Antigone Giving Burial to Polynices

Antigone owes a burial to her dead brother…

simply because  every dead body, even a traitor, deserves a burial.

Creon

Why did you bury your brother Antigone?

Antigone

I owed it to him

Creon

I had forbidden it.

Antigone

I owed it to him. Those who are not buried wander eternally and find no rest. Everybody knows that. I owed it to him to unlock the house of the dead in which my father and my mother are waiting to welcome him. Polynices has earned his rest.

Creon

Polynices was a rebel and a traitor, and you know it.

Antigone

He was my brother

Creon

You heard my edict. It was proclaimed throughout the city. You read my edict. It was posted up on the city walls.

Antigone

Yes!

Creon

You know the punishment I decreed for any person who attempted to give him burial.

Antigone

Yes, I know the punishment.

Creon

Did you by any chance act on the assumption that a daughter of Oedipus was above the law?

Antigone

I did not act on that assumption. I never doubted for an instant that you would have me put to death.

Antigone Giving Burial to Polynices

1825

Sébastien Norblin

French 1796-1884.