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Antigone

Antigone. Sophocles. Background Info. The “seven against Thebes”: mythical war between Eteocles and Polynices both were given rule of Thebes after E. ruled would not let P. rule-banished him P. came back later battled each other and both died

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Antigone

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  1. Antigone Sophocles

  2. Background Info. • The “seven against Thebes”: • mythical war between Eteocles and Polynices • both were given rule of Thebes after E. ruled would not let P. rule-banished him • P. came back later battled each other and both died • 4 children of Oed. : Polynices, Eteocles, Antigone, Ismene • “haemon” means “blood” in Greek: • name of Antigone’s husband, • theme of blood relative, • Creon’s belief that personal be submerged under the state-leads to blood

  3. Prologue • Antigone, Ismene • Reveals • death of both brothers • Both daughter’s sadness concerning father • Antigone’s plot to bury Polynices • Ismene’s rational thought and A. stubborn righteousness • Ismene makes it known that she will not join A. in her disobedience Focus: How has Sophocles characterized each of these sisters as foils? To what purpose?

  4. Parados • Invocation to Zeus • Explanation of the “Seven at Thebes” • Explains that Creon is now in power due to Oed. fate

  5. Episode 1 • Creon, Senator, Sentinel • C. explains that he now takes power ever since the “mutual fratricide”(8) • Discover C. ruling policy and how much respect he has for the land and it’s citizens • Explains his decree that Polynices should not be buried due to his banishment by Eteocles, and P. subsequent dishonoring of the land • Senator agrees with C. • Sentinel makes C. aware that someone ahs buried P. And that he was made to come and tell the bad news • C. reacts in anger when Senator says it is supernatural: “Truce to your speech, before I choke with rage…”(11) • C. states that offender must be put to death

  6. Stasium 1 • Chorus explain that C. is “Wrestling his country’s laws to his own will” (15) • Chorus laments A.’s fate and makes the audience aware that she has been captured

  7. Episode 2: Sentinel, Creon, Antigone, Ismene, Senator • Sentinel explains how they caught A. after a hurricane, “shrieking” as she sees the body uncovered • A. stands stubborn and “den[ies] it not”(17) • A. retorts that it was not Zeus’s decree, only C. and the state, and therefore she feels justified by the “…unwritten code of Heaven”(19) • C. asks her if she felt the same honor for her other dead bro. who was slain by P. • A. states that all are honorable in the underworld as it should be, “…The dead clay makes no protest” (20) • C. is angered at woman trying to disobey him and orders her death: “…if you must love, [love] the dead! No woman…shall order me” (20) • Focus: conflict behind burial, “blood” and “state” • I. implicates herself; A. angry; both are taken by C.

  8. Stasium 2 • Chorus laments that before the war, all was peaceful • Explains that A. is like Oed. with her “wild words” (23) • Laments the fact that Haemon, A. husband, must see his wife perish

  9. Response Questions • 1. Defend Antigone’s argument for her brothers burial. Do you believe she is justified? • 2. Explain Ismene’s reaction to Antigone. Do you believe that she had reason to react this way? • 3. How does Creon’s initial response remind you of Oed.? • 4. How does Antigone defend her position to Creon? Was she justified? • 5. How does Creon respond? What does he call to to justify his reasoning? • 6. Did anything surprise you about Ismene’s insistence upon being implicated with Antigone? Why do you believe she does this?

  10. Episode 3 • Creon, Haemon, Sen., Antigone • C. asks son if he is “disposed –In everything to back [his] father’s quarrel” (25) • C. tells H. never to “fling away [his] wits” for liking of a woman (25) • C. calls to anarchy as the cause for A. death; no woman can worsen me • Town feels for A.; H. warns his father to see both sides—”Let thy wrath go!”(27) • Argue over how to rule land: begin to fight using the stereotype of a “woman” as weak and powerless • Out of anger, C. wishes H. to watch A. die • H. leaves angry; A. banished to a cave: buried alive

  11. Stasium 3 • Antigone speaking in lyrical poetics to the chorus and lamenting her fate • Chorus answers that she is praised for her valor • Discussion of being buried alive • Chor. states that she is bound by fate: “The cause is some ancestral load, which thou art bearing” (32).

  12. Episode 4-end • A. argues w/ C. about the right to bury her bro. imploring, “…what celestial right/ Did I transgress?” (34)—monologue speaking to her dead brother • A. believes that Heaven and the gods are on her side • Tiresias (“sees”) and reveals to C. that gods are angered due to his dishonoring of Poly.—will not accept sacrifices; C. needs to know “…that to err from the right path is common to mankind”, but he must not stand “obstinate”(38) • C. angered and calls T. prophecies false: T. reveals that H. will die • Senator convinces him to set A. free—they go to do so

  13. Cont. • Mess. Tells Eurydice about H. going to see A. , and finding her hanging, kills himself • Eurydice leaves before he finishes his speech • Mess. hopes that she will not cry in public, but “…to her handmaids in the house…for a private pain”(46) • C. laments his mistake! (48); asks to be banished—Eurydice has killed herself • Chorus’ last words and main theme: wisdom and reverence to gods is primary

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