Famous Tales of Fact and Fancy: Myths and Legends of the Nations of the World Retold for Boys and Girls
General
Famous Tales of Fact and Fancy: Myths and Legends of the Nations of the World Retold for Boys and Girls
Legends -- Juvenile literature; Mythology -- Juvenile literature
"I advise thee not, and if thou thinkest thus, I would not have thee for
helper. But know that I will bury my brother, nor could I better die
than for doing such a deed. For as he loved me, so also do I love him
greatly. And shall not I do pleasure to the dead rather than to the
living, seeing that I shall abide with the dead for ever? But thou, if
thou wilt do dishonor to the laws of the gods?"
"I dishonor them not. Only I cannot set myself against the powers that
be."
"So be it; but I will bury my brother."
"O my sister, how I fear for thee!"
"Fear for thyself. Thine own lot needeth all thy care."
"Thou wilt at least keep thy counsel, nor tell the thing to any man."
"Not so: hide it not. I shall scorn thee more if thou proclaim it not
aloud to all."
So Antigone departed; and after a while came to the same place King
Creon, clad in his royal robes and with his scepter in his hand, and set
forth his counsel to the elders who were assembled, how he had dealt
with the two princes according to their deserving, giving all honor to
him that loved his country and casting forth the other unburied. And he
bade them take care that this decree should be kept, saying that he had
also appointed certain men to watch the dead body.
And he had scarcely left speaking when there came one of these same
watchers, and said:
"I have not come hither in haste, O King; nay, I doubted much, while I
was yet on the way, whether I should not turn again. For now I thought,
'Fool, why goest thou where thou shalt suffer for it'; and then, again,
'Fool, the king will hear the matter elsewhere, and then how wilt thou
fare?' But at the last I came as I had purposed, for I know that nothing
may happen to me contrary to fate."
"But say," said the king, "what troubles thee so much?"
"First hear my case. I did not the thing and know not who did it, and it
were a grievous wrong should I fall into trouble for such a cause."
"Thou makest a long preface, excusing thyself, but yet hast, as I judge,
something to tell."
"Fear, my lord, ever causeth delay."
"Wilt thou not speak out thy news and then begone?"
"I will speak it. Know then that some man hath thrown dust upon this
dead corpse, and done besides such things as are needful."
"What sayest thou? Who hath dared to do this deed?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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