One of the two daughters of Oedipus and Jocasta, her sister was Ismene and her brothers were Eteocles and Polyneices.

After Oedipus had blinded himself and was expelled from Thebes, Antigone decided to act as a guide for her father even

though she was still virtually a child. She accompanied him on years of wandering until he came to Attica, where he eventually

died at Colonus, just outside Athens. The tale of Oedipus' end is found in Sophocles' Oedipus at Colonus. After his death,

Antigone returned to Thebes and lived with Ismene. There is no record of how long she was away, but it was long enough for

her brothers to become adults and assume the rule of Thebes.

After the battle of the Seven against Thebes, Creon once again regained control of Thebes. His first act of office was to forbid

the burial of any of the invaders, especially the treasonable Polyneices. Antigone was horrified at this order and sneaked out

and strew dust over her brother's body. (Some say that with the help of Argeia, Polyneices' Argive wife, she secretly burned

the body on Eteocles' funeral pyre.) Here was an extreme case of civil disobedience, for which the penalty of capital

punishment had been clearly established. Antigone had no case, even though devotion to family and the divine sacrament

regarding disposal of the dead were on her side.

She was sentenced to death, and Creon placed her, alive, in either a crypt along with her brother's body or a subterranean

cave. Haemon, Creon's son, was betrothed to Antigone, and pleaded in vain for her life. When he came to her and found that

she had hanged herself, he fell on his sword and died by her side. Sophocles' Antigone (translation by F. Storr or R. C. Jebb

available) relates this tragic end.