Plot Summary
1. Antigone arrives in Thebes. Here, she learns from her sister, Ismene, that both of her brothers were killed while fighting over the crown and that Creon has taken reign. Eteocles was given a proper burial, but Polynices was left unburied with a royal decree that anyone who attempts to bury him will be sentenced to death.
2. Antigone says to Ismene that she intends to bury Polynices and asks for her help. Ismene refuses and Antigone says that she doesn't mind doing it alone. Ismene warns her about potential consequences of the burial.
3. Creon Proclaims to Thebians that Eteocles is buried because he honorable defended the city against Polynices' incoming attack. Polynices was a traitor so, therefore, he was not buried.
"CREON: But as for his blood brother, Polynices, who returned from exile, home to his father-city and the gods of his race, consumed with one desire— to burn them roof to roots—who thirsted to drink his kinsmen’s blood and sell the rest to slavery: that man—a proclamation has forbidden the city to dignify him with burial, mourn him at all. No, he must be left unburied, his corpse carrion for the birds and dogs to tear, an obscenity for the citizens to behold!" (p. 68)
4. The royal guards find Polynices body after a burial ritual was performed during the middle of the night and "unbury" him by removing all the dust and dirt that was on his body as part of the burial. The person responsible was not caught.
"SENTRY: All right, here it comes. The body— someone’s just buried it, then run off .. sprinkled some dry dust on the flesh, given it proper rites. CREON: What? What man alive would dare—" (p. 71)
5. Creon demands them to guard the body to ensure that it doesn't happen again and to catch the person if they come back to rebury the body.
6. The royal guards catch Antigone performing a burial ritual during the middle of the day. They arrest her and bring her to Creon.
"SENTRY: She’s the one, she did it single-handed- we caught her burying the body. Where’s Creon?" (p. 78)
7. When questioned by Creon, Antigone does not deny that she performed the burial. She says that she defied Creon's edict because her intentions are just. [It is her duty as a woman in her family to perform the burials].
"ANTIGONE: Of course I did. It wasn’t Zeus, not in the least, who made this proclamation—not to me. Nor did that Justice, dwelling with the gods beneath the earth, ordain such laws for men. Nor did I think your edict had such force that you, a mere mortal, could override the gods, the great unwritten, unshakable traditions. They are alive, not just today or yesterday: they live forever, from the first of time, and no one knows when they first saw the light. These laws—! was not about to break them, not out of fear of some man’s wounded pride, and face the retribution of the gods. Die I must, I’ve known it all my !ife— how could I keep from knowing?—even without your death-sentence ringing in my ears. And if I am to die before my time I consider that a gain. Who on earth, alive in the midst of so much grief as I, could fail to find his death a rich reward? So for me, at least, to meet this doom of yours is precious little pain. But if I had allowed my own mother’s son to rot, an unburied corpse— that would have been an agony! This is nothing. And if my present actions strike you as foolish, let’s just say I’ve been accused of folly by a fool." (p. 82)
8. Creon sentences Antigone to an execution. He summons her sister, Ismene, because he assumes that she had a role in the burial of Polynices.
9. Creon attempts to shame Antigone for her morals and views. Ismene enters and is asked about the burial. She says that she is guilty in helping Antigone bury Polynices, but Antigone interjects, protecting her sister, and states that she acted alone.
ISMENE: I did it, yes— if only she consents—I share the guilt, the consequences too. ANTIGONE: No, Justice will never suffer that—not you, you were unwilling. I never brought you in." (p. 86-87)
10. It is revealed to the audience that Antigone is betrothed to Creon's son Haemon. Creon says this relation doesn't matter, Antigone will still be killed, and Haemon has other options for a wife.
11. Haemon arrives to speak with Creon. He says that he supports his father in whatever decision he makes about Antigone. Creon tells Haemon of the importance of obeying the law, and also the importance of not being beaten by a woman. Haemon tells Creon about how the city is mourning Antigone and living in fear of Creon. The argument between the two escalates and Haemon leaves.
