Creon: you there—you snake lurking in my house, sucking out my life’s blood so secretly. i’d no idea i was nurturing two pests, who aimed to rise against my throne. creon speaks these lines to ismene. which literary device does sophocles use in this passage? foreshadowing flashback exposition figurative language

Figurative language would be the best answer for this question. Figurative language is the opposite of literal language; here, the speaker is not saying that Ismene is a literal snake, sucking out the life from him. He is using a metaphor to tell her that he thinks she is being sneaky, deceptive, and destructive. That is what figurative language means: using words that the speaker does not literally mean to convey a point. Hope this helps.

That’s nice! sounds really fun.