Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Antigone
    Antigone
    Antigone
    Ebook44 pages43 minutes

    Antigone

    By Sophocles

    ()

    Switch to audiobook
    Read preview

    About this ebook

    In his long life, Sophocles (born ca. 496 B.C., died after 413) wrote more than one hundred plays. Of these, seven complete tragedies remain, among them the famed Oedipus Rex and Oedipus at Colonus. In Antigone, he reveals the fate that befalls the children of Oedipus. With its passionate speeches and sensitive probing of moral and philosophical issues, this powerful drama enthralled its first Athenian audiences and won great honors for Sophocles.

    The setting of the play is Thebes. Polynices, son of Oedipus, has led a rebellious army against his brother, Eteocles, ruler of Thebes. Both have died in single combat. When Creon, their uncle, assumes rule, he commands that the body of the rebel Polynices be left unburied and unmourned, and warns that anyone who tampers with his decree will be put to death.

    Antigone, sister of Polynices, defies Creon's order and buries her brother, claiming that she honors first the laws of the gods. Enraged, Creon condemns her to be sealed in a cave and left to die. How the gods take their revenge on Creon provides the gripping denouement to this compelling tragedy, which remains today one of the most frequently performed of classical Greek dramas.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherYoucanprint
    Release dateJun 27, 2017
    ISBN9788892672901
    Author

    Sophocles

    Sophocles is one of three ancient Greek tragedians whose plays have survived. His first plays were written later than or contemporary with those of Aeschylus, and earlier than or contemporary with those of Euripides.

    Read more from Sophocles

    Related to Antigone

    Related ebooks

    Classics For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      On Grief

      Jul 29, 2019

      On Grief
      5 min read

    • Article

      Two Poems

      Jun 14, 2022

      Our Father,big chief in heaven,I sent my assistant Calixtoto make an appointmentwith Her Highness, la licenciada,who has left for lunch before noon,gone for the day, was fired, or fled,who can tell; the third directorat this post in fifteen months. D

      1 min read

    • Article

      Perfect Prose II

      May 15, 2020

      Perfect Prose II
      4 min read

    • Article

      The Epic Of Gilgamesh

      Jan 1, 2020

      My friends, who can reach heaven? The monster bellows like a river swollen with flood.Many are consumed in his fiery breath. My friends, who can reach heaven? Let us ask the mountain for a sign.Let us cut the spirits from the cedars. My friends, who

      3 min read

    • Article

      The Odyssey and the Other

      Nov 14, 2017

      The Odyssey and the Other
      6 min read

    • Article

      Meet Your New Favorite Poet

      Feb 20, 2019

      Meet Your New Favorite Poet
      6 min read

    • Article

      Psalm 139

      May 13, 2022

      Are you content to engage in that most vile sin of this age—privileged disengagement—because the unprovoked atrocities being committed in Ukraine by Russians are too much to deal with? Then we are on different teams. The post Psalm 139 appeared first

      7 min read

    • Article

      The Season Of Lamentation

      Mar 23, 2022

      EVERY month for the past six months, my friend Guy and I have been taking a band of pilgrims through the streets of London, starting from All Hallows by the Tower to end with Evensong at Westminster Abbey. Guy sings and I talk about Trojan kings and

      2 min read

    • Article

      A Letter To The Allies

      Aug 12, 2020

      A Letter To The Allies
      4 min read

    • Article

      The Island (catullus 64)

      Mar 1, 2022

      Back then the evergreens tumbled downriverfrom the glaze-white runoff to the boot-stirred puddlesof amber young men who fulfilled our destiny,who clambered into ships, on horses, and in wagonspainting the newfound landscapes ours.Our calling was nobl

      9 min read

    • Article

      Tessa Castro

      Jul 26, 2023

      IN COMPETITION No 295 you were invited to write a poem called Roots. Cherry MacGregor started off in medias res: ‘Has the vine died? My husband had asked,/ As we enjoyed lunch in the garden.’ Another excellent opening came from DM Davis: ‘Roots, oh m

      2 min read

    • Article

      Rough And Tumble

      Dec 14, 2021

      Rough And Tumble
      7 min read

    • Article

      ALTERNATE MYTHOLOGIES OF RAGE & EXILE, IN FRAGMENTS

      Jul 1, 2019

      The video game Assassin’s Creed: Origins follows an ancient Egyptian assassin named Bayak, and his wife Aya, who work to protect the people under Ptolemy XIII’s rule. Their son was martyred by the Ptolemic police state, and so the game follows Bayak

      3 min read

    • Article

      Conquering Hell

      Nov 11, 2021

      Heaven and Hell have always been located in the human mind, along with God and the Devil, but the mind is a vast country, full of strange dreams and unaccounted things. The post Conquering Hell appeared first on The Millions.

