Classical Literature: Antigone - Background

Antigone is one of the world’s first sequels. By the same author as Oedipus Rex, the play follows Oedipus’s daughter Antigone on her own path to downfall. Though it was unintentional, Oedipus committed a blood crime by killing his father, adding further ammunition to the family curse brought upon them by Laius (see the background to Oedipus Rex for details) – there was no way Oedipus’ four children, the brothers Eteocles and Polyneices and the sisters Antigone and Ismene, would be able to escape unscathed.

After the end of Oedipus Rex, when Oedipus fulfilled his curse and blinded himself out of shame, he was ostracised from the city by his brother-in-law and uncle, Creon. When even Oedipus’s own sons didn’t oppose his exile, he cursed them both, adding to the list of family curses they had already inherited. Oedipus then left Thebes, accompanied and looked after by his daughter, Antigone. They were eventually allowed to stay in Corinth, where Oedipus had originally been raised. After a long while, Oedipus passed away, and Antigone returned to the rest of her family – her uncle Creon, her brothers and her sister – in Thebes.

However, it had not been going well for Antigone’s brothers in Thebes. After Oedipus’s ostracism, Eteocles and Polyneices agreed that they would rule one after another, year by year. Eteocles ruled for the first year, but when the year came to an end he found himself unwilling to give up his newly acquired power. So that he could become the only King of Thebes, he expelled Polyneices from Thebes. Polyneices found refuge in Argos (the city, not the catalogue company), and there he rose an army in order to defeat his brother Eteocles and take back the throne. Once he had prepared sufficiently, Polyneices and his Argive army attacked Thebes. Thebes had seven gates, and both brothers chose a champion to fight at each of the gates. Eventually, as the battle was ending, Polyneices offered to duel Eteocles one on one, and the two men stabbed each other to death.

The death of the two brothers meant Creon, their uncle, became the King of Thebes. He gave Eteocles an honourable burial, as was expected of all men who died in war, but left Polyneices’s body to rot because he saw Polyneices as a traitor who had dared to attack his own city. He even ordered that anyone who tried to bury Polyneices should be given the death sentence. Antigone, who had recently arrived in Thebes, was horrified by Creon’s decision: it was the will of the gods, after all, that every warrior should be given a proper burial, and no one went against the will of the gods lightly. She was determined to do something about it, no matter the cost…