Afterwards, Antigone continues by saying:
But now, Polyneices,
this is my reward for covering your corpse.
However, for wise people I was right
to honour you. I’d never have done it
for children of my own, not as their mother,
nor for a dead husband lying in decay—
no, not in defiance of the citizens.
What law do I appeal to, claiming this?
If my husband died, there’d be another one,
and if I were to lose a child of mine
I’d have another with some other man.
But since my father and my mother, too,
are hidden away in Hades’ house,
I’ll never have another living brother.
Antigone says she would never have done it for her own children or even for a husband, but that she had to do it for her brother—why? What’s the difference?