Creon, furious, orders the sentry to find the culprit or face death himself. A sentry enters, fearfully reporting that the body has been given funeral rites and a symbolic burial with a thin covering of earth, though no one saw who actually committed the crime. The leader of the Chorus pledges his support out of deference to Creon. The Chorus, consisting of Theban elders, enter and cast the background story of the Seven against Thebes into a mythic and heroic context.Ĭreon enters, and seeks the support of the Chorus in the days to come and in particular, wants them to back his edict regarding the disposal of Polynices' body. Ismene refuses to help her, not believing that it will actually be possible to bury their brother, who is under guard, but she is unable to stop Antigone from going to bury her brother herself. In the opening of the play, Antigone brings Ismene outside the palace gates late at night for a secret meeting: Antigone wants to bury Polynices' body, in defiance of Creon's edict. Antigone and Ismene are the sisters of the dead Polynices and Eteocles. The rebel brother's body will not be sanctified by holy rites and will lie unburied on the battlefield, prey for carrion animals, the harshest punishment at the time. Creon, the new ruler of Thebes and brother of the former Queen Jocasta, has decided that Eteocles will be honored and Polynices will be in public shame. Prior to the beginning of the play, the brothers Eteocles and Polynices, leading opposite sides in Thebes' civil war, died fighting each other for the throne. The story follows the attempts of Antigone, the sister of Eteocles and Polynices, to bury Polynices, going against the decision of her uncle Creon and placing her relationship with her brother above human laws. Oedipus' brother-in-law and new Theban ruler Creon ordered the public honoring of Eteocles and the public shaming of Thebes' traitor Polynices. The play is named after the main protagonist Antigone.Īfter Oedipus' self-exile, his sons Eteocles and Polynices engaged in a civil war for the Theban throne, which resulted in both brothers dying fighting each other. The story expands on the Theban legend that predates it, and it picks up where Aeschylus' Seven Against Thebes ends. Even though the events in Antigone occur last in the order of events depicted in the plays, Sophocles wrote Antigone first. The play is one of a triad of tragedies known as the three Theban plays, following Oedipus Rex and Oedipus at Colonus. It is thought to be the second oldest surviving play of Sophocles, preceded by Ajax, which was written around the same period. Antigone in front of the dead Polynices by Nikiforos Lytras 1865Īntigone ( / æ n ˈ t ɪ ɡ ə n i/ ann- TIG-ə-nee Ancient Greek: Ἀντιγόνη) is an Athenian tragedy written by Sophocles in (or before) 441 BC and first performed at the Festival of Dionysus of the same year.
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