Antigone

Antigone begins in Thebes at dawn on the morning after the Argive army has fled. The two sons of Oedipus, Eteocles and Polynices, have killed each other in the fighting (Antigone 13–14, 143–147), and their uncle Creon, the new ruler, has decreed that Eteocles is to be buried with honour and Polynices left unburied, for the birds and dogs to eat, on pain of death for anyone who buries or mourns him (21–38, 162–210). In the prologue Antigone asks her sister Ismene to help her bury Polynices; Ismene refuses, and Antigone goes alone (1–99). A guard tells Creon that someone has sprinkled dust on the body and left (223–277); Creon threatens the guards with a terrible death unless they find the culprit (280–314). The guards go back, brush the dust away, and later catch Antigone pouring libations over the body (407–440). Antigone admits the deed without fear and says that the unwritten laws of the gods outweigh Creon’s decree (450–470). Creon sentences her, and Ismene, who tries to share the blame, is rejected by her sister (526–581). Haemon, Creon’s son and Antigone’s betrothed, argues with his father in vain and leaves in anger (626–765). Creon spares Ismene and decides to wall up Antigone alive in a rocky chamber (766–780). Antigone is led away (806–943). Then the blind prophet Teiresias tells Creon that the city is polluted by the unburied corpse and that his own son will die (988–1090). Creon gives in too late: Antigone has hanged herself, Haemon has killed himself, and Eurydice, Creon’s wife, kills herself too (1155–1316). Creon is left alone, asking to be led away (1317–1353).

Date and Historical Background

The ancient hypothesis (the introduction printed with the play in the manuscripts) reports a tradition that Sophocles was thought worthy of the generalship in the war against Samos because of his success with Antigone, and the play was counted as his thirty-second. Strabo also records that the Athenians sent Pericles as general against Samos and with him “Sophocles the poet” (Strabo 14.1.18); the war itself is described by Thucydides (1.115–117) and was fought around 440 BC. No ancient source gives the exact year of the production, its prize or the other plays performed with it. Antigone is one of the three surviving plays of Sophocles about Thebes, with Oedipus Rex and Oedipus at Colonus, though in the story it comes last, after the death of Oedipus and the quarrel of his sons, the subject of Aeschylus’ Seven Against Thebes.

Characters and Setting

Characters

• Antigone, daughter of Oedipus and Jocasta
• Ismene, her sister
• Creon, brother of Jocasta, king of Thebes after the death of the sons of Oedipus
• Eurydice, Creon’s wife
• Haemon, son of Creon and Eurydice, betrothed to Antigone
• Teiresias, the blind prophet, led by a Boy
• The Guard, one of the men set to watch the body of Polynices
• Messenger and second messenger (an attendant of Creon’s household), who report the deaths
• Chorus of Theban elders

Setting

In front of the royal palace in Thebes, at daybreak on the day after the battle (Antigone 100–107). Antigone leaves the stage to bury her brother outside the city and later returns under guard.

Summary of Antigone

Prologue

Antigone brings Ismene outside the palace gates to speak with her alone (Antigone 1–20). Their brothers, she says, have been treated differently by Creon: Eteocles has been given a burial with full rites, but Polynices is not to be buried or mourned, and anyone who does so will be stoned to death in the city (21–38). She asks whether Ismene will help her lift the body (41–43). Ismene refuses. She reminds Antigone how their father blinded himself, how their mother hanged herself, how their brothers killed each other, and that they are women and subject to those who rule (49–68). Antigone answers that she will bury him and be, as she puts it, a holy criminal, since the time she must please the dead is longer than the time she must please the living (69–77). Ismene tells her to keep it secret, and Antigone tells her to speak it out to everyone (78–92). She leaves, and Ismene says that her love for her kin is true even if her path is foolish (93–99).

Parodos (Entrance Song)

The Chorus of Theban elders enters and sings of the victory won that night (Antigone 100–154). They greet the sun that has driven the Argive host back from the seven gates, and describe the attack: the army came for Polynices, an eagle with a snow-white wing, and stood over the houses of Thebes with spears that were thirsty for blood, but left before it had tasted it (110–126). Zeus hates the boasts of a proud tongue, and struck down with fire a captain who was about to shout victory from the wall (127–140). The seven captains left their arms at the gates, except for the two brothers who killed each other (141–147). They call for night-long dances in the temples of the gods, with Bacchus leading (148–154). Then they see Creon coming to the special meeting of the elders that he has summoned (155–161).