HAEMON: Father, I’m your son ... you in your wisdom set my bearings for me—I obey you. No marriage could ever mean more to me than you, whatever good direction you may offer." (p. 93)
"HAEMON: The man in the street, you know, dreads your glance, he’d never say anything displeasing to your face. But it’s for me to catch the murmurs in the dark, the way the city mourns for this young girl. “No woman,” they say, “ever deserved death less, and such a brutal death for such a glorious action. She, with her own dear brother lying in his blood— she couldn’t bear to leave him dead, unburied, food for the wild dogs or wheeling vultures." (p. 95)
12. Tiresias, the blind prophet, arrives in attempt to advise Creon. He tells him not to leave Polynices body unburied or to kill Antigone. Creon refuses Tiresias' advice.
13. Tiresias warns Creon that leaving Polynices unburied and killing Antigone will anger the gods and will result in Creon's death.
"TIRESIAS: Then know this too, learn this by heart! The chariot of the sun will not race through so many circuits more, before you have surrendered one born of your own loins, your own flesh and blood, a corpse for corpses given in return, since you have thrust to the world below a child sprung for the world above, ruthlessly lodged a living soul within the grave— then you’ve robbed the gods below the earth, keeping a dead body here in the bright air, unburied, unsung, unhallowed by the rites." (p. 115)
14. The chorus reminds Creon that Tiresias is never wrong and urges him to do as he says. Creon gives in and decides that he will release Antigone and properly bury Polynices.
15. A messenger arrives and tells Creon that Haemon found Antigone dead and killed himself out of anger. Eurydice, Creon's wife and Haemon's mother, arrives and asks Creon to tell her what is going on. The messenger retells exactly what happened. Antigone hanged herself and Haemon found her body. Out of anger and despair, Haemon attempted to hurt/kill Creon with his sword. He missed and decided to kill himself instead.
"LEADER: What now? What new grief do you bring the house of kings? MESSENGER: Dead, dead—and the living are guilty of their death!" (p. 120)
"We took his orders, went and searched, and there in the deepest, dark recesses of the tomb we found her ... hanged by the neck in a fine linen noose, strangled in her veils—and the boy, his arms flung around her waist, clinging to her, wailing for his bride, dead and down below, for his father’s crimes and the bed of his marriage blighted by misfortune. When Creon saw him, he gave a deep sob, he ran in, shouting, crying out to him, “Oh my child—what have you done? what seized you, what insanity? what disaster drove you mad? Come out, my son! I beg you on my knees!” But the boy gave him a wild burning glance, spat in his face, not a word in reply, he drew his sword—his father rushed out, running as Haemon lunged and missed!— and then, doomed, desperate with himself, suddenly leaning his full weight on the blade, he buried it in his body, halfway to the hilt. And still in his senses, pouring his arms around her, he embraced the girl and breathing hard, released a quick rush of blood, bright red on her cheek glistening white. And there he lies, body enfolding body ... he has won his bride at last, poor boy, not here but in the houses of the dead." (p. 122-123)
16. Creon regrets his decision to sentence Antigone to death.
"CREON: Ohhh, so senseless, so insane ... my crimes, my stubborn, deadly— Look at us, the killer, the killed, father and son, the same blood—the misery! plans, my mad fanatic heart, my son, cut off so young! Ai, dead, lost to the world, not through your stupidity, no, my own." (p. 124)
17. Another messenger arrives to tell Creon that Eurydice, so distraught about the death of Haemon and in her anger towards Creon, decided to kill herself.
"MESSENGER: The queen is dead. The mother of this dead boy ... mother to the end— poor thing, her wounds are fresh." (p. 125)
18. Creon is left with no one but his regret and sorrows. He asks to be taken away
"CREON: a second loss to break the heart. What next, what fate still waits for me? I just held my son in my arms and now, look, a new corpse rising before my eyes— wretched, helpless mother—O my son!" (p. 125)
"CREON: Take me away, I beg you, out of sight. A rash, indiscriminate fool! I murdered you, my son, against my will— you too, my wife ..." (p. 127)
1. Antigone arrives in Thebes. Here, she learns from her sister, Ismene, that both of her brothers were killed while fighting over the crown and that Creon has taken reign. Eteocles was given a proper burial, but Polynices was left unburied with a royal decree that anyone who attempts to bury him will be sentenced to death.
2. Antigone says to Ismene that she intends to bury Polynices and asks for her help. Ismene refuses and Antigone says that she doesn't mind doing it alone. Ismene warns her about potential consequences of the burial.
3. Creon Proclaims to Thebians that Eteocles is buried because he honorable defended the city against Polynices' incoming attack. Polynices was a traitor so, therefore, he was not buried.
