20 SOPHOCLES
‘cREON
You, soldier, you can go—be off wherever you please—
Free’ of any serious charge
[The SENTRY stands for a monient, smiles, then bounds
away]
Now tell me, Antigone, a straight yes or no:
Did you know an ediet had forbidden this?
ANTIGONE,
Of course I knew. Was it not publicly proclaimed?
cREON
So you chose flagrantly to disobey my law?
ANTIGONE
Since Zeus never promulgated such a law,
Nor ‘will you find that Tustice,
Mistress of the world below,
publishes such laws to humankind.
I never thought your mortal edicts had such foree
they nullified ihe laws of heaven,
which unwritten, not proclaimed,
can boast a currency that