Antigone Study Guide Oxford World Classics Translated by H.P.F. Kitto, 1962 Name: Complete the following study guide as we read. I will be spot-checking it during the course of the play. You will be graded on these checks. Prologue (1-99) 1. The play opens with a prologue consisting of a dialogue between Antigone and her sister Ismene. What is the dramatic purpose of the prologue? 2. What problem does Antigone report to her sister? 3. What does Antigone intend to do? 4. What is Ismene s reaction to this intention? 5. What is Ismene s view of the relationship between men and women? 6. Briefly analyze the characterization of these two women in the prologue. Antigone Study Guide Page 1
7. What dramatic purpose does the character of Ismene serve? 8. Do you sympathize at all with Ismene s character? Why or why not? 9. Does Antigone treat her fairly? 10. Why is Antigone so concerned with glory (86)? Should she be? 11. How old do you think Antigone is? Why Parados Strophe 1 and Antistrophe: Song of Victory (100-161) 12. Although the events described in the parados are presented rather obscurely in poetic language as is characteristic of choral songs, can you summarize in a general way in one or two sentences what the Chorus is describing? 13. Panoply of Argos (109) refers in a collective sense to the Argive army which supported Polyneices in his attack on Thebes. Which side in the war does the Chorus favor and why? Antigone Study Guide Page 2
Scene 1 (162-331) 14. Creon in his first appearance in the play delivers a long speech outlining the philosophy that guides his actions and his edict (162-210). What human institution does Creon believe to be most important in life? 15. Compare his beliefs with those of Antigone. 16. On what specific points does Creon contradict Antigone (181-183; 185-188; 209-210)? 17. What is the Chorus s initial attitude toward Creon s decree (211-214)? 18. What is the dramatic purpose of the character of the Guard? 19. How is he characterized in this scene? 20. What view of Creon does the Guard present to us and why do you think this is so? (223-236)? Antigone Study Guide Page 3
21. What is Creon s reaction to the Guard s news (280-313)? 22. What does the chorus mean when they say that God s hand might be in this? 23. Look carefully at Creon s first speech. Consider his values and beliefs and ask yourself whether there is anything wrong with his principles. 24. What are some of the assumptions Creon makes about gender? Ode 1: Ode to Man ( 332-372) 25. The first ode is often referred to as the Ode to Man. The Chorus begins by singing: Wonders are many, yet of all / Things is Man the most wonderful (332-3). Make a list of man s civilized skills as enumerated by the Chorus. 26. According to the Chorus is there any limitation to man s mastery of nature (361)? Does it view man s cleverness as unambiguously wondrous or is there also something terrible about it (365)? Why or why not? Antigone Study Guide Page 4
27. According to this ode, what is human greatness? 28. Antistrophe 2 discusses the Law. What is the Law, and who might it apply to thus far? 29. When can a Cunning Man get into trouble? 30. Choral odes often generalize a given problem specific to the play s action into a statement about human life as a whole. Is this the case here? If so, then is the chorus alluding to Antigone or to Creon, or both? 31. To whom is the Chorus referring in the last stanza of the ode when it sings: Honored is he; dishonored, the man whose reckless heart / Shall make him join hands with sin: / May I not think like him, Nor may such an impious man / Dwell in my house (370-4). 32. Who appears on stage immediately after this ode? Connect the appearance of this character with what the chorus sings in the last stanza of the Ode to Man. Antigone Study Guide Page 5
Scene 2 (373-581) 33. The second scene presents the face-to-face confrontation of the two antagonists, Antigone and Creon. What is the attitude of the Chorus and the Guard with regard to the capture of Antigone (375; 437-40)? 34. Why is Creon so surprised with the Guard brings in Antigone? 35. What is significant about Antigone s second burial of the body? 36. Identify the animal imagery in the guard s speech (408-440). 37. How does Antigone defend her defiance of the edict (450-455)? 38. How does Antigone view the relationship between laws made by man and those created by the gods? 39. Creon hints that Antigone might be the tragic hero (473-4). How so? 40. What is Creon s view of the relationship between man and woman and the relative importance of blood ties vs. the ties of citizenship (484-8; 510-518; 526)? Antigone Study Guide Page 6
