Antigone - Антигона

Antigone is a play written by Sophocles. It tells the story of Antigone, the daughter of Oedipus.When Oedipus was married to his own mother, Jocasta, they had four children – two sons, Polyneices (polly-NICE-ees) and Eteocles, and two daughters, Antigone (ann-TIG-oh-nee) and Ismene (iss-MAIN-eh). The children were cursed by their fathers’ curse and so nothing good could happen to them. After Oedipus died, his two sons were supposed to rule Thebes together, but they began to fight over who would be in charge. They had a big war, and Polyneices and his brother were both killed. The people chose Creon (CREE-on) for their new king.
Creon had been on the side of Eteocles. Creon ordered that Eteocles should be brought into the city and buried like a hero, with a big funeral. But he ordered the people to leave Polynices outside the city, unburied, like a traitor, and the dogs would eat his body.

Polynices’ sister Antigone was very upset by this order. She wanted her brother to be buried right! So early the next morning, Antigone sneaked out of the city and buried Polynices with her bare hands. When she got back, her sister Ismene tried to convince her to lie about it, but she said no, that would be wrong.

When Creon found out that Antigone had buried Polynices, he was very angry. And he was even more angry when she said she wasn’t sorry at all. Antigone argued that it was more important to obey the law of the gods (to bury your brother) than to obey the law of the king. But Creon said the king decided the law, and everyone had to obey it. He ordered his guards to kill her by shutting her up in a cave with nothing to eat or drink. Creon’s son, Haemon, was in love with Antigone, and he tried to save her. When he couldn’t, he hanged himself, so he would be dead like her.