Antigone
Sophocles
Background Info.
• The “seven against Thebes”:
– mythical war between Eteocles and Polynices
– both were given rule of Thebes after E. ruled would not
let P. rule-banished him
– P. came back later battled each other and both died
• 4 children of Oed. : Polynices, Eteocles, Antigone,
Ismene
• “haemon” means “blood” in Greek:
– name of Antigone’s husband,
– theme of blood relative,
– Creon’s belief that personal be submerged under the
state-leads to blood
Prologue
• Antigone, Ismene
• Reveals
– death of both brothers
– Both daughter’s sadness concerning father
– Antigone’s plot to bury Polynices
– Ismene’s rational thought and A. stubborn
righteousness
– Ismene makes it known that she will not join
A. in her disobedience
Focus: How has Sophocles characterized each of
these sisters as foils? To what purpose?
Parados
• Invocation to Zeus
• Explanation of the “Seven at Thebes”
• Explains that Creon is now in power due to
Oed. fate
Episode 1
• Creon, Senator, Sentinel
• C. explains that he now takes power ever since the
“mutual fratricide”(8)
• Discover C. ruling policy and how much respect he has
for the land and it’s citizens
• Explains his decree that Polynices should not be buried
due to his banishment by Eteocles, and P. subsequent
dishonoring of the land
• Senator agrees with C.
• Sentinel makes C. aware that someone ahs buried P. And
that he was made to come and tell the bad news
• C. reacts in anger when Senator says it is supernatural:
“Truce to your speech, before I choke with rage…”(11)
• C. states that offender must be put to death
Stasium 1
• Chorus explain that C. is “Wrestling his
country’s laws to his own will” (15)
• Chorus laments A.’s fate and makes the
audience aware that she has been captured
Episode 2: Sentinel, Creon, Antigone, Ismene, Senator
• Sentinel explains how they caught A. after a hurricane,
“shrieking” as she sees the body uncovered
• A. stands stubborn and “den[ies] it not”(17)
• A. retorts that it was not Zeus’s decree, only C. and the
state, and therefore she feels justified by the “…unwritten
code of Heaven”(19)
• C. asks her if she felt the same honor for her other dead
bro. who was slain by P.
• A. states that all are honorable in the underworld as it
should be, “…The dead clay makes no protest” (20)
• C. is angered at woman trying to disobey him and orders
her death: “…if you must love, [love] the dead! No
woman…shall order me” (20)
• Focus: conflict behind burial, “blood” and “state”
• I. implicates herself; A. angry; both are taken by C.
Stasium 2
• Chorus laments that before the war, all was
peaceful
• Explains that A. is like Oed. with her “wild
words” (23)
• Laments the fact that Haemon, A. husband,
must see his wife perish
Response Questions
• 1. Defend Antigone’s argument for her brothers
burial. Do you believe she is justified?
• 2. Explain Ismene’s reaction to Antigone. Do
you believe that she had reason to react this way?
• 3. How does Creon’s initial response remind you
of Oed.?
• 4. How does Antigone defend her position to
Creon? Was she justified?
• 5. How does Creon respond? What does he call to
to justify his reasoning?
• 6. Did anything surprise you about Ismene’s
insistence upon being implicated with Antigone?
Why do you believe she does this?
Episode 3
• Creon, Haemon, Sen., Antigone
• C. asks son if he is “disposed –In everything to back [his]
father’s quarrel” (25)
• C. tells H. never to “fling away [his] wits” for liking of a
woman (25)
• C. calls to anarchy as the cause for A. death; no woman
can worsen me
• Town feels for A.; H. warns his father to see both sides—
”Let thy wrath go!”(27)
• Argue over how to rule land: begin to fight using the
stereotype of a “woman” as weak and powerless
• Out of anger, C. wishes H. to watch A. die
• H. leaves angry; A. banished to a cave: buried alive
Stasium 3
• Antigone speaking in lyrical poetics to the
chorus and lamenting her fate
• Chorus answers that she is praised for her
valor
• Discussion of being buried alive
• Chor. states that she is bound by fate: “The
cause is some ancestral load, which thou art
bearing” (32).
Episode 4-end
• A. argues w/ C. about the right to bury her bro.
imploring, “…what celestial right/ Did I transgress?”
(34)—monologue speaking to her dead brother
• A. believes that Heaven and the gods are on her side
• Tiresias (“sees”) and reveals to C. that gods are
angered due to his dishonoring of Poly.—will not
accept sacrifices; C. needs to know “…that to err from
the right path is common to mankind”, but he must
not stand “obstinate”(38)
• C. angered and calls T. prophecies false: T. reveals
that H. will die
• Senator convinces him to set A. free—they go to do
so
Cont.
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Mess. Tells Eurydice about H. going to see A. ,
and finding her hanging, kills himself
Eurydice leaves before he finishes his speech
Mess. hopes that she will not cry in public, but
“…to her handmaids in the house…for a private
pain”(46)
C. laments his mistake! (48); asks to be
banished—Eurydice has killed herself
Chorus’ last words and main theme: wisdom
and reverence to gods is primary