Theseus
Dry your tears; when grace is shed
On the quick and on the dead
By dark Powers beneficent,
Over-grief they would resent.

Antigone
Aegeus’ child, to thee we pray.

Theseus
What the boon, my children, say.

Antigone
With our own eyes we fain would see
Our father’s tomb.

Theseus
                    That may not be.

Antigone
What say’st thou, King?

Theseus
                         My children, he
Charged me straitly that no moral
Should approach the sacred portal,
Or greet with funeral litanies
The hidden tomb wherein he lies;
Saying, “If thou keep’st my hest
Thou shalt hold thy realm at rest.” 
The God of Oaths this promise heard,
And to Zeus I pledged my word.

Antigone
Well, if he would have it so,
We must yield.  Then let us go
Back to Thebes, if yet we may
Heal this mortal feud and stay
The self-wrought doom
That drives our brothers to their tomb.

Theseus
Go in peace; nor will I spare
Ought of toil and zealous care,
But on all your needs attend,
Gladdening in his grave my friend.

Chorus
Wail no more, let sorrow rest,
All is ordered for the best.

Footnotes
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[Footnote 4:  The Greek text for the passages marked here and later in the text have been lost.]

[Footnote 5:  To avoid the blessing, still a secret, he resorts to a commonplace; literally, “For what generous man is not (in befriending others) a friend to himself?”]

[Footnote 6:  Creon desires to bury Oedipus on the confines of Thebes so as to avoid the pollution and yet offer due rites at his tomb.  Ismene tells him of the latest oracle and interprets to him its purport, that some day the Theban invaders of Athens will be routed in a battle near the grave of Oedipus.]

[Footnote 7:  The Thebans sprung from the Dragon’s teeth sown by Cadmus.]

SOPHOCLES

Antigone

Translation by F. Storr, BA Formerly Scholar of Trinity College, Cambridge From the Loeb Library Edition Originally published by Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA and William Heinemann Ltd, London

First published in 1912

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Argument

Antigone, daughter of Oedipus, the late king of Thebes,