Antigone

4 Pages 878 Words

The play “Antigone” is a tragedy of Greek Mythology. This story is about a young girl named Antigone and her struggles with a king named Creon, who is the newly titled King of Thebes. Antigone is a daughter of the former king Oedipus. Oedipus was not raised by his original parents, so when he is a man he unknowingly killed his father and married his mother. They had four children together; Antigone, Isemene, Polyneices, and Eteocles. When Oedipus becomes aware of his deeds he put out his own eyes, and laid himself down to die. “Antigone” is the recollection of his two daughters, Antigone and Isemene, of how their two brothers died.
After Oedipus is dead, Polyneices and Eteocles battle each other for the thrown. They are both killed in battle. The next in line for the thrown is Creon. Once he is king, he gives a proud and proper burial to Eteocles, but puts out an order to everyone in Thebes that no one is to burry Polyneices because he was seen as a traitor. He was to be left in the spot where he died for the dogs and vultures to eat his corpse. Antigone is troubled by this ruling because she has pride for her brother, and doesn’t want him or his spirit to be shamed. She also does not want his rotting corpse to offend Zues, the ruler of all the gods. So she set upon her journey praying she is not discovered while committing the act.
Once the news of Polyneices’ burial gets to Creon he orders the capture and execution of the culprit. Antigone is captured and sent to locked away in a tomb where she could either die or find a way to escape. Then Haimon, the son of Creon and husband to Antigone, enters the story. He pleads with his father to spare the life of Antigone, but is not successful. Creon is also given warning by an old, blind, prophet named Teiresias to let her free from death. Teiresias said, “These are no trifles! Think: all men make mistakes, but a good man yields when he knows his course i...