Classics: "Antigone," Sophocles

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When Oedipus, ruler of the city-state of Thebes, learned that he had killed his father and married his mother, he blinded himself, and his wife Jocasta killed herself. (They had ha d four children, the sons Eteocles and Polynices and the daughters Antigone and Ismene.) Oedipus lived on in the palace, where, vexed by the disobedience of his sons, he placed a curse on them to the effect that they would destroy each other. Indeed, they quarreled over supremacy in the city. Agreeing to govern in alternate years, they drew lots and the first year fell to Eteocles. Polynices, suspecting his brother’s intentions, fled to the citv of Argos, where he became son-in-law of its ruler, Adrastus. They prepared an invasion of Thebes, in association with other heroes (the Seven Against Thebes), each of the seven attacking a different gate of the city. All the invaders perished; the two brothers killed each other. Now Creon, Jocasta’s brother, taking over the reins of government, has forbidden the burial of the traitor Polynices. (This was a terrible punishment, striking at the most elemental Greek feelings concerning the proper treatment of the dead; hence Antigone’s irresistible urge to cover the body at least symbolically, with a handful of earth.) 50 pages; 11,756 words, visuals Show more