Antigone

Premiered originally in Ancient Greek in c. 441 BCE Athens ‘Antigone’ is the first Theban play written by Sophocles yet chronologically last in the cycle is a masterpiece of classical antiquity which examines the conflict between public duty and personal loyalty. Following the banishment of Oedipus his two sons Eteocles and Polyneices died leading opposite sides in Thebes’s civil war fighting each other for the throne. In ancient Greece the refusal of burial rites was one of the most disrespectful acts that could have been shown to a person and their family. Antigone finds herself compelled by familial duty and disregards Creon’s edict by scattering dirt across Polyneices’s corpse. Creon whose son Haemon is engaged to Antigone finds himself torn between personal loyalty to his family and civic duty to punish Antigone for this crime. One of the greatest dramas from classical antiquity it established Sophocles as one of the most renowned dramatists of his era.