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    Antigone
    Antigone
    Antigone
    Ebook70 pages59 minutes

    Antigone

    By Sophocles

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    About this ebook

    The second story in the Oedipus Trilogy, "Antigone", examines the conflict between public duty and personal loyalty. Following the banishment of Oedipus, Eteocles and Polyneices kill each other over a dispute of succession to the thrown of Thebes. Creon, Antigone's uncle, succeeds to the thrown and declares that no one may bury Polyneices under penalty of death. Antigone, disregards this order and buries Polyneices and is willing to face the consequence for doing so. As a result, Creon must choose between what he believes to be his civic duty and his personal loyalty to his family.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDigireads.com Publishing
    Release dateJan 1, 2010
    ISBN9781420909036
    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.

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      Book preview

      Antigone - Sophocles

      ANTIGONE

      BY SOPHOCLES

      TRANSLATED BY E. H. PLUMPTRE

      A Digireads.com Book

      Digireads.com Publishing

      Print ISBN 13: 978-1-4209-2604-0

      Ebook ISBN 13: 978-1-4209-0903-6

      This edition copyright © 2011

      Please visit www.digireads.com

      CONTENTS

      INTRODUCTORY NOTE

      DRAMATIS PERSONÆ

      ANTIGONE

      INTRODUCTORY NOTE

      Sophocles, the most perfectly balanced among the three great masters of Greek tragedy, was born in Colonus, near Athens, about 495 B. C. His father was a man of wealth, and the poet received the best education of the time, being especially distinguished in music. He began his career as a dramatist at the age of twenty-seven, when he gained a victory over Æschylus; and from that time till his death in 405 B. C. he retained the foremost place as a writer of tragedy. Like a true Greek, he played his part in public affairs, both in peace and in war, and served his country as a diplomat and as a general. He was profoundly admired by his contemporaries for character as well as genius, and after his death was honored as a hero with annual sacrifices. His son, Iophon, and his grandson, Sophocles, both gained distinction as tragic poets.

      Besides lyrics, elegies, and epigrams, Sophocles is said to have composed upward of one hundred and twenty plays, one hundred of which are known by name, but only seven have come down to us entire. These are the Trachiniæ, dealing with the death of Heracles; Ajax, Philoctetes, Electra, Oedipus Rex, Oedipus at Colonus, and Antigone.

      The development of tragedy by Æschylus was continued by Sophocles, who introduced a third actor and, later, a fourth; reduced still further the importance of the chorus, and elaborated the costumes of the players. He did not, like Æschylus, write trilogies which carried one story through three plays, but made each work complete in itself. The art of clear and full characterization was carried to a pitch of perfection by him, the figures in the plays of Æschylus being in comparison rather drawings in outline, while those of Euripides are frequently direct transcripts from real life, without the idealization given by Sophocles. With his restraint, his balance, his clearness of vision, his aptness in the fitting of means to ends, and the beauty of his style, he stands as the most perfect example in literature of the characteristic excellences of the Greek artist. In the two dramas here given will be found illustrations of these qualities at their highest.

      DRAMATIS PERSONÆ

      Creon, King of Thebes

      Hæmon, son of Creon

      Teiresias, a seer

      Guard

      First Messenger

      Second Messenger

      Eurydice, wife of Creon

      Antigone, daughter of Oedipus

      Ismene, daughter of Oedipus

      Chorus of Theban Elders

      ANTIGONE

      SCENE—Thebes, in front of the Palace.

      [Enter ANTIGONE and ISMENE]

      ANTIGONE.

      Ismene, mine own sister, dearest one;

      Is there, of all the ills of Oedipus,

      One left that Zeus will fail to bring on us,

      While still we live? for nothing is there sad

      Or full of woe, or base, or fraught with shame,

      But I have seen it in thy woes and mine.

      And now, what new decree is this they tell,

      Our ruler has enjoined on all the state?

      Know'st thou? hast heard? or is it hid from thee,

      The doom of foes that comes upon thy friends?

      ISM.

      No tidings of our friends, Antigone,

      Painful or pleasant since that hour have come

      When we, two sisters, lost our brothers twain,

      In one day dying by each other's hand.

      And since in this last night the Argive host

      Has left the field, I nothing further know,

      Nor brightening fortune, nor increasing gloom.

      ANTIG.

      That knew I well, and therefore sent for thee

      Beyond the gates, that thou mayst hear

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