of your father's Despite their previous sympathy, the chorus con-
tinues to interpret Antigone's suffering as both a crime against the laws
of the city and as the result of an inherited curse. Their lines reflect
again the different views of "justice" in the play (compare Antigone in
495-518 / 450-70 and see note on 1357 / 1270). As before, the elders
may still be intimidated by Kreon. Antigone never accepts these ac-
cusations of wrongdoing or moral failure or weakens in her initial re-
solve (see 114-15 / 96-97)- In fact, she responds with another defense
of her actions in her last speech (967-91 / 905-24). Here, as in their
final response at 931-34 / 872-75, the chorus moves from anapests to
more intense iambic meters, indicating a heightening of emotion par-
allel to the increasing intensity of Antigone's lament.

918-19 / 858-59 My father's doom —recurring like the ploughing of a field three
times The text here is uncertain. We have adopted the plausible emen-
dation of Lloyd-Jones and Wilson's Oxford Classical Text, reading oi-
tou, doom, for oikton, the reading of the manuscripts. The latter would
mean something like "the pity" or "pitiful situation" of the Labdakids
(or, possibly, "the much repeated lamentation for Oidipous and the
Labdakids"). Many editors accept the manuscript reading, but the
emendation gives more natural syntax and a more plausible Sophok-
lean diction. Dawe prints the manuscript reading but adds in a note,
"The construction of the words is not easily understood." Antigone here
harks back to the much repeated theme of the accursed past of her
family, developed at length in the second stasimon. Like the plowing
of a field three times (literally, "thrice plowed") is a common metaphor
for something gone over again and again; here the agricultural meta-
phor may imply the incest and other intra-familial crimes of the three
generations of Labdakids: Laios, Oidipous, and the children of Oidi-
pous. See notes on 61-71 / 49-57 and 633-77 / 582-630.

926-27 / 868 having no other home but theirs Antigone here echoes her phrasing at
the end of the previous strophe (911-12 / 852), having no home with
either the living or the dead. The repetition, almost a refrain, evokes
her emotional suffering as she recognizes, more and more fully, her
isolation. The word used by Antigone for having no home (literally,
"changing her home") here, as in 911-12 / 852 and used later by Kreon
in 950 / 890, is metoikos, whose primary meaning for most Athenians
would be "metic," that is, a resident alien. This daughter of the ancient
royal house of Thebes has been so completely cast out by Kreon that

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she is now a "metic." Her language in 925-26 / 867 also points up her
anomalous position as a "bride of Hades": instead of leaving her an-
cestral house as the bride of Haimon, who would, in the normal prac-
tice of virilocal marriage, take her from her house to his, she remains
bound to the house of her parents, with its incestuous marriage and its
accursed past. See Introduction, 29.

928-29 / 869-70 marriage that brought doom This refers to the marriage of the exiled
Polyneikes to Argeia, daughter of the Argive king, Adrastos, who then
supplied the army that attacked Thebes.

931-34 / 872-75 To show reverence. .. power, in him who holds power... self-willed
temper The chorus again qualifies its sympathy for Antigone. They
acknowledge her reverence for the dead, but they are mindful of the
overriding fact of Kreon's power or control, and they end with an ac-
cusation of Antigone's willfulness, echoing their earlier criticism of her
as answering only to her own laws (881 / 821). "Self-willed" takes up
the negative associations of "self-" in sufferings of the house of Oidipous
(see notes on 1-2 / 1, 61-71 / 49-57, etc.). Temper echoes the first
stasimon, 398-99 / 355-56, temperament for the laws of the town. If we
are meant to recall that ode, we may be reminded of the contrasts
between the achievements of intelligence that it celebrates and the
passions that may destroy or threaten those achievements.

935-41 / 876-82 Antigone returns to her grief at her isolation from the "friends" or
"dear ones" (philoi) who have been the chief concern of her life. The
repetition of the word philos, "friend" or "dear one," in her first and
last lines creates the effect of a refrain, like that on metoikos in lines
911-12 / 852 and 926-27 / 868. The repetition of themes and language
throughout Antigone's lyrics in this section of the play not only em-
phasizes her intense emotions of loss and suffering but is also a char-
acteristic feature of the kind of ritual lament that she is performing.

939-40 / 879 see this fiery eye of heaven Seeing the light of the sun is a frequent
metaphor in Greek poetry for being alive, and bidding it farewell is
also taking leave of the life-giving natural world that we share with all
living creatures. The metaphor has special poignancy here because the
mode of Antigone's death will be a literal enclosure in a dark place
where she will never again see the sun. Contrast the chorus's joyful
invocation to the rays of the sun on behalf of the city to open their
first ode (118-19 / 100-101).

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942 / 883 Don't you know. .. stop singing The text has some uncertainties, but the
general sense is clear. Kreon presumably returns to the stage as Antig-
one sings the last part of her lament (935-41 / 876-82), which he over-
hears. His callousness will return bitterly on his own head at the end,
when he is the one to sing a lengthy lament.

944-50 / 885-90 Take her off!. . . We're pure . . . house up here The contrast between
Kreon's harshness and the pathos of Antigone's preceding lament is
heightened by the fact that he echoes some of her words about burial
underground, isolation, deprivation of her dwelling "above," and her
house in the underworld. Kreon supposes that he can maintain his and
the city's ritual purity by not actually shedding her blood (see 836-38
/ 775-76). Hence the change from the initial punishment by public
stoning (see note on 46-47 / 35-36). Teiresias, however, will soon warn
him about just this pollution for the city (1079ff /10166ff. and compare
1215-16 /1141), and at the end Kreon will experience the terrible blood
pollutions in his own house. See note on 1078-79 / 1015 and 1371 /
1284.

945 / 886 -wrap arms around her Continuing the inversion of marriage and death,
Kreon metaphorically makes the cave of doom "embrace" the bride of
Hades. That figurative embrace, however, will be answered by Hai-
mon's literal embrace of Antigone in death (see note on 1320-21 / 1237)
and will give a deep irony to Kreon's claim of "purity." See the previous
note and also note on 699-700 / 650.

954 / 894 Persephone Goddess of the underworld and bride of its ruler, Hades, Per-
sephone is carried off as a maiden to the realm of the dead to wed
Hades; she is a mythical model for Antigone. See Introduction, 28-30,
and note on 926-27 / 868.

955-56 / 895 the last of them Here, as elsewhere, Antigone forgets about Ismene.

959-61 / 898-99 loved by my father, loved by you, mother, loved by you, my own dear
brother Repeating the word of family affection, philos, three times in
the Greek, Antigone calls attention to the values to which she has
sacrificed her life. At the same time, the direct address to mother and
brother conveys her intense involvement in these emotions.

961-62 / 901 washed and laid out your bodies In describing the funerals of her family
members, Antigone refers here to the full rituals of preparing the body
for burial: the washing and dressing of the corpse (which was generally

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done by the women of the family) preliminary to its lying in the house,
after which it was carried in a funeral procession to the grave, where
libations were poured. In the case of her own burial of Polyneikes,
however, she was not able to wash the body, but could only pour out
libations and sprinkle a covering of dust. See 281-82 / 245-47 and 290-
91 / 255-56 and the notes on 472-76 / 427-31 and 1275-81 / 1199-1204.

962-65 / 900-903 with my own hands and poured libations... recompense Listing
the dead members of her family, Antigone here defines her family love,
or philia, in terms of her performance of the funeral rites for them.
Her address to Polyneikes by name (964 / 902) is the rhetorical climax
of this statement of her devotion to family; see the previous note. Her
statement that she has buried her father, Oidipous, implies the version
that he has died at Thebes, not in exile; see note on line 3 / 2 . The
phrase with my own hands is the single word autokheir in Greek, an-
other compound of "self." Earlier in the play this word describes the
double fratricide (see note on 1-2 / 1, 61-71 / 49-57, 193 / 172, etc.),
which was the subject of Antigone's opening speech; and it is Kreon's
accusatory term for the perpetrator of Polyneikes' burial (350 / 306). It
recurs later for the suicides of Haimon and Eurydike (1249 / 1175,1401
/ 1315), thereby connecting Antigone's action with these disasters and
linking the sufferings of the house of Oidipous to the house of Kreon.

965-66 / 904 those with clear thoughts. Antigone returns to her view of "good sense"
or "right thinking," so different from Kreon's.

967-79 / 905-15 These have been among the most discussed verses in the play. Many
editors regard them as a later interpolation, perhaps by an actor's com-
pany for later performance, and so delete them. Strongly in favor of
genuineness, however, is the fact that the passage was known to Aris-
totle, who quotes some of the lines (Rhetoric, 3.1417a), although the
quotation does not eliminate the possibility that the lines were added
sometime in the late fifth or early fourth century BCE. Among the
internal reasons alleged for viewing the lines as spurious are the ap-
parent illogic of Antigone's argument and particularly her change of
motivation for the burial from a defense of principles in 495-518 / 450-
70 to a highly personal and intimate connection with the family. But
to these objections it may be answered that Antigone has her own very
emotional sort of logic, which now, at the point of her being led to
her death, comes forth in the most personal terms. Of the external
objections, the most important is Sophokles' echo of a story in Her-
odotos' Histories, 3.119. Here the wife of Persian nobleman named

153
 NOTES ON THE T E X T

Intaphernes, who has been caught in a conspiracy against King Dar-

eios, uses a similar argument for choosing to save her brother rather
than a son or husband. Those who delete the passage argue that an
interpolator modeled it on this passage. But Herodotos, who was a
friend of Sophokles, was writing and giving readings of his work as
early as the 440s. Stephanie West, "Sophocles' Antigone and Herodotus
Book Three," in Sophokles Revisited (Oxford, 1999), 109-36, has re-
cently pointed out additional evidence for the priority of Sophokles
(see note on 1104-5 / 1038-39)- Sophokles, moreover, has adapted the
Herodotean material to Antigone's situation and character in significant
ways. Intaphernes' wife would save a living brother; Antigone is going
to die to bury a dead brother. Whereas the Persian wife (whose name
is never given) in Herodotos has the approved female role of throwing
herself on the king's mercy in her mourning and lamentation, Antigone
is not only facing death, but is in the role of the transgressive and
defiant tragic figure. And of course her own life is at stake, as that of
Intaphernes' wife is not. Finally, it should be observed that Antigone
does hark back to her initial rationalization of her motives in her em-
phasis on a "law" that she is following (971 / 908, 976 / 914), in the
issue of the "Justice of gods" that she is accused of "transgressing" (987
/ 921; compare 495-501 / 450-55, 913-15 / 853-55), in her "daring to
do terrible things" (979 / 914-15; compare 283 / 248, 494 / 449; also 413
/ 371) and in her defying the citizens (968 / 907; compare 74 / 59). This
last phrase, in fact, exactly echoes Ismene's refusal in the prologue (95-
96 / 79) and so at this point is the measure of how far Antigone's
transgressive piety has taken her.

978 / 915 my own dear brother Antigone directly addresses Polyneikes for the second
time (compare 960-61 / 899) and uses the same expression (literally,
"head of my brother") that she had used to address Ismene in her
opening line (1-2 / 1). Now the address is entirely to the dead, and the
living sister is forgotten: see note on 955-56 / 895.

985-86 / 920 still alive to the cave of the dead Antigone repeats her lament about
being between living and dead from her previous lyrics (910-12 / 850-
52); see note on 926-27 / 868.

987 / 921 Justice of the gods Antigone harks back to her speech of 495-518 / 450-70
(see note) and her view of a Justice opposed to that of Kreon. See note
on 995-96 / 927-28.

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 NOTES ON THE TEXT

991 / 924 charges of irreverence Antigone reiterates the motif of her paradoxical holy
crime or "holy wrongdoing" in 87-90 / 72-74 (see note); see also 931 /
872.

993 / 926 through suffering would know Sophokles is alluding to the familiar tragic
motif (in Greek, pathei mathos), made famous by Aiskhylos' Agamem-
non, 176-78.

