Antigone Guided Reading

Name:______

Antigone Guided Reading Prologue and Entry Ode (Parodos)

1. Where is the setting?

2. How are Antigone and Ismene related?

3. Who are the two brothers mentioned and how and why are they killed?

4. What is King Creon's decree (ruling)?

5. What does Antigone plan to do? Why is this task so important to her and what consequences will she face?

6. What is Ismene's decision regarding Creon's decree?

7. What is Ismene's view of the relationship between men and women?

8. What word does Ismene use to describe Antigone?

9. What conflict in Greek values does Antigone's desire to bury her brother represent?

1 Name:______

10. How are Ismene and Antigone similar and different?

11. What general purpose does the chorus play in Greek tragedy?

12. What does the Chorus compare Polyneices to in the Parodos?

13. What side did the Chorus favor in the war?

14. What does the Chorus compare Thebes to?

Scene 1 and Ode 1 15. Why has Creon called the Chorus together? What does he share with them?

16. What crime has Polyneices committed in Creon's opinion?

17. Why does Creon order Eteocles be buried with honors and Polyneices be left to rot on field?

18. How does he justify this?

2 Name:______

19. What is the chorus' attitude toward Creon's decree?

20. What news does the sentry bring to Creon?

21. How does Creon believe the act of burying Polyneices was carried out?

22. What does Creon demand that the sentry do?

23. According to Ode 1 - what is the most wonderful of all the world's wonders?

24. What wind has man not secured himself against?

25. List man's accomplishments according to Ode 1.

Scene 2 and Ode 2 26. Who has the sentry captured and brought to Creon?

3 Name:______

27. How did the guards happen to catch Antigone?

28. How did she react to being captured?

29. What reason does she give for defying Creon's decree?

30. What is the Chorus' opinion of her now?

31. Who else does Creon have arrested in connection with the crime of burying Polyneices?

32. Why is Antigone angry with Ismene?

33. Besides being Antigone's uncle - how else is she related to Creon?

34. What is to be Antigone's punishment for burying her brother and honoring the gods?

35. What is Creon's opinion of women?

36. According to Ode 2, who is the fortunate man?

4 Name:______

37. According to Ode 2, who is the god who must not be made angry?

Scene 3 and Ode 3 38. When Haemon arrives, what is the first question that Creon asks him?

39. What is the reason Creon gives when he claims that it is necessary for him to condemn Antigone? What further points does Creon make to his son?

40. What is the point that Haemon is attempting to make to Creon by the analogies of the tree and the ship?

41. By refusing to listen to his son, what does Creon reveal about himself?

42. What threats does Haemon make to his father?

43. Does gender bias (against women) and age bias (against youth) affect Creon's decision to punish Antigone? Does Haemon feel the same way about women that his father does?

44. How does the city feel about Antigone's crime?

45. What is Creon's death sentence for Antigone? How is this different from what he originally said he would do?

5 Name:______

46. What is the focus of the third ode?

Scene 4 and Ode 4 47. What does the chorus suggest brought on Antigone's trouble?

48. What does Antigone blame for her terrible misfortune?

Scene 5, Paean and Exodos 49. What omen causes Tiresias to approach Creon?

50. What happened when the blind prophet began "the rites of burnt-offering at the altar?

51. What opinion does Tiresias express to Creon?

52. How does Creon react to his advice?

53. What warnings does Tiresias give to Creon if he refuses to heed the prophesies?

54. What is the effect of Tiresias' warnings to Creon?

55. What advice does the chorus give to King Creon once Tiresias leaves?

56. How does he react to this advice? What does he do as a result?

6 Name:______

57. Who does the messenger claim is a walking "dead man"?

58. How has Tiresias' prophecy that Creon would pay the gods "flesh of [his] own flesh" come true?

59. Who is Eurydice?

60. What were Creon and the messenger doing when they prayed to Hecate and Pluto?

61. Describe what Creon saw when he looked through the crevice into Antigone's tomb.

62. What did Haemon do upon seeing his father?

63. What happened after the messenger relayed the news about Haemon and Antigone to Eurydice?

64. How Eurydice's suicide fulfill Tiresias' prophecy and what were her final words?

65. What dramatic change takes place in Creon's character as a result of the tragedies?

66. Explain the final words and judgment of the chorus (hubris and the gods).