Page:The Genius of America (1923).pdf/282



She is captured and brought before Creon for judgment and sentenced to death by starvation. Says Creon:

She replies:

The Antigone of Sophocles never lived; and yet she lives forever, and preserves about her that atmosphere of sacred awe without which human life becomes flat and unprofitable. Antigone lives forever: and on this fact rests the case for Antigone and Alcestis and Iphigeneia; and for all those proud and gracious figures that sweep along the frieze of the Parthenon; and