ANTIGONE

Daughter of Aedipus and Iocasta, who accompanied her blind father into exile. After his death in Attica she returns to Thebes, and, in defiance of her uncle Creon's prohibition, performs the last honours to her brother Polyneices, fallen in single fight with Eteocles, by strewing his body with dust. For this she is entombed alive in the family vault, and there hangs herself; and her betrothed, Haemon, the son of Creon, stabs himself beside her corpse. Such is the version of Sophocles. Another tradition represents Antigone and Argeia, the widow of Polyneices, as secretly burning his body by night on the funeral pile of Eteocles. When seized by the guards, Creon hands her over to Haemon for execution; but he hides her in a shepherd's hut, and lives with her in secret wedlock. Their son, grown up and engaging in some funeral games at Thebes, is recognised by a birthmark peculiar to the family. To escape Creon's vengeance, Haemon kills both Antigone and himself.