Antigone Quotes Flashcards
ANTIGONE: The doom reserved for enemies…
…marches on the ones we love the most.
ISMENE: No joy or pain has come my way…
…not since the two of us were robbed of our two brothers.
ANTIGONE: He is my brother and-…
…deny it as you will- your brother too.
ANTIGONE: I will raise a…
…mound for him, for my dear brother.
ANTIGONE: But If I had allowed my own mother’s son to rot…
…an unburied corpse-that would have been an agony!
ANTIGONE: What greater glory could I win…
…than to give my own brother decent burial?
HAEMON: Father, I’m your son…
…you in your wisdom set my bearings for me-I obey you.
CREON: That’s how you ought to feel within your heart…
…subordinate to your father’s will in every way.
ANTIGONE: But mother and father both lost…
…in the halls of Death, no brother could ever spring to light again.
ISMENE: What? You’d bury him…
…when a law forbids the city?
ISMENE: I must obey…
…the ones who stand in power
ISMENE: think what a death we’ll die…
…the worst of all if we violate the laws and override the fixed decree of the throne, its power
ISMENE: I’d do them no dishonor…
…but defy the city? I’d have no strength for that.
CREON: nor could I ever make that man…
…a friend of mine who menaces our country
CREON: Never at my hands will the traitor…
…be honored above the patriot. But whoever proves his loyalty to the state-I’ll prize that man in death as well as life.
CHORUS: When he weaves in the laws of the land…
… and the justice of the gods that binds his oaths together, he and his city rise high.
CREON: Once an enemy…
…never a friend, not even after death
CREON: When did you last see…
…the gods celebrating traitors?
SENTRY: We squinted hard and took…
…our whipping from the gods.
ANTIGONE: It wasn’t Zeus…
…not in the least, who made this proclamation-not to me.
ANTIGONE: Nor did I think your edict…
…had such force that you, a mere mortal, could override the gods, the great unwritten, unshakable traditions
HAEMON: Protect your rights?…
…when you trample down the honors of the gods?
ANTIGONE: All my reverence…
…my reverence for the gods!
TIRESIAS: The public altars and sacred hearths…
….are fouled, by the birds and dogs with carrion torn from the corpse, the doomstruck son of Oedipus
TIRESIAS: And so….
…the gods are deaf to our prayers
TIRESIAS: You’ve robbed the gods….
…below the earth, keeping a dead body here in the bright air, unburied, unsung, unhallowed by the rites
CHORUS: reverence toward the gods…
…must be safeguarded
ISMENE: Remember, we are women…
…we’re not born to contend with men
CREON: she is the man…
….if victory goes to her and she goes free
CREON: While I’m alive…
…no woman is going to lord it over me
CREON: That’s what a man prays for…
…to produce good sons… dutiful and attentive, so they can pay his enemy back with interest
CREON: A worthless woman…
…in your house, a misery in your bed
CREON: Never let some woman….
…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.
ANTIGONE: Hasn’t Creon graced…
…one with all the rites, disgraced the other?
CREON: See that you never…
…side with those who break my orders.
CREON: Simple death…
…won’t be enough for you
ANTIGONE: Lucky tyrants…
…the perquisites of power! Ruthless power to do and say whatever pleases them
HAEMON: What a splendid king….
…you’d make of a desert island-you and you alone
TIRESIAS: And the whole race…
…of tyrants lusts for filthy gain
CREON: It’s a dreadful thing…
…to yield… but resist now? Lay my pride bare to the blows of ruin? That’s dreadful too.
ISMENE: I know nothing more…
….whether our luck’s improved or ruin’s still to come
CHORUS: Once the gods have rocked….
…a house to its foundations the ruin will never cease, cresting on and on from one generation on throughout the race
CHORUS: No withering illness…
…laid you low, no strokes of the sword-a law to yourself
CHORUS: We are only…
…mortals born to die
MESSENGER: Creon shows the world….
…that of all the ills affecting men the worst is lack of judgement
CREON: And the guilt is all mine…
…can never be fixed on another man, no escape for me. I killed you, I, god help me, I admit it all!
LEADER: For mortal men…
…there is no escape from the doom we must endure
ANTIGONE: Will you lift up….
…his body with these bare hands and lower it with me?
ANTIGONE: These laws…
…I was not about to break them, not out of fear of some man’s wounded pride
ANTIGONE: They would praise me too…
…if their lips weren’t locked in fear
HAEMON: The man in the street….
…you know, dreads your glance, he’d never say anything displeasing to your face
CHORUS: But now, even I….
…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
ANTIGONE: But now, Polynices…
…because I laid your body out as well, this, this is my reward
