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Antigone buries Polyneices on the plain of Thebes.
There is good evidence that Antigone was an invention of Sophocles and was not really a historical person. The only mention of Antigone before Sophocles is her mention in the "Seven against Thebes" but this is believed to have been a later addition. (see Gantz, 1993). That Oedipus had four children seems more of a historical fact. It is Sophocles who names his two daugters and wrote the play 'Antigone'. He relates that both of the the daughters of Oedipus were very dutiful and took care of their father even though he blinded himself and resigned his kingship. They lived at the time of Theseus in the period just before the Trojan war.
Sophocles wrote a play called Antigone in about 441 BCE. The character of Antigone as developed by Sophocles is not that of your typical woman. Most women have to accept the decisions of men. Antigone referred to a higher power for a decision that was contrary to a law enacted by men. She then acted according to what she thought was right. She was a tragic heroine because her act resulted in her death and yet she had the consolation that the dieties would agree with her.
Ismene was very favorably portrayed as a dutiful daughter. She was more inclined to accept the rule of men than her sister Antigone, but she should not be faulted for this. Her care of her father was well beyond what is normally expected and her excuse that women did not have the power to defy the state is valid. Antigone went far beyond what is required, and we are grateful for what she did, but we cannot condemn any that were too weak to follow.
Antigone's tragic condition was that if she was true to her belief of the divine law she would be physically killed. If she was false to her belief she would live in shame and be spiritually dead.
By birth Antigone was a princess, the daughter of a king. The role that Antigone actually played would have normally been done by a female slave. Wives spent their time bearing children and directing a household. Female slaves did the menial chores such as cooking, cleaning, and housework. Antigone and Ismene would have done the menial chores as well as the shopping which was mainly done by men. When you have a disability such as Oedipus, you are much better off if you can be cared for by loving family. Servants are OK but if you are disabled, there is always the matters of money, trust, and command. Oedipus was benifited by having such devoted daughters.
Sophocles' Antigone and Oedipus make a commentary upon the ideals of Greek humanism, specifically the individual's responsibility in society and morality. Both Antigone and Oedipus make several moral choices and suffer the consequences. In the case of Antigone, her choice to bury her brother is not a fatal mistake that results in her death. It is a brave act that upholds a moral right in the face of capricious human justice. Likewise Oedipus is not condemned to suffer by fate. He continues to make choices which do not turn out. His final blinding was not demanded by fate, it was an admission that he could not fight fate blinded as he had been. Now his vision was opened to his inner soul and progress could be made. Ultimately everyone must rise above the suffering that is inevitable.
There is the question of whether anyone would benefit by the action that Antigone took. What Creon did was to deny to Polyneices what was considered a proper burial. As is plain in the Illiad at the time of the Illiad a proper burial involved cremation. This meant that the body was burned on a funeral pyre until nothing was left but the bones. These were then buried in a rock cairn. With this practice is the belief that the soul goes up in smoke and is delived as smoke to the deities in heaven. A person whose body is not so prepared does not get to heaven. At the time of Sophocles a proper burial meant inhumation. The body was placed in the ground and covered with dirt. This act was believed to deliver the soul to Persephone in Hades. The only souls that made it to heaven were the heroes and heroins that were deified. Persephone was able to judge the souls and punish some and reward others so Hades cannot be consider like Hell. The souls of persons who did not get proper burial got to neither place. They just drifted around on the surface of the earth as ghosts. These were truely lost souls. Furthermore the decision made by Antigone to bury her brother seemed to change moral emphasis She said: "Yet the just will say I did rightly...." She changed the emphasis from man's laws and the law of the person in power to an emphasis on ideal law and the law of the just.
Because Antigone was a princess before the Trojan War she would have worn the garments of Minoan or Mycenean ladies. The Athenians had forgotten what these were so they dressed her as one of them in pelops or chiton. But But in reality she would have worn a hide skirt, an embroidered robe, or a string skirt would have been more likely. Weaving was invented before the Trojan War because the sails for the ships probably were woven. But a sail was very much more important economically than woven clothing so clothing would have continued not to be woven for some time after weaving was invented.
Pictures resembling Antigone: No one who saw her during her lifetime recorded her image. But you can use an image from ancient Greece as to what she might have looked like:
Recordings of the Drama:
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