Antigone

Also known as: ANT. / ANTIGONE · Family: Thebes · Role: daughter of Oedipus · First appears: Aeschylus, The Seven Who Fought Against Thebes — Scene 5

Antigone, daughter of Oedipus of Thebes, first appears with Ismene mourning their brothers Eteocles and Polynices. She then vows to bury Polynices despite the prohibition of the Cadmeian rulers: “Stern let them be, he shall not tombless lie.” In Sophocles’s account, Ismene refuses to help, so Antigone undertakes the burial alone, performs the funeral rites, and is caught. Before Creon, she admits the deed—“I deny nothing. I avow the deed.”—and defends it through the unwritten laws of Heaven.

Creon condemns her to death, declaring that she will not live to marry Haemon, her betrothed. Antigone rejects Ismene’s later attempt to share responsibility, is confined, and is sealed alive in a tomb before marriage or motherhood. Although Creon eventually orders her release and the burial of Polynices, Antigone dies by hanging inside the vault; Haemon then kills himself after finding her dead.

After a while, Antigone flees to join Oedipus and supports him in his wanderings, serving as the blind man’s guard. Creon later has her seized, but Theseus rescues her and Ismene, and Oedipus entrusts his daughters to Theseus’s protection. In another account, Jocasta summons Antigone to help prevent Eteocles and Polynices from killing one another; after Creon orders her to leave rather than marry Haemon, she chooses exile with Oedipus as his guide and resolves to cover Polynices secretly despite the denial of burial.