Chorus
That is your will, Creon, towards this city's enemy and its friend. And the power is yours, I believe, to make use of every law whatsoever, both concerning the dead and all us who live.
Creon
[215]
See, then, that you be guardians of my commands.
Chorus
Lay the weight of this task on some younger man.
Creon
That is not what I meant—the guards for the corpse are already in place.
Chorus
Then what is this other command that you would give?
Creon
That you not give way to the breakers of my commands.
Chorus
[220]
There is no one so foolish as to crave death.
Creon
I assure you, that is the wage for disobedience. Yet by just the hope of it, money has many times corrupted men.
Enter Guard.
Guard
My king, I will not say that I arrive breathless because of speed, or from the action of a swift foot.
[225]
For often I brought myself to a stop because of my thoughts, and wheeled round in my path to return. My mind was telling me many things: “Fool, why do you go to where your arrival will mean your punishment?” “Idiot, are you dallying again? If Creon learns it from another, must you not suffer for it?”
[230]
So debating, I made my way unhurriedly, slow, and thus a short road was made long. At last, however, the view prevailed that I should come here—to you. Even if my report brings no good, still will I tell you,
[235]
since I come with a good grip on one hope, that I can suffer nothing except what is my fate.
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Sophocles. The Antigone of Sophocles. Edited with introduction and notes by Sir Richard Jebb. Sir Richard Jebb. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press. 1891.
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