Read Anywhere and on Any Device!

Subscribe to Read | $0.00

Join today and start reading your favorite books for Free!

Create Free Account

The Burial at Thebes: A Version of Sophocles' Antigone

3.9/5 ( ratings)

Sophocles' play, first staged in the fifth century BC, stands as a timely exploration of the conflict between those who affirm the individual's human rights and those who must protect the state's security. During the War of the Seven Against Thebes, Antigone, the daughter of Oedipus, learns that her brothers have killed each other, having been forced onto opposing sides of the battle. When Creon, king of Thebes, grants burial of one but not the "treacherous" other, Antigone defies his order, believing it her duty to bury all of her close kin. Enraged, Creon condemns her to death, and his soldiers wall her up in a tomb. While Creon eventually agrees to Antigone's release, it is too late: She takes her own life, initiating a tragic repetition of events in her family's history.

In this outstanding new translation, commissioned by Ireland's renowned Abbey Theatre to commemorate its centenary, Seamus Heaney exposes the darkness and the humanity in Sophocles' masterpiece, and inks it with his own modern and masterly touch.

Language: English

Pages: 96

Format: Paperback

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Release: November 03, 2005

ISBN: 0374530076

ISBN 13: 9780374530075

The Burial at Thebes: A Version of Sophocles' Antigone

3.9/5 ( ratings)

Sophocles' play, first staged in the fifth century BC, stands as a timely exploration of the conflict between those who affirm the individual's human rights and those who must protect the state's security. During the War of the Seven Against Thebes, Antigone, the daughter of Oedipus, learns that her brothers have killed each other, having been forced onto opposing sides of the battle. When Creon, king of Thebes, grants burial of one but not the "treacherous" other, Antigone defies his order, believing it her duty to bury all of her close kin. Enraged, Creon condemns her to death, and his soldiers wall her up in a tomb. While Creon eventually agrees to Antigone's release, it is too late: She takes her own life, initiating a tragic repetition of events in her family's history.

In this outstanding new translation, commissioned by Ireland's renowned Abbey Theatre to commemorate its centenary, Seamus Heaney exposes the darkness and the humanity in Sophocles' masterpiece, and inks it with his own modern and masterly touch.

Language: English

Pages: 96

Format: Paperback

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Release: November 03, 2005

ISBN: 0374530076

ISBN 13: 9780374530075

More books from Sophocles

Oedipus Rex

3.7/5 ( ratings)

Antigone

3.6/5 ( ratings)

The Oedipus Cycle: Oedipus Rex, Oedipus at Colonus, Antigone

3.9/5 ( ratings)

Antigone; Oedipus the King; Electra

3.9/5 ( ratings)

Sophocles II: Ajax / Women of Trachis / Electra / Philoctetes (Complete Greek Tragedies, #4)

4.1/5 ( ratings)

Ajax (Translations from Greek Drama)

3.9/5 ( ratings)

Greek Tragedies, Volume 1: Aeschylus: Agamemnon, Prometheus Bound; Sophocles: Oedipus the King, Antigone; Euripides: Hippolytus

4.2/5 ( ratings)

The Complete Plays

4.3/5 ( ratings)

Philoctetes

3.9/5 ( ratings)

Antigonick

4.3/5 ( ratings)

Edipo rey / Edipo en Colono

3.7/5 ( ratings)

Rate this book!

Write a review?