In about 441 BCE, Sophocles wrote Antigone, a tragedy that follows the dynamic between the titular character, King Creon, and Creon’s son (and Antigone’s lover) Haemon. After illegally burying the body of her criminal – in the eyes of Creon, anyway – brother Polynices, Antigone is ultimately condemned to be buried alive, much to the displeasure of Haemon. Antigone eventually takes her own life in the cave she was forced into, and after failing to kill his father, Haemon turns a blade on himself, ending his own life. Distraught at the events that have unfolded, Creon’s wife, Eurydice, takes her own life as well. This ending to the play can be read as a judgment by the gods upon Creon in light of his tyrannical acts. In placing his animus towards the deceased Polynices and Antigone above the interests of his own son and family, it could be argued that Creon upset the gods, leading them to ruin his whole world by taking the lives of his wife, son, and future daughter-in-law. Creon shows signs of a penitent attitude, but only after the death of Haemon. This underlying anti-authoritarian message is one that Sophocles deemed necessary to convey to his audience. As such, he made a very intentional choice regarding the setting of the play.

Despite being written to be performed in Athens for an audience of Athenians, Sophocles decided to set the play in Thebes. At the time, Athens and Thebes were essentially rival cities, having fought against one another in the First Peloponnesian War, which ended in 445 BCE (approximately five years before Antigone was first performed).  By setting the play in a city that his Athenian audience viewed as less sacred than their own city, Sophocles was able to explore certain themes or subjects in his production that might have offended or scared Athenians had the play been set in Athens. 

This Neatline exhibit illustrates the broader geopolitical realities and tensions of Antigone’s time, so the reader can better understand the historical context for Sophocles’s tragedy. Points labeled in Red on the map are cities loyal to the Peloponnesian League, while Blue cities were loyal to the Delian League. The timeline also contains additional dates for context that don't correspond to specific locations on the map.

Works Cited

Kelly, Thomas. “Argive Foreign Policy in the Fifth Century B.C.” Classical Philology, vol. 69, no. 2, University of Chicago Press, 1974, pp. 81–99.

Parker, Victor. A History of Greece, 1300 to 30 BC : 1300 to 30 BC, John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, 2014.