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156 156 SOPHOCLES

I knew (how should I not?), though thy decree

Had never spoken. And, before my time

If I shall die, I reckon this a gain ;

For whoso lives, as I, in many woes, 500

How can it be but he shall gain by death ?

And so for me to bear this doom of thine

Has nothing painful. But, if I had left

My mother's son unburied on his death,

In that I should have suffered ; but in this 505

I suffer not. And should I seem to thee

To do a foolish deed, 't is simply this, —

I bear the charge of folly from a fool.

Chorus. The maiden's stubborn will, of stubborn sire The offspring shows itself. She knows not yet 510

To yield to evils.

Creon. Know then, minds too stiff

Most often stumble, and the rigid steel Baked in the furnace, made exceeding hard, Thou seest most often split and shivered lie ; And I have known the steeds of fiery mood 515

AVith a small curb subdued. It is not meet That one who lives in bondage to his neighbors Should think too proudly. IVauton outrage then This girl first learnt, transgressing these my laws ; But this, when she has done it, is again 520

A second outrage, over it to boast, And laugh as having done it. Surely, then. She is the man, not I, if, all unscathed, Such deeds of might are hers. But be she child Of mine own sister, or of one more near 525

Than all the kith and kin of Household Zeus, She and her sister shall not 'scape a doom Most foul and shameful ; for I charge her, too. With having planned this deed of sepulture.