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Home , Antigone, Antigone (Anouilh play), Antigone (Cocteau play), Eteocles, Greek (opera), Greek (play)

Or, How the Gods Destroy Your Lives Because Your Family Tree Did What? The (Twisted) Family Tree A long time ago…before our play…

Laius Father and Mother and 1st king of queen of Thebes Thebes Jocasta’s brother

Oedipus Prophecy says that will kill the king and marry his mother one day, so he is left to die in the countryside. The (Twisted) Family Tree

Laius Jocasta Father and Mother and 1st king of queen of Creon Thebes Thebes Jocasta’s brother

Oedipus Unknowingly kills his father, marries his mother, and then becomes the 2nd king of Thebes The (Twisted) Family Tree

Jocasta Commits Laius suicide when Dead 1st she finds her Creon king of 2nd husband Jocasta’s brother, Thebes is her son fights over the throne

Oedipus Discovers he married his mom, rips eyes out, leaves throne

Eteocles Polyneices Antigone Betrays father Betrays father Tries to help Tries to help and fights and fights over her father her father over the the throne throne The (Twisted) Family Tree At the beginning of “Antigone”

Laius Creon Jocasta Jocasta’s brother, Dead 1st Dead queen kids’ uncle, king of of Thebes becomes 3rd king Thebes of Thebes with

Oedipus Dead 2nd king of Thebes

Eteocles Polyneices Antigone Ismene 3rd king of Fights against Disobeys Refuses to Thebes, fights brother to Creon to bury disobey against take back the her brother Creon at the brother, dies throne, dies Polyneices beginning Just the Prologue, Already a Mess • ANTIGONE: Listen, Ismenê: Creon buried our brother Eteoclês with military honors, gave him a soldier’s funeral, and it was right that he should; but Polyneicês, they fought as bravely and died as miserably,-- they say that Creon has sworn no one shall bury him, no one mourn for him, but this body must lie in the fields, a sweet treasure for carrion birds to find as they search for food. That is what they say, and our good Creon is coming here to announce it publicly; and the penalty –– stoning to death in the public square. There it is, and now you can prove what you are: a true sister, or a traitor to your family.

• Explain the situation Antigone faces in your own words. • Identify the foreshadowing in this speech and explain what you believe will happen in the course of the play. • Identify the conflicts already a part of the play at this point. (I counted 5.) Before Antigone, there was Oedipus • When Oedipus, King of Thebes, discovered through his own investigations that he had killed his father and married his mother, Jocasta, he put out his own eyes, and Jocasta killed herself. Once Oedipus ceased being king of Thebes, his two sons, Polyneices and Eteocles, agreed to alternate as king. When Eteocles refused to give up power to Polyneices, the latter collected a foreign army of Argives and attacked the city. In the ensuing battle, the Thebans triumphed over the invading forces, and the two brothers killed each other, with Eteocles defending the city and Polyneices attacking it. The action of the play begins immediately after the battle. Note that Creon is a brother of Jocasta and thus an uncle of Antigone, Ismene, Eteocles, and Polyneices.