"CREON: But as for his blood brother, Polynices, who returned from exile, home to his father-city and the gods of his race, consumed with one desire— to burn them roof to roots—who thirsted to drink his kinsmen’s blood and sell the rest to slavery: that man—a proclamation has forbidden the city to dignify him with burial, mourn him at all. No, he must be left unburied, his corpse carrion for the birds and dogs to tear, an obscenity for the citizens to behold!" (p. 68)
4. The royal guards find Polynices body after a burial ritual was performed during the middle of the night and "unbury" him by removing all the dust and dirt that was on his body as part of the burial. The person responsible was not caught.
"SENTRY: All right, here it comes. The body— someone’s just buried it, then run off .. sprinkled some dry dust on the flesh, given it proper rites. CREON: What? What man alive would dare—" (p. 71)
5. Creon demands them to guard the body to ensure that it doesn't happen again and to catch the person if they come back to rebury the body.
6. The royal guards catch Antigone performing a burial ritual during the middle of the day. They arrest her and bring her to Creon.
"SENTRY: She’s the one, she did it single-handed- we caught her burying the body. Where’s Creon?" (p. 78)
7. When questioned by Creon, Antigone does not deny that she performed the burial. She says that she defied Creon's edict because her intentions are just. [It is her duty as a woman in her family to perform the burials].
"ANTIGONE: Of course I did. It wasn’t Zeus, not in the least, who made this proclamation—not to me. Nor did that Justice, dwelling with the gods beneath the earth, ordain such laws for men. Nor did I think your edict had such force that you, a mere mortal, could override the gods, the great unwritten, unshakable traditions. They are alive, not just today or yesterday: they live forever, from the first of time, and no one knows when they first saw the light. These laws—! was not about to break them, not out of fear of some man’s wounded pride, and face the retribution of the gods. Die I must, I’ve known it all my !ife— how could I keep from knowing?—even without your death-sentence ringing in my ears. And if I am to die before my time I consider that a gain. Who on earth, alive in the midst of so much grief as I, could fail to find his death a rich reward? So for me, at least, to meet this doom of yours is precious little pain. But if I had allowed my own mother’s son to rot, an unburied corpse— that would have been an agony! This is nothing. And if my present actions strike you as foolish, let’s just say I’ve been accused of folly by a fool." (p. 82)
8. Creon sentences Antigone to an execution. He summons her sister, Ismene, because he assumes that she had a role in the burial of Polynices.
9. Creon attempts to shame Antigone for her morals and views. Ismene enters and is asked about the burial. She says that she is guilty in helping Antigone bury Polynices, but Antigone interjects, protecting her sister, and states that she acted alone.
ISMENE: I did it, yes— if only she consents—I share the guilt, the consequences too. ANTIGONE: No, Justice will never suffer that—not you, you were unwilling. I never brought you in." (p. 86-87)
10. It is revealed to the audience that Antigone is betrothed to Creon's son Haemon. Creon says this relation doesn't matter, Antigone will still be killed, and Haemon has other options for a wife.
11. Haemon arrives to speak with Creon. He says that he supports his father in whatever decision he makes about Antigone. Creon tells Haemon of the importance of obeying the law, and also the importance of not being beaten by a woman. Haemon tells Creon about how the city is mourning Antigone and living in fear of Creon. The argument between the two escalates and Haemon leaves.
HAEMON: Father, I’m your son ... you in your wisdom set my bearings for me—I obey you. No marriage could ever mean more to me than you, whatever good direction you may offer." (p. 93)
"HAEMON: The man in the street, you know, dreads your glance, he’d never say anything displeasing to your face. But it’s for me to catch the murmurs in the dark, the way the city mourns for this young girl. “No woman,” they say, “ever deserved death less, and such a brutal death for such a glorious action. She, with her own dear brother lying in his blood— she couldn’t bear to leave him dead, unburied, food for the wild dogs or wheeling vultures." (p. 95)
12. Tiresias, the blind prophet, arrives in attempt to advise Creon. He tells him not to leave Polynices body unburied or to kill Antigone. Creon refuses Tiresias' advice.
13. Tiresias warns Creon that leaving Polynices unburied and killing Antigone will anger the gods and will result in Creon's death.
