AP English Language and Composition
Antigone Vocabulary and Study Questions
Part 1
pp. 305 – 327
Vocabulary:
Decree
Adept
Blithe
Dirce’s banks
Havoc
Perverted
Trudged
Gouge
Akin
Bravado
Furrows
Ingenious
Red-handed
Grim
Atrocious
Carrion
Glut
Merciless
Scorch
Martial law
Awesome
Culprit
Hallowed
Meritorious
Squandered
1. Describe who is onstage and what is occurring as the play opens.
2. What does Antigone mean when she tells Ismene, “. . . when friends are banned as foes?”
3. What literary device is being employed when Ismene asks her sister what is wrong, saying,
“Some dark secret stirs thy breast.”
4. What will be the punishment for those who disobey the king in the matter of burying Polynices?
What is Antigone’s response to the king’s decree and the punishment for disobeying it? How
does she challenge Ismene in regard to the king’s decree?
5. What theme is being evoked when Ismene responds to Antigone, “What, bury him despite the
interdict?”
6. According to Ismene, what fates have befallen the other members of their family? What
reasoning does Ismene use in arguing against burying Polynices, and what is her final judgment
of Antigone’s suggestion?
7. Antigone says, “A sinless sinner, banned awhile on earth, / But by the dead commended . . .”
what does she mean, and how does it affect her characterization of burying Polynices? To what
higher authority does Antigone give her allegiance? How does she demonstrate it?
8. Describe how the two sisters’ words and reactions make the reader feel toward each of them.
9. Who makes up the chorus? What is the intent and function of the first choral ode which begins,
“Sunbeam, of all that ever dawn upon / Our seven-gated Thebes the brightest ray”?
10. Who is described by the chorus as “The argent shields, the host with scutchions white . . . Like to
an eagle swooping low”? What types of literary comparisons are being employed?
11. Whom does the chorus credit with the Theban victory over Argos, and why is this important?
12. Who is the current ruler of Thebes? Why?
13. According to Creon, how can one come to “. . . discern the temper of a man, his mind and will”?
What does he say is the mark of a true leader? Why does he discuss these subjects?
14. What does Creon mean in saying “And I condemn the man who sets his friend / Before his
country”?
15. Describe Creon’s tone in describing his edict as regards Polynices.
AP English Language and Composition
Antigone Vocabulary and Study Questions
16. In his conversation with the leader, why does Creon say he called the chorus, comprised of the
elders of Thebes, together?
17. What news comes from one of the sentries posted by Polynices’s body? Why is the sentry so
fearful?
18. When the leader hypothesizes to Creon that the gods might have buried Polynices, what is
Creon’s reaction? Why does he react this way?
19. What does Creon believe is behind the burial, and what does his conjecture say about his
character?
20. Describe how Creon treats the sentry and how the sentry reacts.
21. How does the chorus characterize Man in their ode (the “Ode to Man”) that follows Creon’s
reentering the palace? What is the one force that can bring Man, and Creon, down?
Part 2
pp. 327 – 357
Vocabulary:
Adversity
Gall
Last rites
Tempered
Cresting
Kindred book
Salvage
Baiting
Impieties
Libations
Wretched
Defilement
Mortal enemy
Seers
Buffeting
Insolence
Mere
Anarchy
Degenerate
Olympus
Trod
Edict
Interrogated
Perquisites
Bandying
Gales
Roiling
Unflinching
Folly
Jostling
Repels
Brood
Infallible
Rout
Wheeling
1. With whom does the sentry return to Creon? Why?
2. Describe the activity preceding the dust-storm that engulfs the sentries. What is the storm’s
significance?
3. What is Antigone’s response when the sentries catch her performing funeral rites on her
brother’s body? How do her actions compare to those of the sentry who brings her to Creon?
4. When Creon asks Antigone is she is guilty, she says in no uncertain terms that she is. How does
she explain her actions in disobeying him? What is her attitude toward Creon? What does she
mean in saying to him she’s “And if in this thou judgest me a fool, / Methinks the judge of folly’s
not acquit”?
5. To what does Creon compare Antigone in her defiance? Why does he make the comparisons?
Why does Creon say, “Now if she thus can flout authority / I am woman, she the man”?
6. How does Sophocles employ irony in having Creon say, “The workings of the mind discover oft /
Dark deeds in darkness schemed, before the act. / More hateful still the miscreant who seeks /
When caught, to make a virtue of a crime”?
7. How does the argument between Creon and Antigone resemble a trial? Does anyone appear to
“win” in the end, and if so, how?
8. How does Ismene answer the charges levied against her? what is Antigone’s reaction?
AP English Language and Composition
Antigone Vocabulary and Study Questions
9. When Ismene points out to her sister that she tried to warn Antigone not to bury Polynices,
Antigone responds, “Thou canst not say that I did not protest.” Which themes are suggested in
the passage?