First Episode

Creon speaks to the elders (Antigone 162–210). The city has been saved, and he has the throne because he is the nearest kin of the dead. He will rule by one principle: a man who thinks a friend more important than his country is nothing (182–183), and the city is the ship on which all sail. Therefore Eteocles is to be buried with every honour, and Polynices, who came back from exile to burn the city of his fathers and the gods of his race, is to be left without burial or mourning, for the birds and dogs to eat. The elders reply that he has the power to make such laws (211–214). He asks them to see that the edict is obeyed, and they answer that no one is fool enough to love death (215–220).

A guard enters, after a great deal of hesitating on the way, and begins by saying that he did not do it and did not see who did (223–240). The body has been buried, he says: someone sprinkled dry dust on it and performed the rites required, and vanished without trace (245–277). There was no sign of a pickaxe or a wheel, and nor had a dog or a beast touched it. The guards almost came to blows, each suspecting the others, until one of them said that it had to be reported (249–277). The lot has fallen on him to tell Creon. The Chorus asks if the gods may have done it, and Creon answers angrily that the gods do not honour the enemy of their temples, and that some disaffected men must have bribed the guards (278–299). He threatens the guards: unless they find the man who did it, death will not be enough for them; they will be hung up alive until they confess (305–314). The guard leaves, glad to be alive.

The first stasimon (332–383), often called the Ode on Man, begins with the words: many wonders there are, and nothing is more wonderful than man. The Chorus praises man’s skills in sailing, ploughing, snaring birds and beasts, speech, thought and the making of cities, and his cures for disease, but says that he cannot escape death. It ends with a warning: the man who honours the laws of the land and the justice of the gods that he has sworn to keep, prospers in his city, and the man who in his rashness joins himself to what is shameful has no place in it (365–375).

Second Episode

The Chorus breaks off when it sees the guard coming back with a girl, and cries out in amazement that it is Antigone, the unhappy child of Oedipus (376–383), and asks if she has been taken for breaking the king’s laws. The guard says that they swept the dust off the body and sat upwind of the smell; at midday a whirlwind of dust filled the sky, and when it had passed they saw the girl crying out like a bird that finds its nest empty, and pouring libations over the corpse (384–440). When they charged her with the earlier deed too, she denied nothing.

Antigone admits the act at once (441–449). She knew the edict, she says, but it was not Zeus who proclaimed it, nor did Justice who lives with the gods below lay down such laws; and she did not think that Creon’s decrees were strong enough for a mortal to override the unwritten and unshakeable laws of the gods (450–455). She knew that she must die, and she counts it a gain if she dies early (460–464). Creon says that her pride is like iron that breaks (473–496), and later that no woman will rule him while he lives (525). When he asks if she is not ashamed to differ from the other Thebans, Antigone replies that they agree with her but keep silent for fear of him (504–509), and when he says that she cannot love one who is her enemy even in death, she answers that she was born to share in love and not in hate (522–523). Creon says that he suspects Ismene too, and sends for her (526–535).

Ismene comes weeping and claims a share in the deed: She says that she did it, if Antigone agrees, and wants to die with her sister (536–560). Antigone rejects her, since she did not help, and tells her to live (536–560). Creon says that one of the girls has just shown her folly, and that the other has shown hers since birth (561–562). Ismene asks whether he will really kill his son’s bride, and he answers that there are other fields for him to plough (568–571). He orders both women to be taken inside and kept under guard (574–581). In the second stasimon the Chorus sings of the house of Labdacus, where one generation does not free the next; the last root of the house of Oedipus, now Antigone and Ismene, is being cut down (582–625).

Third Episode

Haemon enters, and the Chorus wonders if he is angry about his bride (626–630). He begins by saying that he is his father’s son and will follow his guidance (635–638). Creon tells him not to give up his judgment for a woman, to spit her out like an enemy, and to remember that disobedience is the worst evil and destroys cities (639–680). Haemon answers carefully (683–723): he has heard in the dark how the city mourns the girl, who has done the most glorious act and has the least deserved to die (692–700). Creon should not think that only his own opinion is right; the tree that bends in a torrent survives, and the sailor who keeps his sheet tight capsizes (710–718). The Chorus says that each can learn from the other (724–726).

