Antigone
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/* Classical depictions of the daughter of Oedipus */
{{otheruses}}
[[Image:Antigoneleigh.jpg|right|thumb|200px|''Antigone'' by [[Frederic Leighton, 1st Baron Leighton|Frederic Leighton]], 1882]]
'''Antigone''' ({{pronEng|ænˈtɪɡəni}}; [[Greek language|Greek]] ''Αντιγόνη'') is the name of two different women in [[Greek mythology]]. The name may be taken to mean "unbending", coming from "''anti-''" (against, opposed to) and "''-gon / -gony''" (corner, bend, angle; ex: polygon), but has also been suggested to mean "opposed to motherhood" or "in place of a mother" based from the root ''gone'', "that which generates" (related: ''gonos'', "''-gony''"; seed, semen).
==Classical depictions of the daughter of Oedipus==
{{seealso|Oedipus}}
[[Image:Oedipe et Antigone by Johann Peter Krafft (1809).png|thumb|330px|Oedipe et Antigone by [[Johann Peter Krafft]] (1809)]]
Antigone is the daughter of the accidentally incestuous marriage between King [[Oedipus]] of [[Thebes, Greece|Thebes]] and his mother [[Jocasta]] (thus, Antigone is also her father Oedipus's half-sister and, through her father, her mother Jocasta's granddaughter). She is the subject of a popular story in which she attempts to secure a respectable burial for her brother [[Polynices]], even though he was a traitor to Thebes.
In the oldest version of the story, the funeral of Polynices takes place during Oedipus's reign in Thebes. However, in the best-known versions, [[Sophocles]]'s [[tragedy|tragedies]] ''[[Oedipus at Colonus]]'' and ''[[Antigone (play)|Antigone]]'', it occurs in the years after Oedipus's banishment and death, and Antigone has to struggle against [[Creon]]. Sophocles' ''Antigone'' ends in disaster as Antigone commits suicide, not realizing that Creon has been persuaded to allow Polynices a funeral, and Creon's son [[Haemon]] (or Haimon), who loved Antigone, kills himself. (Also see [[Oedipus]] for a variant of this story.) Queen Eurydice, wife of King Creon, also kills herself at the end of the story due to seeing such actions allowed by her husband. She had been forced to knit throughout the entire story and her death alludes to Greek Mythology's 3 Fates.
The dramatist [[Euripides]] also wrote a play called ''Antigone'', which is lost, but some of the text was preserved by later writers and in passages in his ''[[Phoenissae]]''. In Euripides, the calamity is averted by the intercession of [[Dionysus]] and is followed by the marriage of Antigone and Haemon.
Different elements of the legend appear in other places. A description of an ancient painting by [[Philostratus]] (''Imag.'' ii. 29) refers to Antigone placing the body of Polynices on the funeral pyre, and this is also depicted on a [[sarcophagus]] in the [[Villa Pamfili]] in [[Rome]]. And in [[Gaius Julius Hyginus|Hyginus']] version of the legend, founded apparently on a tragedy by some follower of Euripides, Antigone, on being handed over by [[Creon]] to her lover Haemon to be slain, is secretly carried off by him and concealed in a shepherd's hut, where she bears him a son, Maeon. When the boy grows up, he attends some funeral games at Thebes, and is recognized by the mark of a dragon on his body. This leads to the discovery that Antigone is still alive. The demi-god [[Heracles]] then intercedes, pleading in vain with Creon for Haemon, who slew both Antigone and himself to escape his father's vengeance. This intercession by Heracles is also represented on a painted vase. (Heydermann, ''Über eine nacheuripideische Antigone'', 1868).
==Influential interpretations in contemporary [[philosophy]] and [[psychoanalysis]]==
After being elaborated by [[Jacques Lacan]] in his ''Ethics of psychoanalysis'' seminar from 1959-1960 in the light of ethical as well as aesthetical questions, Antigone was further notably interpreted by [[Luce Irigaray]], [[Bracha L. Ettinger]] and [[Judith Butler]]. Each of these authors turned Antigone in different and particular ways into an emblematic figure of sexual difference.
===References===
* Jacques Lacan (1959-1960), ''The Ethics of Psychoanalysis'', London: Routledge, 1992.
* Luce Irigaray (1974), "The Eternal irony of the Community", in: ''Speculum of the Other Woman'', Cornell University Press, 1985.
* Bracha Ettinger (1997), "Transgressing with-in-to the feminine", in: P. Florence & N. Foster (eds.), ''Differential Aesthetics'', London: Ashgate, 2000.
* Judith Butler, ''Antigone's Claim'', NY: Columbia University Press, 2000.