10. What does Ismene mean when she cries out, “What, wilt thou slay thy own son’s plighted bride?
11. Whom does Creon say will break up his son’s marriage before it can occur? What do his words
imply?
12. What ancient theme does the chorus say is being reenacted as Ismene and Antigone are
escorted off to await punishment? Who is responsible, and who holds all the power?
13. Knowing Antigone’s fate, how does Haemon initially react to his father and why does he do so?
How does Haemon’s initial argument function as an example of parallelism with Antigone’s
argument for disobeying Creon?
14. According to Creon, what makes up the ideal family? What type of relationship does he warn
Haemon against and why?
15. Creon makes a speech to Haemon railing against anarchy (“she” who “ruins States” and
“overthrows the home”) and praising the absolute rule of law. What feminine subject is he
really addressing, and how does his attitude affect the reader’s empathy for Creon?
16. In what manner does Haemon speak to his father? What specific information does he bring his
father about the citizens of Thebes?
17. Describe the metaphors Haemon uses to warn his father against excessive pride and
unwillingness to change? What is his father’s response?
18. When Creon hears that his decision regarding Antigone is unpopular with the people, he sneers,
“What, shall the mob dictate my policy?” What does his comment reveal?
19. According to Haemon, how is his father “wrongfully perverse,” and what does he say will be the
result?
20. What is Haemon’s response to Creon’s saying he will kill Antigone “beside her bridegroom
[Haemon’s], in his sight”? Does Creon regret offending his son?
21. Creon says he will wall up Antigone in a cave and let her pray to Hades who may grant her a
reprieve, “Or learn too late a lesson learnt at last: / ‘Tis labor lost to reverence the dead.” How
is he tempting fate in making such a haughty statement?
Part 3
pp. 357 -- 390
Vocabulary:
Acheron
Crude
Gorged
Reviled
Unintelligible
Inscrutable
Augury
Dagger-shuttle
Plunderer
Rhetoric
Bacchus
Nymphs
Brazen
Defile
Poised
Shackled
Discreet
Pomp
Bullnecked
Dirge
Raise a mound
Spurn
Hecate
Rash
Coiling
Flee
Raked
Tumult
House of Cadmus
AP English Language and Composition
Antigone Vocabulary and Study Questions
1.
According to the chorus, who is the instigator and victor i “Thou didst kindle the strife, this feud
of kinsman with kin”?
2. What does the chorus mean in saying the following to Antigone as she is brought from the
palace?
But bethink thee, thou art sped,
Great and glorious, to the dead.
Thou the sword’s edge hast not tasted,
No disease thy frame hath wasted.
Freely thou alone shalt go
Living to the dead below.
3. Why does Antigone compare her fate to the story of Niobe?
4. How and in what manner does Antigone appeal to the city? How does her appeal show a
different relationship to Thebes than that of Creon?
5. What does Antigone refer to when she says the chorus has “at this thou touchest my most
poignant pain”?
6. As she is led to her tomb, what admission does Antigone make that goes against her previous
statements about filial duty and the supremacy of the gods’ laws? In what circumstance would
she have obeyed Creon instead of acting as she did? Whom has she come to resemble?
7. In wondering “what is the law I call in aid?” how will Antigone know if she has worked against
the gods’ laws or only man’s laws? What aspect of her own behavior does Antigone not
acknowledge as leading to her death?
8. What is the intent of the ode in which the chorus tells the myths surrounding Danae, Lycurgus,
and the blinding of King Phineus’ sons?
9. Describe Tiresias and his place in the events as they unfold. What does he tell Creon has
happened at the Theban altars, and what is his advice?
10. Characterize Creon’s initial response to Tiresias. What is becoming increasingly clear about
Creon, his state of mind, and his motives?
11. Egged on by Creon’s vile accusations, what further prophecy does Tiresias reveal, in detail?
What evidence shows he is able to change Creon’s mind?
12. What does the chorus mean in saying, “In the deep-embossed glades / Of the Eleusinean Queen
/ Haunt of revelers, men and maids, / Dionysus, thou art seen” and in the rest of the speech that
surrounds these verses?
13. To whom is the messenger referring, and why, when he says, “Both dead, and they who live
deserve to die”? How does the passage relate to Haemon and Antigone?
14. Why do we learn secondhand what occurred between Creon and Haemon and that Antigone
hanged herself? What function does the messenger serve?
AP English Language and Composition
Antigone Vocabulary and Study Questions
15. What is being foreshadowed when the chorus says to the messenger, “I know not, but strained
silence, so I deem, / Is no less ominous than excessive grief.”
16. What happened to Eurydice’s firstborn child? Whom does she blame for the fates of her sons?
17. What is Creon’s response to his wife’s death and the charges she leveled before she died?
18. When Creon prays for the gods to strike him down, how is he answered?
19. The chorus closes the play with what message?