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## MATT:
In order to show two characters speaking at the same time, you can add `"--"` between the dialogue (instead of `"---"`). Like so:
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## OTHER MATT:
O, Woe is Me!
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## MATT:
I will be able to make this look nice in the final product, but unfortunately this online editor doesn't have that capability. As usual, just make sure to not add too much text to one slide!
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# ANTIGONE<br>
by Sophocles<br>
translated by Nicholas Rudall
---
[mystical music plays]
---
"Her name was Erlene. He was on there too. Yeah he was there. No it was all three of us. They got on a bus from downtown to Riverside.
---
A white person wanting to sit down and this was a seat behind the doorway. It was at the back, at the back by the back door almost.
---
They didn't want to sit behind her. They thought that we ought to be at the back, whether there was any seats or not.
---
She was tired. Even tired or not tired. She wasn't gonna get up. She wasn't gonna give it to him.
---
[vocalizing]
I was standing, I was already standing."
---
## DEMOPHILUS:
Consider and call for the mourning women, That they may come.
---
## EUBOULE:
That they may come!
---
## DEMOPHILUS:
That they may come! The cries build until a wail pierce through the tears… Another wail… And another… Send for the women who mourn for the dead.
---
## EUBOULE:
Send for the most skilled among them!
---
[Ismene hums]
---
[the sisters begin humming in harmony]
---
## ANTIGONE:
My sister.
---
My Ismene. We are alive…but the grief, the suffering that Zeus puts on us I know must come from our father’s curse.
---
I have seen it all, the grief, the sense of doom, the shame in the eyes of the world. I have seen it all, your sufferings and mine.
---
But now the pain gets deep. The edict…the people say that Creon has proclaimed it to the entire city.
---
What have you heard? The wickedness of our enemies will soon destroy our family.
---
Do you understand me? Do you believe me?
---
## ISMENE:
My sister. My Antigone.
---
I have heard nothing. Nothing.
---
Not a word about our friends or family. Not since that moment when we lost our two brothers – when our world died as they died, a double breath, a double death.
---
The Argive army has left. I have no further news.
---
There is neither good nor bad in the air.
---
## ANTIGONE:
That is why I brought you from the house.
---
What I have to say is for your ears alone.
---
## ISMENE:
Tell me all.
---
I see that you are deeply troubled.
---
## ANTIGONE:
My trouble is indeed deep.
---
Creon will honor one of our brothers in death, dishonor the other. Eteocles he has buried, respecting all law, all custom, all sense of justice.
---
And Eteocles shares honor with the dead But Polyneices, a sad dead corpse that none can mourn for, none can bury. Bereft of tears, bereft of soothing earth, his body lies in the scavenging eyes of birds.
---
None can bury him. Creon has made this a law.
---
And he, the great Creon, comes here now to proclaim this law to you and me, specifically to me …and to make its meaning clear to those citizens who know nothing about it. But there is more… He will put to death anyone who attempts to bury Polyneices.
---
And the death will be by public stoning in the city. That is the truth.
---
What will you do? Will you be as noble as your blood?
---
Or have you fallen, fallen low?
---
## ISMENE:
If this is where matters now lie…what can I do?
---
My poor sister, I can do nothing that will either help or harm.
---
## ANTIGONE:
Then will you join with me in what I have to do?
---
## ISMENE:
What is that you have to do, what risk will you take?
---
## ANTIGONE:
Will you help me and bury the body?
---
## ISMENE:
Polyneices? …but the law forbids…
---
## ANTIGONE:
Aiai, He is our brother.
---
Perhaps you wish he was not. I will never forsake him.
---
## ISMENE:
You are rash, my sister. Creon has passed an edict.
---
## ANTIGONE:
Creon cannot keep from the one I love.
---
## ISMENE:
Alas alas.
---
I love you, my sister. But remember how our father died, not only unloved but hated, hated.
---
He knew the curse and he put out his own sad eyes. Remember, my sister, remember his wife, his own mother.
---
Remember her death, the anguish and shame. The noose.
---
Remember the death of brothers. They murdered and they died.
---
One day, two deaths. The hands that loved suddenly killed.
---
And now we are alone. We too will die a painful death – if we ignore the king, forget the law.
---
Remember that we are women. Remember that the law belongs to men.
---
This edict, cruel as it is, must be obeyed. I ask forgiveness.
---
I ask forgiveness of the dead. I have no power.
---
I must bow to those who have it. To make a wild and futile gesture makes no sense.
---
## ANTIGONE:
I ask nothing of you. Nothing.
---
Even if you chose to join me now … I would not permit it … It is too late. Be what you are.
---
But I will bury Polyneices. I will do what I must do and I will die an honorable death.
---
I am his kin, and kin must lie by kin. Mine will be a holy crime.
---
I must honor not the living but the dead. For I will spend a longer time with them.
---
There shall I lie forever. As for you … dishonor what the gods have honored.
---
## ISMENE:
I will dishonor no one. But I cannot resist the rule of law.
---
I cannot.
---
## ANTIGONE:
That easy phrase protects you.
---
I will go and bury my brother now … whom I love.
---
## ISMENE:
Oh my sister.
---
I feel nothing but terror. I fear for you.
---
## ANTIGONE:
For me? Feel no fear for me!
---
Put your own life in order, beloved.
---
## ISMENE:
Tell no one of what you are about to do.
---
You keep silence. And I will do the same.
---
## ANTIGONE:
No, scream it aloud. Denounce me.
---
If you are silent, I will hate you even more.
---
## ISMENE:
Your heart is burning, but what you have to do is cold as ice.
---
## ANTIGONE:
I know to whom my love must flow, and flow deep.
---
## ISMENE:
If only it could reach him … but your love is impossible.
---
## ANTIGONE:
When my strength dies, I will die.
---
## ISMENE:
But you are wrong from the start … to seek what cannot be done.
---
## ANTIGONE:
If that is what you believe, I will be the first to hate you, then Polyneices, with justice, will hate you too.
---
But leave me to my own folly, leave me to the suffering and the terror. But be sure that I will suffer nothing so shameful as death without honor.
---
## ISMENE:
If that is what you believe, then go your way. But mindless is your journey, though you are rightly loved by all your family.
---
## EUBOULE:
Oh most glorious light that ever shone upon Thebes of the Seven Gates.
--
## DEMOPHILUS:
Oh, light of the sun. Oh, light of the sun>
(repeated)
---
## EUBOULE:
Oh then did you shine upon the man from Argos.
--
## DEMOPHILUS:
Oh, eye of the golden sun. Oh eye of the golden sun.
