Creon

I see Creon, king of this land coming hither, to announce some new resolve.

Hark thee, Medea, I bid thee take those sullen looks and angry thoughts against thy husband forth from this land in exile, and with thee take both thy children and that without delay, for I am judge in this sentence, and I will not return unto my house till I banish thee beyond the borders of the land.

Fear me not, Creon, ray position scarce is such that I should seek to quarrel with princes.

Now when the Sphinx was oppressing and ravaging our city, after my husband’s death, my brother Creon proclaimed my marriage:

I will send your son Menoeceus, who bears your father’s name, to fetch Teiresias here, Creon;

why, Creon, do you summon me so urgently?

But look, the king of the land is coming here, Creon, the son of Menoeceus, our new ruler in accordance with the new circumstances fated by the gods.

Has not Creon destined our brothers, the one to honored burial, the other to unburied shame?

And now we, in turn—we two who have been left all alone—consider how much more miserably we will be destroyed, if in defiance of the law we transgress against an autocrat’s decree or his powers.

Well, know at least that Creon will come to you on this account—and soon, not late.

No, I have been sent, aged as I am, to plead with this man to return with me to the land of Cadmus.

Justly are you summoned by all the Cadmeans, and most of all by me, since I—unless I am the worst of all men born—feel most sorrow for your woes, old man, when I see you, unhappy as you are, a stranger and a wanderer evermore, roaming in beggary, with one handmaid for your support.

Creon, Menoeceus’ son, to Apollo’s Pythian residence to learn what we might do or say to protect this city.

Prince, my kinsman, child of Menoeceus, what news have you brought us from the god?

If you think you can wrong a kinsman and escape the penalty, you are not sane.

And Antigone too, despising the proclamation of Creon, boldly says:

Now you shall weigh the merits of the verses which were specially written by the poet for the character of Creon-Aeschines, though he forgot to repeat them to himself in connection with his embassy, and did not quote them to the jury.

In addition to all these and many other noble deeds they refused to suffer the lawful rites of the departed to be treated with despite when Creon forbade the burial of the seven against Thebes.

for I am well aware I slew Creon, the father of this woman, and am in possession of his throne.

Hence sprung Creon, son of Menoeceus, king of this land;

My brothers are dead, and my old father.

To whom must I announce the message of Creon, who rules o’er the land of Cadmus, since Eteocles was slain by the hand of his brother Polynices, at the sevenfold gates of Thebes?

Not a word would Creon let his herald answer back, but there he stood in silence under arms.

But Creon, when he marked our cavalry’s success on one wing, caught up a shield and rushed into the fray, ere that despondency should seize his men;

Then he came to Creon and long-robed Eniocha, who received him kindly and gave him all fitting things, as is due to suppliants, and honored him in their hearts even more.

In the Tragedy of the Suppliants, Euripides calls it the law of the Gods, and in the Antigone of Sophocles, the heroine makes the following reply to Creon, who had forbidden any one under pain of death, to give the rites of burial to Polynices, “A prohibition, like this, was not revealed by the supreme will, nor by that heaven-born justice, which has established those laws of respect for the dead:

THE SUBJECT CREON, King of Thebes, being at war with the Teleboans or Taphians, under the command of Ptereias, sends an army against them.