"You can tell our Theban "leader"
that even if no one helps me--
whatever the risk--I'll bury him.
He's my brother--there's no shame.
Call me radical. Call me anarchist!
We came from the same belly.
Same miserable mother. Same troubled father.
He didn't want this. Who would?
He still has some family alive
and wolves will not touch him.
Take that back to your masters.
I'll dig whatever grave I can
as just one woman working alone,
carting the dirt in my clothes.
I'll bury him--don't doubt it.
I've resolved to find a way."
In the epilogue to the play, Antigone declares that she will bury her brother despite the edict that he is an enemy of Thebes and cannot be given a proper burial after he betrayed the city in his attack upon it. She cares not for the edict of man, only to honor Polynices in his death, not as a king nor a soldier, but as her brother.
Antigone: "To pass through."
Ismene: "in one moment."
Antigone: "To come home"
Ismene: "as two opposed."
Antigone: "Loss told."
Ismene: "Loss witnessed."
The two sisters mourn the loss of both of their brothers at the end of their battle. While the brothers are separated by power and death, the two sisters speak as one, completing their sentences. It is an antithesis to the brothers opposition, the way they speak here as they are unified.
"Cadmeian citizens, let me be brief.
I've been entrusted with the state
and as pilot must stay vigilant.
If we prosper, credit the gods.
But if we encounter some trouble
"Eteocles" becomes the refrain throughout Thebes.
People lift that song of accusation
at my failure. I accept it.
Zeus, named Defender, spare us this."
Eteocles' speech is the opening statement of the play. We are thrust into the middle of the action and give the circumstances very quickly. Thebes is under attack, and Eteocles is a man who seems worthy to be followed as he is willing to take the blame for defeat and take no credit in victory.