(repeated)
[whistling]
---
## EUBOULE:
Polyneices! Running in unbridled fear now In the harsh blaze of your dawn. Polyneices!
--
## DEMOPHILUS:
Polyneices! Polyneices! He had come in bitter quarrel with his brother.
---
## EUBOULE:
Wing white as snow.
--
## DEMOPHILUS:
[call of an eagle]
Screaming shrill like an eagle he flew above our land covered with a wing white as snow. He came.
---
## EUBOULE:
Weapons and feathered crests. Bristling in the sun. Polyneices!
--
## DEMOPHILUS:
Weapons and feathered crests. Bristling in the sun. Polyneices!
---
## EUBOULE:
He stood above our city's homes. Spears. A black circle of death.
--
## DEMOPHILUS:
Hovered there, thirsty for blood. And then
---
## EUBOULE:
Before the flames of war could burn our tower's crown. He was turned back.
--
## DEMOPHILUS:
Before he could slake his jaws' thirst with our blood.
---
## EUBOULE:
Thebes rose like a dragon behind him.
--
## DEMOPHILUS:
The war god screamed at his back. Thebes rose like a dragon behind him.
---
## EUBOULE:
Zeus hates the boasts of a proud tongue. And seeing the enemy rolling on like a mighty stream.
--
## DEMOPHILUS:
In arrogant clash of gold.
---
## EUBOULE:
He struck the man who rushed to our towers’ height Struck him down with a bolt of fire. Polyneices!
--
## DEMOPHILUS:
Before his mouth could scream the cry of victory.
Polyneices!
---
## EUBOULE:
Traitor! To the echoing ground he fell, twisting hard, Fire yet in his hand.
--
## DEMOPHILUS:
To the echoing ground he fell, twisting hard, Fire yet in his hand.
---
## EUBOULE
Who in a mad attack. In his hate. As the war god flailing blood. Now another. Black death.
--
## DEMOPHILUS:
This man. Had raged against us. Flailing blood. Marked now one. For black death.
---
## EUBOULE
Seven, Seven.
--
## DEMOPHILUS:
Seven Captains stood at the Seven Gates, Seven against Seven.
---
## EUBOULE
Zeus who turns the battle.
--
## DEMOPHILUS:
They lowered their weapons, yielded to the might of Zeus who turns the battle.
---
## EUBOULE:
All but those brothers in blood, Two bred of one father and, a common share of death. They alone hurled their spears And found a common share of death.
--
## DEMOPHILUS:
One mother. A common share of death.
[Antigone screaming]
---
## EUBOULE:
Eteocles Now Victory whose name is Fame. City of warriors. Let us worship at the shrines of the
gods.
--
## DEMOPHILUS:
Now Victory whose name is Fame. Dances in the joy of Thebes, But Let us forget these rough wars.
---
## EUBOULE:
Bacchus. Lead us.
--
## DEMOPHILUS:
Let us dance through the dark night
And Bacchus will lead us.
---
## EUBOULE:
God of Thunder, Lord of Thebes. Your Name
(repeated)
--
## DEMOPHILUS:
Let us forget these rough wars. Let us worship at the shrines of the gods. Let us dance through the dark night And Bacchus will lead us.
---
## POETS:
Bacchus will lead us! Bacchus will lead us!
(repeated)
---
## EUBOULE:
What plan beats in his mind?
--
## DEMOPHILUS:
Ah now comes Creon, son of Menoeceus, King of Thebes, our new king, appointed by this new twist of Fate.
---
## EUBOULE:
Why has he summoned us all?
--
## DEMOPHILUS::
Why has he called the Council of Elders? Why has he summoned us all?
---
## CREON:
Citizens of Thebes, the gods, with waves of wrath, storm-tossed our Ship of State. But now they have righted us once more.
---
I have summoned you here, from every quarter of the city, because I know that I can trust you. You were loyal to Laius our king.
---
You were loyal to Oedipus when he restored the state. You were loyal yet again to his descendants when he died.
---
Now it is I who hold the full power of the throne. For it falls to me after the double death on a single day of the brothers Eteocles and Polyneices.
---
Killer and killed were one flesh, and the flesh was polluted by spilled blood. No king can expect complete loyalty from his subjects until he shows his control over government and the law.
---
You cannot know his mind, his soul. For I truly believe that the man who controls the state must have a supreme and moral vision for its future.
---
But if he is prone to fear and locks his tongue in silence, then he is the worst of all who ever led this country or could lead it now. I love my country.
---
I love no human being more than my country. Zeus is my god and Zeus sees all.
---
I swear that if I saw the state headed for disaster I could not hold my tongue. Her safety is our only hope. Nor could I call any enemy of this country my friend. For when she sails safe upon an even keel, then and only then can we say that we have friends.
---
These are my principles of government.
---
And that is why I have issued the edict concerning the sons of Oedipus. Citizens of Thebes, Eteocles who died defending our city, brave spear in hand, is to be buried with all the honors we bestow on fallen heroes.
---
But his brother, Polyneices, who returned from exile to burn and pillage his own father’s lands, to overturn his native gods, who sought to spill the blood that was his own, who sought to make us his slaves…no one in this town may bury him nor mourn for him. Unburied his corpse will feed wild dogs and carrion birds.
---
This is my command. Never will I honor the wicked at the expense of the just.
---
The man who is loyal to this city, him I will honor in death as in life.
---
## EUBOULE:
Creon, you have the right to pass this law.
---
You have the power to rule over the living and the dead, the traitor and the patriot.
---
## CREON:
See to it that you enforce the law.
---
## DEMOPHILUS:
We are old. Entrust this to the young.
---
## CREON:
That is not what I mean. Sentries watch the corpse.
---
## EUBOULE:
Then what would you have us do?
---
## CREON:
Give no support to anyone who breaks the law.
---
## DEMOPHILUS:
I am not a fool. I have no love of death.
---
## CREON:
And the price is death. But there’s many a
man who has risked his future for money.
---
## WATCHMAN:
My Lord, I’m not saying that I’m out of breath from running. No, I didn’t exactly put my best foot forward.
---
In fact, I stopped to think often enough and nearly went back to where I came from. I kept thinking: “Go there and you’ll pay for it!
---
Idiot! Get Going!
---
For if Creon finds out from someone else it’ll be even worse.” So I kept on thinking and I kept on slowing down. I haven’t come far but it took long enough.
---
So… here I am finally. I will tell you.
---
It may be nonsense…but I’ll tell you. My only hope is that I won’t be harmed…but what’s going to happen…is going to happen.
---
## CREON:
What has made you so uneasy?
---
## WATCHMAN:
Let me first tell you about myself…I didn’t do it.
