Antigone

Antigone is a play written by Sophocles and first performed around 441 BC. It comes third in the story told by The Theban Plays, although Sophocles wrote it first.

Antigone is the protagonist of the tragedy. She is one of Oedipus' daughters and the story takes place after the stories in Oedipus Rex and Oedipus at Colonus , so we recommend reading the two previous plays first to get to know all the characters.

The story begins after her two brothers, Eteocles and Polynices, have killed each other on opposite sides of a war for Thebes. Creon, now ruler, buries one with honors and orders that Polynices be left unburied on the plain. Antigone rises up against this despotic and cruel authority, ignores the order and decides to bury her brother, arousing Creon's fury.

The play sets the individual against the state and asks what is owed to the law of the city and what is owed to the dead. In addition, it presents a rather strong female character in a social and political context where women had no place in it.

"ANTIGONE: Ismene, sister, mine own dear sister, knowest thou what ill there is, of all bequeathed by Oedipus, that Zeus fulfils not for us twain while we live? Nothing painful is there, nothing fraught with ruin, no shame, no dishonour, that I have not seen in thy woes and mine."

This edition of Sophocles' Antigone is based on the English translation by R. C. Jebb.