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{{Short description|Daughter of Oedipus in Greek mythology}}
{{About|the daughter of Oedipus}}
{{Distinguish|Antigona (disambiguation){{!}}Antigona}}

{{Infobox deity
| type = Greek
| image = Darius Painter - RVAp 18-23 - Antigone - judgement of Paris - Eros with youths and women - Berlin AS F 3240 - 04.jpg
| caption = Antigone tied on an Apulian red-figure amphora by the [[Darius Painter]], ca. 350-320 BC, Altes Museum
| siblings = [[Ismene]]<BR>[[Eteocles]]<BR>[[Polynices]]<BR>Oedipus
| name = Antigone
| abode = [[Thebes, Greece|Thebes]], [[Ancient Greece]]
| father = [[Oedipus]]
| mother = [[Jocasta]] or [[Euryganeia]]
| deity_of = Princess of Thebes
}}

In [[Greek mythology]], '''Antigone''' ({{IPAc-en|æ|n|ˈ|t|ɪ|ɡ|ə|n|i|audio=LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-Antigone.wav}} {{respell|ann|TIG|ə|nee}}; {{langx|grc|Ἀντιγόνη|Antigónē}}) was a [[Thebes, Greece|Theban]] princess and a character in several ancient [[Greek tragedy|Greek tragedies]]. She was the daughter of [[Oedipus]], king of Thebes; her mother/grandmother was either [[Jocasta]] or, in another variation of the myth, [[Euryganeia]]. She was the sister of [[Polynices]], [[Eteocles]], and [[Ismene]].<ref name=":1">Roman, L., & Roman, M. (2010). {{Google books|tOgWfjNIxoMC|Encyclopedia of Greek and Roman mythology.|page=66}}</ref>

Antigone appears in three 5th century BC [[Tragedy|tragic plays]] written by [[Sophocles]], known collectively as the three [[three Theban plays|Theban plays]], with her being the protagonist of the eponymous tragedy [[Antigone (Sophocles play)|''Antigone'']]. She makes a brief appearance at the end of [[Aeschylus]]' ''[[Seven Against Thebes (play)|Seven against Thebes]]'', and her story was also the subject of [[Euripides]]' now lost play of the [[Antigone (Euripides play)|same name]]. While Antigone may not have many appearances throughout Greek Myth, Sophocles' play has led to Antigone receiving a revered and long-lasting legacy.

== In Sophocles ==
The story of Antigone was addressed by the fifth-century BC Greek playwright [[Sophocles]] in his Theban plays:
=== ''Oedipus Rex'' ===
{{Main|Oedipus Rex}}
[[File:Kokular Oedipus and Antigone.jpg|thumb|246x246px|''Oedipus and Antigone'' by [[Aleksander Kokular]] (1825–1828), [[National Museum, Warsaw]].]]Antigone and her sister [[Ismene]] are seen at the end of ''[[Oedipus Rex]]'' as Oedipus laments the "shame" and "sorrow" he is leaving his daughters to. He then begs [[Creon of Thebes|Creon]] to watch over them, but in his grief reaches to take them with him as he is led away. Creon prevents him from taking the girls out of the city with him. Neither of them is named in the play.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=The Theban plays : Oedipus the king, Oedipus at Colonus, Antigone|last=Sophocles|date=2009|publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press|others=Fainlight, Ruth; Littman, Robert J. |isbn=978-0801895418|location=Baltimore|oclc=608624785}}</ref>

=== ''Oedipus at Colonus'' ===
{{Main|Oedipus at Colonus}}
Antigone serves as her father's guide in ''[[Oedipus at Colonus]]'', as she leads him into the city where the play takes place. Antigone resembles her father in her stubbornness and doomed existence.<ref name=":1" /> She stays with her father for most of the play, until she is taken away by Creon in an attempt to blackmail Oedipus into returning to Thebes. However, [[Theseus]] defends Oedipus and rescues both Antigone and her sister who was also taken prisoner.