---
I didn’t see who did it. It’s not fair if I get into trouble.
---
## CREON:
You know how to protect yourself. You’ve built a clever defense.
---
You have some bad news. Out with it.
---
## WATCHMAN:
It’s terrible. I don’t know where to begin.
---
## CREON:
Out with it and then be off with you!
---
## WATCHMAN:
All right.
---
The corpse…well, somebody's buried it…and…gone away…dry dust sprinkled on the flesh and all the rituals complete.
---
## CREON:
Who dared to do this?
---
Who?
---
## WATCHMAN:
Oh I don’t know!
---
The ground was hard and dry…there were no signs of digging…no wheel tracks in the dust. I mean whoever did this left no trace.
---
Nothing. It was the guard who had the morning shift who noticed it first.
---
We were sick…astonished really. The body was not there as it had been, not buried exactly, just a thin layer of dust, just enough to put his ghost at rest…no footprints of wild animals…no dog tracks…nothing.
---
His body was intact. We began to fight, quarrel, shout at each other.
---
Guard punched guard. Accusations flew about.
---
No one could stop it. Everybody had done it.
---
Nobody had done it. We were ready to take red-hot iron in our hands to prove our innocence.
---
We’d walk through fire. We’d swear by every god we had not done it.
---
We knew nothing. Not the when or the where.
---
Finally when we had talked all questions through one man spoke up: it was clear – you had to be told. We all stared at the ground.
---
But there was no other choice, no way out really. No way to hide it.
---
What the man said…convinced us. We all cast lots.
---
I… won. And so I am here.
---
It’s not what I want but I’m here. Not what you want either.
---
No one likes the bringer of bad news.
---
## DEMOPHILUS:
I could only think that this was some god’s doing.
---
## CREON:
Stop!
---
You are old. Old old fools.
---
Do not risk my anger, for it runs deep. Some god?
---
Intolerable! The gods care nothing for this corpse.
---
Or do you think they buried him...because he treated them so well. After all, he did come to burn their temples, overturn their images, pillage their lands, and break their laws.
---
Did you ever see the gods honor wicked men? It is not so.
---
No. From the beginning I knew that men in this city loathed this edict, formed cabals, whispered together, conspired against me.
---
These are no subjects. These men are not loyal to me.
---
No. These men – o I can see it, I can see it – they bribed the guards to do this.
---
Money! There is nothing in the world that corrupts so much as money.
---
It destroys the state. It drives men from their homes.
---
The honest are corrupted. And all for money. Money makes evil thrive and wickedness grow fat.
---
Every man who took bribes and helped in this sealed his own fate there and then. Now to you.
---
Listen to me carefully. I speak to you under oath, for I swear before great Zeus whom I revere: if you don’t find the man who laid his hands upon the corpse and bring him here right before my eyes, death will not be enough for you.
---
I’ll string you up alive until you unmask this criminal. Understand?
---
Perhaps then you’ll learn this lesson: sometimes greed exacts a heavy price. Perhaps in the future you’ll think twice about the source of your profits.
---
You’ll see dirty money destroys more men than it saves.
---
## WATCHMAN:
Can I say something?
---
Or should I just turn around and go?
---
## CREON:
When you open your mouth you irritate me.
---
## WATCHMAN:
Where exactly…ears or heart?
---
## CREON:
Why do you seek to anatomize my discomfort?
---
## WATCHMAN:
The man who did it hurts your heart…I hurt your ears.
---
## CREON:
Talk talk talk!
---
That’s all you are fit for!
---
## WATCHMAN:
Maybe.
---
But I didn’t do it.
---
## CREON:
This from you who sold his soul for money.
---
## WATCHMAN:
It’s terrible when you make a guess, and the guess is simply not true.
---
## CREON:
Look, if you don’t find the men who did this you’ll be talking about the punishment that the money inflicted on you.
---
## WATCHMAN:
Well, I pray they catch the man! But whether they do or not…that’s in the hands of fate.
---
You’ve seen the last of me! I didn’t expect to get away, no I didn’t!
---
But thanks be to the gods, I’m safe!
---
## Ismene:
My mind splits in pain. This is Antigone.
---
## EUBOULE:
What a remarkable piece of work is man. What a remarkable piece of work is man.
--
## DEMOPHILUS:
What a remarkable piece of work is man. What a remarkable piece of work is man.
---
## EUBOULE:
In the tossed waves of winter He dares the bucking back of the sea When the swells swirl heavy.
--
## DEMOPHILUS:
Year in year out he pummels the earth,
---
## EUBOULE:
Earth, earth, earth.
--
## DEMOPHILUS:
Earth, undying, Earth greatest of the goddesses, Earth Pliant mother Earth As the plows turn her soil And the mules plod on her tireless breast.
---
## EUBOULE:
The birds of the air he nets and brings to earth, And the wild beasts of the hills. Wit nest he traps the tribe of fish from the deep, Net fingered with skill.
--
## DEMOPHILUS:
He is lord over the savage mountain lion, Masters the long-haired horse and the bull That has never known the pain of the yoke.
---
## EUBOULE:
He knows thought that has wings. And he has found refuge from the arrows Of rain and hail. He can do everything.
--
## DEMOPHILUS:
He knows the language of the tongue. He knows the passions that create cities. And yet
---
## EUBOULE:
He can do no thing, Nothing in the face of the death that must come.
--
## DEMOPHILUS:
Nothing.
---
## EUBOULE:
He has cured disease. But he cannot cure death. His mind is rich in thought. His mind feeds on hope. But Good comes and Bad comes.
---
## EUBOULE:
Human laws are frail Divine laws live in truth. Keep the laws of the gods and cities stand high. Cities fall when arrogant excess keeps court.
---
## EUBOULE:
Never will the transgressor break bread at my table.
---
## WATCHMAN:
This is the woman who did it. We caught her burying him.
---
Where’s the king?
---
## ISMENE:
She struck her fate with her own rash hands.
---
## CREON:
Speak to me, your Lord.
---
What has happened?
---
## WATCHMAN:
One should never make a promise you can’t keep.
---
You change your mind, and you break your word. My Lord, you threatened me.
---
And I swore I'd never come back. You terrified me.
---
But I am now a happy man. I didn’t expect to be.
---
But I am happy beyond my dreams. I’m back.
---
I swore I’d never come, but I’m back and I’ve brought the girl. We caught her burying the dead.
---
This time we didn’t use lots. It was mine for the taking.
---
I bring you the news. O now, my Lord, take her.
---
She’s yours. Question her.
---
Find out the truth. Me?
---
I’m free. You can’t bring anything against me.
