Editing Antigone (section)

== 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 own namesake 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, and admits that she knew of Creon's law forbidding mourning for Polynices but chose to break it, claiming the superiority of divine over human law, and she defies Creon's cruelty with courage, passion, and determination. Creon orders Antigone buried alive in a tomb. Although Creon 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 knife, and his mother Queen [[Eurydice of Thebes|Eurydice]] also kills herself in despair over her son's death. She had been forced to weave throughout the entire story, and her death alludes to [[Moirai|The Fates]].<ref name=":0" /> By her death Antigone ends up destroying the household of her adversary, Creon.<ref name=":1" />