Timeline and Summary
MoreTimeline and Summary
- After Eteocles and Polyneices kill each other, Creon takes the throne of Thebes.
- Creon orders that, because Polyneices attacked the city, he will not be given proper burial rites. Anyone who buries Polyneices will be punished by death.
- Creon learns from a sentry that someone has buried Polyneices.
- Creon demands that the sentry discover who did it. He threatens the sentry with death if he can’t figure it out.
- The sentry brings Antigone in and reports that she was the one who buried Polyneices. Creon vows to execute her.
- Creon and Antigone argue over the virtue of the law.
- Creon discuses with his son Haemon his decision to have Antigone executed.
- Teiresias arrives to speak with Creon. He advises Creon not to execute Antigone, because possibly (although he doesn’t say this directly) EVERYONE will die.
- When Creon refuses to obey the prophet, Teiresias predicts he will suffer and die. This part IS quite direct.
- Creon grapples with his choices. At the Chorus’s urging, he goes to release Antigone and see to Polyneices’s burial.
- Before he can release Antigone, Creon discovers that his wife, Antigone, and Haemon have killed themselves.
- In despair and fear of his own death, Creon asks to be led off stage.