---
## CREON:
Tell me exactly what happened.
---
## WATCHMAN:
We caugt her burying him. That’s it.
---
## CREON:
That is the truth?
---
You understand the consequences?
---
## WATCHMAN:
I saw her burying the body.
---
She was breaking one of your laws. Enough?
---
## CREON:
Give me the details of how she was caught.
---
## WATCHMAN:
It was like this: When we got back there, terrified by your threats, we brushed the dust off the corpse.
---
We cleansed the rotting flesh. And we sat on a mound away from the smell.
---
We kept each other awake, poking, threatening. Everyone had to be on the lookout.
---
We did this for a while. Then it was noon.
---
And hot. Sun up above.
---
Out of nowhere came this wind, twisting, whirling, covering the leaves of the trees. The plain was filled with spinning dust.
---
We shut our eyes, cursed the gods, and sat there. It lasted long.
---
But then suddenly it was gone. Then we saw the girl.
---
She screamed, sharp and shrill. Like a bird that has lost its young.
---
She began to groan when she saw the naked body, began to curse the ones who had done this awful thing. She took the dry dust in her hands, raised a pitcher of bronze and poured libations over the corpse, three comforts for the dead.
---
We saw this and we charged down the hill. We got her.
---
But she was completely calm. We said to her: “You did this, and it was you the first time.” She did not say no.
---
I was so happy. But I'm glad to be safe.
---
## CREON:
You there, you with your head bowed low, do you admit this, or do you deny it?
---
## ANTIGONE:
I did it.
---
Nothing more.
---
## CREON:
Go!
---
You are free! You knew this was against the law?
---
Yes or no?
---
## ANTIGONE:
I knew.
---
Of course I knew. Everyone knew.
---
## CREON:
And still you did it? You broke the law?
---
## ANTIGONE:
It was not god’s law. Zeus made no such law.
---
Nor did Justice who lives with the gods below make it a practice for mankind. You are a mere mortal.
---
And what you decree is as nothing in the face of the laws of gods both unwritten and beyond truth. They live not in the now or in the yesterday.
---
They live in eternity. They come to us time out of mind.
---
I am not afraid of any man. Man’s power means nothing.
---
I am afraid of the anger of the gods. And therefore I have kept their laws.
---
I knew that I would die. Of course.
---
But your threats meant nothing. If I die before my time, I think I win.
---
For when you live in grief such as mine, what is death but a victory? So no, there is no grief in death for me.
---
But if I left my mother’s son to rot unburied, I would feel grief, but now I grieve not at all. You may think me a fool.
---
But folly be in the eve of the beholder.
---
[low rumbling]
## CREON:
People who are proud crack first.
---
They shatter like iron forged in hot fire. Hard iron splits and slivers in the heat.
---
The sliver of a bit reins in the proudest horse.
---
And this girl is proud, arrogant. She broke the law, our city’s law.
---
That was the first thing.
---
Now she boasts of it. She laughs.
---
She laughs in my face. She plays the man.
---
I am nothing if she wins. She is my sister’s child.
---
But if she were my own daughter she would die. She and her sister.
---
For I accuse Ismene too. She shared in this…this burial.
---
Call her out. I saw her in the house.
---
She was no longer mistress of herself. Sometimes secret plans become revealed before the plotters work their evil.
[rumbling ends]
---
I loathe when the workers of evil try to make what they do some thing of grace.
---
## ANTIGONE:
Do you want more than my arrest and my death?
---
## CREON:
Nothing. Nothing.
---
## ANTIGONE:
What are you waiting for? Nothing you say do I agree with.
---
I pray I never will. And I know nothing I say will touch your heart.
---
But to bury my mother's son…what could feed my glory more? And these men here, they praise what I did but in silence they are slaves.
---
But you are a king, free, and you can speak at will.
---
## CREON:
That is not what they think.
---
## ANTIGONE:
That is what they think. But in fear they seal their lips.
---
## CREON:
You are not ashamed to be the only one who thinks this way?
---
## ANTIGONE:
No, or was it a shame to honor your brother?
---
## CREON:
But was it not your brother who killed him?
---
## ANTIGONE:
Yes. My brother.
---
Yes. My mother’s son.
---
## CREON:
And it was a crime to bury him , not an act of grace.
---
## ANTIGONE:
His dead brother would not say so.
---
## CREON:
And you, you make no distinction.
---
## ANTIGONE:
No.
---
It was a free man who died.
---
## CREON:
Making war on his own country! Eteocles died in defense of it.
---
## ANTIGONE:
Death is a fair judge. All men are equal.
---
## CREON:
The good and the bad are not necessarily equal.
---
## ANTIGONE:
But who knows if this is eternal truth?
---
## CREON:
If a man you hate dies, he does not become your friend.
---
## ANTIGONE:
I was born to share in love, not hate.
---
## CREON:
Then go down and love the dead below. You are a girl.
---
I am a man…that says it all.
---
## CREON:
You there, poisonous viper!
---
You hid in the dark of my house and sucked my lifeblood dry. The pair of you were plotting to overthrow the throne, but I was blind.
---
Admit it.
---
Or will you swear that you knew nothing?
---
## ISMENE:
I did it, if she will allow it.
---
I am her partner. I share the blame.
---
## ANTIGONE:
Justice will say no. You had no desire to be my partner.
---
Nor did I allow it.
---
## ISMENE:
The journey with you into pain is what I long for.
---
## ANTIGONE:
Death and the dead know who did this. I cannot love someone whose love is mere words.
---
## ISMENE:
Sister, don’t deprive me of honor. Honor for me is to die with you, bringing glory to the dead.
---
## ANTIGONE:
You cannot die with me.
---
My death’s enough.
---
## ISMENE:
When you are gone, what love can there be left?
---
## ANTIGONE:
Ask Creon. He is your kinsman and the one you care for.
---
## ISMENE:
Why do you wish to hurt me? It does you no good.
---
## ANTIGONE:
I hurt too. Even when I laugh at you.
---
## ISMENE:
What more can I do for you?
---
## ANTIGONE:
Save yourself.
---
I cannot begrudge your life.
---
## ISMENE:
I am in torment.
---
And I cannot share your fate?
---
## ANTIGONE:
No.
---
You chose life, I chose death.
---
## ISMENE:
But I talked to you.
---
I warned you.
---
## ANTIGONE:
In some people’s eyes, yes.
---
In other’s no.
---
## ISMENE:
But we both have lost.
---
## ANTIGONE:
Be strong. You will live.
---
My breath died long ago. I joined the dead and I will help them.
---
## CREON:
Of these sisters, one proved a fool just now. The other was a fool from birth.
