It was a true word, and curiously verified in his own life. For he who had shown so fair a front in Thebes, when the reins of government lay in the hands of Œdipus and Jocasta, proved himself a tyrant when authority fell on him. Creon, young and ardent, could dare the wrath of Œdipus, and tell him to his face that even a king might not be unjust. But the same man clothed in power, with youthful ideals fled and all the texture of his mind hardened by age and convention, could only meet the supreme idealism of Antigone with a decree of death. It is not suggested that Sophocles has developed Creon’s character in an unbroken sequence through the three dramas in which he appears. The chronology of the plays forbids this. For the _Antigone_, which presents the last phase of the story, was written years before _Œdipus the King_ and the _Œdipus at Colonus_, which give us both Antigone and Creon in earlier days. But that is an external fact which does not much disturb the unity of the poet’s conception. The Creon of the three plays is essentially the same man. He is not consistent always, since no human creature is. But under that accusing contrast between the theories of his youth and the practice of his age there is an abiding law of human nature which only the few fine souls escape. And we are clearly shown that Creon was not born to be the rare exception. Always prudent, law-abiding and careful of authority, these qualities would strengthen with the years; and lighted by no higher truth, but carried to excess in moments of passion, would inevitably make him what he became. In the same way there is an underlying unity in the character of Antigone. In _Œdipus the King_ we know her only by name, a child of thirteen into whose sunny life a storm has suddenly crashed. In the _Œdipus at Colonus_, the strong young spirit has awakened, and is giving clear promise of the heights to which it will soar before its short day is done. While the _Antigone_, the drama which bears her name, does but fulfil and make perfect what is fair promise in the other plays.