Antigone. One of the four children born of the incestuous union of Jocasta and her son Oedipus, Antigone accompanied her blind father to Colonus after his exile from Thebes.

    When her brothers Eteocles and Polyneices killed each other in their struggle for Theban rule, her uncle Creon seized the throne and, in violation of divine law, decreed that Polyneices should remain unburied. Defying this order, Antigone buried Polyneices and as punishment was entombed alive by Creon, even though she was betrothed to his son Haemon. Her sister Ismene, who had refused to help bury Polyneices, later tried to claim some of Antigone's guilt but was dismissed by Creon as insane.
Only after the seer Tiresias warned him that his impious actions would bring dire consequences did Creon relent. He set out to rescue Antigone from the tomb, but she had already hanged herself. Haemon committed suicide beside her corpse.
Representing the triumphant voice of individual conscience in defiance of the state, Antigone's story enjoyed a renaissance in the 20th century — particularly in theater, dance, and music — as a response to dictatorship in Europe.

See also Oedipus, at Colonus; Seven Against Thebes.