Antigŏné
（
Ἀντιγόνη).
1.
A daughter of Oedipus by his mother Iocasté, and sister of Ismené and
of Eteocles and Polynices. In the tragic story of Oedipus, Antigoné appears as a
noble maiden, with a truly heroic attachment to her father and her brothers. When Oedipus had
put out his eyes, and was obliged to quit Thebes, he was accompanied by Antigoné,
who remained with him till he died at Colonus, and then returned to Thebes. After her two
brothers had killed each other in battle, and Creon , the king of Thebes, would not allow
Polynices to be buried, Antigoné alone defied the tyrant, and buried the body of
her brother. Creon thereupon ordered her to be immured in a subterranean cave, where she
killed herself. Her lover, Haemon, the son of Creon , killed himself by her side. A play of
Sophocles gets its title from her name.
2.
The wife of
Peleus (q.v.), who hanged
herself from grief at the supposed infidelity of her husband. See
Pelopidae.
