Prompt: Antigone and Antony in Cleopatra both present their narratives through not only what the audience sees happen on the stage but also what characters report happening off stage. Write one of the scenes that the play implies but does not explicitly present. Your scene should comprise at least 150 lines of poetry or 1000 words (the minimum is whichever is less). You may either a) write the scene in the style of the original or b) forge your own style (e.g., a novelistic depiction or a stand-alone poem). 

Enter Creon

Creon:

Oh hopeless fate! How death haunts me, how it lingers after it strikes, how this vile contagion has plagued my kingdom. I am to blame; tempting god’s rage has brought death to my castle doors.

Chorus:

The god's rage is not to be trifled with, yet, surely there must be some way to ward off Fate. Must we not heed the advice of soothsayers who are ever in communication with fate?

Creon:

Although my heart swells with pride and remorse, the latter is the stronger of the two. How can I face my past ignorance? What kind of king neglects a seer's commands and tempts fate, the way I have? Spitting and condemning him as nothing more than a swindler with no power and one sole purpose: to bleed the state’s purse! How can I on the same day in which I have cursed Teiresias, now beg at his knees for a cure for my wretched fate?

Chorus:

Are the gods not swift in exacting murderous justice on those who act against them? 

Creon:

By Zeus! Have I not sacrificed tens of thousands of oxen, yet I fear you are right. It is no time for stubbornness; my heir and wife are dead and their blood has stained my walls and my hands. Bring me Teiresias.

Enter Teiresias:

Teiresias:

My gracious, humble, powerful, all-seeing, all-knowing, all-just, righteous, benevolent, magnificent King, what could you ever need from a fraud like myself?

Creon:

Spare me of your praises, Teiresias. I am a poor wretch, I am the patron of death. And I fear that her path of destruction has only just begun. My throne only recently won is now threatened by tyrannical death; she wishes to take a King’s place. I deserve nothing more than a swift death, my wretchedness and crushing sorrow tempt me to welcome her with open arms. Yet still my trusted advisers urge me to seek a remedy more pleasant than surrendering my throne.

Teiresias:

A heavy burden to carry. Perhaps not fit for a money-grabbing flatterer. Yet the gods have been wronged, you have knocked at the doors of Hades, and do not wish to enter. A corpse remains unlaved in the fields of a once great kingdom. Another pair, wedded by death, share the cold bloody rock bed; the lovers are buried alive, yet still without a proper burial. Another, a once cherished Queen with a heart stronger than iron, floats in the waters of the Styx still cursing her son’s murderer: Creon. Without proper burial rights, the house of Thebes remains stained by a Queen's blood. All the while Creon waits on the words of a soothsayer. My prophecy is one of a blind man: your fate is grim, yet the fate of those whom you have twice murdered is incomparable. You have left the ones who once loved you to wander about our world perilously. The Fates command you to commit the “offense” you deemed capital! You must disobey the edict you proclaimed greater than the edict of the gods!  Bury the man you deemed un-buriable, and provide the others with their rightful burials as commanded by Zeus; then and only then will you receive what you have longed for, a swift exactment of justice. 

Exit Teiresias:

Chorus:

Never has Teiresias proclaimed a fate so ill. You must heed this advice! We will call together the servants to immediately bury all those who have fallen.

Creon:

No! I am guilty of my crimes against Zeus. I must bury the bodies alone! I must mourn and beg at the knees of Fate, not for forgiveness but rather for the souls of those whom I have killed, begging fate to welcome them into the house of the gods.

Exit Creon

Creon:

It can not be. Polyneices! I supplicate you, please, I mean no further harm to your body or your soul, I only wish to give you a proper burial.

Polyneices:

You are right to say “further.” Have you not declared the action you sanctimoniously perform to be punishable by stoning? Have you not meddled enough in the affairs of the dead? Did you not declare your law greater than that of Zeus? Have you not declared the ties of the state greater than the ties that bound our blood together? *a beat* After all your long speeches declaring crimes against Zeus and the family to be Just, you now find yourself tongue-tied. SPEAK, MURDERER, SPEAK!

Creon:

I have nothing to say to you spirit! BE GONE! Haunt me no longer! I beg no forgiveness; I have wrought destruction and welcomed death into my kingdom. I only hope to make these few things right. 

Polyneices:

Your Kingdom! A kingdom born in blood and gifted to you by chance; I declare this kingdom must also die in blood! I vow that before you see the sun rise over YOUR ill-won kingdom the dogs and carrion crows who gnaw and tear at my kingly flesh will eat every last piece of flesh from your bones! Then and only then will the justice you so desperately longed for in life be truly shown to you!  

Exit the Ghost Polyneices

Enter the Ghost Haemon

Creon:

How can this be? My child Haemon is that you? By Zeus, I vow to sacrifice thousands of more oxen if my boy is truly alive.

Haemon:

A man who murder’s the woman I love is no father of mine! I see you are now heeding the counsel of a beardless boy. You act only after my mother lies surrounded by black blood diluted by her tears unsepulchered at the foot of the altar of your own house! If only my sword had struck you down before myself!

Creon:

My son, my wickedness truly deserves these daggers of words. My final words to you haunt my mind; if only I heeded the counsel of the son that I love—

Haemon:

Silence! The State is his who rules it! Do not forget your words and deeds! Is Antigone not an errant lawbreaker and am I not simply the woman’s slave? If you believe your commandments are more valuable than your son’s love then stand by your belief! Do not let yourself be both a villain and a coward! I vow by Zeus that your blood—

Enter Ghost of Antigone

Antigone:

My love, Creon has refused your counsel, and schooling before this moment is no different. We must not waste the time of a man with little left. Creon must undo his decree against Zeus.!

Creon:

Antigone! Oh, un-holy night! I fear my fate is near! Only at the sight of your spirit does my heart stop. Oh, Antigone how I have wronged you, my soon-to-be daughter! Please forgi—

Antigone:

Save your breath while you still bear it. You now face the spirit of a woman mad enough to court her death. I will not entertain your forgiveness. Only after you have gone against the unwritten laws of Heaven do you see the importance of my actions. My brother’s burial was my only concern in life; now in death, I only ask Creon: make right your mistakes before you join us, bury my brother and my love.  

Creon: 

My actions are beyond repair. I– I– am— no King— I— I am —the— bearer of death. I see my fate clearer than ever before. 

Exit all     

Enter Guard and Chorus

Chorus:

Why such haste? What news do you bring?

Guard:

An awful sight! King Creon is dead! We watched the King attempt to bury the bodies from the castle walls. Then, as if he were mad, our lord begins to speak with the mist of the night, yelling and sobbing and wailing. I ran down from the wall to investigate, when I saw a haunting sight. King Creon had fallen in the hole dug for the bodies with one of Polyneices bones stabbed piercing his heart. The crows and savage dogs dove into the tomb knawing at the fresh corpse! The bodies surrounding our King remain unburied.

Chorus:

Thus fate has run its course and death has snatched the throne of Thebes.

END OF ANTIGONE.