Plot summary of sophocles antigone

Creon discovers that someone has attempted to offer a ritual burial to Polynices and demands that the guilty one be found and brought before him.

After Creon condemns himself, the leader of the chorus closes by saying that although the gods punish the proud, punishment brings wisdom. Historical context[ edit ] Antigone was written at a time of national fervor. You would all have been so happy except for Antigone.

Antigone refuses and bids Ismene to go back to bed. Natural law and contemporary legal institutions[ edit ] In Antigone, Sophocles asks the question, which law is greater: All of Greece will despise Creon, and the sacrificial offerings of Thebes will not be accepted by the gods.

Creon expresses his desire to die soon. Creon orders that the two women be temporarily imprisoned. The chorus delivers a choral ode to the god Dionysus god of wine and of the theater; this part is the offering to their patron god. After unsuccessfully attempting to stab Creon, Haemon stabbed himself.

Creonthe new ruler of Thebes and brother of the former Queen Jocasta, has decided that Eteocles will be honored and Polyneices will be in public shame. Tiresias warns Creon that Polyneices should now be urgently buried because the gods are displeased, refusing to accept any sacrifices or prayers from Thebes.

Creon returns, overcome with grief, carrying the body of his son. When talking to Haemon, Creon demands of him not only obedience as a citizen, but also as a son.

Ismene tries to confess falsely to the crime, wishing to die alongside her sister, but Antigone will not have it. The gods are portrayed as chthonicas near the beginning there is a reference to "Justice who dwells with the gods beneath the earth.

Sophocles votes for the law of the gods. Creonfurious at this wilful disobedience, questions Antigone over her actions, but she does not deny what she has done and argues unflinchingly with Creon about the morality of his edict and the morality of her deeds.

When Creon arrived, Haemon lunged at him with his sword, then used the weapon to kill himself. In Antigone, the gods punish Creon for enacting unjust laws. She asks how she is to be executed. The citizens of Thebes are sympathetic to Antigone's desire to bury her brother, but are too afraid of Creon to speak up.

The First proposes that they throw a party. Athenians, proud of their democratic tradition, would have identified his error in the many lines of dialogue which emphasize that the people of Thebes believe he is wrong, but have no voice to tell him so.

Creonthe new ruler of Thebes, has declared that Eteocles is to be honoured and Polynices is to be disgraced by leaving his body unburied on the battlefield a harsh and shameful punishment at the time. Tiresias responds that because of Creon's mistakes, he will lose "a son of [his] own loins" [2] for the crimes of leaving Polyneices unburied and putting Antigone into the earth he does not say that Antigone should not be condemned to death, only that it is improper to keep a living body underneath the earth.

Their fate wills them to destruction. Suddenly Ismene enters, also asking where Antigone has been. More than one commentator has suggested that it was the gods, not Antigone, who performed the first burial, citing both the guard's description of the scene and the chorus's observation.

Antigone argues with her. She is of the tribe that asks questions and hates man's hope. A brave and proud young woman named Antigone is the product of a really messed up family. Her father, Oedipus, was the King of Thebes.

He unknowingly murdered his father and married his own mother, Queen Jocasta. With his wife/mother, Oedipus had two daughter/sisters and two brother/sons. When. Antigone is a tragedy written by Sophocles in the year BCE and is a play about the aftermath of a civil war in which the two sons of Oedipus, Eteocles and Polyneices, kill each other, where.

Then, he spent his remaining years wandering through Greece, being led by his loyal daughter Antigone. After Oedipus died, his two sons (Eteocles and Polynices) battled for control of the kingdom.

Eteocles fought to defend Thebes. This summary of Antigone includes a look at the plot, an analysis of each scene, and major conflicts.

Review the play here after reading to better understand the drama. Antigone picks up in the same (uber-dismal) place that Oedipus at Colonus leaves off. Oedipus has just passed away in Colonus, and Antigone and her sister decide to return to Thebes with the intention of helping their brothers, Eteocles and Polyneices, avoid a prophecy that predicts they will kill each other in a battle for the throne of Thebes.

Play Summary Antigone Bookmark this page Manage My Reading List Polynices and his brother Eteocles, however, are both dead, killed by each other, according to the curse of Oedipus, their father.

Plot summary of sophocles antigone