Knowra Antigone Antigone A tragedy by Sophocles in which Antigone defies King Creon’s ban on burying her brother Polynices, setting familial and divine obligations against state authority.
Burial of Polynices : The forbidden burial of Polynices that Antigone performs despite Creon’s decree. This act turns Antigone’s private duty into open defiance.
Greek Tragedy : A dramatic genre developed in ancient Greece, often depicting human suffering under divine or civic pressures. Antigone belongs to this genre and stages its conflicts through formal tragedy.
Sophocles : An ancient Greek tragedian whose surviving plays include Antigone, Oedipus the King, and Electra. He composed the version of Antigone that became the canonical tragedy.
Antigone (Anouilh) : Jean Anouilh’s 1944 adaptation of Sophocles’ tragedy, written and staged during the German occupation of France. Its wartime setting reframes resistance and obedience without simply repeating Sophocles’ political world.
Civil Disobedience : The deliberate breach of law to oppose perceived injustice, typically through public and nonviolent action. Antigone’s deliberate burial defiance is a lasting dramatic model for resistance to authority.
Creon’s Decree : The royal order forbidding the burial of Polynices in Sophocles’ tragedy. The decree supplies the law Antigone violates and Creon refuses to revoke.
Greek Religion : The diverse ritual practices and beliefs of ancient Greek communities concerning gods, spirits, and the dead. Antigone invokes divine obligations that Creon’s civic order violates.
Theban Cycle : A group of Greek myths centered on Oedipus, his descendants, and the city of Thebes. Antigone adapts the family story shared with other Theban myths.
Antigone (Brecht) : Bertolt Brecht’s adaptation of Sophocles’ tragedy, first staged in 1948. Brecht shifts emphasis toward political power and the social conditions of resistance.
Divine Law : A norm understood as originating in divine authority and binding beyond human enactment. Antigone appeals to unwritten divine obligations against Creon’s edict.
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