---
## ISMENE:
Yes, my Lord. When people are in pain, common sense leaves them behind.
---
## CREON:
You lost your common sense when you chose to do evil with this evil girl.
---
## ISMENE:
What life is there for me to live without her?
---
## CREON:
Don’t speak of her. She is no more.
---
## ISMENE:
Will you kill the future wife of your son?
---
## CREON:
Oh, he can plow other fields.
---
## ISMENE:
But they were bound together like no other!
---
## CREON:
I hate the thought of my son marrying an evil woman.
---
## ANTIGONE:
Haimon! Your father robs you of your rights.
---
## CREON:
You and your marriage utterly repel me.
---
## EUBOULE:
You will deprive your son of his bride?
---
## CREON:
Death will destroy this marriage.
---
## EUBOULE:
It is determined then that this girl must die.
---
## CREON:
So must you …and so must I. Move!
---
Take them in.
---
They may be women with no means of escape. But even brave men run away when they see death coming close.
---
## EUBOULE:
Happy is the man whose life has never tasted pain. For when a house is shaken by the gods, no generation escapes
--
## DEMOPHILIUS:
Time out of mind I have seen the sorrows of this house, seen them loom and come.
---
## EUBOULE:
The curse lives, ever surging onward, like the wave that swells when the north winds whip the sea.
--
## DEMOPHILIUS:
Crashing down upon the children. Grief upon grief. Grief upon grief. Grief upon grief. Grief upon grief. Grief upon grief. Grief upon grief. Grief upon grief.
---
## EUBOULE:
And the black depths spew their sand. And the storm winds rumble off the distant cliffs.
--
## DEMOPHILIUS:
Grief upon grief. Grief upon grief. Grief upon grief. Grief upon grief. Grief upon grief. Grief upon grief. Grief upon grief. Grief upon grief.
---
## POETS:
No generation can escape. A god always strikes. And now the last light is dimmed. The last root of the tree of Oedipus is cut by the bloody knife.
---
## DEMOPHILIUS:
Zeus, no man can surpass the majesty of your power. It is forever young.
---
Sleep cannot bedim its glory. Nor the endless moving of the months of time.
---
Yours is the kingdom of Olympus’s Shining heights, Yours is the power and the glory. Time past, now, and forever. Amen. But in the life of man No pride can escape the anger of the gods Their breathless wanderings bring some men profit, Some men mere emptiness.
---
Ambition stalks the ignorant Until knowledge comes through fire. The wisdom of truth lives in this: “The man who believes the bad to be good Lives in the grip of the curse of god.” His pleasure is brief, his doom eternal.
---
My Lord, here is your only son, Haimon. Does he come in grief for Antigone, In anger for the loss of his bride?
---
Time pass now and forever. Amen.
---
[sound of mechanical movement, birds chirping, and low rumbling]
---
## CREON:
My son, you have heard my judgement, my last word? Do you come in fury or in deference to the father that you love?
---
## HAIMON:
Father, I am your son. You have always set me on a straight path.
---
Your wisdom will be my guide. I will not sacrifice that for any marriage.
---
## CREON:
My son, your heart tells you true. Never put anything above your father’s will.
---
A father prays he will breed sons who live with him in duty and obedience, hating his enemies and honoring his friends.
---
But when a son proves good for nothing, what has a man bred but trouble for himself and laughter for his enemies?
---
My son, do not let desire for a woman rule your mind. The thing in your arms will soon grow cold when you knew you had a wicked woman for a wife.
---
A wicked lover in your bed – what knife could cut as deep? No.
---
Spit her out, devil that she is – let her be a bride in Hell! She was the only one in all the city to disobey me.
---
She was caught in the act. I will not be called a liar – she must die.
---
She can sing a prayer to Zeus, the god of kinship. If I allowed disobedience in my own family, I would have to allow it everywhere.
---
If a man is honorable and fair in the home, he will gain his peoples' confidence. I would trust such a man to rule his people well, even to be ruled well.
---
But if a man crosses the law, uses force, makes plans to subvert the power of the throne, then you will never find I have a word of praise for him!
---
Whoever the state has put in power must be obeyed – in all things, important unimportant, just and unjust. Anarchy!
---
There is nothing worse. Anarchy destroys great cities and hurls great families in the dust.
---
Anarchy breaks the battle lines of great armies. If men live decent lives it is because rule of law is their protector.
---
We must protect those who live within the law. I will not be beaten by a woman.
---
If we must lose, let it be to a man. Is a woman to be seen as stronger than we are?
---
## HAIMON:
My father, the gods have given men the power to think.
---
It is the best thing that we have. I could not find the words to turn your words around.
---
I have not such skill. But someone else might argue differently…and well.
---
You cannot know everything that people say or do…or how they criticize you. You frighten them.
---
They are afraid to say things that might annoy you. But in the darkness I have heard them say that the city grieves for Antigone, grieves for her unjust punishment.
---
Unjust – to die in shame for what was an act of glory and of justice. She would not let her dead brotherlie unburied in the street, for birds and hungry dogs to make an end of him.
---
She deserves a crown of golden glory. Beneath the skin of the city that is what you will hear.
---
My father, your success is my success. There is no greater pleasure for a son than to see his father prosper and achieve undying respect.
---
And a father wishes the same for his son. I beg you…let your stubbornness die.
---
You do not alone own truth. The man who thinks that truth is his alone, who thinks his eloquence and wisdom surpasses all, when his world turns, finds mere emptiness.
---
A man, intelligent though he be, should never be afraid of learning more. His mind must remain supple.
---
When a flood strikes, have you not seen the leaves that submit to the water’s rage survive and the resistant trees be swept away? So too the ship that fights the wind, its sails drawn tight resisting, overturns.
---
She comes home, keel on top. No.
---
Soften your anger…let the winds pass by. I am young, I know, but let me say that it would be best if men were created with perfect wisdom.
---
But since this is not so – to listen when others speak good sense is no disgrace.
---
## CREON:
At my age I am to be taught by him?
---
Am I to be schooled by a boy?
---
## HAIMON:
In nothing that is unjust.
---
True, I am young. But look not at my age but what I do.
---
## CREON:
Even if what you do is to respect anarchy?
---
## HAIMON:
I have no respect for those who break the law.
---
## CREON:
Is not Antigone so charged?
---
## HAIMON:
Your fellow citizens think she's innocent.
---
## CREON:
Is the city to tell me how to govern?
---
## HAIMON:
Who's talking like a boy now?
---
## CREON:
I and I alone give the orders in this city.
---
## HAIMON:
It is no city if it's ruled by one man.
