Antigone (Greek: Ἀντιγόνη) is a tragedy written before or in 442 BC[1] by Sophocles. It is chronologically the third
of the three Theban plays but was written first.
Plot
After Oedipus is self-prosecuted, he leaves the throne of Thebes to his two sons, Eteocles and Polyneices, who must take it in turns to rule. Eteocles rules first but the two become enemies after Eteocles
refuses to give up the throne, and Polyneices is exiled. He returns, to attack in the Seven Against Thebes campaign. At the beginning of the play, both brothers are dead, each
apparently slain by the other's hand. The current ruler, their uncle and great uncle, Creon, has
made a decree: Since Polyneices fought against Thebes and betrayed his motherland, he shall be left unburied, without the proper
burial rites. Meanwhile, Eteocles is to be buried with full military honors.
Antigone, a daughter of Oedipus and the sister of the dead brothers, believes this
proclamation to be against the will of the gods (which she describes as "...the unwritten and unfailing statutes of heaven. For
their life is not of today or yesterday, but from all time, and no man knows when they were first put forth.") She confides her
plan to bury Polyneices herself to her sister Ismene, but Ismene, being more timid, refuses to
take part. Ismene admits to her fear, but agrees with Antigone's motive.
When Creon is informed that someone is trying to bury Polyneices, he orders the body to be uncovered. Antigone is caught
returning to her brother's body and brought before the furious king. She proudly accepts her death as she sees no wrong in
honouring her "...unwept, unburied" brother. Ismene claims that she also took part in the crime, however Antigone tells her to
stay out of the matter since she chose to have no part in the actions.
Antigone's cousin and fiancé, Haemon (also Creon's son),
arrives talking about how the whole city thinks Antigone did the right thing. Although he claims to be 'neutral' on the matter
himself, he tells his father that he is on the side of the state. Creon responds by accusing Haemon of selling out to a woman.
Finally, Haemon states that Antigone's death will cause another. When Creon scoffs at the seeming threat on his own life, his son
tells him it is not Creon who will die. Enraged, Creon decides to let Antigone starve to death in a sealed cave. The chorus
persuades him to let Ismene go, as she is innocent.
The blind prophet Tiresias then tells Creon that his actions are not right. Creon sneers,
mocking Tiresias with how prophets have always loved gold. Tiresias tells him that soon he will pay "corpse for corpse, and flesh
for flesh", and his actions are causing a miasma (pollution). Faced with this
terrible prophecy, Creon is torn but comes to the conclusion that Polyneices must be buried and Antigone must not be killed.
He finds that his anagnorisis (discovery) has come too late. Antigone has already
committed suicide in the cave, hanging herself as her mother Jocasta did (in Oedipus the King). Haemon makes his way to save Antigone, but finds only her dead body in the cave.
Creon also makes his way to Antigone but is confronted by the sight of Haemon leaning over Antigone's body. Haemon threatens
Creon, before stabbing himself and taking his own life. Creon's wife, Eurydice, also
kills herself in grief over the death of her son.
Creon, having lost his family, lets himself be taken away. His hamartia (tragic mistake or
flaw) has come back with a vengeance, taking from him all that he loved.
Dramatic significance and interpretation
The play is notable for being one of the few to show the inside of the palace. Usually in Greek tragedy all action takes place
outside of the house or palace depicted on the skene (the backdrop of the stage); deaths take place "inside," unseen by
the audience. In this play, however, the skene is opened to show Creon finding the body of
Eurydice.
The character of the sentry is also unusual, as he speaks like a lower-class person, in more natural language, rather than the
stylized poetry of the other characters. He has been compared with similar characters in the works of Shakespeare.
One important issue in the play is the clash of values between Creon and Antigone. Creon advocates obedience to man-made laws
while Antigone stresses the higher laws of duty to the gods and one's family. The play is thus one of the most commonly cited
supports in Greek tragedy for the supremacy of Natural Law. Creon, the dramatic hero,
realizes only after he loses the lives of all his family that he was mistaken to place the law of the state above the law of the
gods.
Another critical theme in the play is feminism. Antigone is one of the few Greek plays in which a female character
plays an important role and yet acts of her own volition (as opposed to being controlled by some deity, as is the case with
Phaedra of Euripedes' Hyppolytus). As
mentioned before, Antigone represents the belief in upholding morality and natural law, but it is important to note that the
moral act she insists on performing for her brother (his proper burial) is one that was traditionally done by women. [2] Antigone thus not only represents feminist ideals by being a
woman who rebels, but she is also rebelling on account of her right to perform the womanly duty of burying the dead.
Translations
- Edward H. Plumptre, 1865 - verse: full text
- Sir George Young, 1888 - verse
- G. H. Palmer, 1899 - verse
- Richard C. Jebb, 1904 - prose: full text
- F. Storr, 1912 - verse: full text
- Shaemas O'Sheel, 1931 - prose
- Dudley Fitts and Robert Fitzgerald, 1938 -
verse
- Jean Anouilh, 1946 (modern French translation)
- E.F. Watling, 1947 - verse (Penguin classics)
- Theodore Howard Banks, 1950 - verse
- Elizabeth Wyckoff, 1954 - verse
- Paul Roche, 1958 - verse
- H. D. F. Kitto, 1962 - verse
- Michael Townsend, 1962mgv
- Richard Emil Braun, 1973 - verse
- Robert Fagles, 1982 - verse
- Marianne MacDonald, 2001
- Ian Johnston, 2005 - verse (modern english): full text
- Reginald Gibbons and Charles Segal, 2003 - verse
- Seamus Heaney, 2004 The Burial at
Thebes - verse
- George Theodoridis, 2006 - prose: full text
- David Grene, 1991 - verse
Secondary literature
- Heidegger, Martin, An Introduction to Metaphysics, trans. Gregory Fried
& Richard Polt (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000).
- Heidegger, Martin, Hölderlin's Hymn "The Ister",
trans. William McNeill & Julia Davis (Bloomington & Indianapolis:
Indiana University Press, 1992).
- Lacan, Jacques, The Seminar of Jacques Lacan, Book VII: The Ethics of
Psychoanalysis, trans. Dennis Porter (New York & London: W. W. Norton, 1992).
- Segal, Charles, Tragedy and Civilization: An Interpretation of Sophocles (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1999,
new edition).
- Steiner, George, Antigones (New Haven & London: Yale University Press,
1984).
Notes
- ^ Sophocles. Three Theban Plays. Trans. Robert Fagles. New York: Penguin
Books, 1986, p. 35
- ^ http://www.metmuseum.org/TOAH/hd/dbag/hd_dbag.htm
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