At the end of the play, both Antigone and her sister mourn the death of their father. Theseus offers them the comfort of knowing that Oedipus has received a proper burial, but by his wishes, they cannot go to the site. Antigone then decides to return to Thebes.<ref name=":0" />

=== ''Antigone'' ===
{{Main|Antigone (Sophocles play)}}
[[File:Lytras nikiforos antigone polynices.jpeg|alt=|thumb|254x254px|''Antigone in Front of the Dead Polynices'' by [[Nikiforos Lytras]], [[National Gallery (Athens)|National Gallery]], Athens, Greece (1865)]]
In her eponymous play, Antigone attempts to secure a respectable burial for her brother [[Polynices]]. Oedipus's sons, [[Eteocles]] and Polynices, had shared rule jointly until they quarreled, and Eteocles expelled his brother. In Sophocles' account, the two brothers agreed to alternate rule each year, but Eteocles decided not to share power with his brother after his tenure expired. Polynices left the kingdom, gathered an army and attacked the city of Thebes in the war of the [[Seven against Thebes]]. Both brothers were killed in the battle.

King [[Creon of Thebes|Creon]], who has ascended to the throne of Thebes after the death of the brothers, decrees that Polynices is not to be buried or even mourned, on pain of death by stoning. Antigone, Polynices' sister, defies the king's order and is caught.

Antigone is brought before Creon, confessing her crime and foreknowledge of the king’s edict that Polynices neither be buried nor mourned, claiming the superiority of divine law to human law. Antigone’s self-defense in defiance of Creon is passionate, courageous and determined. Creon orders Antigone buried alive in a tomb. Although Creon finally has a change of heart—due to a visit from soothsayer [[Tiresias]]—and tries to release Antigone, he finds she has hanged herself. Creon's son [[Haemon]], who was engaged to Antigone, kills himself with a sword (after an unsuccessful attempt to kill Creon), and his mother Queen [[Eurydice of Thebes|Eurydice]] also kills herself in despair over her sons’ deaths (Haemon and Megareus), which she attributes to Creon’s misrule and misjudgement. By her death Antigone ends up destroying the household of her adversary, Creon.

== Other representations ==
[[File:247561 Oedipus, mural painting, Delos, 100 BC.jpg|thumb|260px|Antigone leads the blind Oedipus away on a mural from [[Delos]], 1st century BC.]]

In the oldest version of the story, the burial of Polynices takes place during Oedipus' reign in Thebes, before Oedipus marries his mother, Jocasta. However, in other versions such as [[Sophocles]]' [[Greek tragedy|tragedies]] ''[[Oedipus at Colonus]]'' and ''[[Antigone (Sophocles)|Antigone]]'', it occurs in the years after the banishment and death of Oedipus and Antigone's struggles against Creon.{{cn|date=April 2023}}

===''Seven Against Thebes''===

Antigone appears briefly in Aeschylus' ''[[Seven Against Thebes]].''{{cn|date=April 2023}} Antigone and Ismene mourn the deaths of their siblings and Antigone defies a herald's edict against the burial of Polynices.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hornblower, Spawforth, Eidinow |first=Eidinow, Simon, Anthony, Esther |title=The Oxford Classical Dictionary |date=2012 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=9780199545568 |edition=4th |location=United Kingdom}}</ref> 

=== Euripides's Lost Play ===
The dramatist [[Euripides]] also wrote a play called ''[[Antigone (Euripides)|Antigone]]'', which is lost, but some of the text was preserved by later writers and in passages in his ''[[Phoenissae]]''. In Euripides, the calamity is averted by the intercession of [[Dionysus]] and is followed by the marriage of Antigone and Hæmon.<ref name="EB1911">{{EB1911|inline=y|wstitle=Antigone|display=Antigone (1)|volume=2|page=125}}</ref> Antigone also plays a role in the Phoenissae.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Internet Classics Archive {{!}} The Phoenissae by Euripides |url=https://classics.mit.edu/Euripides/phoenissae.html |access-date=2025-12-08 |website=classics.mit.edu}}</ref>

