Antigone
Antigone and Ismene, the daughters of Oedipus, discuss
the disaster that has just befallen them. Their brothers Polynices
and Eteocles have killed one another in a battle for control over
Thebes. Creon now rules the city, and he has ordered that Polynices,
who brought a foreign army against Thebes, not be allowed proper burial
rites. Creon threatens to kill anyone who tries to bury Polynices
and stations sentries over his body. Antigone, in spite of Creon’s
edict and without the help of her sister Ismene, resolves to give
their brother a proper burial. Soon, a nervous sentry arrives at the
palace to tell Creon that, while the sentries slept, someone gave Polynices
burial rites. Creon says that he thinks some of the dissidents of
the city bribed the sentry to perform the rites, and he vows to
execute the sentry if no other suspect is found.
The sentry soon exonerates himself by catching
Antigone in the act of attempting to rebury her brother, the sentries
having disinterred him. Antigone freely confesses her act to Creon
and says that he himself defies the will of the gods by refusing
Polynices burial. Creon condemns both Antigone and Ismene
to death. Haemon, Creon’s son and Antigone’s betrothed, enters the
stage. Creon asks him his opinion on the issue. Haemon
seems at first to side with his father, but gradually admits his
opposition to Creon’s stubbornness and petty vindictiveness. Creon
curses him and threatens to slay Antigone before his very eyes.
Haemon storms out. Creon decides to pardon Ismene, but vows to kill
Antigone by walling her up alive in a tomb.
The blind prophet Tiresias arrives, and Creon promises
to take whatever advice he gives. Tiresias advises that Creon allow Polynices
to be buried, but Creon refuses. Tiresias predicts that the gods
will bring down curses upon the city. The words of Tiresias strike
fear into the hearts of Creon and the people of Thebes, and Creon
reluctantly goes to free Antigone from the tomb where she has been
imprisoned. But his change of heart comes too late. A messenger
enters and recounts the tragic events: Creon and his entourage first
gave proper burial to Polynices, then heard what sounded like Haemon’s
voice wailing from Antigone’s tomb. They went in and saw Antigone
hanging from a noose, and Haemon raving. Creon’s son then took a
sword and thrust it at his father. Missing, he turned the sword
against himself and died embracing Antigone’s body. Creon’s wife,
Eurydice, hears this terrible news and rushes away into the palace.
Creon enters, carrying Haemon’s body and wailing against his own
tyranny, which he knows has caused his son’s death. The messenger
tells Creon that he has another reason to grieve: Eurydice has stabbed
herself, and, as she died, she called down curses on her husband
for the misery his pride had caused. Creon kneels and prays that
he, too, might die. His guards lead him back into the palace.
Oedipus the King
A plague has stricken Thebes. The citizens gather outside
the palace of their king, Oedipus, asking him to take action. Oedipus
replies that he already sent his brother-in-law, Creon, to the oracle
at Delphi to learn how to help the city. Creon returns with a message
from the oracle: the plague will end when the murderer of Laius,
former king of Thebes, is caught and expelled; the murderer is within
the city. Oedipus questions Creon about the murder of Laius, who
was killed by thieves on his way to consult an oracle. Only one
of his fellow travelers escaped alive. Oedipus promises to solve
the mystery of Laius’s death, vowing to curse and drive out the
murderer.
Oedipus sends for Tiresias, the blind prophet, and asks
him what he knows about the murder. Tiresias responds cryptically,
lamenting his ability to see the truth when the truth brings nothing
but pain. At first he refuses to tell Oedipus what he knows. Oedipus
curses and insults the old man, going so far as to accuse him of
the murder. These taunts provoke Tiresias into revealing that Oedipus
himself is the murderer. Oedipus naturally refuses to believe Tiresias’s
accusation. He accuses Creon and Tiresias of conspiring against
his life, and charges Tiresias with insanity. He asks why Tiresias
did nothing when Thebes suffered under a plague once before. At
that time, a Sphinx held the city captive and refused to leave until
someone answered her riddle. Oedipus brags that he alone was able
to solve the puzzle. Tiresias defends his skills as a prophet, noting
that Oedipus’s parents found him trustworthy. At this mention of
his parents, Oedipus, who grew up in the distant city of Corinth,
asks how Tiresias knew his parents. But Tiresias answers enigmatically.
