Ἀντιγόνη
Antigone
Sophocles · Traditionally c. 441 BC, on a doubted anecdote
Creon forbids the burial of Polynices. His sister Antigone buries him anyway and is walled up alive, and Creon loses his son and his wife for it.
Persons, in order of appearance
- Αν.Antigone
- Ισ.Ismene
- Χο.Chorus
- Κρ.Creon
- Φυ.Guard
- Αι.Haemon
- Τε.Teiresias
- Αγ.Messenger
- Ευ.Eurydice
- Εξ.Second Messenger
Translations
- R. C. Jebbprose · 1883–1900 · aligned by line · with Jebb's Greek
- F. Storrverse · 1912 · aligned by speech · with Storr's Greek
- Jebb, rev. Habel, Nagy & Hour 25 Antigone team (Kosmos Society)prose · aligned by speech · with Dain & Mazon's Greek
- Ian Johnston (VIU)verse · aligned by speech · with Dain & Mazon's Greek
Greek texts
- Dain & Mazon, Sophocle, vol. 11955
- F. Storr, Sophocles, vol. 11912
- R. C. Jebb, Sophocles: The Plays and Fragments, part 3, The Antigone1891
Cite as Soph. Ant. 1–1353
Full synopsis (tells the ending)
Oedipus's sons have killed each other at the gates of Thebes. Creon, now king, gives Eteocles a soldier's funeral and orders that Polynices lie unburied. Antigone buries her brother anyway and is caught. Creon will not bend, not for his son Haemon, who is to marry her, and has her walled up alive. Tiresias frightens him into relenting, too late: Antigone has hanged herself, Haemon kills himself over her body, and Creon's wife Eurydice kills herself at the news.
Drawing: Line drawing after the Apulian red-figure amphora by the Darius Painter, c. 350-320 BCE, Berlin, Antikensammlung F 3240; traced from a photograph by ArchaiOptix (CC BY-SA 4.0), taken off the vase's curve, changed. This drawing is CC BY-SA 4.0.