=== Appearances Elsewhere ===

Different elements of the legend appear in other places. The 4th century tragedian [[Astydamas]] wrote a play about Antigone that is now lost. A description of an ancient painting by [[Philostratus III|Philostratus]] (''[[Imagines (work by Philostratus)|Imagines]]'' ii. 29) refers to Antigone placing the body of Polynices on the [[funeral pyre]], and this is also depicted on a [[sarcophagus]] in the [[Villa Doria Pamphili]] in [[Rome]]. And in [[Gaius Julius Hyginus|Hyginus's]] version of the legend, apparently founded on a tragedy by a follower of Euripides, Antigone, on being handed over by [[Creon of Thebes|Creon]] to her lover Hæmon to be slain, is secretly carried off by him and concealed in a shepherd's hut, where she bears him a son, [[Maeon]]. When the boy grows up, he attends some funeral games at Thebes, and is recognized by the mark of a dragon on his body, which only appears on dependents of the Spartoi, the first people of Thebes. This leads to the discovery that Antigone is still alive.<ref name="EB1911"/> The demi-god [[Heracles]] then intercedes and unsuccessfully pleads with Creon to forgive Hæmon. Hæmon then kills Antigone and himself.<ref>
{{Cite book
| last1 = Scott Smith | first1 = R.
| last2 = Trzaskoma | first2 = Stephen
| last3 = Pseudo-Apollodorus | author3-link = Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)
| last4 = Hyginus | author4-link = Gaius Julius Hyginus
| title = Apollodorus' Library and Hyginus' Fabulae: two handbooks of Greek mythology
| publisher = [[Hackett Publishing Company|Hackett Publishing]]
| location = Indianapolis
| year = 2007
| page = 122
| isbn = 978-0-87220-820-9
| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=vczTNMWLGdoC&q=haemon&pg=PA122
}}</ref> The intercession by Heracles is also represented on a painted vase (circa 380–300 BC).<ref name="Heydermann">
{{cite book
| last = Heydermann
| first = Heinrich
| year = 1868
| title = Über eine nacheuripideische Antigone
|trans-title=On a post-Euripideian Antigone
| publisher = [[Adolph Enslin]]
| location = Berlin
| isbn = 978-1-160-28969-6
| oclc = 601932362
| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=Yx0GAAAAQAAJ
| language = de
}}</ref><ref>
{{Cite book
| last1 = Sophocles | author-link = Sophocles
| last2 = Jebb | first2 = R. C. |author2-link = Richard Claverhouse Jebb
| title = Sophocles: The Plays and Fragments
| publisher = [[Cambridge University Press|CUP Archive]]
| location = Cambridge
| year = 1890
| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=hbw8AAAAIAAJ&q=Hyginus+Antigone+Heracles&pg=PR40
}}
</ref> References to Antigone can also be found in Seneca's ''Phoenissae'' and in Statius's ''Thebais.''

== Genealogy ==

{{Tree chart/start|align=center|summary=Antigone Genealogy}}
{{Tree chart||||CA||||PE||CA=Cadmus|PE=Pentheus}}
{{Tree chart|||||!||||||!|}}
{{Tree chart||||PO||||OC||PO=Polydorus|OC=Oclasus}}
{{Tree chart|||||!||||||!|}}
{{Tree chart||||LA||||ME||LA=Labdacus|ME=Menoeceus}}
{{Tree chart|||||!||||||!|}}
{{Tree chart||||LA|~|y|~|JO||LA=Laios|JO=Jocasta}}
{{Tree chart||||||||!|}}
{{Tree chart|||||||OE|~|y|~|JO||OE=Oedipus|JO=Jocasta}}
{{Tree chart|||,|-|-|-|v|-|-|-|+|-|-|-|.|}}
{{Tree chart||ET||PO||IS||AN||ET=Eteocles|PO=Polynices|IS=Ismene|AN=Antigone}}
{{Tree chart/end}}

