Dramatis personae

Abstract

SCENE—Thebes, in front of the Palace. Enter ANTIGONE and ISMENE ANTIGONE ISMENE, mine own sister, dearest one; Is there, of all the ills of OEdipus, One left that Zeus will fail to bring on us, While still we live? for nothing is there sad 4 Or full of woe, or base, or fraught with shame, But I have seen it in thy woes and mine. And now, what new decree is this they tell, Our ruler has enjoined on all the state? 8 Know'st thou? hast heard? or is it hid from thee, The doom of foes that comes upon thy friends? ISM. No tidings of our friends, Antigone, Painful or pleasant since that hour have come 12 When we, two sisters, lost our brothers twain, In one day dying by each other's hand. And since in this last night the Argive host Has left the field, I nothing further know, 16 Nor brightening fortune, nor increasing gloom. ANTIG. That knew I well, and therefore sent for thee Beyond the gates, that thou mayst hear alone. ISM. What meanest thou? It is but all too clear 20 Thou broodest darkly o'er some tale of woe. ANTIG. And does not Creon treat our brothers twain One with the rites of burial, one with shame? Eteocles, so say they, he interred 24 Fitly, with wonted rites, as one held meet To pass with honour to the gloom below.