---
## CREON:
The law is that the city is the property of its ruler.
---
## HAIMON:
You alone would be a fine ruler of a deserted city.
---
## CREON:
You have taken the woman’s side.
---
## HAIMON:
If you are the woman.
---
It is only you I care for.
---
## CREON:
You unspeakable thing you.
---
Contradicting your father!
---
## HAIMON:
I must when you act without justice.
---
## CREON:
Is it unjust to respect the duties of my office?
---
## HAIMON:
There is no respect.
---
You are trampling on divine law.
---
## CREON:
Your mind is poisoned.
---
You have given in to a woman!
---
## HAIMON:
I will give into nothing that is not right.
---
## CREON:
Your whole argument is to protect her.
---
## HAIMON:
And you.
---
And me. And the gods underneath the earth.
---
## CREON:
You will not marry her while she is alive.
---
## HAIMON:
Then she must die.
---
But her death will bring another death.
---
## CREON:
Ah, now your arrogance is in full flood.
---
You threaten me?
---
## HAIMON:
It is no threat to try and stop your senseless plans.
---
## CREON:
You are the one who has lost your senses. And you will regret this argument.
---
## HAIMON:
If you weren’t my father I would say you were mad.
---
## CREON:
Don’t call me father.
---
You have given in to the woman.
---
## HAIMON:
You always want to talk and you never listen.
---
## CREON:
Is that so? I will not be abused like this and let you get away with it.
---
Bring the woman out! Bring her here!
---
She shall die right before his eyes. Die in the bride groom’s arms!
---
## HAIMON:
No.
---
She will not die in my arms. And you will never see this face again!
---
Share your madness with others. Not with me!
---
Not with me!
---
## DEMOPHILUS:
My Lord, he is gone.
---
His anger runs deep. Such a state of mind in the young is dangerous.
---
## CREON:
Let him go. Let him think, let him do whatever his arrogance feeds him.
---
In any case, the girls must die.
---
## DEMOPHILUS:
Both of them, my Lord?
---
## CREON:
No. You are right.
---
Not the one that did not do it.
---
## EUBOLE:
And what death have you chosen for Antigone?
---
## CREON:
She will be taken where no man walks the desert ground. I will seal her in some hollow cave, still alive.
---
She will be given just enough food to clear the city of the guilt of death. Let her pray there to the only god she honors – the god of Death.
---
Maybe he can save her. Or maybe she will learn, too late, how futile it is to honor those already dead.
---
[rushing of wind]
---
## HAIMON:
Love! Invincible god!
---
You take what we possess. You sleep in the soft bed of a young girl’s cheeks.
---
You can cross all oceans, Move at ease through the wild. Not the immortal gods, Not Man who lives but a day Can escape your grasp.
---
He who possesses you goes mad. Even the just man loses his mind.
---
You twist him into injustice. You made a quarrel of a father and a son, Provoking shared blood.
---
Desire shines in the eyes Of a beautiful bride, Shines, conquers, and the ordered world Dissolves. For Aphrodite Smiles as she kills.
---
## HAIMON:
Ah, now my world dissolves. I see my Antigone Going to that chamber where all men sleep.
---
I cannot hold back my tears.
---
## ANTIGONE:
My love, you see me walking the last steps of my life, seeing the last rays of the sun, and, never again.
---
In this life I never heard the wedding song nor the laughter.
---
Death, in whose arms all men lie, Leads me to the cold waters of Acheron To be his living bride.
---
## HAIMON:
But in honor and bright fame You walk into the darkness.
---
Untouched by wasting sickness, Not slain by savage swords, Head high and alone among mortals You walk in life down to the house Of Death.
---
## ANTIGONE:
I know the story of sad Niobe, Know the deep pity of her death.
---
She too was sheathed in stone, Choked by the mountain’s ivied grip. As she fades from life she is washed in endless showers and soft snow.
---
Her grieving eyes shed eternal tears That soak her cheeks of stone. I know her sad story.
---
Some god has made it mine.
---
## HAIMON:
She was a god and born of gods.
---
We are mortal and born to die. But, like her, in death, you will find fame For your life and for your death.
---
You have gone like a god to your fate.
---
## ANTIGONE:
Mock me not.
---
Could you not wait till I had gone? Must you throw insults in my face?
---
I call upon Dirce’s holy waters, Upon this sacred land that protects its people. Look upon me now!
---
Witness my silent unmourned death. Remember the law that buries me in a grave of rock.
---
I am alive! But soon I will sleep with corpses Having a home with neither the living nor the dead.
---
## HAIMON:
You risked all, Antigone. You climbed to the summit of high Justice.
---
And you fell, perhaps paying for your father’s pain.
---
## ANTIGONE:
My father!
---
Oh you touched the deepest sorrow of my heart. Generations have spilled grief upon grief.
---
There is a curse that haunts our home. Mother and son breeding life!
---
Breeding death! These were my parents, I their child.
---
I go now to be with them. I did not marry.
---
I did not breed. That was my curse.
---
My brother, your life, your death Have killed me.
---
## HAIMON:
You honored the dead.
---
I honor you.
---
[rushing of wind]
---
[low, cosmic rumbling]
---
## ANTIGONE:
No.
---
No one weep for me. No one sing a last wedding song.
---
I have no friends. No love.
---
I walk to death, Last light kissing my eyes. Silence!
---
## CREON:
You sing your grief. You mourn your own death.
---
But you cannot stop its coming
---
There, all alone, can she choose death or a buried life.
---
We are free of guilt. Our hands are clean.
---
It is time for her to leave this earth.
---
## DEMOPHILUS:
The storm winds of her heart are raging still.
---
## CREON:
Her guards will regret letting her linger here.
---
## EUBOULE:
Your words bring death even closer.
---
## CREON:
I have no reason to contradict you.
---
## ANTIGONE:
My tomb, Death’s bedroom, where I shall sleep forever!
---
Soon I will be with my family, the pale corpses whom Persephone welcomed. I am the last and the most accursed.
---
For I have won death before my time. But I know I shall soon see those that I love – my dear father, and you my mother, and my brother too.
---
I washed your bodies, dressed you for the grave, poured libations at your tombs. Oh Polyneices!
---
You know the price I pay for burying your body. But in the eyes of the wise what I did was right.
---
If a child of mine had died or its father, I would not have broken the state’s decree. What makes me think this way?
---
If a husband had died I may have found another and given birth again. But my parents are dead, and I can never have another brother.
---
That is why I risked my life for you, my darling Polyneices. But Creon thought that what I did was wrong, dreadful and arrogant.