== Gallery ==
<gallery class="center" heights="145" widths="145" mode="packed-hover">
File:Oedipe et Antigone, Johann Peter Krafft (1809).png|''Oedipe et Antigone'' by [[Johann Peter Krafft]], 1809
File:Oedipus and Antigone by Franz Dietrich.jpg|''Oedipus and Antigon'' by Franz Dietrich
File:Oedipus and Antigone (Eckersberg).jpg|''Oedipus and Antigone'' by C. W. Eckersberg (1812)
File:Per Gabriel Wickenberg - Oedipus och Antigone.jpg|''Oedipus and Antigone'' by [[Per Wickenberg]] (1833)
File:Ribelles-edipo y antigona.JPG|''Edipo y Antigona'' by [[José Ribelles]] (circa 1800)
File:The Plague of Thebes.jpg|''Oedipus and Antigone'' by [[Charles Jalabert]] (1842)
File:Emil Teschendorff - King Oedipus.jpg|''Oedipus and Antigon''
File:Antoni Brodowski - Oedipus and Antigone - Google Art Project.jpg|''Oedipus and Antigon'' by [[Antoni Brodowski]] (1828)
File:Antigone And The Body Of Polynices - Project Gutenberg eText 14994.png|''Antigone and the body of Polynices'' (Project Gutenberg)
File:Baschet, André Marcel - Ödipus verurteilt Polyneikes - 1883.jpg|''Ödipus (mit Ismene und Antigone) verurteilt Polyneikes'' by 	 Marcel Baschet (1883)
File:Character sketches of romance, fiction and the drama (1892) (14784688512).jpg|''Antigone and Ismene''
File:Lytras nikiforos antigone polynices.jpeg|''Antigone in front of the dead Polynices'' by Nikiforos Lytras (1865)
File:Sébastien Norblin Antigone et Polynice.JPG|''Antigone donnant la sépulture à Polynice'' by Sébastien Norblin (1825)
File:Oedipus and Antigone - Charles Thévenin - ABDAG000101.jpg|''Oedipus and Antigone'' by Charles Thévenin, [https://emuseum.aberdeencity.gov.uk/objects/92 Aberdeen Archives, Gallery & Museums Collection]
</gallery>

==Cultural references==
{{more citations needed|date=March 2017}}

In modern times, Antigone is invoked as a symbol of heroism.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Eliot |first1=George |editor-last1=Carroll |editor-first1=David |title=Middlemarch |date=1998 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |isbn=9780192834027 |pages=795 |edition=Oxford World's Classics |quote=Antigone: In her defiance of the state she is often seen as a model of courage and heroism.}}</ref>