995-96 / 927-28 May the evils that they suffer be no more than what they are unjustly
doing to me Antigone means, of course, that they should suffer at least
equal justice, and there is a bitter irony in this understatement. "She
can imagine no worse fate," remarks Jebb. In Greek, "justice" is her
last word in the speech (in the form of an adverb, ekdikos, literally "in
a way outside of justice"), but we should recall that "justice" in Greek
(dike) also implies the law of retribution. She has been "outside of
justice" (compare 913-15 / 853-55) in the eyes of the authorities, but
she hopes they will find themselves in the same position, as in fact
proves to be the case. In her last lines of iambic trimeter, like the hero
of Sophokles' Aias, 835-42, Antigone thinks of vengeance. For all that
she describes herself as sharing in loving rather than in hating (574 /
523), hers is no sweet and gentle nature. Greek popular morality (at
least before Plato), in contrast to Christian, strongly endorses vengeance
against those who have done one wrong.

997-1011 / 929-43 The chorus, Antigone, and Kreon have a short, three-way
exchange chanted in the marching meter of anapests as Antigone, es-
corted by Kreon's guards, exits to her underground cave in a slow,
solemn procession. Kreon continues to speak with brutal, unpitying
harshness. Antigone is alone and aware of her imminent death (1001-
2 / 933-34). Kreon himself probably begins to exit into the palace after
his final commands at 1003-4 / 935-36, while Antigone sings her final
lament (1005-11 / 937-43). Some have argued that Kreon remains on
stage during the following ode, the fourth stasimon, but this seems to
us less likely; see note on 1050-1165 / 988-1090.

997 / 929-30 The same storms of her spirit The metaphor of the storm for Antigone's
passion associates her, in the chorus's mind, with what is wild, savage,
and outside the city. The chorus used the same metaphor for the fury
of Kapaneus' attack on Thebes (155 / 137). Compare also the storms
and gales of the North Wind, Boreas, in the following ode (1046 / 984-
85)-

155
 NOTES ON THE T E X T

1004 / 936 are not final Kreon's language here shows his rigid legalism and insistence
on his authority.

1005-11 / 937-43 O city of Thebes.. . last, solitary member. .. reverent toward

reverence Antigone makes her final appeal not to Kreon but to the land,
gods, and lords of Thebes, which again emphasizes the pathos of the
isolation of one who belongs to the royal house and has sacrificed her
life to what she regards as part of the justice that the polis should
recognize (495-518 / 450-70). See notes on 866-941 / 806-82 and 866
/ 806. She reiterates that she is the last of her house (compare 955-56
/ 895), once more forgetting Ismene and harking back to the motif of
the destruction of the entire family. Her last words, however, look to
the gods, rather than men, and to the reverence for them that has
brought her death. See note on 991 / 924

1012-49 I 944-87 Fourth stasimon (fifth ode) The problems of this dense, difficult
ode are exacerbated by some uncertainties about the text. The chorus,
in highly poetic language, tells three myths, which seem meant as some
sort of consolation for Antigone but may also have some relevance to
Kreon. Once more, the chorus may say or imply more than it knows.
The first myth is that of Danae, daughter of King Akrisios of Argos,
who imprisons her in a tower of bronze to prevent her from conceiving
a child who is prophesied to kill him. Zeus, however, visits her in a
shower of gold and sires Perseus, who eventually fulfills the prophecy.
The second myth is that of Lykourgos, son of Dryas, king of Thrace,
who, like Pentheus in Euripides' Bakkhai, opposes Dionysos when the
god arrives with his new cult. In a fit of madness sent by the god,
Lykourgos thinks his son, Dryas (named after his grandfather, as is
customary) is the god's hated vine and cuts him into pieces with an
axe. Lykourgos is then imprisoned in a cave. The third myth, told in
a particularly dense and allusive style, is also set in Thrace, at Salmy-
dessos, on the Bosporos. King Phineus has two sons by his first wife,
Kleopatra, daughter of Boreas, god of the North Wind, and Oreithyia,
daughter of Erekhtheus, one of the early kings of Athens. Phineus di-
vorces, kills, or otherwise maltreats Kleopatra and marries a second
wife, who, like Kleopatra, is unnamed in this ode but is generally called
Eidothea or Idaia. She blinds her two stepsons with her shuttle, and
the ode ends by commiserating with the unhappy fate of Kleopatra,
which befalls her despite her lofty ancestry.
How these myths relate to one another and to the play is a subject

156
NOTES ON THE TEXT

of considerable controversy. Both the Danae and Kleopatra myths men-

tion the power of fate, or Moira, (1019 / 951 and 1049 / 987), and some
commentators have taken this as the link among the three myths. Fate
does not, however, play a role in Sophokles' account of Lykourgos here.
Both the Danae and Lykourgos myths involve divine punishment, but
it is not particularly prominent in the third. Imprisonment is also an
obvious link between the Danae and Lykourgos myths, but it is not
explicit in the Kleopatra myth, although in one version the children
and perhaps Kleopatra, too, are imprisoned. Sophokles. does refer to a
cave, but it is the cave of Boreas where Kleopatra was raised. While
the Danae myth best fits the situation of Antigone, the tale of Lykour-
gos, angrily opposing the gods, seems more appropriate to Kreon, par-
ticularly in light of the warnings by Teiresias that soon follow. Kreon
also, like Danae's father, Akrisios, tries to interfere with sexual union.
Moreover, both the Danae and Lykourgos myths result in disaster for
the father-figure. The two bloodily wounded children of the Kleopatra
myth may also foreshadow Kreon's loss of his two sons and the bloody
suicide of his wife, Eurydike, at the end of the play. All three myths,
like that of Niobe in 883-93 / 823-33, emphasize the high birth of the
sufferer and so are appropriate to Antigone: Danae is of much-honored
descent (1017 / 948), Lykourgos is King of the Edonians (1023 / 956),
and Kleopatra is descended from the royal line of Athens (1044 / 982)
and is also a child of gods (1047 / 986). Thus, the ode takes up and
answers Antigone's final lament that she is the last, solitary member of
the royal house (1008-9 / 941)-
All three myths also involve violent deaths within the family (partic-
ularly if the Lykourgos myth is taken to imply his insane killing of his
son) and so would be relevant to the houses of both Antigone and
Kreon. Conceivably, all three myths may also reflect different views
that the chorus has of Antigone: she is cruelly imprisoned, like Danae;
she is carried to violent excess, like Lykourgos; and she is a victim of
human cruelty, like Kleopatra and her sons. But, more generally, the
myths, taken together, exemplify the cruelty that family members can
inflict on one another. Also, the agents and the victims include both
men and women. In their concern with sexuality, anger, passion, and
vengeance, moreover, all three myths are reminders of the violent and
irrational forces in life that will soon break apart Kreon's apparently
rational control of his world. The ode thus continues an undercurrent
that runs through the previous two odes, on the curse on the house of
Oidipous and on the power of Eros, respectively, and again contrasts
sharply with the optimistic humanism of the Ode on Man.

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1015 / 949 O child, child The chorus again expresses sympathy for Antigone but, as
before, is careful to qualify this in their subsequent reference to the
power of fate.

1019-20 / 951 fills us with terror and awe The chorus uses the same word, deinon
(meaning both terror and awe) that described the ambiguous capacities
of humankind in the first stasimon (377 / 332).

1029-31 / 962-65 women quickened by the god. . . fire of Dionysos; that god's
Muses This refers to the maenads (literally "mad women") who are
inspired by Dionysos and dance in torch-light processions in his honor.
See note on 1221-24 / 1149-52- The Muses, nine daughters of Zeus and
Mnemosyne (Memory), are goddesses of song, dance, and poetry, often
closely associated with Dionysos.

1032-34 / 966-71 indigo waters of two seas.. . neighboring land, Ares The region
described is the Thracian Bosporos, the narrow channel separating
what is now European from Asian Turkey, connecting the Sea of Mar-
mara (the ancient Propontis) with the Black Sea, which are the "two
seas" here mentioned. Salmydessos is a Thracian city on the Black Sea,
on the European side of the Bosporos and slightly to its northwest. The
area is Ares' neighboring land because Ares, god of war, is often asso-
ciated with Thrace and the warlike Thracians. There are some textual
corruptions in the opening lines here. The manuscripts contain the
problematical word "rocks," which, with many editors, we delete. Ed-
itors who retain "rocks" in some form take it to refer to the so-called
Dark Rocks in this area, mentioned by Herodotos. They are tradition-
ally identified with the "Clashing Rocks," or Symplegades, guarding
the entrance to the Black Sea, through which Jason and the Argonauts
had to pass.

1038 / 975 Beaten blind The chorus here uses the same verb that described Oidi-
pous' self-blinding in the prologue (62 / 52) and in the self-blinding of
Oidipous himself in the Oidipous Turannos.

1044 / 982 Erekhtheids This ancient family of the kings of Athens is named after
their ancestor, Erekhtheus, who is the father of Kleopatra's mother,
Oreithyia.

1046 / 985 Boreas As the god of the north wind, Boreas is associated with Thrace.
He sweeps Kleopatra's mother, Oreithyia, off to Thrace, where Kleo-
patra is then raised in his cave dwelling.

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1048-49 / 986-87 on her, too, the Fates... pressed hard, O child As in the case of
the Danae, above, the chorus expresses sympathy and consolation to
Antigone by invoking the inevitability of fate and by calling her "child."

1050-1165 / 988-1090 The scene between Kreon and Teiresias, the old prophet of
Thebes, brings into the foreground the gods and the forces of nature
through which the gods act on the human world. Gods and forces of
nature have hovered in the background, but now move more threat-
eningly into the foreground. Kreon presumably reenters abruptly from
the palace at the news of Teiresias' arrival, although (as with all the
details of staging) this is not completely certain. He says nothing about
having come out from the palace at 1053 / 991, but this first, sharp
question, What news do you have?, can also indicate his arrival just
when the seer's sudden presence makes the new situation seem urgent.
This scene closely parallels the three previous scenes. Each one con-
tains a test or trial that challenges Kreon's authority. After the obse-
quiousness of the chorus at his entrance, Kreon first confronts the
Guard, with the first news of the burial; then Antigone, who immedi-
ately defies him, and, third, Haimon, who starts out by professing obe-
dience but ends in bitter hostility. Teiresias' entrance marks the first
time that Kreon confronts an older man and one who can claim an
authority equal to or greater than his.

1054 / 992 and you will obey the seer Like other old men in Sophokles, notably the
Teiresias of the Oidipous Turannos, the aged Oidipous of the Oidipous
at Kolonos, and Telamon, father of Aias, in the background of Aias,
Teiresias is accustomed to being obeyed and does not easily brook
opposition. Teiresias' early statement here of his authority prepares us
for the outcome of his conflict with Kreon.

1056 / 994 captained this ship of a city rightly Teiresias echoes the nautical imagery
with which Kreon described his rule in his first speech (182-83 /162-
63, 212-13 / 189-90), but in a very different tone that suggests the limits
of Kreon's initial confidence and egotism.

1057 / 995 Literally, "By my own experience [or, suffering] I have cause [am able]
to bear witness to (your) useful (things)." The Greek grammar suggests
that Kreon means he himself has experienced Teiresias' "useful things/
benefits" and can testify to them. If there is an allusion here to Tei-
resias' having prophesied the need for Kreon's other son to die for
Thebes (as in Euripides' Phoinikian Women), the phrase "by my own
experience," peponthos, perfect participle of the Greek verb paschein,

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could have its other meaning of "suffer" and not just the neutral
"experience." Sophokles, however, may be alluding to a somewhat dif-
ferent version of the myth. See notes on 1127 / 1058 and 1387-92 / 1301-
5-

1058 / 996 fortunes stand once more on the razor's edge A common expression in
Greek literature for being at the edge of extreme danger. The word
"fortunes" here translates the Greek tukhe, "chance," often an impor-
tant term in Greek tragedy, indicating the uncertainties of mortal life.
Teiresias' prophecy is fulfilled in the Messenger's heavy emphasis on
just these vicissitudes of "fortune" when he begins his account of the
catastrophe, 1229-30 / 1158-59. Compare also Eurydike's "chance" exit
from the house at 1256 / 1182 (see note on 1255-61 / 1182-86).

1060-62 / 998-1000 signs of my craft. . . bird-divining The ancient Greeks, like the
ancient Romans, practiced divination through the movements and cries
of birds in the sky.

