Creon
Old man, you all shoot your arrows at me, like archers at their mark, and I am not safe
[1035]
even from the plottings of the seer's divine art, but by their tribe I have long been bought and sold and made their merchandise. Turn your profits, make your deals for the white gold of Sardis and the gold of India, if it pleases you, but you shall not cover that man with a grave,
[1040]
not even if the eagles of Zeus wish to snatch and carry him to be devoured at the god's throne. No, not even then, for fear of that defilement will I permit his burial, since I know with certainty that no mortal has the power to defile the gods.
[1045]
But even the exceedingly clever, old Teiresias, falls with a shameful fall, when they couch shameful thoughts in fine phrasing for profit's sake.
Teiresias
Alas! Does any man know, does any consider—
Creon
What is this? What universal truth are you announcing?
Teiresias
[1050]
—by how much the most precious of our possessions is the power to reason wisely?
Creon
By as much, I think, as senselessness is the greatest affliction.
Teiresias
Yet you came into being full of that disease.
Creon
I have no desire to trade insults with the seer.
Teiresias
Yet that is what you do in saying that I prophesy falsely.
Creon
[1055]
Yes, for the prophet-clan was ever fond of money.
Teiresias
And the race sprung from tyrants loves shameful gain.
Creon
Do you know that you ramble so about your king?
Teiresias
I am aware, since through me you have saved this city.
Creon
You are a wise seer, but fond of doing injustice.
Teiresias
[1060]
You will stir me to utter the dire secret in my soul.
Creon
Out with it! But only if it is not for gain that you speak it.
Teiresias
Indeed, I think I speak without mention of gain—where you are concerned.
Creon
Be certain that you will not trade in my will.
This text is part of:
Search the Perseus Catalog for:
Table of Contents:
Sophocles. The Antigone of Sophocles. Edited with introduction and notes by Sir Richard Jebb. Sir Richard Jebb. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press. 1891.
The Annenberg CPB/Project provided support for entering this text.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.