==Antigone in popular media==
The story of Antigone has been a popular subject for books, plays, and other works, including:
* ''[[Antigone (Sophocles)|Antigone]]'', one of the [[three Theban plays]] by [[Sophocles]] (495 BC - 406 BC)
* ''Antigone'', play by [[Jean Cocteau]] (1889-1963)
* ''Antigone'', full-length album by [[Heaven Shall Burn]] (2004)
* ''[[Antigone (opera)|Antigone]]'', opera by [[Carl Orff]] (1895-1982)
* ''[[Antigone (modern play)|Antigone]]'', play by [[Jean Anouilh]] (1910-1987)
* "[[Antigone-Legend]]", for soprano and piano (text by [[Bertolt Brecht]]), by [[Frederic Rzewski]] (b. 1938)
* ''[[Antigone (opera)|Antigone]]'', opera by [[Mikis Theodorakis]] (b. 1925)
* ''[[Antigone (Leeuw)|Antigone]]'' (1990/1991), opera by [[Ton de Leeuw]] (b. 1926)
* ''Antígona Furiosa'' (Furious Antigone), play by [[Griselda Gambaro]] (b. 1928)
* "[[The Island (1973 play)|The Island]]", play by [[Athol Fugard]] (b. 1932)
* ''La Pasión Según Antígona Pérez'' (The Passion of Antigone Pérez), adaptation of Sophocles by [[Puerto Rico|Puerto Rican]] writer [[Luis Rafael Sánchez]] (b. 1936), updated to 20th century Latin America
* ''Tegonni, An African Antigone'' by [[Femi Osofisan]] (b. 1946)
* ''Antigone'', adaptation of Sophocles' play by Peruvian poet [[José Watanabe]] (b. 1946)
* ''Antigone'', opera by [[Mark Alburger]] (b. 1957)
* ''Antigone'' play by [[Andy Wibbels]] (b. 1975)
* ''Antigone'', comic book by [[David Hopkins (writer)|David Hopkins]] (b. 1977)
* ''Antigone'' by [[Henry Bauchau]]
* ''The Burial At Thebes'' by [[Seamus Heaney]]
* ''Governing Alice'' by C. Denby Swanson
* ''Echo Boom'' by Caitlin Montanye Parrish
* ''Dear Antigone'' a song by The Breathing Process
==Daughter of Eurytion==
A different Antigone was the daughter of [[Eurytion]] and wife of [[Peleus]].
[[Peleus]] and [[Telamon]], his brother, killed their half-brother [[Phocus]] and fled Aegina to escape punishment. In [[Phthia]], Peleus was purified by [[Eurytion]] and married Antigone, Eurytion's daughter. Peleus accidentally killed Eurytion during the hunt for the [[Calydonian Boar]] and fled Phthia.
Peleus was purifed of the murder of Eurytion in [[Iolcus]] by [[Acastus]]. Also in Iolcus, Peleus lost a wrestling match in the funeral games of [[Pelias]], Acastus' father, to [[Atalanta]]. [[Astydameia]], Acastus' wife, fell in love with Peleus but he scorned her. Bitter, she sent a messenger to Antigone to falsely tell her that Peleus was to marry Acastus' daughter; Antigone hanged herself. (Apollodorus, iii. 13).
Astydameia then told Acastus that Peleus had tried to rape her. Acastus took Peleus on a hunting trip and hid his sword, then abandoned him right before a group of [[centaurs]] attacked. [[Chiron]], the wise centaur, returned Peleus' sword and Peleus managed to escape. He pillaged Iolcus and dismembered Astydameia, then marched his army between the pieces.
==References==
* {{1911}}
==External links==
{{Commonscat|Antigone}}
* [http://www.mala.bc.ca/~johnstoi/sophocles/antigone.htm ''Antigone'' full English translation by Ian Johnston]
[[Category:Greek mythology]]
[[Category:Theban Mythology]]
[[bs:Antigona (mitologija)]]
[[bg:Антигона]]
[[ca:Antígona (filla d'Èdip)]]
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[[el:Αντιγόνη (μυθολογία)]]
[[es:Antígona]]
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[[fa:آنتیگونه]]
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[[gl:Antígona]]
[[it:Antigone (mitologia)]]
[[he:אנטיגונה]]
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[[hu:Antigoné]]
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[[ja:アンティゴネー]]
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[[pl:Antygona (córka Edypa)]]
[[pt:Antígona]]
[[ro:Antigona]]
[[ru:Антигона]]
[[sk:Antigona (mytológia)]]
[[sl:Antigona]]
[[sr:Антигона]]
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[[uk:Антігона]]
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