---
And so he marches me to my death. I will know no marriage bed, hear no bridal song, take a husband in my arms nor hold a baby to my breast.
---
Now without a friend, with life still in me I go to share darkness with the dead. What law of god have I broken?
---
I have done no wrong! Why, in my grief, do I look to the gods for help?
---
They care nothing for me. I followed the laws of god and yet I am condemned for ungodliness.
---
If the gods see this sentence just, I will learn the truth in death. But if this man here is the guilty one, may his punishment equal mine.
---
Thebes! My father’s city!
---
You gods of old!
---
Look on me, you men of Thebes.
---
Remember my suffering and who inflicted it. Because I would not break the laws of god.
---
[cries]
Be happy as a kid. For I may not be here tomorrow
---
[Ismene vocalizing]
---
[vocalizing harmony]
---
## ISMENE:
Sister, my sister. Danae suffered like you, Locked in chamber and tomb.
---
She was a princess too. In her, Zeus sowed his seed In a shower of gold.
---
Fate moves on relentless. We cannot hide.
---
Not Wealth nor War Nor castle Walls Can escape its power. There is a place where black rocks divide the sea.
---
Salmydessus. There the savage god of war Watched the blood wounds dealt to infant eyes, Watched the mistress blind her lover’s sons, Plunging the bloody shuttle, gouging deep Those eyes that never would look on vengeance.
---
They wept tears of blood, Wept for the fate that gave them birth, Wept for their mother, woeful queen. She was a princess too.
---
[Demophilus singing]
Her father, the North Wind, had raised her In his far-off cave, cradled by storms, Never to run free in the sun’s warm light. She shares her endless fate with you, My child, my child.
---
## ISMENE, ANTIGONE and DEMOPHILUS:
Sister, my sister locked in chamber in and tomb. Sister, my sister didn't I suffer like you. Sister, my sister she was a princess.
---
## ISMENE:
I was a princess too.
---
## EUBOULE:
[Teiresias calls offstage]
Two. One Two. Two. One Two.
---
## CREON:
Teiresias, what news do you bring me?
---
## TEIRESIAS:
I will speak, but you must trust a prophet’s words.
---
## CREON:
I have always listened to your advice.
---
## TEIRESIAS:
And so you govern your city well.
---
## CREON:
I thank you for your help.
---
## TEIRESIAS:
But now you walk upon a razor’s edge.
---
## CREON:
What do you mean? Your words make me shudder.
---
## TEIRESIAS:
You will understand when you have heard the meaning of my art. I sat as of old in the secret haven where I listen to the sacred screams of birds.
---
I heard bird cries I have never known. They screeched mad and inarticulate.
---
I could hear the murderous tearing of their talons, heard the dying of their wings. I was afraid.
---
I lit a fire of sacrifice upon the altar. The flames refused the flesh and a slimy ooze dripped from the thighs, sputtered, smoked, and died.
---
Gall spurted from the bladder and became vapor in the air. The fat dripped, dripped.
---
But it did not burn. The meaning of my art is clear.
---
The ritual failed. This boy was my eyes.
---
As I am yours. The city is diseased because of your decision.
---
Every altar in the town is glutted with the spewed-out flesh of Polyneices, regurgitated by dogs and birds…the son of Oedipus. The gods will accept no sacrifice from us, not prayer nor flesh nor flame.
---
The birds cry in the air, but I do not understand their cries. For they are gorged with the oozing blood of the dead.
---
Think about these things, my son. All men make mistakes.
---
But a wise and determined man will change his course when he knows he is wrong. He will cure the sickness.
---
Pride breeds disaster. Yield to the dead.
---
Why kick a corpse? Why kill the dead a second time?
---
Listen to me. I speak only for your good.
---
To learn from such a man as me who knows what is right is not a painful thing, especially if what he says will do you good.
---
## CREON:
Old one!
---
All of you, like archers aiming at a target, have turned your bows on me. I know you and your so-called art.
---
You treat me like a piece of merchandise to be bought and sold. Make your filthy money, trade in gold from India or precious metals from Lydia, if that’s your business.
---
But you will not bury that corpse. Not if eagles were to tear his flesh and drop it on the throne of Zeus as an offering.
---
I will not give him up. I am not afraid of pollution.
---
No mortal can pollute the gods. Teiresias, it is a shameful thing when wise men sell their knowledge, tell lies to make a profit.
---
## TEIRESIAS:
Ah, is there no man who can understand or tell…
---
## CREON:
Tell what? What trite pearl of wisdom do you have for us?
---
## TEIRESIAS:
…no man who knows that wisdom is better far than gold?
---
## CREON:
And that to be a fool is a most dangerous thing?
---
## TEIRESIAS:
You are the fool. That is your sickness.
---
## CREON:
I do not wish to contradict a prophet.
---
## TEIRESIAS:
It is too late.
---
You said I lied.
---
## CREON:
Prophets!
---
All you think of is money.
---
## TEIRESIAS:
Tyrants!
---
All you think of is power.
---
## CREON:
Take care.
---
You are talking to a king.
---
## TEIRESIAS:
I know.
---
Who helped you to the throne?
---
## CREON:
You may be a wise prophet.
---
But you are corrupt.
---
## TEIRESIAS:
Stop!
---
You will make me say things that should remain unspoken.
---
## CREON:
Speak!
---
But there would be no profit in this for you.
---
## TEIRESIAS:
There will be no profit in this for you.
---
## CREON:
I will not change my mind. No matter how much money changes hands.
---
[sound of gulping drink]
---
## TEIRESIAS:
Take what I say to heart. Before the passing of the sun into its depths, you will give corpse for corpse, flesh of your flesh.
---
You have lost the meaning of the life above and the death below. You send a living breath into a lifeless tomb.
---
You keep on earth a body that belongs below, denying it the grave. The gods above cannot claim him now.
---
Nor you. He belongs to the gods beneath the earth.
---
And so the Furies will track you down, lurking in the dark they will pounce upon their prey. You wish to talk of money now?
---
Soon within your house you will hear the wailing screams of mourning. You left upon the field of war bodies to rot for birds and dogs to bury with their jaws.
---
The fathers of these sons will rise against you now. The stench of your sin will settle on the earth.
---
Yes. I am an archer.
---
The arrow of my tongue shoots straight into the heart. Boy!
---
Take me home now. Let him spill his rage on younger ones.
---
Let him still his angry tongue and learn truth.
---
[bird chirping]
---
## DEMOPHILUS:
My Lord, these are words of terror.
---
Teiresias has gone. But the prophet's truth remains.
---
Never yet have they been proven false.
---
## CREON:
I know this too…it troubles me.
