Antigone
Sophocles (-441)
“A young woman defies the state to bury her brother. The state's king breaks her. Both destroy each other — and the tragedy belongs equally to both.”
Short Summary
After the civil war that kills both sons of Oedipus, the new king Creon decrees that the rebel son Polynices must rot unburied. Antigone, the brothers' sister, defies the decree and covers the body. Creon sentences her to death. The prophet Tiresias warns that the gods are offended. Creon relents too late — Antigone has hanged herself, Creon's son Haemon (who loved Antigone) kills himself over her body, and Creon's wife Eurydice kills herself on learning of Haemon's death. Creon survives as a broken man who destroyed everything he ruled over.
Detailed Summary
The play opens outside the palace of Thebes immediately after the civil war in which Eteocles and Polynices — the two sons of Oedipus — have killed each other. Eteocles defended the city; Polynices attacked it. Creon, who has just assumed rule as the next senior male, has given Eteocles a hero's bur...