Starting Antigone: Materials and Videos

Today, we started reading Antigone. Most classes got through the Prologue and the Parodos.

Summary of Prologue:

• Antigone tells her sister, Ismene, that their uncle, King Creon, has made a new law.
• The new law states that no one may give a proper burial for their brother, Polyneices.
• Antigone does not like this law, and intends to bury him anyway.
• She asks Ismene to help her bury their brother.
• Ismene declines to help her, saying that the law is too strong, and she is afraid of the consequences.
• The sisters fight verbally about this conflict.
• Antigone and Ismene eventually leave separately, still mad at each other.

Parodos:

• This is a feature of ancient Greek plays that is not seen in modern plays. 
• In the Parodos, the Chorus and Choragus would sing about whatever just happened in the play. Sometimes they would offer commentary and explain what happened in the play, or they could also talk about "the moral of the story" or give background information.
• This is similar to how in a modern-day musical, a big event will happen, and then everyone sings about it and gives more information about it.
• In this particular Parodos, the Chorus and Choragus give us the story of the battle between the brothers that ended in their deaths.
• This Parodos also offers a "moral of the story" - For God hates utterly the bray of bragging tongues. (Par. 21-22)

You can download the entire text of Antigone online! Click here. The line numbers are slightly different than our book, but the text is the same.

While we read, we are completing a Quote Hunt for Antigone. Click here to download it.

Need help? Click here for a thorough character list. I found a production of our particular translation on YouTube. You can play it and read it at the same time, like an audiobook. You can play it here:

Part 1:



Part 2:



Part 3:



Part 4: (Play ends at about 5:35)