King Creon had, for political reasons, forbidden the burial of Polyneices. But Antigone, for religious ones, defied Creon and buried her brother. She justified her act by drawing a distinction between the changing regulations of a human ruler and the eternal laws of heaven. Creon speaks: “Knowest thou the edict that forbade this deed?” Antigone answers: I knew it. Why, how else? for it was public. Creon: And such laws thou couldst dare to overstep? Antig.: Yes; for it was not Zeus that published them … I did not deem your edicts of such force That a mere mortal could o'erride the Gods' Unwritten, never-failing ordinances. For these live not today nor yesterda But always; none knows when they first came forth.