Antigone (Sophocles)

Antigone
Antigone in front of the dead Polyneices by Nikiforos Lytras 1865
Written by	Sophocles
Chorus	Theban Elders
Characters	Antigone Ismene Creon Eurydice Haemon Tiresias Sentry Leader of the Chorus First Messenger Second Messenger
Mute	Two guards A boy
Date premiered	c. 441 BC
Place premiered	Athens
Original language	Ancient Greek
Genre	Tragedy

Antigone (/ænˈtɪɡəniː/ an-TIG-ə-nee; Ancient Greek: Ἀντιγόνη) is a tragedy by Sophocles written in or before 441 BC.

It is the third of the three Theban plays but was the first written, chronologically. The play expands on the Theban legend that predated it and picks up where Aeschylus' Seven Against Thebes ends.

In the beginning of the play, two brothers leading opposite sides in Thebes' civil war died fighting each other for the throne. Creon, the new ruler of Thebes, has decided that Eteocles will be honored and Polyneices will be in public shame. The rebel brother's body will not be sanctified by holy rites, and will lie unburied on the battlefield, prey for carrion animals like worms and vultures, the harshest punishment at the time. Antigone and Ismene are the sisters of the dead Polyneices and Eteocles. In the opening of the play, Antigone brings Ismene outside the palace gates late at night for a secret meeting: Antigone wants to bury Polyneices' body, in defiance of Creon's edict. 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.

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