Sophocles: Antigone
05/24/2017
Antigone (Greek: Ἀντιγόνη) is a tragedy by the Athenian playwright Sophocles, probably composed around 441 BCE. It is therefore the earliest of the so-called 'Theban Plays' in which Sophocles draws on the cycle of myth centred on the story of Oedipus. The dramatic date of Antigone is nevertheless later than that of Oedipus Rex and Oedipus at Colonus, in the aftermath of the struggle between Oedipus' sons portrayed in Aeschylus' Seven Against Thebes.
The drama centres on the struggle between the new king of Thebes, Oedipus' uncle/brother-in-law Creon, and Oedipus' daughter Antigone. She is determined to see that her brother Polyneices receives a proper burial, which is forbidden by Creon because of Polyneices' attack on the city. The competing demands of civic, religious and familial loyalties are thus a central theme.
Antigone at Amazon: United States.
Gutenberg: Plays of Sophocles: Oedipus the King; Oedipus at Colonus; Antigone; translated by Francis Storr.
Internet Archive: Antigone, Greek text edited by Karl Wilhelm Dindorf (1836). Multiple formats.
Internet Archive: Sophocles - Oedipus Tyrannus, Oedipus at Colonus, Antigone, translated by John Swinnerton Phillimore (1902). Multiple formats.
Internet Classics Archive: Antigone, translated by Richard Jebb. HTML and TXT formats.
Loebulus. L020 - Sophocles -- Sophocles I: Oedipus the King. Oedipus at Colonus. Antigone. PDF of public domain Loeb edition in Greek and English.
Perseus: Greek text, edited by F. Storr (1912). English translation (1891) and notes (1900) by Richard Jebb. HTML and XML formats.
Poetry in Translation: Antigone, translated by George Theodoridis (2004). Multiple formats.
University of Adelaide (Internet Archive): The Oedipus Trilogy (Oedipus the King - Oedipus at Colonus - Antigone), translated by F. Storr. Multiple formats.
University of Canterbury: Antigone, verse translation by Robin Bond (2014). DOCX and PDF formats.
Vancouver Island University: Antigone, translated by Ian Johnston (2005). HTML format.
Wikisource: Greek text (edited by Richard Jebb, 1891) and multiple translations. Multiple formats.
Performances and Reviews
Olivier 2012
The Guardian: Antigone - Review, by Michael Billington, 31 May 2012.
National Theatre: Antigone - Family versus State, a short film about the production.
Derby Theatre 2014
Guardian: Roy Williams on Antigone - a play for today's streets, by Roy Williams, 19 September 2014.
Guardian: Antigone review - engaging gangland Sophocles, by Alfred Hickling, 23 September 2014.
Lebanon 2014
NPR: Syrian Women Displaced By War Make Tragedy Of 'Antigone' Their Own, by Alice Fordham, 13 December 2014.
Barbican 2015
Guardian: Death becomes her - how Juliette Binoche and Ivo van Hove remade Antigone, by Charlotte Higgins, 18 February 2015.
Malthouse Theatre, Melbourne 2015.
Malthouse Theatre: A Background for Antigone, by Jane Montgomery Griffiths, 28 August 2015.
Wilma Theater 2015
Wilma Theater: Adaptation - Antigone throughout history, by Walter Bilderback.
Sport for Jove, Sydney 2016
Australian Stage: Antigone - Sport for Jove, by Jack Teiwes, 9 October 2016.
Sydney Morning Herald: Antigone - From the ruins of Thebes comes a vision of present-day wars, by Jason Blake, 11 October 2016.
Other Resources
Ancient-literature.com: Antigone, Synopsis and analysis.
The Classics Pages: Antigone, summary of the play and general notes, by Andrew Wilson.
History of Ancient Greece: Sophocles, podcast by Ryan Stitt.
Librivox: Antigone, public domain audiobooks.
Literature and History: Trees Bending to the Torrent - Sophocles' Three Theban Plays, Part 3 - Antigone. Podcast and transcript by Doug Metzger.
London Review of Books: Antigone in Galway - Anne Enright on the dishonoured dead, 17 December 2015.
TheatreHistory.com: Antigone, summary and analysis. Originally published in The Drama: Its History, Literature and Influence on Civilization, vol. 1. ed. Alfred Bates. London: Historical Publishing Company, 1906. pp. 112-123.
TheatreHistory.com: The Ethics of Antigone, by J. Churton Collins. Originally published in Sophocles' Antigone. Trans. Robert Whitelaw. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906.
The New Yorker: Unburied - Tamerlan Tsarnaev and the Lessons of Greek Tragedy, By Daniel Mendelsohn. 14 May 2013.
University of Notre Dame: Ismene's Forced Choice - Sacrifice and Sorority in Sophocles' Antigone, by Bonnie Honig. Arethusa 44 (2011) 29-68.
University of Winnipeg: Destabilizing Haemon - Radically Reading Gender and Authority in Sophocles’ Antigone, by Peter Miller, Helios, Vol 41 no 2, 2014.
Wikipedia: Sophocles - Antigone (Sophocles play).
The Great Conversation: Further reading at Tom's Learning Notes.
Sophocles: The other Theban plays - Oedipus the King and Oedipus at Colonus.
Aeschylus: Seven Against Thebes.
Aristotle: The Poetics.
Hegel - considered Antigone in his Phenomenonology of Spirit, Philosophy of Right and Lectures on Aesthetics.
Kierkegaard: Either/Or - offers an interpretation of Antigone that may be derived from Hegel's.
A.E. Haigh: The Tragic Drama of the Greeks (1896).
Ancient Greek resources: Learn to read Greek classics in the original.
Bloom's Western Canon: Antigone is listed.
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