Sophocles 'Antigone': Summary

Being the third, yet first written, of Sophocles’ Theban tragic myths, Antigone was written in or around 441 B.C. The setting of Antigone occurs in the palace of Thebes. Thebes is ruled by Creon, whose sister, Jocasta, was the wife and mother of infamous Oedipus Rex. Oedipus was King of Thebes until he expelled himself from the kingdom, leaving his children Polynices, Ismene, Eteocles, and Antigone, along with the throne, in Creon’s care.
The two brothers Polynices and Eteocles die as opposing fighters in a war for the throne. Creon declares that since Polynices brought about the war, he will not have the honorable and traditional burial that his brother has been granted. Rather, his body and remains will be left for the vultures and wild
Antigone expresses her desire to Ismene, who declines Antigone’s request in help; she carries out the respectable ceremony by herself. Back at the palace in Thebes, Creon is notified by a guard that Polynices body has been buried. Creon demands that the lawbreaker be brought to him and punished. Not too long after Creon’s order, Antigone is brought to the palace with the guard, having been found weeping at Polynices’ grave. Antigone proudly takes responsibility in having carried out her brothers’ burial. Antigone is to be punished for her crime. Haemon, Creon’s son and Antigone’s fiancé, tries to persuade Creon into reconsidering Antigone’s fate. Instead Haemon ends up angering Creon and losing his trust; Antigone will still be punished. Haemon vows that he will never see his father again. After Antigone is lead away to be imprisoned in a cave, a blind and wise prophet named Teiresias visits Creon and warns him of his possible fate. Because of his unjustness, Creon will lose one child for leaving Polynices’ body unburied, and for wrongly imprisoning Antigone. This prophecy comes to pass when Haemon commits suicide after finding Antigone hanging by a noose in the cave. Along with this, Creon’s wife also kills
Antigone refuses to obey Creon’s law, even while knowing the consequences. She stood firm and atoned for her actions because they were what she believed in. Though it’s arguable if she was wrong or not, she accepted the consequences in full. When being trialed by Creon, Antigone states this:
“And what law of heaven have I transgressed? Why, hapless one, should I look to the gods any more, - what ally should I invoke, - when by pity I have earned the name of impious? Nay, then, if these things are pleasing to the gods, when I have suffered my doom, I shall come to know my sin; but if the sin is with my judges, I could wish them no fuller measure of evil than they, on their part, made wrongfully to