Antigone
Also known as: Antigone of Sophocles, Antigone (Theban Play)
After Thebes’ civil war, Creon forbids burial of Polyneices. Antigone defies the edict to honor divine law, is condemned to be entombed alive, and a cascade of suicides follows. Creon repents too late.
Description
Sophocles’ Antigone dramatizes a fatal collision between divine ordinance and human decree. Creon, the new ruler of Thebes, forbids burial of the rebel Polyneices; Antigone insists that the gods’ unwritten laws of the dead outrank the state. Arrested after performing funeral rites, she refuses compromise and is sealed in a rock-cut vault. The chorus—Theban elders—meditates on human achievement and limits in the famous "Ode to Man," and later on eros’ inescapable power. The seer Tiresias warns Creon that omens show the gods’ anger; Creon reverses himself, but too late: Antigone is dead, Haemon kills himself beside her, and Eurydice, Creon’s wife, dies by her own hand. The play closes with Creon shattered and a choral lesson on wisdom learned through suffering.
Historiography
Antigone survives through the medieval Byzantine manuscript tradition that preserved a selection of seven Sophoclean tragedies. The text is relatively stable, though some choral and messenger passages invite exegetical debate and occasional conjecture. Influential commentaries include those of R. C. Jebb and subsequent philological editions; modern translations have shaped reception from the 19th century onward. The play has been a touchstone for political, ethical, and feminist readings and remains a staple of global performance.
Date Notes
Commonly dated to 441 BCE and produced at the City Dionysia in Athens; ancient testimonia vary slightly.
Major Characters
- Antigone
- Creon
- Ismene
- Haemon
- Tiresias
- Eurydice
Myths
- Antigone’s Burial of Polynices
- Defiance of Creon
- Death of Antigone
- Fates of Haemon and Eurydice
Facts
- Set in Thebes immediately after the deaths of Eteocles and Polyneices.
- Creon forbids burial of Polyneices on pain of death to assert state authority.
- Antigone performs funeral rites twice, leading to her arrest.
- The chorus consists of Theban elders who frame moral reflection throughout.
- Tiresias warns Creon after failed sacrifices and ominous bird-signs.
- Antigone is entombed alive in a rock-cut chamber rather than executed publicly.
- Haemon, betrothed to Antigone, dies beside her; Eurydice curses Creon and kills herself.
- Antigone likely predates Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex in composition.
- The first stasimon is the celebrated "Ode to Man" on human techne and limits.
- The play’s central conflict opposes divine burial law to human decree.