Cover of Antigone by Sophocles Ebook Antigone
Ebook · Sovereign

Antigone

Author
Sophocles
Series
Plays by Sophocles
Language
English
Length
68 pages
ISBN
9781910833964
Published
15 October 2015
Imprint
Sovereign
  • Antigone
  • Sophocles
  • Greek
  • tragedy
  • play
  • Greece
  • drama
  • mythology
  • history

Description

Two brothers leading opposite sides in Thebes' civil war died fighting each other for the throne. Creon, the new ruler of Thebes, has decided that Eteocles will be honored and Polyneices will be in public shame. 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. Antigone and Ismene are the sisters of the dead Polyneices and Eteocles.

Author

Sophocles (c. 496–406 BCE) made Greek tragedy feel inevitable. Oedipus hunts a crime and finds himself; Antigone buries a brother and breaks a state. Gods, chorus, and human stubbornness share the stage without anyone being merely a symbol. Sophocles wrote into old age, refining a form he had helped perfect: fewer actors, tighter action, a moral intelligence that never lectures. Read him for the shock of a story that knows more than its hero.