=== Adaptations ===
The story of Antigone has been a popular subject for books, plays, and other works, including:
* ''[[Antigone (Sophocles play)|Antigone]]'', one of the [[three Theban plays|three extant Theban plays]] by [[Sophocles]] (497 BC{{snd}}406 BC), the most famous adaptation
* ''[[Antigone (Euripides play)|Antigone]]'', a play by [[Euripides]] (c. 480{{snd}}406 BC) which is now lost except for some fragments
* ''Antigone'' (1631)'','' <ref>{{Cite book |last=May |first=Thomas |url=https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo/A07329.0001.001?view=toc |title=The tragedy of Antigone, the Theban princesse. Written by T.M. |date=1631}}</ref> a play by [[Thomas May]] 
* ''[[Antigona (Traetta)|Antigona]]'', opera by [[Tommaso Traetta]], libretto by [[Marco Coltellini]] (1772)
* ''[[Antigona (Mysliveček)|Antigona]]'', opera by [[Josef Mysliveček]], libretto by Gaetano Roccaforte (1774)
* ''[[Antigone (Mendelssohn)|Antigone]]'' (1841), settings of the choruses by [[Felix Mendelssohn]] as incidental music for a performance of [[Johann Jakob Christian Donner]]'s translation of ''Sophocles''
* ''Antigone'', opera by [[Arthur Honegger]] (1892–1955), libretto by [[Jean Cocteau]] (1889–1963)
* ''[[Antigonae]]'' (Salzburg 1949), opera by [[Carl Orff]] (1895–1982)
* ''[[Antigone (Anouilh play)|Antigone]]'' (1944), French adaptation of Sophocles's play by [[Jean Anouilh]] (1910–1987) performed during the Nazi occupation of Paris
* "[[Antigone-Legend]]", for soprano and piano (text by [[Bertolt Brecht]]), by [[Frederic Rzewski]] (1938–2021) and presented as a play in two slightly different versions in 1948 and 1951
* ''Αντιγόνη'' (''[[Antigone (Theodorakis)|Antigone]]''), ballet<ref>commissioned by the Royal Ballet, 1959</ref> by [[Mikis Theodorakis]] (b. 1925), 1959
* ''Αντιγόνη'' (''[[Antigone (Theodorakis)|Antigone]]''), opera by [[Mikis Theodorakis]] (b. 1925), 1995–96
* ''[[Antigone (Leeuw)|Antigone]]'' (1990/1991), opera by [[Ton de Leeuw]] (b. 1926)
* ''[[Another Antigone]]'', play by [[A. R. Gurney]] (b. 1930)
* ''[[Antigone (1961 film)|Antigone]]'' (1961), a film directed by [[Yorgos Javellas]], starring [[Irene Papas]]
* ''[[The Burial at Thebes]]'' (2004), by [[Seamus Heaney]], adapted into a 2008 opera with music by Dominique Le Gendre
* ''Antígona Vélez'' (1950), adaptation of Sophocles' play by Argentine writer [[Leopoldo Marechal]] (1900–1970)
* ''Antigona'' (1960), a play by [[Dominik Smole]]
* ''[[Antigone (Brecht play)|Antigone]]'' (1948), by [[Bertolt Brecht]], based on the translation by [[Friedrich Hölderlin]] and published under the title ''Antigonemodell 1948''<ref name="Brecht">. 
{{cite book
| last = Brecht
| first = Bertolt
| author-link = Bertolt Brecht
| year = 1948
| title = Antigonemodell 1948
| publisher = [[Gebrüder Weiss Verlag]]
| location = Berlin
| oclc = 1456885
| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=-y48AAAAMAAJ
| language = de
| lccn = 50056426
}}</ref> An English translation of Brecht's version of the play is available<ref> Malina, J. (1990) ''Sophocles’ Antigone''. New York: Applause Theatre Books</ref>
* ''[[Antigone (2019 film)|Antigone]]'' (2019), a film by [[Sophie Deraspe]]
* ''Antigone (This Play I Read in High School)'' by [[Anna Ziegler (playwright)|Anna Ziegler]], a play that premiered at [[The Public Theater]] in 2026<ref>{{cite web |title=Antigone (This Play I Read in High School) |url=https://publictheater.org/productions/season/2526/antigone-this-play-i-read-in-high-school/ |publisher=The Public Theater |access-date=16 March 2026}}</ref>

===Analysis===
In the works of [[Hegel]], in particular in his discussion of [[Sittlichkeit]] in his ''[[Phenomenology of Spirit]]'' and his ''[[Elements of the Philosophy of Right]]'', Antigone is figured as exposing a tragic rift between the so-called feminine "Divine Law," which Antigone represents, and the "Human Law," represented by Creon. 
The Catholic philosopher [[Jacques Maritain]] considers Antigone as the "heroine of the natural law:"
:she was aware of the fact that, in transgressing the human law and being crushed by it, she was obeying a higher commandment—that she was obeying laws that were unwritten, and that had their origin neither today nor yesterday, but which live always and forever, and no one knows where they have come from.<ref> Maritain, J. (edited by Sweet, W., 2001). ''Natural law: Reflections on theory and practice.'' South Bend, IN: St. Augustine’s Press (p 26) </ref>
The psychoanalyst [[Jacques Lacan]] writes about the ethical dimension of Antigone in his Seminar VII, ''The Ethics of Psychoanalysis.'' Others who have written on Antigone include theorist [[Judith Butler]], in their book ''Antigone's Claim'', as well as philosopher [[Slavoj Žižek]], in various works, including ''Interrogating the Real'' (Bloomsbury: London, 2005) and ''The Metastases of Enjoyment'' (Verso: London, 1994).

