Guide Note

Antigone is a Greek play written by Sophocles. Although chronologically the third play in the Oedipus Cycle it was written first.

Fast Facts

1. Written in 442 BC
2. Third of three Theban plays
3. Set in Thebes
4. One of few Greek plays to show the inside of a palace
5. One of the main themes is duty to man made laws versus divine laws
6. Fewer references to gods than most Athenian plays
7. Modern adaptation in French by Jean Anouilh
8. Play based on oral history

• Antigone
• Ismene
• Creon
• Eurydice
• Haemon
• Teiresias
• Chorus

The play tells of the events following a civil war that erupted after Oedipus, King of Thebes, stepped down and entrusted his kingdom to his two sons, Eteocles and Polynices. Initially, the two brothers agreed to alternate their reign every year, but when Eteocles refused to give up the throne, Polynices attacked Thebes with his supporters. The civil war ended after Eteocles and Polynices kill each other in a duel.

In the play Antigone the new king of Thebes, Creon, gives a decree that Polynices will be denied burial rites. Polynices' sister, Antigone, defies the King and gives Polynices the rites anyway. She is caught and is sentenced to starve to death in a cave. Creon's son and Antigone's fiance, Haemon, warns his father that the people support Antigone and petitions for her release. His appeal to Creon leads to a bitter fight between the two and Haemon vows to never see his father again. Later, a blind prophet, Tiresias, repeats the warning to Creon and prophesies that Creon with will lose one child for his crimes. Shaken, Creon decides to release Antigone, but he is too late. Antigone has hanged herself and, in reaction, Haemon also kills himself. Creon's wife, Eurydice, in grief over the death of her son takes her own life as well. The Chorus closes the play by stating that although the gods punish the proud, punishment brings wisdom.

1. "Nothing so evil as money ever grew to be current among men. This lays cities low, this drives men from their homes, this trains and warps honest souls till they set themselves to works of shame; this still teaches folk to practice villainies, and to know every godless deed. But all the men who wrought this thing for hire have made it sure that, soon or late, they shall pay the price."
2. "There is no happiness where there is no wisdom; No wisdom but in submission to the gods. Big words are always punished, And proud men in old age learn to be wise."
3. "It is no weakness for the wisest man to learn when he is wrong."