ANTIGONE

Antigone is a daughter of the accidentally incestuous marriage between King Oedipus and his mother Jocasta.

In the civil war that ensues after the death of Oedipus, her two brothers kill each other. After this event, Creon declares that, as punishment,one brother's ' body must be left on the plain outside the city to rot or eaten by the wild animals. On the other hand, the other brother is given a State Funeral.

Antigone determines this to be unjust, immoral and against the laws of the gods, and is determined to bury her brother regardless of Creon's law. Antigone buries her brother by herself; eventually Creon's guards discover this and capture her. Antigone is brought before Creon, where she declares that she knew Creon's law but chose to break it, expounding upon the superiority of 'divine law' to that made by man. She defies his arguments, provoking his wrath and punishment.

Sophocles' Antigone ends in disaster, with Antigone hanging herself after being condemned to die walled up in a cave, and Creon's son Haemon, who loved Antigone, killing himself after finding her body. ( Queen Eurydice, wife of King Creon, also kills herself at the end of the story due to seeing such actions allowed by her husband. She had been forced to weave throughout the entire story and her death alludes to the Fates.

The flowers around the edge are Ismene (Spider lily).

Ismene is also the name of Antigone's sister who would not participate in the burial of her brother for the fear of Creon (thus a wall flower.) The center panel is a modern rendition of Antigone chasing wild dogs away from her brother's body.