"Many are the wonders, none

Is more wonderful than what is man."

-- The Chorus in Sophocles' Antigone

SOME QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER

• Is Antigone a heroine?  Why or why not?

• To what extent is Antigone Oedipus' daughter?  To what extent does she carry the family curse?

• How would you characterize Creon as a ruler and as a person?  How would you compare and contrast him with Antigone?  With Oedipus?  Make the case for Creon as a sympathetic character caught in a tragic predicament.  To what extent is Creon the architect of his own misfortune?

• What do you think Sophocles is trying to say in this play?  Is there a moral to the story?  What theme or themes do you consider to be most important?

• What messages about government and power are conveyed by Antigone?  Are there aspects here that could be described as "tragic"?  Should Antigone be read as a celebration of civil disobedience?

• How would you begin to compare and contrast Sophocles' Antigone with Oedipus Rex?  To what extent do the plays fit neatly together in terms of action, character and theme?  What tensions, if any, emerge between the two tragedies?

• How can the relationship between the living and the dead, and the confusion of those states by different characters, be used to structure the play?

• What roles do religion and the gods assume in the play?  How would you compare Tiresias' role as a mediating figure between gods and humans in Antigone and Oedipus Rex?

• What view of the human condition is offered by Antigone?

• How would you assess the role of gender relations in the play?

• How is it possible that a civilization as patriarchal as ancient Greece could produce a theatre with such powerful female leads as Antigone and Medea?

SOME EXTRA SOURCES