"TIRESIAS: Then know this too, learn this by heart! The chariot of the sun will not race through so many circuits more, before you have surrendered one born of your own loins, your own flesh and blood, a corpse for corpses given in return, since you have thrust to the world below a child sprung for the world above, ruthlessly lodged a living soul within the grave— then you’ve robbed the gods below the earth, keeping a dead body here in the bright air, unburied, unsung, unhallowed by the rites." (p. 115)
14. The chorus reminds Creon that Tiresias is never wrong and urges him to do as he says. Creon gives in and decides that he will release Antigone and properly bury Polynices.
15. A messenger arrives and tells Creon that Haemon found Antigone dead and killed himself out of anger. Eurydice, Creon's wife and Haemon's mother, arrives and asks Creon to tell her what is going on. The messenger retells exactly what happened. Antigone hanged herself and Haemon found her body. Out of anger and despair, Haemon attempted to hurt/kill Creon with his sword. He missed and decided to kill himself instead.
"LEADER: What now? What new grief do you bring the house of kings? MESSENGER: Dead, dead—and the living are guilty of their death!" (p. 120)
"We took his orders, went and searched, and there in the deepest, dark recesses of the tomb we found her ... hanged by the neck in a fine linen noose, strangled in her veils—and the boy, his arms flung around her waist, clinging to her, wailing for his bride, dead and down below, for his father’s crimes and the bed of his marriage blighted by misfortune. When Creon saw him, he gave a deep sob, he ran in, shouting, crying out to him, “Oh my child—what have you done? what seized you, what insanity? what disaster drove you mad? Come out, my son! I beg you on my knees!” But the boy gave him a wild burning glance, spat in his face, not a word in reply, he drew his sword—his father rushed out, running as Haemon lunged and missed!— and then, doomed, desperate with himself, suddenly leaning his full weight on the blade, he buried it in his body, halfway to the hilt. And still in his senses, pouring his arms around her, he embraced the girl and breathing hard, released a quick rush of blood, bright red on her cheek glistening white. And there he lies, body enfolding body ... he has won his bride at last, poor boy, not here but in the houses of the dead." (p. 122-123)
16. Creon regrets his decision to sentence Antigone to death.
"CREON: Ohhh, so senseless, so insane ... my crimes, my stubborn, deadly— Look at us, the killer, the killed, father and son, the same blood—the misery! plans, my mad fanatic heart, my son, cut off so young! Ai, dead, lost to the world, not through your stupidity, no, my own." (p. 124)
17. Another messenger arrives to tell Creon that Eurydice, so distraught about the death of Haemon and in her anger towards Creon, decided to kill herself.
"MESSENGER: The queen is dead. The mother of this dead boy ... mother to the end— poor thing, her wounds are fresh." (p. 125)
18. Creon is left with no one but his regret and sorrows. He asks to be taken away
"CREON: a second loss to break the heart. What next, what fate still waits for me? I just held my son in my arms and now, look, a new corpse rising before my eyes— wretched, helpless mother—O my son!" (p. 125)
"CREON: Take me away, I beg you, out of sight. A rash, indiscriminate fool! I murdered you, my son, against my will— you too, my wife ..." (p. 127)
Bonnie Honig's new reading of Antigone and her Sister
In Sophocles's play, Polynices is given funeral rites twice in defiance of Creon's orders. For many years, critics simply assumed that Antigone performed both burials. Bonnie Honig's new book Antigone, Interrupted argues that Antigone's sister Ismene may have performed the first burial of Polynices. The book is called "Sacrifice, Sorority, Integrity: Antigone's conspiracy with Ismene" (Cambridge UP, 2013) and here are some highlights of Honig's interpretation.
"We don’t really know that Antigone performed the first burial. No one saw who did it. The critical history has simply assumed that Antigone did it, because she was caught doing the second one. More to the point, the style of the first burial is not at all in keeping with Antigone’s character. Her shout-it-from-the-rooftops attitude is hardly in evidence in the secret, nocturnal performance so quietly performed that the gods miss it.
[...If this is the case, then picture this unfolding while Antigone stands before Creon looking down:] "While the sentry speaks of an earlier burial she [Antigone] knows nothing about, she may listen and think about how to handle the questions that will inevitably follow. When Antigone says “I cannot deny it,” is she wondering: “Did someone else bury Polynices before I got there? But who?” She does not know…She thought she acted alone, but now it seems perhaps there is another. She won’t betray that secret supporter by calling attention to the mystery of the first burial. Nor will she lie and say she did it.