The quarrel then breaks out in short exchanges (726–765). Creon asks whether Thebes will tell him how to rule, and Haemon says that a city that belongs to one man is no city (733–737), and that he would be a fine king of a desert. Creon insults him as a woman’s slave. Haemon says that if Antigone dies she will destroy another with her death, and Creon takes this as a threat (751–753). Creon calls for the girl to be brought out so that she may die before her bridegroom, and Haemon replies that she will not die at his side and that Creon will never see his face again (760–765). Haemon goes out. The Chorus says that a young mind is fierce when it is hurt (766–767). Creon says that he will not kill the sister who did not help; Antigone will be shut alive in a rocky cave, with just enough food to avoid pollution of the city, and may pray to Hades, the only god she respects (768–780). The third stasimon follows: the Chorus sings of the power of Love, who drives even just men to injustice (781–800).

Fourth Episode

The Chorus says that it too cannot hold back tears when it sees Antigone being led to the chamber where all are laid to rest (Antigone 801–805). She sings her farewell (806–882): she is going to the shore of Acheron without a marriage hymn, and Hades will be her bridegroom (806–816). The Chorus tells her that she will go down to Hades with fame and praise, living, by her own law (817–822). She compares herself with Niobe, turned to stone on Sipylus (823–833); the Chorus says that Niobe was a goddess’s kin and that she is mortal (834–838). Antigone says that they mock her (839–851). The Chorus says that she has gone to the limit of daring and fallen against the throne of Justice, and is perhaps paying for her father’s crime (853–857). She answers with grief for the doom of her parents and her brother (858–871). The Chorus answers that reverence is a kind of piety, but that power cannot be offended by the one who holds it, and that her own self-willed temper has destroyed her (872–875).

Creon enters and tells the guards to hurry (883–890). Antigone goes to her tomb, her bridal chamber, hoping to be welcomed by her father, mother and brother, whom she washed and laid out with her own hands (891–902). She says that for a husband or a child she would not have defied the citizens, because another husband or child could come, but a brother could never be born again when the parents are in Hades (904–912). She asks what law of the gods she has broken (921). She calls on the lords of Thebes to look at the last daughter of their kings and see what she suffers, and from whom, for keeping to piety (937–943). In the fourth stasimon the Chorus tells of others who were shut in: Danae in her brazen chamber, the Edonian king, son of Dryas, imprisoned in rock for mocking Dionysus, and the daughter of Boreas, whose two sons were blinded by their father’s savage new wife (944–987).

Fifth Episode

The blind Teiresias enters, led by a boy (988–997). Creon says that he has always taken his advice. The prophet tells him that he stands on a razor’s edge, and describes how the birds screamed and tore each other, and how the burnt offering would not catch fire, which his guide saw for him (998–1032). The city is sick through Creon’s will, since the altars and hearths of Thebes are full of the flesh of the fallen son of Oedipus carried there by birds and dogs, so that the gods accept no sacrifice or prayer (1015–1022). Teiresias tells him to yield to the dead and not to wound a man who is down (1029–1030).

Creon answers that the prophets are all after money, and that he will not bury Polynices, not even if the eagles of Zeus should carry him off to the god’s own throne (1033–1047). The two trade insults (1048–1063). Teiresias then says that before many more days he will give a corpse in return for corpses, one sprung from his own loins, because he has put one who belongs above the earth into the grave and kept a corpse that belongs to the gods below, and the Furies are waiting for him (1064–1076). He also says that the cities of the Argive dead are angry and that wailing will soon be heard in his house (1077–1090). He leaves.

The Chorus tells Creon that the prophet has never been wrong (1091–1094). Creon says that his mind is troubled, since to yield is terrible but to resist is terrible too (1095–1097). The Chorus tells him to free the girl and bury the dead (1098–1101). He gives in, saying that one cannot fight against necessity, and that he fears it may be best to keep the established laws to the end of life (1102–1114). He goes with his servants to the tomb. The Chorus sings a hymn calling on Dionysus to come to Thebes, which is held by a violent plague, with purifying feet (1115–1154).