41. How does this contrast with Antigone s view of the same? 42. What is Antigone s attitude with regard to her deed (502-4)? 43. What is Antigone s attitude with regard to Ismene s attempt to share responsibility for the deed (537-560)? 44. What does Ismene mean when she says line 558? Ode 2 (583-630) 45. After the confrontation between Creon and Antigone, the Chorus sings of the misfortune that has come to Antigone and Ismene, who have been condemned to death. The Chorus puts this tragedy in the context of the calamities suffered by the House of Labdacus (594), the grandfather of Oedipus. Who brought these disasters on the House of Labdacus (584-601)? 46. Why has this family suffered so much and made such disastrous mistakes (613-25) Antigone Study Guide Page 7
Scene 3 (626-780) 47. How does Haemon originally feel about Antigone? Or what does he tell his father? 48. How would the Athenian audience have received Creon s statement to his son Haemon regarding the laws of the city? 49. How does the Chorus view his statements? 50. According to Haemon, what is the reaction of the common people to Creon s decree of death for Antigone (687-700)? 51. What advice does Haemon give to Creon (701-11)? 52. What is the point that Haemon is attempting to make to Creon by the analogies of the tree and ship (712-17)? 53. Creon disagrees with Haemon. Why? He changes his mind about how Antigone should die. Is his reasoning sound? 54. Why does Creon change Antigone's punishment from public stoning (36) to burial alive in a cave (773-780)? Antigone Study Guide Page 8
55. Compare the Creon in this scene with the one who first entered the play. Has he changed at all in language or conduct? Ode 3: Ode to Love (781-800) 56. What is the main theme of this brief Ode to Love? (Can you be more specific than just love?) 57. The ancient Greeks had three words for love: philia meaning something like friendship; eros which has more to do with passion; and agape, a spiritual love. When the chorus talks about love which of the three do they mean? Why do you think this? 58. Since choral odes generally comment upon the action of the previous episode, explain what connection this song has with the preceding scene? 59. Can you find any lesson for Creon in this ode? Antigone Study Guide Page 9
Scene 4 (801-943) 60. What new side of Antigone s character do we see (806-882)? 61. Antigone compares herself to Niobe (Tantalus s daughter) who because of her grief turned to stone (823-833). Who is Niobe and what does Antigone say that she and Niobe have in common (832-3)? 62. What difference and similarity between the two does the Chorus see (834-838)? 63. Consider Antigone s speech 891-928. Is it consistent with what she has argued before? How so or not? 64. Is Antigone s faith in the gods wavering here? How do you know this, and what does it say about her character and stance? 65. Read lines 925-28. Who is she talking about? Antigone Study Guide Page 10
66. Read lines 931-2. What is Creon talking about? Ode 4 (944-987) 67. The fourth scene presents three mythical examples which comment upon Antigone s situation. What do the first two mythic people, Danae and Lycrugur (the son of Drayas) have in common with Antigone (944-65)? Scene 5 (988-1114) 68. The fifth scene brings the appearance of the blind prophet Teiresias. What dramatic purpose does he serve? 69. What omens does he report? 70. What do these omens mean (1023-33; 1064-90)? 71. What is Creon s initial reaction to Teiresias report (1033-1047)? 72. How is this reaction characteristic of Creon (280-303)? Antigone Study Guide Page 11
73. Why does Creon finally change his mind about Teiresias (1095-7; 1091-94)? 74. What course of action does the Chorus recommend to Creon (1098-1101)? 75. What is Creon s reaction to this recommendation (1105-1106; 1108-12)? 76. What has Creon learned about law (1113-4)? Hymn of Praise (1115-1151) 77. Why in the hymn of praise does the Chorus choose to pray to Dionysus at this critical moment rather than to any other god? 78. What request does it make to the god (1140-42)? 79. Why is it relevant that this rather upbeat and positive tone is placed where it is in the play? Antigone Study Guide Page 12
Exodos (1155-end) 80. Is the prayer of the Chorus in the hymn of praise answered positively or negatively in the exodos? Why? 81. Why do you think that Creon goes to bury Polyneices first rather than to Antigone s cave, as he said he was going to do in he previous scene? 82. What does Creon find when he arrives at the cave? 83. What is the result of Creon's confrontation with Haemon (1225-43)? 84. Creon gives voice to one of the traditional themes of tragedy. What is it (1272-76)? 85. Why did Eurydice commit suicide (1301-05)? 86. What moral lesson does the Chorus see in the fate of Creon at the close of the play (1348-end)? Antigone Study Guide Page 13
87. Is Creon a tragic figure? Do you feel sympathy for him at the end as someone who initially tried to do what was right yet was overwhelmed by circumstance, or do you believe that he is a bullying, misogynistic controlfreak who gets what he deserves? 88. Could the play have been called Creon instead? 89. Do you think Antigone is a tragic figure? If so, what tragic characteristics does she have? If not, why not? Antigone Study Guide Page 14