Did someone else bury Polynices? But who? Who has motive, opportunity, and with whose character is this particular performance of the crime well-fitted? If we assume, as the sentry clearly wants us to and as Creon does, that Antigone performed both burials, then the case is neatly solved. Antigone is a lone burial zealot and we need not worry, as the Chorus does, about the gods.
But there is also another possibility, less thinkable to the Chorus, and less imaginable to audiences throughout the ages: what if Ismene did it? If Ismene did it, we no longer need to puzzle out why Antigone might have buried Polynices twice…instead we have two sisters, two burials. And each is done in the characteristic style of each sister.
The first, Ismene-like, is subtle, sub-rosa, quiet, under cover of darkness, performed exactly, to a "T," as Ismene counseled Antigone to do it in the play's first scene: "Then don't, at least, blurt this out to anyone. Keep it a secret." Indeed, the furtiveness of the first burial is noted in the sentry's report: "someone's just buried it, then run off."
The second, true to Antigone, ("Dear god, shout it from the rooftops...tell the world!), is performed with loud, keening and vengeful cries out in the open, in the noon-time sun...
But how can this be? Didn't Ismene express horror and shock at the thought of defying Creon? Didn't she try to dissuade Antigone from committing this very act? Didn't she opt for human over divine law? Didn't she express confidence that the dead would forgive her this very choice?
Ismene did indeed say all those things. But she said still more. At the end of their harsh and typically sororal exchange in the first scene, Ismene declares her love for Antigone. Perhaps alone on stage, perhaps in her sister's silent presence, she says: "Then go if you must, but rest assured, wild, irrational as you are, my sister, you are truly dear to the ones who love you." How should we read these lines? How should they be performed? Historically, the lines have been taken to convey a passive declaration of unconditional but resigned love for her impossible impetuous sister. But imagine this: Ismene says the lines thoughtfully, as if a new idea is coming to her, a plan is forming: "you are truly dear to the ones who love you" is not a regretful apology, not a request for forgiveness or understanding, not an indulgent or resigned "whatever you do, we love you anyway," but a statement of still emerging resolve and a reflection on what love calls for.
If she buried Polynices first, before Antigone could do it, Ismene may have hoped to save her sister from her fate, to make it unnecessary for her to take on Creon and risk her life.
...This reading accounts better than others for the cries emitted by Ismene when Antigone is taken prisoner.
Ismene would mourn her sister's fate, in any case. But she would surely mourn it all the more passionately if she had put herself at risk to avert it.
[In the confrontation with Creon, he says to Ismene:] "Come, tell me, will you confess your part in the crime or not? Answer me. Swear to me. Having indeed slunk, unprotected, to perform the first burial of Polynices, Ismene now speaks out loud: "I did it, yes--"
Why has no one for hundreds of years or more taken her at her word? She confessed. Not only does she not deny it, she actually owns it.
If Ismene did it, then the final scene between the two sisters takes on an incredible dramatic pathos. From the perspective of a sororal antagonism, Antigone's accusations against Ismene operate at a double entendre that is nothing short of brilliant. Instead of a set of flat accusations leveled unlovingly to her unjustly despised sister (the dominant reading), Antigone's words in this scene convey a series of complex realizations and strategies. Perhaps for the first time it is dawning on her that Ismene...may be the performer of the first burial, still unexplained.
If Ismene did it, and if Antigone sacrificed herself for her sister [by being the one to be punished for both burials and letting Ismene survive], then we have here the story of two women partnered in their difference-- one brazenly bold, the other possessed of a quieter courage-- both plotting and conspiring in resistance to overreaching sovereign power but also acting in love or loyalty for each other."
Honig, Bonnie. Antigone, Interrupted. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013 (selected quotations from pages 160-170).
In Sophocles's play, Polynices is given funeral rites twice in defiance of Creon's orders. For many years, critics simply assumed that Antigone performed both burials. Bonnie Honig's new book Antigone, Interrupted argues that Antigone's sister Ismene may have performed the first burial of Polynices. The book is called "Sacrifice, Sorority, Integrity: Antigone's conspiracy with Ismene" (Cambridge UP, 2013) and here are some highlights of Honig's interpretation.
"We don’t really know that Antigone performed the first burial. No one saw who did it. The critical history has simply assumed that Antigone did it, because she was caught doing the second one. More to the point, the style of the first burial is not at all in keeping with Antigone’s character. Her shout-it-from-the-rooftops attitude is hardly in evidence in the secret, nocturnal performance so quietly performed that the gods miss it.
