1 Sophocles' Antigone Introduction, translation, and notes by ...

What are you going on about, man?
Guard
I want to tell ya first I didn't do it, and I didn't see who did, so you can't blame me.
Creon
Get on with it! It's clear you have something serious to tell me.
A weighty matter slows a man down!
Guard
Creon
For God's sake out with it - then you are free to go!
Guard
O. K., O.K. I'll tell ya. Someone has buried Polyneices and got away with it.
Whoever it was scattered earth over the body, and performed the burial rites,
just like we learned in church.
What? Who would have dared?
Creon
Guard
There was no sign that a pickaxe was used and the earth
hadn't been turned over by a hoe; the ground was hard and dry,
unbroken, no wheel marks either. Whoever did it left no trace.
When the guard of the mornin’ watch showed us it, Jesus,
we were desperate! We couldn't see the body:
it wasn't exactly buried but there was a thin blanket of earth
over it,just enough to satisfy the gods.
There was no sign of bites from wild animals, or dogs.
We badmouthed each other, one guard blamin’ the other, and
we might have cracked a couple of skulls
because there was nobody there to stop us. Any one of us
could have done it, but you couldn't point the finger
at a soul because nobody had seen anythin’. We were ready
to go through fire, bog, and muck and swear by our mudders' lives
we didn't do it, and we didn't know who'd planned or done it.
To cut a long story short, when our search got us nowhere,
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