Antigone
Collection, 1965 paperbackFirst performed
441 BCE
Literature form
Play
Genre
Tragedy, mythology
Writing language
Greek
Author's country
Greece
Length
Approx. 21,000 words
Notable lines
ANTIGONE:
Ismenê, dear sister,
You would think that we have already suffered enough
For the curse on Oedipus;
I cannot imagine any grief
That you and I have not gone through.
— First lines, "Prologue," trans. Dudley Fitts and Robert Fitzgerald
ANTIGONE:
My way is to share my love, not share my hate.
CREON:
Go then, and share your love among the dead.
We'll have no woman's law here, while I live.
trans. E.F. Watling
CREON:
And was not this woman's act dishonourable?
HAEMON:
The people of Thebes think not.
CREON:
The people of Thebes!
Since when do I take my orders from the people of Thebes?
HAEMON:
Isn't that a rather childish thing to say?
CREON:
No, I am king, and responsible only to myself.
HAEMON:
A one-man state? What sort of a state is that?
CREON:
Why, does not every state belong to its ruler?
HAEMON: You'd be an excellent king—on a desert island.
trans. E.F. Watling
CHORUS:
O pray not, prayers are idle; from the doom
Of fate for mortals refuge is there none.
trans. F.A. Storr
CHORAGOS:
There is no happiness where there is no wisdom;
No wisdom but in submission ot the gods.
Big words are always punished.
And proud men in old age learn to be wise.
— Last lines, trans. Dudley Fitts and Robert Fitzgerald
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