1063-64 / 1001-2 Literally, something along the lines of "noise as they screamed a
barbarous cry, stung by some awful madness." Teiresias, as befits a
prophet, speaks in grandiose language. His expression, barbaric mad-
dened gibber-jabber, refers to the unintelligible speech of non-Greeks,
whom the Greeks called barbaroi. The word suggests that in the present
crisis the communication between gods and mortals through the lan-
guage of bird signs has become ominous and dangerous. The whole
phrase conveys the utter strangeness and horror in the cries of these
birds that Teiresias has been listening to all his life

1071-75 / 1006-11 instead, the fatty thighbones .. . lay exposed. . . covered them
Teiresias' description shows the disorder in the natural world through
the motif, common in tragedy, of corrupted sacrifice. The thighbones
of the sacrificial animal (in this case, presumably an ox) were wrapped
in fat and placed on the altar and burnt with incense. Teiresias' lan-
guage also echoes a word used to describe the rotting corpse of Poly-
neikes in 454 / 410 and so suggests a causal connection between the
body that should have been put beneath the earth in reverence for the
gods below and these offerings whose fragrant smoke should have
mounted to the heavens in prayer to the gods above. Instead, the fire
smolders, the fat fails to burn and runs downward, and what reaches
the heavens is the bitter gall as it explodes upward. The Greek syntax
in the description of the dripping thighbones might evoke a macabre
image of the fat of the bones turning into a wet slime.

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1078-79 / 1015 from your thinking . . . the city is sick Kreon's legalistic attempt to
avoid pollution in the bloodless killing of Antigone rebounds on the
city in a much larger and more dangerous form. Such a pollution
(miasma) is felt to be a kind of infectious disease that can bring plague,
sterility, and death to the city and its environment. See notes on 467
/ 421, 944-50 / 885-90, and 1371 / 1284.

1080-81 / 1016-18 food brought by the birds and dogs.. . son of Oidipous Teiresias
recalls the descriptions of the exposed corpse of Polyneikes in both
Antigone's and Kreon's early speeches in the play (31-38 / 26-30, 233-
35 / 204-6). Now, however, the fearful results of that exposure are
becoming visible on the plane of divine action. By referring to Poly-
neikes by his patronymic, he also evokes the curse on the house of
Oidipous.

1085-86 / 1022 eaten the blood-streaked fat The language recalls the chorus's descrip-
tion of the bloodthirsty attack on Thebes by Polyneikes and his army
in 139 /121-22 and Kreon's description in 227-28 / 201-2. Now, however,
the tasting of Theban blood has taken on a different meaning as the
threat to the city has shifted from outside to within, from the attackers
to the ostensible defender.

1086-89 I 1023-26 Know this . . . ill-advised. . . Teiresias takes up the "good sense"
or "wise counsel" that Kreon has claimed for himself against the folly
of Antigone.

1092-93 / 1027-28 He will not move. Stubbornness . . . botching things Teiresias' ad-
vice about the dangers of inflexibility recalls the warnings of Haimon
in 768-77 / 710-17. Stubbornness implies a self-will that resembles that
of Antigone. The accusation of ineptitude or stupidity must be partic-
ularly infuriating to Kreon, who prides himself on his logic and
intelligence.

1098 / 1032 your profit Teiresias reiterates this dominating preoccupation of Kreon,
but takes it in a direction that will soon enrage the ruler; see note on
1102-5 / 1035-39.

1099 / 1033 you all, like archers Kreon may be thinking of the previous mutterings
against him. See 747-55 / 693-700 and note on 333-38 / 289-92.

1102-5 / 1035-39 Kreon's language of profit, trade, and mercantilism repeats his sus-
picions of bribery and conspiracy; see 252-53 / 221-22, 354-59 / 310-14,

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 NOTES ON THE TEXT

508-10 / 461-62, 1098 / 1032, 1130 / 1061, 1132 / 1063, and notes on 1116
/ 1047 and 1409 / 1326. However, Kreon will soon be put on the
defensive.

1104-5 I 1038-39 gold from India Stephanie West (see note on 967-79 / 905-15),
113-14, has plausibly suggested that this reference to Indie gold is in-
debted to Herodotos' Histories (3.94.2), as India is not generally men-
tioned as a source of gold.

1107-12 / 1040-44 eagles of Zeus ... fear of pollution . .. power to stain the gods
Kreon's hyperbole puts him on dangerous ground, particularly as he
touches so scornfully on the serious matter of pollution. With charac-
teristic confidence, he presupposes a clear separation between human
and divine realms and identifies the gods with his own policies. In
what follows, however, his confidence about limiting and controlling
pollution —like his confidence about controlling Hades and Eros —
proves ill-founded; see Introduction, 31-32. For his cavalier way of dis-
missing Zeus, see notes on 348 / 304 and 535-38 / 486-87.

1116 / 1047 Kreon ends his tirade by repeating his accusations of profit from 1103 /
1037 and his recurrent suspicions of monetary gain and bribery. See
note on 1102-5 / 1035-39. Oidipous' accusations in Oidipous Turannos,
532-42, mine this theme for similar effects.

1125 / 1056 Teiresias takes up the criticism of Kreon's autocratic behavior raised by
Antigone and Haimon earlier and turns the charge of greed back on
the king.

1126 / 1057 your sovereign In Greek, this is the rare and archaic-sounding tagos
(found only here in Sophokles' extant plays). Kreon perhaps uses it to
emphasize his power and perhaps also to neutralize the pejorative as-
sociations of Teiresias' "tyrants" just before (both words are generalized
by being in the plural).

1127 / 1058 It was through me that you have saved this city This assertion may allude
to Teiresias' prophecy that only the blood of one descended from the
original Theban Planted Men could save Thebes; see notes on 1057 /
995 and 1387-92 /1301-5.

1133-34 / 1064-65 complete many swift courses of the racing sun The prophecy of
tragic doom coming in terms of days, or a single day, is a recurrent
motif in Sophokles (e.g., Aias, Trakhinian Women, Oidipous Turannos);

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see note on 1189-90 / 1113-14. Kreon's doom will come within a few
hours.

1135 / 1066 your own gut The Greek word is used more commonly of the mother's
"womb" rather than the father's "loins." Antigone uses a form of it to
describe her brother as born from the same womb, in 562 / 511. Kreon
has hitherto treated the realm of marriage and generation with scorn.
Now, rather than producing a living child, Kreon's male "womb"—his
male way of being—will figuratively produce the death of his living
child.

1138-39 / 1069 dishonorably compelling her, a human spirit The Greek for human
spirit is psukhe, which may also suggest "shade" and so points to the
ambiguity of Antigone's present position between living and dead at
this point, as she lamented in her last lyrics. It is part of Kreon's vio-
lation of the order of things that he has made her a "shade" when she
is still alive and in the upper world. The word "dishonorably," Greek
atimos, has a wide range of associations. It implies Kreon's harshness
to a member of the royal family (and his own family), his "dishonoring"
of the gods, and probably also, as Griffith suggests, his "disenfranchise-
ment" of Antigone, that is, her loss of civic rights. But it can also
include her loss of the rites and honor of a proper burial.

1141 /1070 body with no share of the gods The text is uncertain here and has often
been emended to something like "no share of offerings" or "of rites."
Alternatively, of the gods may be construed with "those below" in the
previous line ("one of those who belongs to the gods below"), though
this disturbs the parallelism with "someone from here above" just be-
fore. In that case, "rites" or some such word would be understood with
the phrase "with no share."

1142-44 /1072-73 Another difficult and much discussed passage: the meaning seems
to be that the burial of the dead belongs neither to Kreon nor to the
gods of the upper world, but that the latter have nevertheless suffered
"violence" or outrage from the pollutions of the human carrion that
the birds and dogs have carried to their altars (1079-86 / 1016-22).
Hence the Furies mentioned in the subsequent lines (1145-47 / 1075-
76) avenge the gods of both the lower and upper worlds.

1145-46 /1074 late-destroying Teiresias uses a grandiose compound of which the first
part evokes the old, archaic (and tragic) idea that the gods may be slow
to punish but are inexorable. The suggestion that Hades has its "aveng-

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ers" (here identified with the Furies) gives a darker meaning to Kreon's
scornful references to Hades earlier (see note on 495-518 / 450-70 and
838-42 / 777-80; compare also 352 / 308) and points toward the peri-
peteia, or reversal, in his circumstances. The Furies are dread goddesses
of the underworld and always evoke horror, particularly here, where
their epithet suggests their inexorable pursuit and punishment of their
victims.

1146-47 / 1075 who avenge Hades Hades stands here collectively for the gods of the
lower world, whose Justice Antigone had invoked in her defiant speech
of 495-518 / 450-70. Teiresias, however, says nothing specific of Antig-
one, though she seems to be clearly implied in 1136-38 / 1068-69. The
silence about her name has the effect of making Kreon's punishment
appear as part of a broad reaction of Sophokles' characteristically re-
mote gods to a disturbance in the balance of nature rather than as
revenge for a human crime against a particular individual.

1150-51 / 1078 Time will test my mettle We try to keep a word play in the Greek, as
the word for "time" here can mean "delay" and but also "rubbing" to
test true metal and distinguish it from false. Thus it continues the motif
of given silver in the previous line, which literally means "covered over
with silver," as if the bribery of Teiresias were analogous to making
false coinage, that is, false prophecy. With slightly different punctuation
and consequently different syntax, the lines can also mean, "much
wailing of men and women —and there will be no long delay of time —
will reveal (these things) to your household."

1153-58 / 1080-83 Some editors place these lines after Teiresias' earlier description
of the pollutions of the cities ending at 1086 /1022, and others delete
them as spurious or suggest that a line or two has dropped out before
them. The lines, however, are in keeping with the widening scope and
mounting authority of Teiresias' prophecy. Sophokles here seems to be
alluding to a version of the story told in Euripides' Suppliants, in which
Kreon refuses to bury the fallen Argive attackers and is then forced to
do so by the armed intervention of the Athenian king, Theseus. As part
of Athenian patriotic lore, the allusion would be easily recognized by
Sophokles' audience. This "burial" by dogs, beasts, and winged birds of
prey is to be understood ironically: the only "burial" of the corpses has
been in the bellies of these scavengers. Gorgias of Leontini, a contem-
porary sophist and rhetorician, called vultures "living tombs." The
Greek has a single verb for have purified in burial in 1155 / 1081, for
which the manuscripts offer two variants, kathegnisan or kathegisan.

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 NOTES ON THE TEXT

The former contains the root of the word for "pure," hagnos, in the
sense of "make pure by (proper) burial" or "sanctify," and so would
continue the motif of "purity" and pollution in the play. This reading
is supported by the fact that Sophokles uses other forms of this verb in
220 / 196 and 596 / 545. With the majority of editors, therefore, we read
kathegnisan. The verb kathegisan means "consecrate by offerings" or
"dedicate," and is explicitly associated with burial only in later writers.
On the other hand, this latter reading finds some support in the fact
that the same root occurs in 282 / 247, kathagisteuein, literally "avoiding
pollution," in the context of burial.

1159 / 1084 like an archer Teiresias throws back at Kreon his own metaphor accusing
prophets at 1099-1100 / 1033-34.

1170ff. / 1095ff. For the issue of "giving way" or "yielding" in Kreon's character see
521ff. / 473ff., 729-34 / 677-80, 771-77 / 712-17,1093-94 /1029-30,1177
/ 1102. Teiresias describes Kreon's "unyielding" temperament as stub-
bornness in his warning at 1092 / 1028. "Giving way" in general is a
major test of the Sophoklean hero, and the true hero, like Aias or
Elektra or Antigone here, does not give way. See in general Knox,
Heroic Temper, chapters 1 and 2.

1174 / 1099 I will obey Kreon's assent recalls Teiresias' insistence that he obey, at
the beginning of the scene (1054ff. / 992ff.), but now Kreon is in a very
different mood. This is the first time that he eagerly asks for advice,
and also the first time that the chorus takes a forceful initiative in
suggesting it in the following lines.

1175 / 1100-1101 Go send the girl up The word anes here may recall the Eleusinian
myth of Persephone and her an-hodos, or road upward, when her
mother, Demeter, secures her temporary liberation from Hades. The
hope of restoring Antigone to the upper world, however, is to prove
futile. See note below on 1195 / 1120 and Introduction, 28-29. The
chorus's description of Antigone's underground tomb echoes earlier
language, of Kreon himself at 834-35 / 774 and of Antigone at 907-09
/ 848-49.

1179 / 1103-4 Bringers-of-Harm. This is another allusion to the Furies. See notes on
647-50 / 598-603 and 1145-46 / 1074.

