Introduction

The story behind Antigone is well-known. Antigone’s father was Oedipus. When he was born, it was prophesied that he would kill his own father and marry his mother. To avoid this, his parents had him sent out to be killed. The servant tasked with this, however, could not kill him and left him on a hillside to die of natural causes. He was discovered and raised by a poor family, and then later he returned and unknowingly fulfilled the prophesy, becoming in the process the king of Thebes. When the truth of this became known to him, he blinded himself. This story is the subject of the first two plays by Sophocles in the Oedipus cycle, Oedipus the King and Oedipus at Colonus. Four children were born of that incestuous marriage–two boys, Eteocles and Polynices, and two girls, Antigone and Ismene. When we join the action here, Antigone’s two brothers, Eteocles and Polynices, have died at each other’s hands, Eteocles while defending Thebes and its new king Creon, Polynices in the forces attacking Thebes to remove Creon. Creon issues a decree that Polynices’ body cannot be buried or mourned. Both Antigone and Creon act in headstrong ways, and each rejects any suggestion that the other side may have some validity to its argument. The Greeks had a concept known as hubris. Hubris is overweaning or excessive pride. As you read the selections provided here, please consider the following questions:

Questions:

1. Is Antigone right to respect the established religious traditions and requirements and to ignore the edict of the government? If so, is Ismene wrong to demur and not participate in the ceremonies?

2. Conversely, is Creon right to assert that the social order will be threatened, if patriotic defender and traitorous attacker are treated equally? Is there not a divine sanction to uphold the common good?

3. Aside from the specific