Getting ready to read:
Antigone
By Sophocles
• Eteocles, son (and half brother) of
Oedipus, nephew to Creon, was given the
throne of Thebes after the exile and death
of Oedipus.
• Polyneices, other son of Oedipus and
nephew of Creon, was promised that he
would get to alternate as king of Thebes
with his brother, Eteocles. However, when
Eteocles would not give up the throne,
Polyneices gathers an army and attacks
Thebes, where both brothers kill each
other outside the walls of the city.
• Creon, brother to Jocasta (Oedipus’s wife
and mother), then becomes king. He
decrees that Eteocles would be buried
with full military honors, while his brother,
as a traitor and attacker of Thebes, will be
left to rot on the ground and left as carrion
for birds outside the gate of the city.
• Antigone, daughter (and half-sister) of
Oedipus, and sister to Eteocles and
Polyneices, claims that not burying her
brother is an offense against god and is
absolutely against her religious beliefs as
well as the religious beliefs of all of
Thebes. She claims that he will be unable
to enter heaven if he is not given a proper
burial.
Antigone’s moral dilemma:
• Should she safely obey the law of the king
and let her brother go unburied, therefore
betraying her religious and moral beliefs?
• Or…Should she defy the law of the king,
bury her brother, and face the fatal
consequences?
The bigger questions: (Those that apply to
modern society, meaning us)
• If we know that those in power are morally
wrong, do we break their laws, or do we
collaborate with them by obeying and
cooperating?
• Or…When is civil disobedience an
obligation? Is it ever an acceptable choice
to break a law that is morally wrong?
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Eteocles (brother)
Polyneices (brother)
Antigone (central character)
Ismene (her sister)
Creon (uncle/kings)
Eurydice (Creon’s wife)
Teiresias (blind prophet)
Haimon (son of Creon, engaged to
Antigone)
What examples of civil disobedience do you
know about? Were those involved right or
wrong to take the actions they did?