Ismene refuses to help her, not believing that it will actually be possible to bury their brother, who is under guard, but she is unable to stop Antigone from going to bury her brother herself.Ĭreon enters, along with the Chorus of Theban Elders. In the opening of the play, Antigone brings Ismene outside the palace gates late at night for a secret meeting: Antigone wants to bury Polyneices' body, in defiance of Creon's edict. Antigone and Ismene are the sisters of the dead Polyneices and Eteocles. The rebel brother's body will not be sanctified by holy rites, and will lie unburied on the battlefield, prey for carrion animals like worms and vultures, the harshest punishment at the time. In the beginning of the play, two brothers leading opposite sides in Thebes' civil war died fighting each other for the throne.Ĭreon, the new ruler of Thebes, has decided that Eteocles will be honored and Polyneices will be in public shame. The play expands on the Theban legend that predated it and picks up where Aeschylus' Seven Against Thebes ends. It is the third of the three Theban plays chronologically, but was the first written. Antigone is a tragedy by Sophocles written in or before 441 BC.
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