1183-90 / 1108-14 Kreon's instructions imply that he will send his attendants to bury
Polyneikes while he simultaneously will go to set Antigone free. In the

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Messenger's subsequent narrative, however, it appears that Kreon first

accompanied his attendants to Polyneikes and only afterwards went to
liberate Antigone (1271-83 / 1196-1205)— a delay that may have been
fatal for all concerned. His emphatic I ... myself in 1186-89 / 1111 im
plies his acceptance of responsibility for his punishment of Antigone,
but at the end of the play he will also have to accept the more ago-
nizing responsibility for his foolish heedlessness and foolishness (1347-
56 / 1261-69) when his intended rescue of Antigone fails and recoils
back on himself.

1189-90 / 1113-14 I am afraid it's best to observe the established laws through all one's
life, to the end At this point of reversal, Kreon seems to recognize, too
late, an area of "law" apart from his authority in the city. The phrase
could suggest those "unwritten laws" that Antigone invoked at 495-518
/ 450-70 and that Kreon dismissed. Through all one's life, to the end
carries an ominous ring in tragedy, which often emphasizes how un-
certain is the final end of a human life. Kreon here looks to the com-
pletion of a more or less normal life, whereas Teiresias framed his
prophetic warning in terms of a cycle of days (1133-34 / 1064-65), and
this is in fact fulfilled at the end as Kreon experiences the tragic reversal
of his life in a single day (1412-15 / 1329-32), as often happens in So-
phoklean and other tragedy (e.g., Aias, 753-57, Oidipous Turannos, 438,
1283). We may recall also the "one day" of the fratricidal deaths of
Polyneikes and Eteokles (19 / 14, 69-71 / 55-57, 190-91 / 170-71). The
contrast between the respective exits of Kreon and Antigone is striking:
he leaves the stage yielding, as she does not, and his final words are
about his fear, whereas hers were about her reverence.

1191-1224 / 1115-54 Fifth stasimon (sixth ode) This ode of supplication, the last ode
of the play, summons Dionysos, patron god of Thebes, to come to his
birthplace and save his city by warding off the disease of pollution about
which Teiresias has just warned (compare 1215-16 / 1140-41). The ode
is an important part of the structural design of the play, for it answers
the parodos, the first ode, which ends with Dionysos and nocturnal
ritual (171-74 / 152-54). Now, however, joyous thanksgiving gives way
to anxious prayer, civic choruses in the temples within the city change
to a figurative chorus of fiery stars in the heavens, and citizens are
replaced by the frenzied female worshipers of Dionysos (1218-24 / 1146-
52).

1191 / 1115 God of many names Greek gods typically have many epithets to denote
their different functions or different local cults, and it is important to

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address the deity by the appropriate name. So here the chorus invokes
Dionysos, in hymnic fashion, by referring to several of his places of
worship.

1191 / 1116 Glory of the young wife Semele, daughter of Kadmos, is the mother of
Dionysos by Zeus and gives birth to him prematurely when Hera,
Zeus's Olympian wife, tricks her into asking Zeus to show himself to
her in his full divine glory. She is killed by his lightning, but Zeus
saves the infant. The myth, told at length in Euripides' Bakkhai, is the
basis of Thebes' special claim on Dionysos.

1192 / 1115 Kadmos The founder of Thebes, Kadmos is the father of Semele, Dion-
ysos' mother. See note on 144 / 126.

1193 /1119 Italy The worship of Dionysos was especially popular in the Greek col-
onies of Sicily and southern Italy (Magna Graecia, or Great Greece,
as it came to be called), which was also noted for its wine production.
Some have seen here a possible indication of particular Athenian in-
terest in the area with the founding of its colony, Thurioi, in 443/442.
The suggested emendation to "Ikaria," a village northeast of Athens
famous for its worship of Dionysos, is unnecessary.

1195 / 1120 Eleusinian Demeter, shared by all Dionysos, in the cult form of lakkhos
(the last word of the ode in Greek at 1224 / 1152), has an important
place in the rites of Demeter at the panhellenic sanctuary of Eleusis,
on the southern outskirts of Athens. The rites are open to all who
undertake initiation (hence shared by all) and promise to the initiates
a blessed life in the hereafter. Demeter is here paired with her daugh-
ter, Persephone, and in fact the rites (which were kept secret) gave a
prominent place to the myth of the latter's rescue from Hades by her
mother. Both the promise of return from Hades and of some kind of
personal salvation that mitigates the pain of death stand in ironic coun-
terpoint to the events of the play. See note on 954 / 894 and 1175 /
1100-1101, and also Introduction, 28-29.

1196 / 1121 Bakkhos This epithet of Dionysos is used especially in connection with
his role as wine god and with his ecstatic cult of frenzied processions
and dances.

1197 /1122 Thebes, mother-city of the Bakkhai Thebes is the birthplace of Dionysos
(see note on 1191-1224 / 1115-54) and therefore is a place where the

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Bakkhai, the female worshipers of the god in his dances and proces-
sions, have special prominence.

1198 / 1124 Ismenos This river flows through Thebes.

1200 /1124-25 Savage serpent's teeth were planted See note on 144 /126.

1201-5 / 1126-30 pine torches ... double peak of rock . .. Korykian nymphs.. . . Kas-
talia flows down Sophokles here refers to an important aspect of the
Theban cult of Dionysos. His Bakkhai, or female worshipers, honor
the god in a nocturnal procession every other year on the heights of
Mt. Parnassos, above Delphi, accompanied by torches, ecstatic dances,
and the tearing apart of wild animals. The double peak refers to the
twin crags prominent above Delphi, known as the Phaidriades, which
these processions pass. In these upland plateaus of Parnassos is also the
cave sacred to the Korykian Nymphs, who are closely associated with
the god and are here imagined as accompanying these nocturnal pro-
cessions. The spring of Kastalia flows down from these heights to Del-
phi below. Its water is sacred and was thought to bring poetic
inspiration.

1205-8 / 1131-33 ivy slopes of Nysaian hills send forth . . . coast rich with grapes More
cultic details of Dionysos: Nysaian hills refer to Nysa, a mountain sa-
cred to Dionysos located variously in Egypt, Italy, Asia Minor, and
Thrace. The ivy, because of its deep green, curling vine, is associated
with the god's vital energies and vegetative power, and the grape (with
its vines) belongs to Dionysos as god of wine. The Greek verb for send
forth (pempei) connotes an escort or ritual procession (pompe), and
Dionysos is often depicted on contemporary vases as arriving in such
processions, escorted by nymphs and satyrs. The figurative use here
makes it seem as if the god leads his own Dionysiac landscape in such
a procession.

1208-9 / 1134-36 immortal followers cry out the Bakkhic chant Sophokles is using a
verb that means to "utter euoi," the cry of the Bakkhants in their excited
worship of Dionysos. Dionysos is himself sometimes referred to as "the
Euian one," the god worshiped by the shouts of euoil The word fol-
lowers is a widely accepted emendation for a Greek word meaning
"songs," "verses," "chants" in the manuscripts, which some editors ac-
cept. To have "songs cry out the Bakkhic chant," however, seems re-
dundant; and followers suits the idea of a Bakkhic procession here; see
the previous note.

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1211-13 I 1139 Your mother, she who was struck by lightning Semele gives birth to
Dionysos amid the lightning flashes of Zeus's majesty; see note on 1191
/ 1116.

1215-16 /1140-41 Disease .. . the city . .. and all its people, come cleanse us The cho-
rus calls on Dionysos to bring an end to the pollution caused by the
unburied corpse of Polyneikes, which both is a "disease" and also may
be the fearful cause of diseases; see notes on 467 / 421 and 1078-79 /
1015. The pollution, or miasma, is feared as a kind of infectious stain
or filth that needs "cleansing." The present anxiety undercuts Kreon's
earlier confidence about avoiding pollution; see note on 944-50 / 885-
90. Note too the contrast with the confidence in the human power to
overcome disease in the Ode on Man (405-6 / 363-64). Scattered ref-
erence to Dionysos as healer occur in the ancient sources; this is the
earliest. In the Greek, our wording come cleanse us! Stride ... is literally
"come with cleansing foot," which may be a reference to the cathartic
effect of ecstatic Dionysiac dance, given the emphasis on ecstatic danc-
ing throughout the ode; see Scott Scullion, "Dionysos and Katharsis
in Antigone," Classical Antiquity 17 (1998), 96-122. As Griffith notes re:
Greek lines 1140-45, "katharsis can be painful." Kreon discovers this
for himself: see note on 1371 / 1284.

1217 / 1144-45 slopes of Parnassos... moaning narrows Dionysos would come to

Thebes either from the west via Parnassos and Delphi, where he is
worshiped, or from the northeast across the narrow channel of the
Euripos, which lies between the mainland of Boeotia and the island
of Euboea.

1218-20 / 1146-48 Lead the dance of the stars . . . the voices sounding in the night This
beautiful and remarkable image projects into the night sky the dances
of Dionysos and his worshipers in their nocturnal processions on earth.
The Dionysos who watches over the Sacred Ways of Thebes at the end
of the previous antistrophe (1210 / 1135-36) now extends his presence
to vast cosmic distances. This shift from the city to the heavens parallels
the shift from the nocturnal processions of joy in the parodos to these
more remote, figurative choruses of fiery stars at a time of anxiety; see
note on 1191-1224 /1115-54.

1221-24 / 1149-52 show us Your Presence . . . Bakkhantic Nymphs . . . frenzied

dance Dionysos often makes his appearance in sudden, unexpected,
spectacular ways, and the Greek verb here, pro-phanethi, implies a
request for such a Dionysiac "epiphany." These female worshipers and

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attendants of Dionysos accompany the god in his processions and share

the madness or "frenzy" of his ecstatic dances; see notes on 1196 / 1121
and 1201-5 / 1126-30 The word translated as "Bakkhantic Nymphs" is
the Greek Thyiades, women or nymphs caught up in the ecstatic wor-
ship of Dionysos, from a verb meaning to "rush or leap furiously."
Sophokles offers his own implicit gloss in the following phrase, "fren-
zied dance," where "frenzied," or "maddened," mainomenai, evokes the
more familiar term, mainades, maenads, literally "maddened women,"
although the Thyiades here are probably to be thought of as nymphs
rather than mortal women. Though Dionysos is here invoked as a savior
god of the city, the reference to the Dionysiac madness continues the
mood of mounting emotional violence that begins with the second
stasimon and continues in the erotic subject of the third. It also re-
sumes the theme of Dionysiac madness in the story of Lykourgos, who
attacked the god's female followers in the fourth stasimon (1022-31 /
955-65)-

1225-1342 / 1155-1256 The sixth episode constitutes the reversal or peripeteia of the
play. The chorus's hopeful prayer for help and release from pollution
in the preceding ode is immediately answered by the wrenching events
of the Messenger's speech and by the accumulating pollutions in the
house of Kreon. Sophokles often exploits this sharp contrast, notably
in Mas, Oidipous Turannos, and Elektra. The following scene has been
carefully arranged so that the Messenger reports the events not merely
to the elders of the chorus, whom he addresses in his opening line,
but also to Eurydike, wife of Kreon and mother of Haimon, who enters
at 1254 / 1180. She has not previously been mentioned and may well
be Sophokles' invention (see note on 1255-61 / 1182-86). Her response
then leads directly into the final catastrophe and the final blow to
Kreon's life.

1225-26 / 1155 live near . . . both Kadmos and Amphion The Messenger addresses the
citizens of Thebes (and particularly the Theban elders of the chorus)
in terms of the founders of the city—Kadmos who slew the dragon that
guarded Thebes' sacred spring (see note on 144 / 126), and Amphion,
who built the walls of Thebes by causing the stones to leap into place
through the magical power of his lyre, thereby resembling Orpheus in
the power of his music over the natural world.

1229—30 / 1158-59 Fortune . . . the fortunate and unfortunate Such generalizations on

the precariousness of human fortunes are common in messenger
speeches and indeed in tragedy generally. The fourfold repetition on

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the root of the word for "fortune" or "chance" here, tukhe, reinforces
the point. See notes on 1058 / 996, 1255-61 /1182-86, and 1292 /1213.

1231 / 1160 things that stand established The sense seems to be that no one can
foresee how long the present circumstances can last for mortals. The
phrase harks back to Kreon's obedience, too late, to the established
laws in 1190 / 1114.

