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Title: Antigone
Author: Sophocles
Time period: 2000 BC
Setting: Thebes, Greece
Main characters: Antigone, Polyneices, Creon, Marcelo
Key facts:
 A civil war occurs between Polyneices and Creon. Polyneices is killed and
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Creon becomes king.
Creon decrees that Polyneices cannot be buried. In Greek culture, this
 meant that Polyneices' soul cannot gain entry into heaven. In Greek culture, desecrating another's body like this is the greatest insult possible to other person.
Antigone, as Polyneices's sister, knows it is traditionally her duty to oversee Polyneices's funeral. She believes that, regardless of her brother's past sins, has a right to be buried, a right Creon cannot take away.
 In a heroic act of defiance, Antigone secretly buries Polyneices, then goes to Creon and brashly informs him that she did it. She does all this despite
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
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 her family's, especially her sister Ismene's, persistent efforts to deter her.
Creon sentences her to death by stoning. His ministers strongly advise him to forgive Antigone, but he refuses, afraid of appearing weak.
Blind prophet Tiresias, who can foresee the future, tells Creon his sentence is unfair and should be revoked. Unwilling to budge, Creon goes as far as to accuse Tiresias of being bribed.
Tiresias curses Creon, warning him that the gods will punish him.
Creon's son, Prince Marcelo, is desperately in love with Antigone. When he learns she has been executed, he hangs himself above her corpse.
Creon's wife is deeply anguished by the death of her only son. She stabs herself.
Now Creon is left without a family. Tiresias's curse has proved true. He finally accepts and relinquishes his ego, and learns to forgive mistakes and to punish reasonably. Overall, he becomes a fairer ruler, in contrast to the tyrant he once was.