Who Did Not Bury Polyneices? The Mystery of the Double Burial in Sophocles’ Antigone
Keywords:
Greek drama, tragedy, Sophocles, Antigone, double burial, realityAbstract
Central to the plot and composition of Sophocles’ Antigone is an enigmatic sequence of events: Creon first receives reports that an unknown perpetrator has defied his ban and buried Polyneices; then, Antigone is caught in the act of an apparent new burial attempt. She is charged with having buried her brother, and confesses. But why, after the original successful burial, did she return to the deceased at all? In the twentieth century, this question became a major theme in the philological study of Antigone, and in recent years it has influenced both the theatrical staging and the rich philosophical reception of the tragedy. In this article, the author discusses the most influential interpretations of the so-called question of the double burial in its psychological, theological and narrative dimensions, and the decisive importance of this question for contemporary thought on the place of reality in Greek drama.References
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