Antigone (The Greek tragedy in new translations)

ISBN: 0192125710

Author: Oxford University Press, USA

Drama by Sophocles, possibly performed in 442 or 441 BC. It examines the conflicting obligations of civic duties versus personal loyalties and religious mores. Antigone concerns that part of the Oedipus story that occurs after Eteocles and Polyneices have killed each other over the succession to the throne of Thebes. Antigone's uncle Creon succeeds to the throne and decrees that anyone who buries the dishonored Polyneices will face capital punishment. Antigone, however, obeys her instincts of love and loyalty and defies the orders of her uncle, willing to face the consequences of her act of humanity. Believing that civic duty outweighs family ties, Creon refuses to commute Antigone's death sentence. By the time he is finally persuaded to free Antigone, she has killed herself. The discovery of her body prompts Creon's son, Haemon, to kill himself out of love and sympathy for the dead Antigone, and Creon's wife, Eurydice, then kills herself out of grief over these tragic events. At the play's end Creon is left desolate and broken. --