Antigone Quotes

Question 1

ANTIGONE: The doom reserved for enemies…

Answer 1

…marches on the ones we love the most.

Question 2

ISMENE: No joy or pain has come my way…

Answer 2

…not since the two of us were robbed of our two brothers.

Question 3

ANTIGONE: He is my brother and-…

Answer 3

…deny it as you will- your brother too.

Question 4

ANTIGONE: I will raise a…

Answer 4

…mound for him, for my dear brother.

Question 5

ANTIGONE: But If I had allowed my own mother’s son to rot…

Answer 5

…an unburied corpse-that would have been an agony!

Question 6

ANTIGONE: What greater glory could I win…

Answer 6

…than to give my own brother decent burial?

Question 7

HAEMON: Father, I’m your son…

Answer 7

…you in your wisdom set my bearings for me-I obey you.

Question 8

CREON: That’s how you ought to feel within your heart…

Answer 8

…subordinate to your father’s will in every way.

Question 9

ANTIGONE: But mother and father both lost…

Answer 9

…in the halls of Death, no brother could ever spring to light again.

Question 10

ISMENE: What? You’d bury him…

Answer 10

…when a law forbids the city?

Question 11

ISMENE: I must obey…

Answer 11

…the ones who stand in power

Question 12

ISMENE: think what a death we’ll die…

Answer 12

…the worst of all if we violate the laws and override the fixed decree of the throne, its power

Question 13

ISMENE: I’d do them no dishonor…

Answer 13

…but defy the city? I’d have no strength for that.

Question 14

CREON: nor could I ever make that man…

Answer 14

…a friend of mine who menaces our country

Question 15

CREON: Never at my hands will the traitor…

Answer 15

…be honored above the patriot. But whoever proves his loyalty to the state-I’ll prize that man in death as well as life.

Question 16

CHORUS: When he weaves in the laws of the land…

Answer 16

… and the justice of the gods that binds his oaths together, he and his city rise high.

Question 17

CREON: Once an enemy…

Answer 17

…never a friend, not even after death

Question 18

CREON: When did you last see…

Answer 18

…the gods celebrating traitors?

Question 19

SENTRY: We squinted hard and took…

Answer 19

…our whipping from the gods.

Question 20

ANTIGONE: It wasn’t Zeus…

Answer 20

…not in the least, who made this proclamation-not to me.

Question 21

ANTIGONE: Nor did I think your edict…

Answer 21

…had such force that you, a mere mortal, could override the gods, the great unwritten, unshakable traditions

Question 22

HAEMON: Protect your rights?…

Answer 22

…when you trample down the honors of the gods?

Question 23

ANTIGONE: All my reverence…

Answer 23

…my reverence for the gods!

Question 24

TIRESIAS: The public altars and sacred hearths…

Answer 24

….are fouled, by the birds and dogs with carrion torn from the corpse, the doomstruck son of Oedipus

Question 25

TIRESIAS: And so....

Answer 25

...the gods are deaf to our prayers

Question 26

TIRESIAS: You've robbed the gods....

Answer 26

...below the earth, keeping a dead body here in the bright air, unburied, unsung, unhallowed by the rites

Question 27

CHORUS: reverence toward the gods...

Answer 27

...must be safeguarded

Question 28

ISMENE: Remember, we are women...

Answer 28

...we're not born to contend with men

Question 29

CREON: she is the man...

Answer 29

....if victory goes to her and she goes free

Question 30

CREON: While I'm alive...

Answer 30

...no woman is going to lord it over me

Question 31

CREON: That's what a man prays for...

Answer 31

...to produce good sons... dutiful and attentive, so they can pay his enemy back with interest

Question 32

CREON: A worthless woman...

Answer 32

...in your house, a misery in your bed

Question 33

CREON: Never let some woman....

Answer 33

...triumph over us. Better to fall from power, if fall we must, at the hands of a man-never be rated inferior to a woman, never.

Question 34

ANTIGONE: Hasn't Creon graced...

Answer 34

...one with all the rites, disgraced the other?

Question 35

CREON: See that you never...

Answer 35

...side with those who break my orders.

Question 36

CREON: Simple death...

Answer 36

...won't be enough for you

Question 37

ANTIGONE: Lucky tyrants...

Answer 37

...the perquisites of power! Ruthless power to do and say whatever pleases them

Question 38

HAEMON: What a splendid king....

Answer 38

...you'd make of a desert island-you and you alone

Question 39

TIRESIAS: And the whole race...

Answer 39

...of tyrants lusts for filthy gain

Question 40

CREON: It's a dreadful thing...

Answer 40

...to yield... but resist now? Lay my pride bare to the blows of ruin? That's dreadful too.

Question 41

ISMENE: I know nothing more...

Answer 41

....whether our luck's improved or ruin's still to come

Question 42

CHORUS: Once the gods have rocked....

Answer 42

...a house to its foundations the ruin will never cease, cresting on and on from one generation on throughout the race

Question 43

CHORUS: No withering illness...

Answer 43

...laid you low, no strokes of the sword-a law to yourself

Question 44

CHORUS: We are only...

Answer 44

...mortals born to die

Question 45

MESSENGER: Creon shows the world....

Answer 45

...that of all the ills affecting men the worst is lack of judgement

Question 46

CREON: And the guilt is all mine...

Answer 46

...can never be fixed on another man, no escape for me. I killed you, I, god help me, I admit it all!

Question 47

LEADER: For mortal men...

Answer 47

...there is no escape from the doom we must endure

Question 48

ANTIGONE: Will you lift up....

Answer 48

...his body with these bare hands and lower it with me?

Question 49

ANTIGONE: These laws...

Answer 49

...I was not about to break them, not out of fear of some man's wounded pride

Question 50

ANTIGONE: They would praise me too...

Answer 50

...if their lips weren't locked in fear

Question 51

HAEMON: The man in the street....

Answer 51

...you know, dreads your glance, he'd never say anything displeasing to your face

Question 52

CHORUS: But now, even I....

Answer 52

...would rebel against the king, I would break all bounds when I see this-I fill with tears, I cannot hold them back, not any more

Question 53

ANTIGONE: But now, Polynices...

Answer 53

...because I laid your body out as well, this, this is my reward