'Antigone' Summary

Antigone is made up of episodes (i.e. "insertions") that separate choral song and dance. The choral odes have two main functions: they offer a reflection on the events unfolding, and they allow time for the three actors to change costumes.

Prior to the beginning of the play, the brothers Eteocles and Polynices, leading opposite sides in Thebes' civil war, died fighting each other for the throne. Creon, the new ruler of Thebes and brother of the former Queen Jocasta, has decided that Eteocles will be honored and Polynices will be in public shame. The rebel brother's body will not be sanctified by holy rites and will lie unburied on the battlefield, prey for carrion animals like vultures and jackals, the harshest punishment at the time. Antigone and Ismene are the sisters of the dead Polynices and Eteocles.