      17 min read

    • Article

      The Old Man and Death

      Jul 29, 2019

      The Old Man and Death
      1 min read

    • Article

      The Devil’s Dictionary

      Jul 6, 2021

      Select entries from Ambrose Bierce’s lexicon of cynicism, bitterness, and humor, produced over a 30-year period beginning in 1881. APOLOGIZE, v.i. To lay the foundation for a future offence. BARD, n. A person who makes rhymes. The word is one of the

      4 min read

    • Article

      Bard In The Woods

      Nov 30, 2020

      Bard In The Woods
      4 min read

    • Article

      Fredericksburg’s Wounded Warriors

      Jul 11, 2023

      Fredericksburg’s Wounded Warriors
      6 min read

    • Article

      Rim Of A Mirror

      Apr 6, 2021

      Rim Of A Mirror
      3 min read

    • Article

      In Gaza, The Last Game Of Tarneeb

      Apr 5, 2024

      Innocent laughter turned to horror as a deafening explosion replaced the sounds of a card game, forever intertwining the game with the horrors of war and death in Gaza.

      4 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Antigone

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Antigone - Sophocles

      Dramatis Personae

      Antigone

      Daughters of Oedipus:

      ANTIGONE

      ISMENE

      CREON, King of Thebes

      EURYDICE, his wife

      HAEMON, his son

      TEIRESIAS, the blind prophet

      GUARD, set to watch the corpse of Polyneices

      FIRST MESSENGER

      SECOND MESSENGER, from the house

      CHORUS OF THEBAN ELDERS

      Antigone

      By

      Sophocles

      TRANSLATED BY R. C. JEBB

      ORIGINALLY WRITTEN 442 B.C.E

      © David De Angelis 2017 – all rights reserved

      SCENE:

      The same as in Oedipus the King, an open space before the royal palace, once that of Oedipus, at Thebes. The backscene represents the front of the palace, with three doors, of which the central and largest is the principal entrance into the house. The time is at daybreak on the morning after the fall of the two brothers, Eteocles and Polyneices, and the flight of the defeated Argives. ANTIGONE calls ISMENE forth from the palace, in order to speak to her alone.

      ANTIGONE: Ismene, sister, mine own dear sister, knowest thou what ill there is, of all bequeathed by Oedipus, that Zeus fulfils not for us twain while we live? Nothing painful is there, nothing fraught with ruin, no shame, no dishonour, that I have not seen in thy woes and mine. 

      And now what new edict is this of which they tell, that our Captain hath just published to all Thebes? Knowest thou aught? Hast thou heard? Or is it hidden from thee that our friends are threatened with the doom of our foes? 

      ISMENE: No word of friends, Antigone, gladsome or painful, hath come to me, since we two sisters were bereft of brothers twain, killed in one day by twofold blow; and since in this last night the Argive host hath fled, know no more, whether my fortune be brighter, or more grievous. 

      ANTIGONE: I knew it well, and therefore sought to bring thee beyond the gates of the court, that thou mightest hear alone. 

      ISMENE: What is it? 'Tis plain that thou art brooding on some dark tidings. 

      ANTIGONE: What, hath not Creon destined our brothers, the one to honoured burial, the other to unburied shame? Eteocles, they say, with due observance of right and custom, he hath laid in the earth, for his honour among the dead below. But the hapless corpse of Polyneices-as rumour saith, it hath been published to the town that none shall entomb him or mourn, but leave unwept, unsepulchred, a welcome store for the birds, as they espy him, to feast on at will. 

      Such, 'tis said, is the edict that the good Creon hath set forth for thee and for me,-yes, for me,-and is coming hither to proclaim it clearly to those who know it not; nor counts the matter light, but, whoso disobeys in aught, his doom is death by stoning before all the folk. Thou knowest it now; and thou wilt soon show whether thou art nobly bred, or the base daughter of a noble line. 

      ISMENE: Poor sister,-and if things stand thus, what could I help to do or undo? 

      ANTIGONE: Consider if thou wilt share the toil and the deed.

      ISMENE: In what venture? What can be thy meaning? 

      ANTIGONE: Wilt thou aid this hand to lift the dead? 

      ISMENE: Thou wouldst bury him,-when 'tis forbidden to Thebes?

      ANTIGONE: I will do my part,-and thine, if thou wilt not,-to a brother. False to him will I never be found. 

      ISMENE: Ah, over-bold! when Creon hath forbidden? 

      ANTIGONE: Nay, he hath no right to keep me from mine own.

      ISMENE: Ah me! think, sister, how our

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1