1235-36 / 1163 absolute command The Messenger means this as a compliment, but
it also recalls Kreon's too absolute view of his authority; compare 194
/ 173 and 796-99 / 736-39.

1237 / 1164 seeds of noble children The phrase echoes Haimon's still gentle attempt
to persuade his father in 760-61 / 703, and so reinforces the Messen-
ger's contrast here between Kreon's previous prosperity and his present
precarious situation.

1238—39 / 1165-66 when a man's enjoyment betrays him The text is somewhat un-
certain, but the general sense is clear. A variant reading, with weaker
manuscript authority, would give the sense, "When men betray (i.e.,
abandon or lose) their pleasures"; another would give "When pleasures
betray (abandon) men." We follow the majority of the manuscripts in
reading a man's enjoyment (literally, "pleasing"), with the singular
man's, which is supported by the scholia and better fits the specific
application to Kreon. This hedonistic statement is revealing for the
degree to which the Greeks view human life in terms of enjoyment or
pleasure, in contrast to mere biological existence. The Messenger's gen-
eralization (which should not necessarily be identified with Sophokles'
own philosophy) doubtless reflects popular sentiment. Brown aptly cites
a fragment of Simonides, "Without pleasure what life of mortals or
what absolute rule is desirable?"

1242 /1169 live in the style of a king The tyrant, who rules by his own authority and
without being responsible to other authorities, is the model of the
happy life. Yet "tyranny" may also carry ominous associations of abso-
lute power.

1249 / 1175 bloodied by a hand close to him The second half of this line, autokheir
haimassetai, literally, "self-handed he was bloodied," plays on the two
Greek words of which it consists. Autokheir can refer either to killing
by one's own hand (so later in 1401 / 1315, of Eurydike's suicide) or by
a kindred hand. In the latter case, Haimon's death is assimilated to the

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fratricidal deaths in Antigone's house (e.g., 71 / 56), an association re-

inforced by the "self-" language of the Messenger's reply in 1251 / 1177.
The verb "spilled the blood," haimassetai, also plays on the name of
Haimon, as if his destiny is foreshadowed in his name. Greek literature
is fond of this kind of false etymology, e.g., Pentheus and penthos,
"grief," in Euripides' Bakkhai.

1255-61 / 1182-86 She comes . .. by chance ... I chanced to loosen . .. the bolts By
calling attention to Eurydike's "chance" arrival, Sophokles perhaps in-
dicates that her presence as the recipient of the Messenger's narrative
is not part of the traditional tale but is his own invention. She does
not occur in any earlier extant version of the myth. "Chanced" in 1260
/1186 repeats the same root as the word "chance" in 1256 /1182 (tukhe
. .. tungkhano). See notes on 1058 / 996 and 1229-30 / 1158-59.

1259 / 1184 Pallas Pallas Athena, major Olympian goddess, daughter of Zeus, is an
appropriate divinity for a woman to supplicate. Offering such prayers
of supplication would be one of the reasons for women to leave the
house. Compare lokaste's emergence from the house in Oidipous Tur-
annos (911-23) to pray to Apollo.

1266 / 1191 as one who has lived through adversity This may hint at the death of
Kreon's elder son; see notes on 673 / 626-27 and 1387-92 /1301-5

1267-70 / 1192-95 The Messenger's promise of an accurate account assures the ve-
racity of what follows but also proves to be fatal for Eurydike.

1271-1328 / 1196-1243 The Messenger relates the deaths of Haimon and Antigone.
Greek tragedy rarely shows scenes of violence on stage but prefers to
narrate them through a messenger's speech, as here. The ancient au-
dience was accustomed to the oral performances of the Homeric poems
and of choral song and so, one imagines, would enter fully into the
story. This is one of the most powerful such speeches in Greek tragedy.
It completes the motif of Antigone's "marriage in Hades" and marks
the reversal in Kreon's fortunes, from power and prosperity to help-
lessness and misery. Four narrative devices contribute to its effective-
ness: (i) the tenses shift back and forth between past and present as the
Messenger begins the account of the encounter between father and
son at 128 5ff. / 1206ff.; (2) the quotations in direct discourse make this
encounter very vivid; (3) the sequence of events is clear and rapid; (4)
Sophokles keeps the emphasis on the interaction between father and

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son but does so in a way that reveals its fully tragic character. Though
the Messenger reports Kreon's words to his son, all verbal communi-
cation fails. Haimon refuses to answer and instead replies only with
silent, violent gestures, culminating in his bloody embrace of Antig-
one's corpse as he dies. (See also note on 1401 / 1315.)

1271-83 / 1196-1205 On Kreon's change from his earlier intention first to rescue
Antigone and then to bury Polyneikes, see note on 1183-90 /1108-14.

1275-81 /1199-1204 This account of the formal burial of Polyneikes not only gives
closure to the motif of the unburied corpse; it also gives him the full
rites of burial that Antigone could perform only in part. The culmi-
nating detail is that the tomb is formed by a mound for burial straight
and true. Compare the first account of the burial in 290-91 / 255-56,
where the Guard specifically states that the body was not covered with
a mound. See note on 472-76 / 427-31. At the same time both the
completed ritual and the visible mound contrast with the perverted
"funeral" ritual of Antigone, buried out of sight in an underground
chamber. See note on 962-65 / 900-903.

1283 / 1205 bridal crypt of Hades. . . floor of rock In the fusion of marriage and
funeral Antigone's bed is in a stony cave/tomb instead of bridal
chamber.

1291 / 1212 Am I a seer? Kreon's reference to prophecy here fulfills his earlier un-
knowing foreshadowing of the tragic events in the play, notably his
description of Antigone as a "cold embrace" for Haimon, 699-700 /
650.

1292 / 1213 A path that's more unfortunate This echo of the word for "fortune" or
"chance" puts into Kreon's own words the Messenger's initial gener-
alization about the reversal of his situation; see note on 1229-30 / 1158-
1159.

1296 / 1216 fitted stones We keep the manuscript reading, harmon (lit. "joint," "fit-
ting"). The passage is difficult. Lloyd-Jones and Wilson emend to ag-
mon, with the sense, "the gap made by tearing away the stones." Dawe
supposes that some lines have dropped out after this verse. The cave
presumably has a mound of earth and stones at its entrance, perhaps
blocking the passageway into a Mycenaean chamber tomb or tholos, as
Griffith plausibly suggests, which has been reused for this purpose. In

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any case, the entrance, or mouth, would have been sealed with piled
up earth and a loose "fitting" of stones, which (as we subsequently
learn) Haimon has "torn away" to open his access.

1298-99 / 1217-18 hearing. . . the gods are tricking me Kreon's fear introduces the
important motif of communication (see note on 1271-1328 /1196-1243)
and also admits the possibility that the gods may not be entirely on his
side and that he may not understand their actions.

1302-3 / 1222 noose tied of fine-woven linen Wedding and funeral again come to-
gether, as the description suggests a veil, used in both marriage and
burial ceremonies.

1305-8 /1224-25 bed. . . marriage Both of these words in the Greek mean both bed
and by metonymy marriage. Some editors have therefore suspected that
the second line is an interpolation. Although Haimon does not men-
tion Antigone by name, the bed can also stand by further metonymy
for the bride. The spoiling or "corruption" of the bed (and bride) is
soon answered by the spoiling or ruin of Haimon himself (i.e., of his
sanity, as Kreon fears in 1310-12 / 1228-30), and then by Haimon's
suicide.

1309-10 / 1226-27 moaning . . . wailing cries Lamentation engulfs this family, as it

had Antigone's, and it will continue in Eurydike's lament later.

1310-11 / 1228-29 You desperate boy . . . in your mind? Kreon's exclamation here can
indicate both disapproval (of Haimon's "reckless" or "desperate" be-
havior) and compassion. Though Kreon's cry might at first be under-
stood as possibly addressed to the dead Antigone, the context makes it
clear that he is thinking entirely of his son.

1314-15 / 1232 spits in his face Perhaps this is an ironic reversal of Kreon's paternal-
istic urging of Haimon to "spit out" Antigone as an enemy in 702 /
653.

1316 / 1233 two-edged The adjective can also mean "double-hilted," which some
interpreters prefer.

1318 /1235 furious at himself Combined with the silence, the spitting, and the drawn
sword, the phrase indicates the total breakdown of communication be-
tween father and son, as well as Haimon's wild passion.

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 NOTES ON THE TEXT

1320-21 / 1237 wraps the girl in the weak crook of his arm See notes on 699-700 /
650 and 945 / 886. The figurative "embrace" of Antigone by her tomb
has now become an actual embrace, but both acts fuse marriage and
death.

1327-28 / 1242-43 Messengers in tragedy often end their narratives with similar gen-
eralizations on the human condition.

1330 / 1245 without a word Eurydike's silent exit, which resembles that of lokaste in
Oidipous Turannos and of Deianeira in Trakhinian Women at analo-
gous crises, continues the motif of silence and failed communication
in the Messenger's narrative. The Messenger and chorus immediately
reflect on the meaning of this silence (1337-42 / 1251-56).

1334-35 / 1247-49 But in the shelter. . . among her servants Literally, "will not utter
forth/cry forth her cries (goous) into the city, but rather beneath (the
shelter of) her house will bring forth her private (literally, belonging
to the house, oikeion) grief to her servants." Women in fifth-century
Athens were not expected to lament in public, and the mourning for
warriors killed in battle was taken over by a public ceremony at which
the chief magistrate pronounced a funeral oration. In the most famous
extant example of such funeral orations, Perikles' speech in Thucydi-
des' History of the Peloponnesian War, 2.34-46, Perikles says that a
woman's reputation consists in being least talked about among men
"either concerning excellence or blame" (2.45.2). Sophokles heavily
overdetermines the contrast between house and city by the repetition
"under her own roof / in private," as the latter word, oikeion, means,
literally, "belonging to the house," oikos.

1343-1431 / 1257-1353 The final scene, or exodos, of the play begins with another
kommos (see note on 866-941 / 806-82), an emotional exchange largely
in lyric meters, between Kreon and the Chorus. Kreon enters in what
is essentially a funeral procession, either carrying (or more probably
supporting with attendants) the body of Haimon. If the body is repre-
sented by a dummy of some sort, it is possible to understand in his
arms (1344 / 1258) literally, but it is perhaps more likely that the corpse
is carried or wheeled in on a bier by his attendants. This arrangement
is perhaps suggested also by the chorus's words at 1365 /1279 (literally,
"These things you hold before your hands") and would make the actor's
task easier. But there would obviously be a more graphic pathos if
Kreon is actually carrying the body in his arms. Conceivably, he enters

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carrying the body and is then relieved of it by attendants, as 1383-84 /

1297 implies. The carefully balanced antiphonal responsions between
single mourner and chorus throughout this scene evoke the ritual of
burial that often concludes Greek tragedies. The finales of Euripides'
Andromakhe and Women of Troy offer close parallels. Comparable too
are the funeral procession at the end of Sophokles' Aias and the en-
trance of Kadmos with the mutilated body of his grandson, Pentheus,
at the end of Bakkhai.
The shift to song and song meters here marks a strong shift of tone
after the long Messenger's speech. This last entrance of Kreon contrasts
with the energy he displays earlier when confronting Teiresias, at
logoff. / 988ff. So forceful and confident before, Kreon is now a broken
man, and this radical change is indicated in part by his singing for the
first time in lyric meters, the emotional rhythms of dochmiacs (essen-
tially syncopated iambics). His only previous utterances outside of the
dialogue meter of iambic trimeter were his short anapestic exchanges
with Antigone at 999-1000 / 931-32, 1003-4 I 935-36- The lyrical kom-
mos not only shows his changed relation to those around him but also
harks back to the lyrical laments of Antigone with the chorus just before
she is led off to the cave.

