Antigone (5th centurybce)

AbstractIn Sophocles’ famous tragedy,Antigone, the heroine mourns the loss of her brother, Polynices, and buries him although this violates the edict of Creon, her uncle and new ruler of Thebes. Creon wants to leave the body unlamented and unburied as punishment for Polynices’ treason. Polynices attacked the city with a foreign army to claim his turn to rule from his brother Eteocles who would not share the throne. Antigone solicits the help of her sister, Ismene, who refuses, saying it is not for women to combat men, and Antigone acts alone. For her transgressive mourning, Antigone is condemned to death, immured in a cave outside the city where she is left to die, though instead – autonomous and resistant to the end – she hangs herself. Creon's efforts to control her in the name of public order lead to his own undoing. How to interpret her actions? Are they tragic, efficacious, sentimental, ethical, political, admirably, or destructively self‐indulgent? No matter the interpretation, this dramatic figure of resistance has captured the imagination of political theorists of all stripes. Those who have turned to her most recently are preceded by over 60 years of deployments of Sophocles’ play which serves as a veritable bellwether of political theory interests – from pluralism to antiwar activism and civil disobedience, to theorizing (especially by feminists) the possibility of agency or lamenting its impossibility.