---
To give in is hard. But if my pride breeds stubbornness, then destruction is at hand.
---
## DEMOPHILUS:
Listen to us, hear what we have to say.
---
## CREON:
I am ready.
---
I will listen.
---
## DEMOPHILUS:
Go!
---
## EUBOULE:
Now! Release Antigone.
---
## DEMOPHILUS:
Tear the rocks from her tomb. Bury the waiting dead!
---
## CREON:
That is what you think?
---
## EUBOULE:
There is no time.
---
Gods move as quick as light. Destruction falls heavy upon the fools of this earth.
---
## CREON:
It is hard to deny what I believe in. But I will do it.
---
I cannot fight with Destiny.
---
## DEMOPHILUS:
You must do this yourself.
---
You cannot leave it to others.
---
## CREON:
[stomping and clapping heard in background]
The laws of the gods are old, might, and a man must serve them till his death.
---
## EUBOULE:
God of many names. God of many names. God of many names. God of many names. God of many names.
(repeated)
--
## DEMOPHILUS:
Dionysus! Semele's golden child! Dionysus! Spinner of mysteries' dreams! Dionysus! Bacchus lord of Thebes! Dionysus! Dionysus!
---
## POETS:
We are sick, diseased. Grieving, we cry your name.
---
## EUBOULE:
Help us!
(repeated)
--
## DEMOPHILUS:
Heal us!
(repeated)
---
## POETS:
Evoi! Evoi! Evoi! Evoi! Evvvvoooooiiiii!
---
## EUBOULE:
Evoi Evoi Evoi
(repeated)
--
## DEMOPHILUS:
Help us! We call your name! We call your name! Help us! Help us! Heal us! Help us! Heal us!
---
## POETS:
Evvvooooiiiii!
---
## EUBOULE:
God of many names! God of many names!
(repeated)
--
## DEMOPHILUS:
Help us! Heal us!
(repeated)
Now.
---
## WATCHMAN:
Neighbors, ancient city of Cadmus.
---
I can no longer say of any human life that it is good or it is bad. Fate can bless a man, and Fate can ruin the happy or unhappy man in a single day.
---
No man can know what the future will bring. Creon was envied once.
---
His life was good. He saved the city from enemies and became its king.
---
He ruled it well. And he had noble sons.
---
Now everything has gone. When a man has lost all happiness you cannot say he is alive.
---
He is corpse that breathes. Live your rich life in your palace, sport the trappings of a king, but once your happiness is gone you are nothing but smoke’s shadow in the sun.
---
## EUBOULE:
You talk of kings. What grief do you bring to us?
---
## WATCHMAN:
They are dead. The living are guilty of their death.
---
## DEMOPHILUS:
Who died? Who was the killer?
---
Speak!
---
## WATCHMAN:
Haimon is dead, killed by his own hand.
---
## DEMOPHILUS:
His own or his father’s?
---
## WATCHMAN:
He killed himself, driven mad by the murder his father had committed.
---
## EUBOULE:
Teiresias! You saw and spoke truth!
---
## WATCHMAN:
This is my news. You must think of what to do.
---
## EUBOLE:
Will you tell us everything.
---
## WATCHMAN:
I will tell you everything that happened. I said to her I will not try to ease your pain by telling lies.
---
This is the truth. I followed the king to the edge of the plain where Polyneices’ corpse was lying still.
---
It had been torn apart by wild dogs… Dear god! We prayed to Hecate and Hades to speed him on his way and turn their anger to mercy.
---
We bathed what was left of him with holy water and burned the flesh on fresh-cut branches. Then we covered him with a mound of the earth of the land where he was born and turned toward the chamber of rock where Antigone lay, the bride of the dead.
---
From afar, one of us heard a voice grieving within that accursed place. He ran back to tell Creon.
---
The king approached. All he could hear were deep groans, the words were unintelligible.
---
He cried out, “Am I a prophet now? Am I walking along the saddest path walking in this tragic life?
---
I hear my son weeping! Hurry!
---
Go to the tomb and look inside! Tear the rocks aside.
---
Look through the crevice and tell me if that is Haimon’s voice I hear or if the gods are deceiving me.” We did what we were told. In the far corner of the tomb we saw her.
---
She was hanging by the neck in a noose made of her own veil. Haimon had his arms around her.
---
He mourned aloud the death of his bride, her departure from this life…and cursed his father. When Creon saw him, he moaned aloud, moved toward him, and called out, “What have you done?
---
My son, speak to me. What is in your mind?
---
Your suffering is killing you. Come out to me.
---
I beg you. Come to me!” Haimon looked at him, his eyes on fire.
---
He spat in his father’s face and then said not a word. Suddenly he drew his sword and lunged at his father.
---
Creon leapt aside. In a fury Haimon turned the sword upon himself, fell upon it hard.
---
The blade entered his side, half its length pierced his flesh. Still conscious he crawled toward the girl and gently put his arms around her.
---
Blood spurted from his mouth and stained her cold cheek. Corpse lay upon corpse.
---
This was their bridal bed. The hymns of their marriage are now sung in the halls of death.
[Creon shrieks offstage]
---
## DEMOPHILUS:
Here is the king.
---
Look, he bears his grief in his arms, brings home his own damnation. You have learned the truth.
---
Too late, too late.
---
## CREON:
Oh, the sorrow, The pity. The pity.
---
My son who died too young.
---
## WATCHMAN:
You hold one sorrow in your arms.
--
## CREON:
The pity. Pity the son.
---
## WATCHMAN:
But there is more.
--
## CREON:
My son you died too young.
---
## CREON:
A double death
---
## ISMENE:
…death upon death Now you see.
---
All is in the light. You have learned truth.
---
Too late. Too late.
---
## CREON:
The sorrow, there is only sorry sorrow, Thundering the halls of my heart struck like lighting. Pity my son, pity the father, pity this beautiul man, pity the pitiful by killing him.
---
## ISMENE:
Think no longer that you are in command here. But rather, think how when you were, you served your own destruction.
---
Take him, take him from here. He is nothing now.
---
## DEMOPHILUS:
Grief, upon grief, upon grief, upon grief!
---
## ISMENE:
It is best to make a quick end of our sorrows. What will be is out of our hands. That is in the future. We must deal with the present.
---
## EUBOULE
No man can escape what fate has in store for him. Wisdom it is that breeds happiness. The gods take what is theirs.
[Ismene vocalizing]
The words of a proud man are always punished. Wisdom comes to the old. Wisdom comes to the old!
---
[vocalizing]
Time pass now and forever. Time passed now and forever. Time passed now and forever. And forever! And forever!
---
BLACKOUT
---
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