1344-45 I 1258-60 conspicuous sign . . . a memorial, his own ruin This now answers
the previously absent or "unclear" or "unintelligible" signs, e.g., the
marks of burial at 287 / 252, the cries of the birds of omen at 1060-67
/ 998-1004, and the shout from the cave in 1288-89 /1209-10. Haimon's
body, on the stage, is now both the visible "sign" of Kreon's "ruin" and
its concrete, physical embodiment.
The word translated as "ruin," ate (1345 /1260), also means the "in-
fatuation" or "madness" that leads up to the ruin. That is, it refers both
to the subjective mental disposition that caused the disaster and to the
objective result, the disaster itself; see note on 671-72 / 624-25. In the
former sense, Haimon's body now makes tangible Kreon's inner dis-
position, which has led him to this terrible moment. So understood,
these lines can also be seen as a kind of metatheatrical discourse, call-
ing attention to the drama's ability to reveal, in visual "signs" on stage,
the invisible causes of the tragic events in the emotional and moral
behavior of the characters.
Kreon's vocabulary here also seems to echo that of the Athenian
funeral speech or epitaphios logos, a public discourse pronounced over
fallen warriors at a state funeral in the fifth century (see note on 1334-
35 / 1247-49). If so, there is a deep irony because Kreon is lamenting
a private, not a public loss, and his son did not die heroically for the

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city, like his brother Megareus (see note on 1387-92 / 1301-5), but
because of a wild, individual passion for a girl condemned by the city.
This "illustrious memorial" would also suggest both a parallel and a
contrast to the "glorious bier" of the dead Megareus (if that is the
correct reading) in 1387-92 /1301-5.

1345 / 1260 His own ruin —no one else's The chorus, which previously has mentioned
"ruin," ate, in general terms (661 / 614, 671-72 / 624-25), now attributes
it specifically to Kreon. This does not mean that Antigone has not
contributed to the disaster, but not through the kind of "infatuation"
that ate here implies.

1357 / 1270 recognize what justice is, too late The chorus implicitly validates Antig-
one's claim to justice in her defiant speech to Kreon in 495ff. / 450ff.
and reverses its view of Antigone's "stumbling against the throne of
Justice" in 914-15 / 854-55. The chorus also acknowledges the retrib-
utive justice for which Antigone prayed in what were almost her last
words, 995-96 / 927-28.

1363 /1276 burden . . . exhausting burden The Greek word ponos means "pain," "suf-
fering," "effort," "toil," etc., and has earlier been used for Antigone's
acceptance of the "burden" of burying Polyneikes (52 / 41, 967 / 907)
and for the guards' "task" of enduring the stench of Polyneikes' rotting
corpse (458 / 414). The phrasing here, with its bleak repetition of "bur-
dens," expresses Kreon's utter despair. His language uses the same lyr-
icism of the dirge that had characterized Antigone's final laments.

1364ff / 1277ff. The final blow to Kreon comes from the news of Eurydike's death,
brought by the Messenger. The staging probably made use of the ek-
kyklema, a low platform wheeled out from the central door of the scene
building, which represents the royal house of Kreon. Thus we are re-
minded both of the play's opening scene, when Antigone and Ismene
stand before that door, and of the increasingly domestic and personal
nature of a catastrophe for one who had placed city over house.

1368 / 1282 mother absolute For pammetor, literally, "the all-mother" (a single word
in the Greek), there is no easy English equivalent. It conveys the sense
of the wholly devoted mother, the mother in the very fullest sense of
the word, the one who defined herself as totally mother and so feels
most keenly the loss of a son, whose death she does not survive. The
juxtaposition with nekrou, corpse, adds pathos. She is now mother only
of a dead son and so has gone from all-mother to no-mother. This

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highly poetical word recurs elsewhere as an epithet of Earth or of the

venerable Rhea (mother of Zeus and Hera) as the "mother of all." In
its evocations of a universal maternity, both divine and human, the
epithet may also recall the female goddesses of death and rebirth, Per-
sephone and Demeter, in the background, or the ever-grieving Niobe
of Antigone's lament after the second stasimon, or the mourning moth-
ers of the fourth stasimon. See Introduction, 29-30.

1371 / 1284 Harbor of Hades, never to be purified In contrast to his earlier confidence
about avoiding pollution for the city (944ff. / 885ff.), Kreon finds a
pollution in his own case that he cannot "cleanse" or "purify." See
notes on 1078-79 / 1015 and 1215-16 / 1140-41. The metaphor of his
own house as a "harbor of Hades" also contrasts with his previous nau-
tical imagery (182-83 / 162-63, 212-13 / 189-90) and with his use of
Hades (death) as an instrument of his own power (e.g., 352 / 308, 838-
42 / 777-80). See notes on 495-518 / 450-70 and 559-74 / 508-23.
Antigone, meanwhile, has invoked Hades as the divine authority for
her insistence on burying Polyneikes (e.g., 570 / 519).

1376-79 /1289-92 Of what new killing. . . piled on top of death The Greek is very
dense here. The last element of the total collapse of Kreon's ordered
world is that this death at an altar (bomia, 1387 / 1301) is a kind of
perverted ritual of sacrifice, as sphagion literally means "sacrificial vic-
tim." The altar here, moreover, is presumably that of Zeus Herkeios—
the household shrine of Zeus who protects the family—which Kreon
had so confidently scorned in his condemnation of Antigone; see note
on 535-38 / 486-87. That a woman should kill herself in so agonizing
a way adds to the horror (see note on 1401 / 1315).

1380 / 1293 See her For the probable use of the ekkyklema here to display Eurydike's
body, see note on 1364ff / 1277ff

1383-84 / 1297 Only now I held my son in my arms If Kreon did enter actually
carrying the body, he has now put it down or it has been taken by his
attendants. See note on 1343-1431 / 1257-1353.

1387-92 / 1301-5 These lines present a number of textual and interpretative problems.
The manuscripts are divided between assigning the speech to the cho-
rus or the Messenger, but the latter is far more likely. At least one line
has dropped out after 1387 / 1301, which does not make a complete
sentence and in any case is corrupt. We have adopted a plausible

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emendation for 1387 / 1301 and have added a possible version of one
missing line. The lost verse or verses presumably described Eurydike's
approach to the altar and gestures preliminary to stabbing herself. In
1390 / 1303 the manuscripts read "dead Megareus' glorious bed," or
perhaps "glorious bier," which most editors emend either to "glorious
lot" or to "empty bed," both readings involving the change of a single
letter of the Greek. Sophokles seems to be referring to a version of a
story found in Euripides' Phoinikian Women, in which Teiresias tells
Kreon that only the willing sacrifice of a descendant of the original
Theban Planted Men can save Thebes from the Argive attack (see note
on 1057 / 995). In that play, Kreon's son, there called Menoikeus (after
Kreon's father), hurls himself off the wall into the Serpent's den and
so saves Thebes. In the version that Sophokles seems to be following,
Eurydike (rightly or not) seems to blame Kreon for Megareus' suicide,
so that he is the killer of both his sons —Haimon in the immediate
present ("this son") and Megareus. (In Euripides' version, Kreon, a
much more sympathetic character, puts family ahead of city and tries
to forestall his son's possible death.) But if Sophokles is following this
version of the Theban legend, Megareus' death presumably must have
been fresh, i.e., during the Argive attack, and so Sophokles has carefully
kept it in the background. There are a few passing hints earlier; see
notes on 673 / 626-27,1127 /1058,1266 /1191. If we keep the manuscript
reading, "glorious bier" could refer to the honor of Megareus' patriotic
self-sacrifice. We have, however, accepted the emendation "empty bed"
for a number of reasons. Syntactically, it suits the following reference
to Haimon's equally "empty bed" (although the possessive genitive of
the manuscripts is also sometimes emended to the accusative, "looks
to the bed and to this [other] one, Haimon"). "Empty bed" would also
reflect Eurydike's grief at the loss of both of her sons' future marriages
and so reinforce the parallel with Antigone. This interpretation is sup-
ported by the way it echoes Antigone's lament over Polyneikes like a
mother bird when she finds that her nest and bed are empty (orphanon
lekhos, 469-70 / 425) and by the fact that Antigone, like Eurydike,
"curses" the perpetrator (473 / 427). We are reminded too of "the un-
fortunate bed" of Antigone over which Haimon groans and wails in
1305-8 / 1224-25. Yet both the reading and the exact sense of 1390-92
/ 1303—5 remain obscure.

1395-96 / 1309 two-edged sword Literally, a "double-whetted sword," this is sharp on

both edges. Kreon now takes up and applies to himself the Messenger's
description of Eurydike's sharp-edged blade at 1387 /1301.

179
 NOTES ON THE TEXT

1398 / 1312 charged by the dead woman The language is that of Athenian legal ter-
minology and may be an ironical reflection on Kreon's legalistic frame
of mind earlier in the play.

1400 / 1314 torn away from us Kreon repeats the verb he used for the death of Hai-
mon at 1355 /1268, thereby linking the two deaths.

1401 / 1315 With her own hand.. . below her liver The liver may be used here in a
general sense for the abdominal region, but it may also be intended as
the specific organ, as the liver is considered the seat of the passionate
emotions. This particularly bloody and painful death bears out the Mes-
senger's language of a murderous sacrificial slaughter at 1387ff. / 1301ff.
and 1368-69 / 1282-83. Like Antigone herself, women in Greek tragedy
usually commit suicide by hanging (e.g., lokaste in Oidipous Turan-
nos). Deianeira's suicide in Sophokles' Trakhinian Women, who stabs
herself through her side "downward toward her liver and chest," is
another exception. Seneca's Jocasta, in his Oedipus, stabs herself in the
womb, a gruesome variant characteristic of that author. With her own
hand, in Greek autokheir, is the last occurrence of these "self-" com-
pounds in the play, and it marks the climax of the destruction and
passion turned against oneself or one's family. The word was last used
of Haimon in 1249 /1175. The whole passage has echoes of Haimon's
lament and suicide in 1305-8 / 1224-25 as well as of Antigone's lament
and curses over Polyneikes' body at 467-73 / 422-28. In the destruction
of Kreon's house, father and son and husband and wife communicate
in terms of murderous gestures rather than intimate communication.
Haimon does not answer his father's words (1313-15 / 1231-32), and
Eurydike exits from the stage in silence. Haimon spits in his father's
face before killing himself, and Eurydike calls down curses on her
husband at her death (1391-92 /1305). Sophokles thus links the death
of Eurydike with the deaths of Antigone and Haimon as the steps that,
in retrospect, form the sequence leading to Kreon's destruction.

1402 / 1316 sharp wailing Literally, "when she learned this (present) sharp-bewailed
suffering of her son." The sharp wailing leads to the sharp-edged knife
of her suicide (1387 / 1301). There is a lot of "sharpness" here at the
end (also 1395-96 / 1309), which adds to the atmosphere of violence
and suffering. Is there tragic irony in the contrast between this sharp-
ness and the chorus's exultation in the metaphorical sharp bit that
saved Thebes in the parodos (127 /108-9)?

180
 NOTES ON THE TEXT

1408 / 1325 no more than nothing These words represent the climax of Kreon's utter
spiritual and literal annihilation. The phrase takes up and fulfills, on
stage, the Messenger's introduction to Kreon's disaster in 1240-45 /
1167-71: a dead man who can still draw breath .. . the shadow of thin
smoke. Sophokles is fond of this figure of the tragic life as reduced to
"nothing": e.g., Oidipous Turannos, 1186-88, Elektra, 1165-67, Philok-
tetes, 1018, 1217.

1409 / 1326 profit This is the last and most devastating iteration of what had been
Kreon's obsessive preoccupation. See note on 1102-5 /1035-39.

1420 / 1337-38 destined for mortals ... no deliverance Greek tragedies often end with
such moralizing generalizations by the chorus (as also in its final lines
below on "teaching good sense"), but they constitute only one attempt
to grasp the meaning of these devastating events, and not necessarily
the most profound. See note on 1427-31 / 1349-53.

1421 / 1339 Lead me away This small touch subtly marks once more the total inver-
sion of power and weakness at the end of the play, for such was Kreon's
command regarding Antigone in 833 / 773 and 944 / 885.

1424 / 1342-43 I do not know which one to look at Like Eurydike in 1389-91 / 1303-4,
he is divided between two sources of agony.

1425 / 1344-45 everything is twisted This completely overturns Kreon's earlier confi-
dence in his ability to "direct" and keep his city "upright" or "right"
(orthos, literally "straight") in his first speech (e.g., 182ff. / 162ff, 686ff.
/639ff.).

