Unit 4: Antigone, Lines 1–709

He’s to have no funeral or lament,
but to be left unburied and unwept

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

I wouldn’t urge you to. No. Not even
if you were keen to act. Doing this with you
would bring me no joy.

Against our land he marched,
sent here by the warring claims
of Polyneices, with piercing screams,
an eagle flying above our land,
covered wings as white as snow,
and hordes of warriors in arms,
helmets topped with horsehair crests.

The man swung down, torch still in hand,
and smashed into unyielding earth

Anyone who’s well disposed towards our state,
alive or dead, that man I will respect.

Don’t yield to those who contravene my orders.

You hedge so much. Clearly you have news of
something ominous.

The corpse was hidden, but not in a tomb.
It was lightly covered up with dirt,
as if someone wanted to avert a curse.

We couldn’t see things working out for us,
whether we agreed or disagreed with him.
He said we must report this act to you—
we must not hide it. And his view prevailed.

Money teaches men to live as scoundrels,
familiar with every profane enterprise.

In that level place the dirt storm damaged
all the forest growth, and the air around
was filled with dust for miles. We shut our mouths
and just endured this scourge sent from the gods.

But you should know the most obdurate wills
are those most prone to break.

The strongest iron
tempered in the fire to make it really hard—
that’s the kind you see most often shatter.

This girl here was already very insolent
in contravening laws we had proclaimed.
Here she again displays her proud contempt—
having done the act, she now boasts of it.

Those who live without tasting evil
have happy lives—for when the gods
shake a house to its foundations,
then inevitable disasters strike

A sovereign who cannot grow old,
you hold Olympus as your own,
in all its glittering magnificence.