Timeline and Summary

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Timeline 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.