1427-31 / 1348-53 As the chorus chants its final moralizing song, Kreon leaves the
stage, led away by his attendants, as he has twice requested (1406-8 /
1321-25, 1421 / 1339). In the Greek performance, we do not know what
was done with the bodies of Haimon and Eurydike. They might have
been left on the stage as the visible evidence of the tragic waste and
loss, or they might have been carried back into the palace, or carried
with the chorus as they exit after their final song, or possibly carried
off with Kreon as he exits, as members of the house that he has de-
stroyed. The final lines mention a number of important themes in the
play: good sense, disrespectful actions toward the gods, excessive or
boastful speech, and the contrast between the old and the young. As
often in Greek tragedy, such gnomic closure offers a measure of con-

181
NOTES ON THE T E X T

tinuity and communal solidarity after disorienting, chaotic violence. At

the same time, the tendentious moral only points up the discrepancy
between the tragic events and the construction of a rational, coherent
world-order. Happiness, in 1428 / 1348 here, seems very far away; none
of the major characters has shown good sense; Antigone has died for
her reverence; and the young victims will have no chance to learn in
old age. Whatever Kreon may yet learn as he grows old seems beside
the point amidst the completeness of his destruction now.

182
APPENDIX 1. THE DATE OF ANTIGONE

The only external evidence for the dating of Antigone is a statement

in the ancient Argument attributed to the Hellenistic scholar Aristoph-
anes of Byzantium and prefixed to the play in the manuscripts. Thanks
to the success of Antigone, the Argument reports, Sophokles was elected
one of the ten generals to serve in the Athenian war against the revolt
of the island of Samos, an important member of the Athenian naval
empire. The Samian revolt took place in 441-439 BCE, and the con-
nection of the play with it, even allowing for exaggeration, would sug-
gest a date in 442 or 441. As the elections took place in late spring,
Antigone would have been first performed at the great festival of Dion-
ysos in March 442 or 441. The connection between the generalship and
the play, however, may be the invention of the often unreliable bio-
graphical tradition and may mean only that the play was performed
sometime around 440, plus or minus a few years. Some scholars,
therefore, for various reasons, have preferred a slightly later date. There
is no absolute certainty, but a date in this period would suit the play's
style and dramaturgy, and it is widely accepted. In any case, the play
seems to belong to Sophokles' full maturity. Born in 496/97, he would
have written it in his mid-fifties, after he had been presenting plays at
the dramatic festivals for some thirty years, since his first victory in the
dramatic competitions in 468. The play would be about a decade ear-
lier than the Oidipous Turannos (429-425), with which it shares certain
features (e.g., an angry encounter between a king and a prophet and
the silent exit of a queen to commit suicide).

183
A P P E N D I X 2. THE MYTH OF
A N T I G O N E , TO THE END OF THE
FIFTH CENTURY BCE

The story of Oidipous and his children is referred to in Homer and

was told in a number of epic and probably lyric poems of the seventh
and sixth centuries BCE, of which only sparse fragments survive. We
know very little of the story of Antigone herself prior to Sophokles. The
ancient sources report various versions, many of uncertain date, no one
of which exactly tallies with Sophokles' version.* It is uncertain
whether Sophokles is the first to have Antigone sacrifice her life to bury
her brother. It is probable (but by no means certain) that the framing
of the conflict between Kreon and Antigone, her and Haimon's deaths
in the cave, and the figure of Eurydike are Sophokles' inventions. The
dramatists always felt free to add new details and to interpret the story
in their own way. Euripides' lost Antigone of 431, for example, probably
ended with Dionysos as deus ex machina rescuing the heroine from
death.
Sophokles' most important predecessor is Aiskhylos, whose Seven
against Thebes was performed in 467, and is the only surviving play of
a trilogy that included Laios and Oidipous. Echoes of Aiskhylos' lan-
guage suggest that Sophokles has Seven against Thebes in mind at sev-
eral points.
Seven against Thebes dramatizes the events that immediately precede
the action of Antigone—that is, the conflict between the two sons of
Oidipous, Eteokles and Polyneikes, for the throne of Thebes. Eteokles,
the defender of the city against his brother's army from Argos, puts a
Theban warrior in command at six of the seven gates to defend them

*For a brief survey of the ancient evidence see J. C. Kamerbeek's "Introduction" to his commen-
tary, 1—5; Griffith's introduction, 7—12 (full bibliographic citations at the beginning of the Notes,
117); also my Tragedy and Civilization, 190, with notes 111-14 on 449 (see Suggestions for Further
Reading).

184
A P P E N D I X 2. THE MYTH OF ANTIGONE

against seven captains of the Argive attackers, and he places himself at

the seventh gate, where the two brothers kill each other in battle. Seven
against Thebes ends with a lament over the two fallen brothers, which
editors variously attribute to the chorus, divided into two halves, or to
Antigone and Ismene. At this point a herald enters and announces
the decree to the leaders of the city not to permit the burial of Poly-
neikes. Antigone states her determination to bury him, and the man-
uscript ends with the two half choruses divided in allegiance between
Antigone and the city's leader's, respectively. In contrast to Sophokles'
play, Seven against Thebes does not mention Kreon, nor does it isolate
Antigone.
Unfortunately, there is considerable controversy about how much of
this ending is due to Aiskhylos and how much may have been a later
addition under the influence of Sophokles' own play. The issue re-
mains unresolved. If the ending of Seven against Thebes is in fact by
Aiskhylos, Sophokles has shifted the emphasis from the Aiskhylos' cen-
tral themes of inherited guilt and the family curse to the conflict be-
tween Antigone and Kreon and her heroic defiance of the latter's
authority.
Some fifteen or twenty years after Antigone, Euripides' Suppliants,
dated to the late 4205, uses a doubtless early version of the story, in
which Kreon refuses burial to all of the Argive dead and not just to
Polyneikes. This Athens-centered version has no place in it for Antig-
one. Here the Athenian king, Theseus, heeding the supplications of
the mothers of the fallen warriors, finally compels Kreon to bury them.
Sophokles seems to be alluding to this version in lines 1080-83 of
Antigone.
By the end of the fifth century BCE, Sophokles' version of the myth,
with Antigone at its center, is familiar. In the Phoinikian Women of
409, Euripides tells the story of the two brothers' death at Thebes dif-
ferently, but he ends with Antigone, who leads the old Oidipous into
exile. The last scene includes her dialogue with Kreon, in which she
defies his decree of exposing Polyneikes' corpse in a stichomythia that
obviously echoes Sophokles' (1646-68); and she tells Oidipous of her
determination to bury her brother even if it means her death (1745-
46).
Sophokles himself returns to Antigone at the very end of his life in
his Oidipous at Kolonos, composed some thirty-five years after Antigone
and produced posthumously. This play, set at Athens in the last days
of the aged Oidipous' life, is a "prequel" to Antigone. The father curses
both his sons, predicting their death. After failing to dissuade Polynei-

185
A P P E N D I X 2. THE MYTH OF ANTIGONE

kes from what will prove to be his fatal expedition against Thebes,
Antigone at the end decides to go back to the doomed city and try to
prevent the two brothers from killing one another. Although the ending
says nothing about the burial of Polyneikes or Antigone's death, So-
phokles clearly has his earlier play in mind.

186
A P P E N D I X 3. THE TRANSMISSION OF
THE TEXT

Antigone, along with the six other extant plays of Sophokles (out of
over a hundred that he wrote), survives primarily in numerous Byz-
antine manuscripts, ranging in date from the tenth to the fifteenth
centuries CE. There is, therefore, a period of some 1,500 years between
Sophokles' original text and our earliest manuscripts. In some cases the
manuscripts can be supplemented by quotations or comments in other
classical authors (themselves transmitted in medieval manuscripts) or
occasionally by papyrus fragments preserved from Hellenistic and
Greco-Roman Egypt, generally dating from the third century BCE to
the fifth century CE. In the case of Sophokles, however, we are de-
pendent mostly on the Byzantine manuscripts. The first printed edition
appeared from the celebrated Venetian printing house of Aldo Ma-
nuzio (Aldus Manutius) in 1502.
Before reaching the medieval manuscripts, these texts (like those of
most classical Greek authors) were copied, edited, and recopied nu-
merous times. This process resulted in numerous errors or corruptions.
Later scribes often made mechanical errors or misunderstood and
hence miscopied the text because an earlier script was unfamiliar or
because they did not fully grasp Sophokles' dense poetic vocabulary
and syntax, especially in the choral odes. It used to be assumed that
the earliest manuscripts were the most reliable (especial the tenth-
century manuscript designated as L and now in the Laurentian library
in Florence), but even these have many errors, and recent research has
shown that good readings are to be found in a much wider range of
manuscripts.
Since the Renaissance, classical scholars have worked intensively to
restore the text to something like its original form through comparative
study of the manuscripts and through close critical examination of So-
phokles' language and meaning. The process still continues. In

187
APPENDIX 3. THE TRANSMISSION OF THE T E X T

numerous passages, and not only in the odes, editors and translators
have to choose among variant readings in the manuscripts or among
the conjectures and emendations of modern scholars for passages that
are clearly wrong in the manuscripts. Although no two modern editors
agree on all parts of the text, there is a wide consensus on much of it,
embodied in the editions of Jebb, Dawe, Lloyd-Jones and Wilson, and
(most recently) Griffith (see beginning of Notes, 117). We have not
followed any single edition and have indicated our choices for some
of the most controversial passages in the Notes.

188
GLOSSARY

AKHERON: River in Epirus in northwestern Greece, supposed to lead

to the Underworld. Popular etymology connected it with the
Greek word akhos ("woe") as the "river of sorrow."

AMPHION: Early mythical king of Thebes, who helps build the city by
the power of his magical lyre that causes the stones to leap
spontaneously into their places in the walls. He is the husband
of Niobe (q.v.).

ANTIGONE: Incestuously born daughter of the former king of Thebes,

Oidipous, and his wife (and mother) lokaste, and sister of Is-
mene, Eteokles, and Polyneikes (qq.v.). She is betrothed to
Kreon's son, Haimon (q.v.).

APHRODITE: Olympian goddess of love. Often regarded as the mother

of the god Eros, the personified force of erotic desire.

ARES: Olympian god, son of Zeus and Hera. The god of war, he is
often imagined as violent and destructive and so is associated
by the early Greeks with Thrace and the warlike Thracians.

ARGOS (ADJ., ARGIVE): Major city of northern Peloponnesos and the

ally of Polyneikes (q.v.) in his attempt to overthrow his brother,
Eteokles (q.v.), and win back the throne of Thebes.

ATHENA: See PALLAS.

189
GLOSSARY

BAKKHAI: Female worshipers of Dionysos (q.v.), particularly in the ex-

cited, ecstatic dances and processions that form a part of his
cult.

BOREAS: God of the north wind, whose abode is in Thrace (q.v.). He

carries off the Athenian princess Oreithyia to be his wife, by
whom he has a daughter, Kleopatra, who marries the Thracian
king Phineus (q.v.).

BOSPOROS: A narrow channel in Thrace separating what is now Eu-

ropean from Asian Turkey and connecting the Sea of Marmara
(ancient Propontis) with the Black Sea.

DANAE: Daughter of King Akrisios of Argos, who, learning of a proph-

ecy that her child will kill him, imprisons her in a tower of
bronze. Zeus, however, visits her in a shower of gold and fa-
thers Perseus, who eventually fulfills the prophecy.

DEMETER: Olympian goddess of the fertile earth, of the harvest, of

crops, particularly grain, and of fertility. She is the mother of
Persephone (q.v.) by Zeus. When her daughter is carried away
by Hades to be his queen in the Underworld, Demeter brings
her back to the upper world for part of the year by withholding
crops until Zeus accedes to her demand. This story forms part
of the background to her cult at Eleusis (q.v.), her major place
of worship in Athens.

DIRKE: A famous spring at Thebes where Kadmos, first king of

Thebes, killed a huge serpent guarding the water, and thereby
founded the city. See also KADMOS.

DIONYSOS: Divine son of Zeus and the Theban princess, Semele, he

is a complex and multifaceted god, associated with wine, fer-
tility, festive dance and song, the mask, and drama, but also
with madness and ecstasy. He is often dangerous and vengeful
in establishing his cult among those who resist him. He is
frequently represented in processions of wildly dancing, ec-
static nymphs or women, his maenads (mainades, literally,
"mad women"), sometimes escorted also by satyrs and wild
animals. His rites at Thebes included nocturnal torchlight pro-
cessions of women on nearby Mount Parnassos (q.v.). In an-

190
GLOSSARY

other cultic form, as lakkhos (q.v.), he is sometimes associated

with the Eleusinian goddesses of fertility, rebirth, and the af-
terlife, Demeter and Persephone (qq.v.).

