Antigone

Antigone (Greek: Ἀντιγόνη, (Αντι-γόνη, Counter-Generation, meaning "The opposite of her ancestors") is the name of two different women in Greek mythology.

Daughter of Oedipus

The best known Antigone was the daughter of Oedipus and Iocaste (Jocasta), or, according to the older story, of Euryganeia. When Oedipus, on discovering that Iocaste, the mother of his children, was also his own mother, puts his eyes out and steps down as King of Thebes, Antigone accompanies him into exile at Colonus. After his death she returns to Thebes, where Haemon, the son of Creon, king of Thebes, becomes enamoured of her. Oedipus gives the kingdom to his two sons, Eteocles and Polynices, who both agree to alternate the throne every year. However, the sons show no concern for their father, who curses them for their negligence. Antigone was very loved by her peers

After the first year, Eteocles refuses to step down and an angered Polynices attacks Thebes with his supporters (the Seven Against Thebes). Both brothers die in the ensuing battle, "each slain by the other's hand." King Creon, the uncle of Polynices, Eteocles, and Antigone, who ascends to the throne of Thebes, decrees that Polynices "who came back from exile, and sought to consume utterly with fire the city of his fathers," was not to be buried: "touching this man, it hath been proclaimed to our people that none shall grace him with sepulture or lament, but leave him unburied, a corpse for birds and dogs to eat, a ghastly sight of shame."

Antigone, sister of Polynices, defies the order, explaining, "I owe a longer allegiance to the dead than to the living: in that world I shall abide for ever," but is caught. Creon decrees that she is to be locked in a cave to die (this in spite of her betrothal to King Creon's own son Haemon). Antigone's sister, Ismene, then declares she had aided Antigone and desires the same fate, although she was innocent. Despite the fact that Ismene tried to take part in the blame, Antigone refuses her "partial" blame and scolds her sister for not helping Antigone in the first place.

Teiresias, the blind prophet, then enters to explain to Creon how he has been wrong in sentencing Antigone to death: "Give in to the dead man, then: do not fight with a corpse—What glory is it to kill a man who is dead?" Throughout this speech, there are many places where Teiresias is essentially restating what Haemon already said to Creon earlier in the story (also to try to convince him to free Antigone). Creon is extremely resistant at first but upon Teiresias's exit, the spectating chorus of Theban elders remarks that Teiresias has never been wrong, causing Creon to admit that he is starting to worry about his decree. Creon then hurries to the cave in which Antigone is locked but Antigone has already hanged herself rather than be buried alive. When Creon arrives at the tomb where she was to be interred, his son Haemon unsuccessfully attempts to murder him, and then kills himself. When Creon's wife, Eurydice, is informed of Haemon's death, she too takes her own life.

Antigone's character and these incidents of her life present an attractive subject to the Greek tragic poets, especially Sophocles in the Antigone and Oedipus at Colonus, and Euripides, whose Antigone, though now lost, is partly known from extracts incidentally preserved in later writers, and from passages in his Phoenissae.

In the order of the events, at least, Sophocles departed from the original legend, according to which the burial of Polynices took place while Oedipus was yet in Thebes, not after he had died at Colonus. Again, in regard to Antigone's tragic end Sophocles differs from Euripides, according to whom the calamity was averted by the intercession of Dionysus and was followed by the marriage of Antigone and Haemon.

In Hyginus's version of the legend, founded apparently on a tragedy by some follower of Euripides, Antigone, on being handed over by Creon to her lover Haemon to be slain, was secretly carried off by him, and concealed in a shepherd's hut, where she bore him a son Maeon. When the boy grew up, he went to some funeral games at Thebes, and was recognized by the mark of a dragon on his body. This led to the discovery that Antigone was still alive. Heracles pleaded in vain with Creon for Haemon, who slew both Antigone and himself, to escape his father's vengeance.

On a painted vase the scene of the intercession of Heracles is represented (Heydermann, Über eine nacheuripideische Antigone, 1868). Antigone placing the body of Polynices on the funeral pile occurs on a sarcophagus in the villa Pamfili in Rome, and is mentioned in the description of an ancient painting by Philostratus (Imag. ii. 29), who states that the flames consuming the two brothers burnt apart, indicating their unalterable hatred, even in death.

The story of Antigone has been a popular subject for books, plays and other works, including:

Antigone, one of the three Theban plays by Sophocles
Antigone, opera by Carl Orff
Antigone, play by Jean Anouilh
"The Island", play by Athol Fugard
Antigone, play by Jean Cocteau

Daughter of Eurytion

A different Antigone was the daughter of Eurytion and wife of Peleus.

Peleus and Telamon, his brother, killed their half-brother Phocus and fled Aegina to escape punishment. In Phthia, Peleus was purified by Eurytion and married Antigone, Eurytion's daughter. Peleus accidentally killed Eurytion during the hunt for the Calydonian Boar and fled Phthia.

Peleus was purifed of the murder of Eurytion in Iolcus by Acastus. Also in Iolcus, Peleus lost a wrestling match in the funeral games of Pelias, Acastus' father, to Atalanta. Astydameia, Acastus' wife, fell in love with Peleus but he scorned her. Bitter, she sent a messenger to Antigone to falsely tell her that Peleus was to marry Acastus' daughter; Antigone hanged herself. (Apollodorus, iii. 13).

Astydameia then told Acastus that Peleus had tried to rape her. Acastus took Peleus on a hunting trip and hid his sword, then abandoned him right before a group of centaurs attacked. Chiron, the wise centaur, returned Peleus' sword and Peleus managed to escape. He pillaged Iolcus and dismembered Astydameia, then marched his army between the pieces.

References

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)