Then, before leaving the stage, Tiresias puts forth one last riddle,
saying that the murderer of Laius will turn out to be both father
and brother to his own children, and the son of his own wife.
After Tiresias leaves, Oedipus threatens Creon with death
or exile for conspiring with the prophet. Oedipus’s wife, Jocasta
(also the widow of King Laius), enters and asks why the men shout
at one another. Oedipus explains to Jocasta that the prophet has
charged him with Laius’s murder, and Jocasta replies that all prophecies
are false. As proof, she notes that the Delphic oracle once told
Laius he would be murdered by his son, when in fact his son was
cast out of Thebes as a baby, and Laius was murdered by a band of
thieves. Her description of Laius’s murder, however, sounds familiar
to Oedipus, and he asks further questions. Jocasta tells him that
Laius was killed at a three-way crossroads, just before Oedipus
arrived in Thebes. Oedipus, stunned, tells his wife that he may
be the one who murdered Laius. He tells Jocasta that, long ago,
when he was the prince of Corinth, he overheard someone mention
at a banquet that he was not really the son of the king and queen.
He therefore traveled to the oracle of Delphi, who did not answer
him but did tell him he would murder his father and sleep with his
mother. Hearing this, Oedipus fled his home, never to return. It
was then, on the journey that would take him to Thebes, that Oedipus
was confronted and harassed by a group of travelers, whom he killed
in self-defense. This skirmish occurred at the very crossroads where
Laius was killed.
Oedipus sends for the man who survived the attack, a shepherd, in
the hope that he will not be identified as the murderer. Outside
the palace, a messenger approaches Jocasta and tells her that he
has come from Corinth to inform Oedipus that his father, Polybus,
is dead, and that Corinth has asked Oedipus to come and rule there
in his place. Jocasta rejoices, convinced that Polybus’s death from
natural causes has disproved the prophecy that Oedipus would murder his
father. At Jocasta’s summons, Oedipus comes outside, hears the news,
and rejoices with her. He now feels much more inclined to agree
with the queen in deeming prophecies worthless and viewing chance
as the principle governing the world. But while Oedipus finds great
comfort in the fact that one-half of the prophecy has been disproved,
he still fears the other half—the half that claimed he would sleep
with his mother.
The messenger remarks that Oedipus need not worry, because Polybus
and his wife, Merope, are not Oedipus’s biological parents. The
messenger, a shepherd by profession, knows firsthand that Oedipus
came to Corinth as an orphan. One day long ago, he was tending his
sheep when another shepherd approached him carrying a baby, its
ankles pinned together. The messenger took the baby to the royal
family of Corinth, and they raised him as their own. That baby was
Oedipus. Oedipus asks who the other shepherd was, and the messenger
answers that he was a servant of Laius.
Oedipus asks that this shepherd be brought forth to testify,
but Jocasta, beginning to suspect the truth, begs her husband not
to seek more information. She runs back into the palace. The shepherd
then enters. Oedipus interrogates him, asking who gave him the baby. The
shepherd refuses to disclose anything, and Oedipus threatens him
with torture. Finally, he answers that the child came from the house
of Laius. Questioned further, he answers that the baby was in fact
the child of Laius himself, and that it was Jocasta who gave him the
infant, ordering him to kill it, as it had been prophesied that
the child would kill his parents. But the shepherd pitied the child,
and decided that the prophecy could be avoided just as well if the
child were to grow up in a foreign city, far from his true parents.
The shepherd therefore passed the boy on to the shepherd in Corinth.
Realizing who he is and who his parents are, Oedipus screams that
he sees the truth and flees back into the palace. The shepherd and
the messenger slowly exit the stage. A second messenger enters and
describes scenes of suffering. Jocasta has hanged herself, and Oedipus,
finding her dead, has pulled the pins from her robe and stabbed
out his own eyes. Oedipus now emerges from the palace, bleeding
and begging to be exiled. He asks Creon to send him away from Thebes
and to look after his daughters, Antigone and Ismene. Creon, covetous
of royal power, is all too happy to oblige.