Exodos (Exit Song)

A messenger enters (1155–1171). He says that Creon, once blessed with power and children, is now only a breathing corpse. Haemon is dead by his own hand, in anger with his father for the murder (1172–1182). Eurydice comes out of the palace on her way to pray to Athena, and has overheard something. She asks him to repeat his news (1183–1191). The messenger tells it (1192–1243). He went with Creon to the plain, where they washed the body of Polynices, burned what was left on fresh boughs and raised a mound of his native earth. Then they went to the cave and heard a loud wailing. Creon sent his servants in, and they saw Antigone hanging by a noose of her fine linen, with Haemon embracing her round the waist (1221–1225). Creon went in and begged his son to come out. Haemon glared at him and spat in his face, drew his two-edged sword and missed, as his father rushed out; then, angry with himself, he fell on the sword and, still holding the girl, bled over her cheek (1226–1243).

Eurydice goes into the house without a word (1244–1256). The Chorus fears that so strict a silence means trouble, and the messenger follows her in. Creon then enters, carrying his son’s body (1257–1269): He cries out against the errors of his own stubborn mind, and says that Haemon has died not through his own folly but through Creon’s (1261–1269). A second messenger comes out of the palace and tells him that his wife is dead (1278–1292). By the altar she struck herself with a sharp sword, bewailed the earlier death of Megareus and then of Haemon, and called down evil on the man who had killed her sons (1301–1305). Creon asks that someone kill him (1306–1311). He blames himself: he, and no other mortal, is the one who killed them, and he asks to be led away as a man who is nothing (1317–1325). He prays for his last day to come, but the Chorus answers that men have no release from destined misfortune (1326–1338). The Chorus speaks the closing lines: wisdom is the chief part of happiness, one must not be impious towards the gods, and the great words of the proud are paid for with great blows, which in old age teach wisdom (1347–1353).

A Brief Analysis

Antigone sets two claims against each other, and the play gives each of them its say before it shows the consequences.

Creon, the Just Ruler

Creon opens with an argument that sounds sensible: the city is the ship that carries everyone, and a man who values a friend above his country is worth nothing (Antigone 182–190). The Chorus does not object (211–214), and in the first half of the play only Antigone and Haemon do. Haemon says that the people of Thebes deny that Antigone deserves to die (692–700, 733). The Chorus never says that Antigone is right: it tells her that her self-will has destroyed her (875), and it urges Creon to yield only after Teiresias has described the pollution of the city by the unburied body (1091–1101).

The prophet’s speech is about what Creon has done to both the living and the dead: he has sent a living person to the tomb and kept a dead body above ground (1068–1073). Creon’s fault, as the play puts it, is that he will not bend, as Haemon had warned in the image of the tree in the torrent (710–718). The closing words of the Chorus, about the great words of the proud and the wisdom that old age teaches, are spoken over Creon (1350–1353).

Creon vs. Antigone: The Perfect Conflict

The two positions are stated side by side. Creon says that whoever the city appoints must be obeyed in small things and in great, in what is just and in what is not (666–667). Antigone says that the unwritten laws of the gods are lasting and that no human edict can override them (450–455). She also gives a reason of her own: a husband or child could be replaced, but not a brother when both parents are dead (904–912). In the nineteenth century the philosopher Hegel read the play as a conflict between two rights, that of the state and that of the family; this is a modern interpretation, and the play does not use these terms. It does show that each position, held without limit, ends in loss: Creon refuses to hear Haemon or Teiresias, and Antigone, in the lament, finally asks what law of the gods she has broken and says that if the gods approve of what is happening, she will learn her guilt by suffering (921–928).

Antigone, the Martyr

Modern readers often see Antigone as a martyr and Creon as a tyrant. The text supports part of this: she knows she will die and counts it a gain (460–464), she says that the people agree with her but are silent out of fear of tyranny (504–507), and Haemon reports that the city calls her deed glorious (692–700). The text also shows her harshness to Ismene (536–560) and the Chorus’s remark that she is the fierce child of a fierce father (471–472). Creon’s own line, “no woman will rule me” (525), and his scorn of Haemon (740–746) show how far his rule is a matter of his own pride. What the play does not do is say which of them the audience should side with: Creon loses his son and wife, Antigone her life, and the final speech of the Chorus is about wisdom and arrogance in general.

Antigone Sources

The main source for this page is the play itself: Sophocles, Antigone 1–1353, read in the Greek text (Perseus Digital Library). Other ancient sources used are the ancient hypothesis to the play (the generalship at Samos and the play’s number), Strabo 14.1.18 and Thucydides 1.115–117 (the Samian War).

See Also: Sophocles, Antigone, Seven Against Thebes, Creon