[...If this is the case, then picture this unfolding while Antigone stands before Creon looking down:] "While the sentry speaks of an earlier burial she [Antigone] knows nothing about, she may listen and think about how to handle the questions that will inevitably follow. When Antigone says “I cannot deny it,” is she wondering: “Did someone else bury Polynices before I got there? But who?” She does not know…She thought she acted alone, but now it seems perhaps there is another. She won’t betray that secret supporter by calling attention to the mystery of the first burial. Nor will she lie and say she did it.
Did someone else bury Polynices? But who? Who has motive, opportunity, and with whose character is this particular performance of the crime well-fitted? If we assume, as the sentry clearly wants us to and as Creon does, that Antigone performed both burials, then the case is neatly solved. Antigone is a lone burial zealot and we need not worry, as the Chorus does, about the gods.
But there is also another possibility, less thinkable to the Chorus, and less imaginable to audiences throughout the ages: what if Ismene did it? If Ismene did it, we no longer need to puzzle out why Antigone might have buried Polynices twice…instead we have two sisters, two burials. And each is done in the characteristic style of each sister.
The first, Ismene-like, is subtle, sub-rosa, quiet, under cover of darkness, performed exactly, to a "T," as Ismene counseled Antigone to do it in the play's first scene: "Then don't, at least, blurt this out to anyone. Keep it a secret." Indeed, the furtiveness of the first burial is noted in the sentry's report: "someone's just buried it, then run off."
The second, true to Antigone, ("Dear god, shout it from the rooftops...tell the world!), is performed with loud, keening and vengeful cries out in the open, in the noon-time sun...
But how can this be? Didn't Ismene express horror and shock at the thought of defying Creon? Didn't she try to dissuade Antigone from committing this very act? Didn't she opt for human over divine law? Didn't she express confidence that the dead would forgive her this very choice?
Ismene did indeed say all those things. But she said still more. At the end of their harsh and typically sororal exchange in the first scene, Ismene declares her love for Antigone. Perhaps alone on stage, perhaps in her sister's silent presence, she says: "Then go if you must, but rest assured, wild, irrational as you are, my sister, you are truly dear to the ones who love you." How should we read these lines? How should they be performed? Historically, the lines have been taken to convey a passive declaration of unconditional but resigned love for her impossible impetuous sister. But imagine this: Ismene says the lines thoughtfully, as if a new idea is coming to her, a plan is forming: "you are truly dear to the ones who love you" is not a regretful apology, not a request for forgiveness or understanding, not an indulgent or resigned "whatever you do, we love you anyway," but a statement of still emerging resolve and a reflection on what love calls for.
If she buried Polynices first, before Antigone could do it, Ismene may have hoped to save her sister from her fate, to make it unnecessary for her to take on Creon and risk her life.
...This reading accounts better than others for the cries emitted by Ismene when Antigone is taken prisoner.
Ismene would mourn her sister's fate, in any case. But she would surely mourn it all the more passionately if she had put herself at risk to avert it.
[In the confrontation with Creon, he says to Ismene:] "Come, tell me, will you confess your part in the crime or not? Answer me. Swear to me. Having indeed slunk, unprotected, to perform the first burial of Polynices, Ismene now speaks out loud: "I did it, yes--"
Why has no one for hundreds of years or more taken her at her word? She confessed. Not only does she not deny it, she actually owns it.
If Ismene did it, then the final scene between the two sisters takes on an incredible dramatic pathos. From the perspective of a sororal antagonism, Antigone's accusations against Ismene operate at a double entendre that is nothing short of brilliant. Instead of a set of flat accusations leveled unlovingly to her unjustly despised sister (the dominant reading), Antigone's words in this scene convey a series of complex realizations and strategies. Perhaps for the first time it is dawning on her that Ismene...may be the performer of the first burial, still unexplained.
If Ismene did it, and if Antigone sacrificed herself for her sister [by being the one to be punished for both burials and letting Ismene survive], then we have here the story of two women partnered in their difference-- one brazenly bold, the other possessed of a quieter courage-- both plotting and conspiring in resistance to overreaching sovereign power but also acting in love or loyalty for each other."
Honig, Bonnie. Antigone, Interrupted. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013 (selected quotations from pages 160-170).
