After Oedipus Rex, Antigone is the most well-known play to have survived from Sophocles. One of the best instances of Greek tragedy is Antigone, which was written over 2,400 years ago. The play, which examines its primary moral dilemma through its two major characters, Antigone and Creon, is still relevant today. The action or plot of Antigone is based on the incidents of the Oedipus myth, which Sophocles later recounted in Oedipus Rex and Oedipus at Colonus.

Oedipus accidentally killed his father Laius and wed his mother Jocasta, according to the backstory. Together, he and Jocasta had four kids. They had two daughters, Antigone and Ismene, as well as two boys, Eteocles and Polyneices. Jocasta hanged herself and Oedipus committed suicide after realising they were mother and son. Oedipus then went blind and was banished from Thebes, the city he had co-ruled with Jocasta.

Because of their disagreement over who should rule Thebes, Eteocles and Polyneices went to battle and killed one another. As his brother led an army against the city, Eteocles stood in defence of it. Since there were no more male members of Oedipus’ bloodline, Creon, Jocasta’s brother, assumed control of Thebes. Eteocles was in charge of Thebes when Polyneices killed him, so Creon ruled that he should be buried with full honours while Polyneices should not be buried at all. In terms of Greek religion, this was like to burying someone outside of a churchyard because it meant their spirit would not be permitted to enter the afterlife. The setting for Antigone is as follows.

When Antigone learns that Creon has decided not to bury her brother, Polyneices, in holy ground, the play’s actual action begins. Antigone makes the decision to retrieve and bury her deceased brother’s remains herself. She is taken prisoner, however, as she is performing a ceremony over her brother’s body. Antigone challenges Creon when she is brought before him, claiming that he has overstepped his authority as the city’s ruler and is undermining moral principles by attempting to decide Polyneices’ ultimate fate. In fact, she contends that doing so would be blasphemous against the gods themselves. Creon imprisons Antigone in a cave with just enough food to keep her alive, but enough to gradually weaken her until she eventually starves to death as a punishment for her resistance. But, Antigone has Haemon, her fiancé, who also happens to be Creon’s son, as a crucial ally. Yeah, Creon has sentenced his own future in-law daughter to a terrible end! Creon, however, disregards his son’s plea and goes ahead with the execution. Haemon storms off, promising to never see his father again.

At this time, Creon is cautioned by Tiresias the seer that he is acting against the will of the gods. Tiresias was the one who had revealed to him in Oedipus Rex the true fate of Oedipus, Antigone’s own father. Symbolically, Thebes as a whole is filled with the stink of Polyneices’ unburied corpse that is festering. Tiresias warns Creon, but like all tyrants, Creon ignores him and attempts to discredit him by claiming that the seer works for Creon’s opponents. Privately, though, Creon is troubled by Tiresias’ remarks and is aware that the prophet is telling the truth. He decides to release Antigone and bury Polyneices’ body. Nevertheless, his change of heart is too little, too late: Antigone has hanged herself (as did her mother before her), and Haemon, Creon’s own son and the man who loved Antigone, has committed suicide over her corpse. As if this tragedy wasn’t tragic enough, Eurydice, Creon’s wife, commits herself after learning of her son’s passing. Creon is left standing over his son and wife’s bodies at the play’s conclusion.

Work cited :

A Summary and Analysis of Sophocles’ Antigone. (2021, March 16). A Summary and Analysis of Sophocles’ Antigone – Interesting Literature. https://interestingliterature.com/2021/03/sophocles-antigone-summary-analysis/