DRYAS: Son of King Lykourgos of Thrace. Lykourgos refuses to accept

the cult of Dionysos (q.v.) and, in revenge, the god drives him
mad so that he thinks his son is Dionysos' vine and chops him
into pieces with an axe. In some versions, this act of bloodshed
causes a plague, and Lykourgos is then imprisoned in a cave.

EDONIANS: Warlike Thracian people northeast of Greece, in the area

of modern Bulgaria.

ELEUSIS: Town south of Athens, the site of the Eleusinian Mysteries,

an important cult in honor of Demeter and Persephone (qq.v.)
offering hope of a happy afterlife to those who were initiated
into the rites at special ceremonies that were kept secret. The
cult, though localized at Eleusis, was open to all and attracted
initiates from all over Greece.

EREKHTHEIDS: Royal family of Athens, descended from the early king;

Erekhtheus.

ERINYES: See FURIES.

EROS: Personification of the power of erotic desire. Sometimes re-

garded as the son of Aphrodite (q.v.).

ETEOKLES: Incestuously born son of the former king of Thebes, Oi-

dipous, and his wife (and mother) lokaste, and brother of An-
tigone, Ismene, and Polyneikes (qq.v.). He holds the throne
of Thebes after the death of Oidipous and dies in a mutually
fratricidal battle with Polyneikes at one of the seven gates of
Thebes.

EURYDIKE: Wife of Kreon and mother of Haimon and his brother

Megareus (qq.v.).

FURIES: Dreaded vengeful deities of the Underworld. They particu-

larly punish crimes of bloodshed within the family, and they
often drive their victims mad.

191
GLOSSARY

HADES: God of the Underworld and husband of Persephone (q.v.),

who shares his subterranean throne and his realm. He is often
used as a synonym for death and for the Underworld, which
the early Greeks imagined as a grim shadowy place for the
lifeless shades of men and women after death. Hades the god
shares the world with his brothers Zeus, the god of the sky,
and Poseidon, the god of the sea.

HAIMON: Surviving son of Kreon and Eurydike and betrothed to An-

tigone (qq.v.).

IAKKHOS: A youthful divinity, closely associated with Demeter (q.v.)

as the divine child; he has an important place in her mystery
cult at Eleusis (q.v.). Though originally distinct from Dionysos
(q.v.), he gradually becomes identified with him. His name
may originally have meant "Lord of the shouting," derived
from the "shouting" (in Greek iakkhein) that attended the pro-
cessions and rites at Eleusis.

IOKASTE: Wife of King Laios (q.v.) of Thebes and mother of Oidipous

(q.v.), whom she allows her husband to order killed by expo-
sure, after learning of a prophecy that the infant son will grow
up to kill the father. Years later, after the death of Laios, lo-
kaste marries Oidipous, ignorant of who he really is. This in-
cestuous union produces two sons, Oidipous' successors to the
throne of Thebes, Eteokles and Polyneikes (qq.v.) and two
daughters, Antigone and Ismene (qq.v.). When lokaste discov-
ers the truth of Oidipous' birth, she hangs herself.

ISMENE: Incestuously born daughter of the former king of Thebes,

Oidipous, and his wife (and mother) lokaste, and sister of An-
tigone, Eteokles, and Polyneikes (qq.v.).

KADMOS: Mythical founder of Thebes. Arriving from Phoinike (Phoe-

nicia) in search of his sister, Europa, he encounters a huge
serpent at the spring of Dirke (q.v.) at Thebes, which he kills
in a heroic battle. He plants the teeth of the serpent in the
ground, and from this spring the ancestors of the future The-
bans, known as the Sown Men or Planted Men. See also
DIRKE.

192
GLOSSARY

KASTALIA: A spring sacred to Apollo at Delphi on Mt. Parnassos. Its

water was traditionally considered a source of poetic
inspiration.

KORYKIAN NYMPHS: Minor female divinities, worshiped in a cave high

on Mt. Parnassos in central Greece, and closely associated
with Dionysos (q.v.).

KREON: Successor of Oidipous (q.v.) as king of Thebes, and brother

of lokaste and so the maternal uncle of Antigone, Ismene,
Eteokles, and Polyneikes (qq.v.). Kreon's son Haimon is be-
trothed to Antigone (qq.v.).

LABDAKOS: Father of King Laios (q.v.) of Thebes and so ancestor of

the line Theban royal line known as the Labdakids.

LAIOS: King of Thebes and father of Oidipous by lokaste. Receiving

a prophecy that he will be killed by his own son, he orders
the infant Oidipous exposed to the elements on Mt. Kithairon
near Thebes, so that he will die. But Oidipous is rescued by
a shepherd and, when grown to adulthood, ignorant of his true
identity, kills his father at a chance meeting on a highway,
fulfilling the prophecy. See OIDIPOUS, IOKASTE.

LYKOURGOS: See DRYAS.

MEGAREUS: Deceased son of Kreon and Eurydike and (probably elder)

brother of Haimon (qq.v.). If he is to be identified with the
Menoikeus elsewhere in the literary tradition, he has sacrificed
himself to save Thebes, and somehow (in Eurydike's view)
Kreon can be blamed for his death.

MUSES: Nine goddesses of song, dance, and poetry, daughters of Zeus

and Mnemosyne (Memory), often closely associated with
Dionysos (q.v.) in his festive aspect.

NIOBE: Daughter of the Phrygian king Tantalos (q.v.) and later the
wife of Amphion (q.v.), an early king of Thebes. She boastfully
compares her seven sons and seven daughters to the two chil-
dren of the goddess Leto. She is then punished by Leto's chil-
dren, Apollo and Artemis, who kill all of hers, whereupon in
her grief she is transformed into the rocky face of Mt. Sipylos

193
GLOSSARY

in Phrygia (qq.v.), which was thought to resemble the face of

a weeping woman.

OIDIPOUS: Son of Laios by lokaste (qq.v.). Left exposed to the ele-

ments by his father's orders at birth, because of a prophecy
that this son would kill his father, Oidipous is rescued and
raised at Corinth by the childless royal couple. When he
reaches manhood, he goes to Delphi to discover his identity,
then kills Laios in a chance quarrel on the road between Del-
phi and Thebes. He arrives at Thebes, solves the riddle of the
Sphinx, a monster that is ravaging the city, and marries the
queen, the now widowed lokaste, not knowing that she is his
mother. Oidipous has four children by lokaste —his sons (and
half-brothers) Eteokles and Polyneikes, and his daughters (and
half-sisters) Ismene and Antigone. When Oidipous discovers
the truth of his birth, lokaste commits suicide and Oidipous
blinds himself. The story was the subject of a lost tragedy by
Aiskhylos performed about fifteen years before Antigone, and
of Sophokles' Oidipous Turannos, ten to fifteen years after.

OLYMPOS: Mountain in northeastern Greece, the peak of which is

traditionally considered the abode of the gods, who are
therefore called Olympians.

PALLAS: An epithet of Athena, daughter of Zeus and one of the major

Olympian divinities. She is sometimes invoked by women as
a protective divinity.

PARNASSOS: Mountain to the west of Thebes, the site of Apollo's sanc-

tuary at Delphi, and also associated with the cult of Dionysos
(q.v.).

PERSEPHONE: Daughter of Zeus and Demeter (q.v.), who is carried

off to the Underworld by its god, Hades (q.v.), as his
queen. Her annual return to her mother and the upper world
for part of the year formed part of the mythic background to
the Eleusinian Mysteries, which offered to initiates hope for a
happier afterlife. Along with her mother, Persephone is also
worshiped as a goddess of fertility. See also DEMETER, ELEUSIS,
IAKKHOS.

194
GLOSSARY

PHINEUS: King of the Thracian city of Salmydessos, husband of Kleo-

patra, daughter of Boreas (qq.v.). He divorces Kleopatra to
marry a second wife, named Eidothea or Idaia, and imprisons
or otherwise maltreats Kleopatra. His second wife blinds Kleo-
patra's two children.

PHRYGIA: An area in what is now western Turkey, the location of Mt.

Sipylos, where Niobe (q.v.) is transformed into stone.

PLUTO: Another name for Hades, god of the Underworld (q.v.).

POLYNEIKES: Incestuously born son of the former king of Thebes, Oi-

dipous, and his wife (and mother) lokaste, and brother of An-
tigone, Ismene and Eteokles (qq.v.), his rival for the throne.
After he and Eteokles kill one another in the battle at the gates
of Thebes, Kreon forbids the burial of Polyneikes' body,
thereby impelling Antigone to the act of defiance that sets the
tragedy into motion.

SALMYDESSOS: A Thracian city on the southwestern shore of the Black

Sea.

SERPENT: See KADMOS.

SIPYLOS: Mountain in Phrygia (q.v.) whose shape suggested to the

ancients the face of a weeping woman. Hence the myth of
Niobe (q.v.), who in her grief for her dead children is turned
into the stony shape of this mountain.

TANTALOS: Mythical king of Phrygia in Asia Minor, father of Niobe

(q.v.). Elsewhere in Greek myth he is one of the sinners pun-
ished in Hades (q.v.) for sharing the gods' divine food, ambro-
sia, with mortals after he has been invited to a feast on
Olympos.

TEIRESIAS: An aged, blind seer of Thebes, who plays an important

role in other Theban myths and in other Greek tragedies set
in Thebes, such as Sophokles' Oidipous Turannos and Eurip-
ides' Bakkhai.

THEBES: Ancient city in central Greece, the site of the action of

Antigone and of Sophokles' other Theban plays, Oidipous

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GLOSSARY

Turannos and Oidipous at Kolonos. It was founded by Kadmos

(q.v.) from Phoinike (Phoenicia, in the more familiar Latin
form), and came to be ruled by the Labdakids (see LABDAKOS),
the family of Oidipous (q.v.). It was guarded by a massive wall
with seven gates, at one of which Oidipous' two sons, Poly-
neikes and Eteokles (qq.v.), rivals for the throne of Thebes,
kill one another.

THRACE: Area to the northeast of Greece, extending north into what

is roughly modern Bulgaria and along the eastern shores of
the Black Sea. It was regarded by the early Greeks as a remote
and savage place, inhabited by warlike tribes.

THYIADS: Female worshipers of Dionysos who accompany the god in

processions marked by ecstatic dances and singing.

ZEUS: King of the Olympian gods and divine ruler of the world. Ini-
tially a sky god associated with celestial phenomena like light-
ning and thunder, he later comes to be considered the ad-
ministrator of cosmic order and the guardian of law and
justice. In one of his many cults, he is also worshiped as guard-
ian of the family, Zeus Herkeios, an image of which stood in
the courtyard or enclosure (herkos) in front of the house.

196
SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER
READING

Kitto, H. D. F. Form and Meaning in Drama. London, 1956.

Letters, F. J. H. The Life and Work of Sophocles. London, 1953.
Reinhardt, Karl. Sophocles (1947), trans. H. and D. Harvey. Oxford,
1979.
Seaford, Richard. "The Tragic Wedding," Journal of Hellenic Studies
107 (1987), 106-30.
Scale, David. Vision and Stagecraft in Sophocles. Chicago, 1982.
Segal, Charles. Interpreting Greek Tragedy. Ithaca, 1986. Essays using
a variety of contemporary critical approaches to Greek drama.
. Sophocles' Oedipus Tyrannus: Tragic Heroism and the Limits
of Knowledge. Second ed. New York and Oxford, 2001.
. Sophocles' Tragic World. Cambridge, Mass., 1995.
. Tragedy and Civilization: An Interpretation of Sophocles. Cam-
bridge, Mass., 1981; reprint Norman, Okla., 1999.
Vernant, Jean-Pierre, and Pierre Vidal-Naquet. Myth and Tragedy in
Ancient Greece, trans. }. Lloyd. New York, 1990.
Winnington-Ingram, R. P. Sophocles: An Interpretation. Cambridge,
Eng., 1980.
Zeitlin, F. I. "Thebes: Theater of Self and Society in Athenian Drama."
In Nothing to Do with Dionysus? ed. J. J. Winkler and F. I.
Zeitlin, 135-36, 148-50. Princeton, 1990.

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