===Contemporary productions===
A new translation of ''Antigone'' into English by the Canadian poet [[Anne Carson]] has been used in a production of the play (March 2015) at the [[Barbican Centre|Barbican]] directed by [[Ivo van Hove]] and featuring [[Juliette Binoche]] as Antigone. This production was broadcast as a TV movie on April 26, 2015.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4653314/|title = Antigone at the Barbican|website = [[IMDb]]}}</ref> The play was transferred to the BAM Harvey Theatre at the [[Brooklyn Academy of Music]], running from September 24 to October 4, 2015.<ref>[http://www.bam.org/theater/2015/antigone ''Antigone''] at Brooklyn Academy of Music.</ref>

== References ==
{{Portal|Ancient Greece|Myths|}}{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
{{Commons category}}
*''Antigones'' by [[George Steiner]]. An examination of the legacy of the myth and its treatment in Western art, literature, and thought in drama, poetry, prose, philosophic discourse, political tracts, opera, ballet, film, and even the plastic arts.{{cite book
| last = Steiner
| first = George
| author-link = George Steiner
|date=October 1996
| title = Antigones – How the Antigone Legend Has Endured in Western Literature, Art, and Thought
| publisher = [[Yale University Press]]
| location = New Haven
| isbn = 978-0-300-06915-0
| oclc = 318365852
| url = http://yalepress.yale.edu/yupbooks/book.asp?isbn=9780300069150
| lccn = 96060411
}}
*''Antigone's Claim: Kinship Between Life and Death'' by [[Judith Butler]]. An examination of the figure of Antigone in literature and philosophy, particularly in [[Antigone (Sophocles)|Sophocles]] and in the work of [[Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel]], [[Luce Irigaray]] and [[Jacques Lacan]].{{cite book
|last=Butler
|first=Judith
|title=Antigone's Claim: Kinship Between Life and Death
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qU43msMsuJgC
|access-date=24 May 2011
|series=The Wellek Library lectures
|year=2000
|publisher=Columbia University Press
|location=New York
|isbn=978-0-231-11895-8
|oclc=43951993
|page=88}}
*Rayor, Diane J. (2011) ''Sophocles’ Antigone''. Cambridge University Press. Translation with introduction and notes.
* Söderbäck, Fanny, ed. ''Feminist Readings of Antigone''. New York: SUNY Press, 2010. {{ISBN|978-1-4384-3278-6}}. Including classical texts by [[Judith Butler]], [[Bracha Ettinger]], [[Julia Kristeva]], [[Luce Irigaray]] and [[Adriana Cavarero]].
* Wilmer, S. E., and Zukauskaite, Audrone, eds. ''Interrogating Antigone''. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010. {{ISBN|978-0-19-955921-3}}. Including recent texts by [[Judith Butler]], [[Bracha L. Ettinger]], [[Julia Kristeva]] and [[Luce Irigaray]].

==External links==
* [http://creatureandcreator.ca/?p=1830/ Antigone] – a review of the Antigone myth and the various productions of her story 

{{Oedipus}}

{{Authority control}}
[[Category:Princesses in Greek mythology]]
[[Category:Mythological Thebans]]
[[Category:Suicides in Greek mythology]]
[[Category:Premature burials]]
[[Category:Suicides by hanging]]