Home > Work > The Burial at Thebes: A Version of Sophocles' Antigone
1 " Worst is the man who has all the good adviceAnd then because his nerve fails, fails to actIn accordance with it, as a leader should. And equally to blameIs anyone who puts the personalAbove the overall thing, puts friendOr family first. "
― Seamus Heaney , The Burial at Thebes: A Version of Sophocles' Antigone
2 " Bear with the present; what will be will be.The future is cloth waiting to be cut. "
3 " Nobody, Nobody can be sure they're always right. The ones who are fullest of themselves that way Are the emptiest vessels. "
4 " No windfall or good fortune comes to mortals That isn't paid for in the coin of pain. "
5 " The land of the living, sister, Is neither here nor there. We enter it and we leave it. The dead in the land of the dead Are the ones you'll be with longest. "
6 " All of us would like to have been bornInfallible, but since we knew we weren't, It's better to attend to those who speakIn honesty and good faith, and learn from them. "
7 " Be the necklace-fire of stars, The cauterizing lightning. Bewilder us with good. "
8 " I am not the target. I am the archer. My shafts are tipped with truth and they stick deep. "
9 " Money has a long and sinister reach. It slips into the system, changes hands And starts to eat away at the foundations Of everything we stand for. "
10 " ObedienceAnd respect must be instilled. And that is why No woman here is going to be allowed To walk all over us. Otherwise, as menWe'll be disgraced. We won't deserve the name. "
11 " Whoever has been spared the worst is lucky. "
12 " Until a man has passed this test of officeAnd proved himself in the exercise of power,He can't be truly known--for what he is, I mean,In his heart and mind and capabilities.Worst is the man who has all the good adviseAnd then because his nerve fails, fails to actIn accordance with it, as a leader should. "
13 " You can't, friend, have your palm greased and expectTo get away clean. Everything comes out. "
14 " You can't just pluck your honour off a bushYou didn't plant. "
15 " Whoever has been spared the worst is lucky.When high gods shake a houseThat family is going to feel the blowGeneration after generation.It starts like an undulation underwater,A surge that hauls black sand up off the bottom,Then turns itself into a tidal currentLashing the shingle and shaking promontories. "
16 " Well has it been said: the man obsessedIs a cock of the walk in a hurry towards the worst. "
17 " Nobody,Nobody can be sure they're always right.The ones who are fullest of themselves that wayAre the emptiest vessels. "
18 " Chorus:Steadfast Antigone,Never before did DeathOpen his stone doorTo one so radiant.You would not live a lie.Vindicated, lauded,Age and disease outwitted,YOu go with head held high. "
19 " Chorus:Consider well, my son. All men make mistakes.But mistakes don't have to be forever,They can be admitted and atoned for.It's the overbearing man who is to blame. "
20 " Wise conduct is the key to happiness.Always rule by gods and reverence them.Those who overbear will be brought to grief.Fate will flail them on its winnowing floorAnd in due season teach them to be wise. "
