# Antigone explained — Bulfinch’s Mythology

> Chapter companion for Bulfinch’s Mythology by Thomas Bulfinch.

## What happens

This chapter recounts the tragic story of Antigone, daughter of Oedipus and Jocasta, who exemplifies filial and sisterly devotion. After Oedipus's death, her brothers Eteocles and Polynices quarrel over the throne of Thebes, leading to the expedition of the Seven against Thebes. Both brothers die in single combat. Creon, the new king, honors Eteocles with burial but forbids the burial of Polynices. Antigone defies the edict and buries her brother, for which she is sentenced to be buried alive. Her lover Haemon, Creon's son, commits suicide in despair. The chapter also includes the stories of Amphiaraus, Eriphyle, Evadne, and Tiresias, and notes that Antigone is the subject of two tragedies by Sophocles.

## Themes in this chapter

### Fate and Free Will

The Oedipus family is doomed by an unrelenting fate, yet Antigone exercises free will in defying Creon's edict to bury her brother.

### Love and Transformation

Antigone's filial and sisterly love drives her actions, and Haemon's love for Antigone leads to his suicide, transforming the narrative into a tragedy of devotion.

### Hubris and Divine Retribution

Capaneus's boast that he will force his way into Thebes despite Jove results in his being struck by a thunderbolt, exemplifying hubris punished by the gods.

## Character check-ins

### Antigone

Daughter of Oedipus and Jocasta, she displays filial and sisterly fidelity by sharing her father's wanderings and later defying Creon's edict to bury her brother Polynices.

### Creon

Uncle of the fallen princes and new king of Thebes, he orders the burial of Eteocles but forbids the burial of Polynices, and sentences Antigone to be buried alive.

### Jupiter

God who launches a thunderbolt to open the ground and swallow Amphiaraus, and later strikes Capaneus with a thunderbolt for his impious language.

### Minerva

Goddess who, angered by Tiresias seeing her bathing, deprives him of sight but later grants him knowledge of future events.

### Vulcan

God who gave the collar of Harmonia as a present on her marriage with Cadmus, later used by Polynices to bribe Eriphyle.

### Tiresias

Soothsayer consulted by Eteocles; he declares that victory will fall to Thebes if Menoeceus sacrifices himself.

### Adrastus

King of Argos who gives his daughter in marriage to Polynices and aids him with an army to reclaim the Theban throne.

### Eriphyle

Sister of Adrastus and wife of Amphiaraus, she is bribed with the collar of Harmonia to decide in favor of the war against Thebes.

## Key lines

> Alas! I only wished I might have died With my poor father; wherefore should I ask For longer life? O, I was fond of misery with him; E’en what was most unlovely grew beloved When he was with me. O my dearest father, Beneath the earth now in deep darkness hid, Worn as thou wert with age, to me thou still Wast dear, and shalt be ever.

Antigone laments that she wished she could have died with her father, finding even misery endearing when shared with him, and declares that he remains dear to her even in death.

_This lamentation expresses Antigone's deep filial devotion and her willingness to share her father's suffering._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/bulfinch_s_mythology_se/chapters/antigone
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/bulfinch_s_mythology_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/bulfinch_s_mythology_se/chapters