Antigone

Name: Antigone
Author: Sophocles

Sophocles, translated by Francis Storr

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Argument

Antigone, daughter of Oedipus, the late king of Thebes, in defiance of Creon who rules in his stead, resolves to bury her brother Polyneices, slain in his attack on Thebes. She is caught in the act by Creon’s watchmen and brought before the king. She justifies her action, asserting that she was bound to obey the eternal laws of right and wrong in spite of any human ordinance. Creon, unrelenting, condemns her to be immured in a rock-hewn chamber. His son Haemon, to whom Antigone is betrothed, pleads in vain for her life and threatens to die with her. Warned by the seer Teiresias Creon repents him and hurries to release Antigone from her rocky prison. But he is too late: he finds lying side by side Antigone who had hanged herself and Haemon who also has perished by his own hand. Returning to the palace he sees within the dead body of his queen who on learning of her son’s death has stabbed herself to the heart.

Dramatis Personae

Antigone and Ismene, daughters of Oedipus and sisters of Polyneices and Eteocles
Creon, King of Thebes
Haemon, son of Creon, betrothed to Antigone
Eurydice, wife of Creon
Teiresias, the prophet
Chorus, of Theban elders
A watchman
A messenger
A second messenger

Antigone and Ismene before the Palace gates.

restoring your place…

fetching the rest…

More by Sophocles

Ajax
You'd think a play about a shamed warrior ends with the sword, but Sophocles spends the whole back half arguing over what the living owe the dead, and it's Odysseus, his rival, who shows the mercy. Short, stark, and it lingers longer than you'd expect.
Electra
Fair warning, this is grief held at a scream for most of its length, Electra pacing outside the palace refusing to let her father's murder go quiet. But when she cradles the urn she believes holds her brother's ashes, the scene wrecks you every time.
Oedipus Rex
You watch Oedipus investigate the plague-stricken Thebes with fierce intelligence and a stubborn faith in truth, even as every answer makes his position more precarious. The play is spare, formal, and emotionally severe, but its pressure builds with remarkable clarity, leaving you thinking about knowledge, responsibility, and what you can bear to learn.

Argument

Dramatis Personae

Antigone and Ismene, daughters of Oedipus and sisters of Polyneices and Eteocles

Creon, King of Thebes

Haemon, son of Creon, betrothed to Antigone

Eurydice, wife of Creon

Teiresias, the prophet

Chorus, of Theban elders

A watchman

A messenger

A second messenger

More by Sophocles

Ajax

You'd think a play about a shamed warrior ends with the sword, but Sophocles spends the whole back half arguing over what the living owe the dead, and it's Odysseus, his rival, who shows the mercy. Short, stark, and it lingers longer than you'd expect.

Electra

Fair warning, this is grief held at a scream for most of its length, Electra pacing outside the palace refusing to let her father's murder go quiet. But when she cradles the urn she believes holds her brother's ashes, the scene wrecks you every time.

Oedipus Rex

You watch Oedipus investigate the plague-stricken Thebes with fierce intelligence and a stubborn faith in truth, even as every answer makes his position more precarious. The play is spare, formal, and emotionally severe, but its pressure builds with remarkable clarity, leaving you thinking about knowledge, responsibility, and what you can bear to learn.