person
Antigone
also: Antigóné
The heroine of Sophocles' Antigone (c. 441 BC) who defied King Creon to bury her brother; the archetypal figure of female piety and devotion to sacred duty in the Western literary tradition.
Reading notes
- On Women and Their Vocation §1 Antigone
Heroine of Sophocles' Antigone who defied Creon to bury her brother; the archetypal figure of female piety and devotion to sacred duty in the classical tradition.
- Studies and Articles §1.1.1 Antigone
Sophocles's Antigone: Antigone defies King Creon's decree forbidding burial of her brother Polyneices, who died attacking Thebes. She is entombed alive; Creon loses both his son Haemon and his wife Eurydice as consequence. Madách reads Creon as the protagonist whose 'title of right' (kingly law) is ultimately defeated by the higher moral law.
- Studies and Articles §1.1.2 Polyneices and Eteocles
The sons of Oedipus who kill each other in single combat for the throne of Thebes. Oedipus had cursed them to divide their kingdom 'with the sword.' Madách notes that their crime is filial impiety — treating their father as an object of legal judgment rather than reverence.