Oedipus at Colonus
After years of wandering in exile from Thebes, Oedipus
arrives in a grove outside Athens. Blind and frail, he walks with
the help of his daughter, Antigone. Oedipus and Antigone learn from
a citizen that they are standing on holy ground, reserved for the
Eumenides, goddesses of fate. Oedipus sends the citizen to fetch
Theseus, the king of Athens and its surroundings. Oedipus tells
Antigone that, earlier in his life, when Apollo prophesied his doom,
the god promised Oedipus that he would come to rest on this ground.
After an interlude in which Oedipus tells the Chorus who
he is, Oedipus’s second daughter, Ismene, enters, having gone to
learn news from Apollo’s oracle at Delphi. She tells him that, back
in Thebes, Oedipus’s younger son, Eteocles, has overthrown Polynices,
the elder, and that Polynices is now amassing troops in Argos for
an attack on his brother and on Creon, who rules along with Eteocles.
The oracle has predicted that the burial place of Oedipus will bring
good fortune to the city in which it is located, and both sons,
as well as Creon, know of this prophecy. Both Polynices and Creon
are currently en route to try to take Oedipus into custody and thus
claim the right to bury him in their kingdoms. Oedipus swears he
will never give his support to either of his sons, for they did
nothing to prevent his exile years ago.
King Theseus arrives and says that he pities Oedipus for
the fate that has befallen him, and he asks how he can help Oedipus.
Oedipus asks Theseus to harbor him in Athens until his death, but
warns that by doing him this favor, Theseus will incur the wrath
of Thebes. Despite the warning, Theseus agrees to help Oedipus.
Creon appears in order to abduct Oedipus, but, proving
unsuccessful, he kidnaps Antigone and Ismene instead. Theseus promises Oedipus
that he will get his daughters back. Theseus does in fact return
with Oedipus’s daughters shortly.
Soon after, Polynices arrives, seeking his father’s favor
in order to gain custody of his eventual burial site. Oedipus asks
Theseus to drive Polynices away, but Antigone convinces her father
to listen to his son. Polynices tells Oedipus that he never condoned
his exile, and that Eteocles is the bad son, having bribed the men
of Thebes to turn against Polynices. Oedipus responds with a terrible
curse, upbraiding his son for letting him be sent into exile, and
predicting that Eteocles and Polynices will die at one another’s
hands. Polynices, realizing he will never win his father’s support,
turns to his sisters. He asks that they provide him with a proper
burial should he die in battle. Antigone embraces Polynices, saying
that he is condemning himself to death, but he resolutely says that
his life remains in the hands of the gods. He prays for the safety
of his sisters and then leaves for Thebes.
Terrible thunder sounds, and the Chorus cries out in horror. Oedipus
says that his time of death has come. Sending for Theseus, he tells
the king he must carry out certain rites on his body, and that by
doing so he may assure divine protection to his city. Theseus says that
he believes Oedipus and asks what to do. Oedipus answers that he
will lead the king to the place where he will die, and that Theseus must
never reveal that spot, but pass it on to his son at his own death,
who in turn must pass it on to his own son. In this way Theseus
and his heirs may always rule over a safe city. Oedipus then strides
off with a sudden strength, taking his daughters and Theseus to
his grave.
A messenger enters to narrate the mysterious death of
Oedipus: his death seemed a disappearance of sorts, “the lightless
depths of Earth bursting open in kindness to receive him” (1886–1887).
Just as the messenger finishes his story, Antigone and Ismene come onstage,
chanting a dirge. Antigone wails that they will cry for Oedipus
for as long as they live. Not knowing where to go now, Antigone says
they will have to wander forever alone. Theseus returns to the stage,
asking the daughters to stop their weeping. They plead to see their
father’s tomb, but Theseus insists that Oedipus has forbidden it.
They give up their pleas but ask for safe passage back to Thebes, so
that they may prevent a war between their brothers. Theseus grants
them this, and the Chorus tells the girls to stop their weeping, for
all rests in the hands of the gods. Theseus and the Chorus exit toward
Athens; Antigone and Ismene head for Thebes.
