Antigone

Author: Sophocles

notes

• Ode to Man
• thematic similarities
• representations of gender
• Antigone gives Polynices a ritual burial
  • Divine vs. human law
  • Uncompromising nature

Sophocles

• 497 – 406 BCE
• second of three greats
• seven surviving tragedies
  • 3 Theban
    • Oedipus the King
    • Antigone
    • Oedipus at Colonus
• HE OLD
  • Athens
  • war

Antigone

• Oedipus
  • king of Thebes
  • defeats Sphinx
• invasion of city of Thebes occurs the day before
  • Oedipus’ children
    • both die
      • Creon takes over
      • Eteocles: king
      • Polynices: invaded
• daughters
  • Antigone
  • Ismene

Ode to Man

• ingenuity and contradiction of human beings
• literary statement, timeless
• Antigone gives Polynices a ritual burial
  • divine vs. human law
  • uncompromising
• Haemon engaged to Antigone
  • argues w/ Creon
• playing out different gender anxieties
  • patriarchal
• the Messenger speech
  • violence never on stage
  • Antigone hangs herself
    • Haemon tries to save her

contemporary context

• popular to translate and adapt
  • contemporary situations and concerns