Oedipus, the former ruler of Thebes, has died. Now, when his young daughter Antigone defies her uncle, Kreon, the new ruler, because he has prohibited the burial of her dead brother, she and he enact a primal conflict between young and old, woman and man, individual and ruler, family and state, courageous and self-sacrificing reverence for the gods of the earth and perhaps self-serving allegiance to the gods of the sky.
One of the greatest, most moving of all tragedies, Antigone continues to have meaning for us because of its depiction of the struggle between individual conscience and state policy, and its delicate probing of the nature of human suffering.
