Pre-AP Theatre: "Antigone," Excerpt 1, Pre-AP Theater

Now, dear Ismene, my own blood sister,
do you have any sense of all the troubles
Zeus keeps bringing on the two of us,
as long as we’re alive? All that misery
which stems from Oedipus?

What’s this they’re saying now,
something our general has had proclaimed
throughout the city?

He’s honouring one with a full funeral
and treating the other one disgracefully!

Eteocles, they say, has had his burial
according to our customary rites,
to win him honour with the dead below.

Eteocles, they say, has had his burial
according to our customary rites,
to win him honour with the dead below.

But as for Polyneices, who perished
so miserably, an order has gone out
throughout the city—that’s what people say.

He’s to have no funeral or lament,
but to be left unburied and unwept,
a sweet treasure for the birds to look at,
for them to feed on to their heart’s content.

He’s to have no funeral or lament,
but to be left unburied and unwept,
a sweet treasure for the birds to look at,
for them to feed on to their heart’s content.

That’s what people say the noble Creon
has announced to you and me—I mean to me—
and now he’s coming to proclaim the fact,
to state it clearly to those who have not heard.

O my poor sister, if that’s what’s happening,
what can I say that would be any help
to ease the situation or resolve it?

You’re too rash.
Has Creon not expressly banned that act?

You’re too rash.
Has Creon not expressly banned that act?

Then there’s our own two brothers, both butchered
in a single day—that ill-fated pair
with their own hands slaughtered one another
and brought about their common doom.

Then there’s our own two brothers, both butchered
in a single day—that ill-fated pair
with their own hands slaughtered one another
and brought about their common doom.

Think how we’ll die far worse than all the rest,
if we defy the law and move against
the king’s decree, against his royal power.

Think how we’ll die far worse than all the rest,
if we defy the law and move against
the king’s decree, against his royal power.

Since those who rule are much more powerful,
we must obey in this and in events
which bring us even harsher agonies.

So I’ll ask those underground for pardon—
since I’m being compelled, I will obey
those in control.

As for you,
well, if you wish, you can show contempt
for those laws the gods all hold in honour.

I’m not disrespecting them.

I’m going now
to make a burial mound for my dear brother.

Announce the fact—
if you don’t let everybody know,
I’ll despise your silence even more.

A vain attempt should not be made at all.

I’ll hate you if you’re going to talk that way.
And you’ll rightly earn the loathing of the dead.

Exit Antigone away from the palace. Ismene watches her go and then turns slowly into the palace. Enter the Chorus of Theban elders