In Greek mythology, Antigone was a Theban princess, daughter of Oedipus and (in most accounts) Jocasta, and sister of Polynices, Eteocles, and Ismene. She guided her blinded father in exile and later defied King Creon's edict by burying Polynices after the Seven against Thebes, for which she was condemned to entombment alive. Sophocles's Antigone is the canonical drama of her conflict between divine burial rites and the state's law. She is distinct from Antigone, wife of Peleus.
Adapted from Wikipedia, "Antigone" · CC BY-SA 4.0
I.Daughter of Oedipus
Antigone was born to Oedipus after he married his mother Jocasta (some variants name Euryganeia as mother of the children). When the incest and patricide were revealed, Oedipus blinded himself; Antigone alone accompanied him into exile, guiding him to Colonus in Attica in Sophocles's Oedipus at Colonus, where he dies under Theseus's protection.
Her Theban siblings are the brothers who later kill each other over the throne and the more cautious sister Ismene. This Antigone is not the same figure as Antigone daughter of Eurytion (or related traditions) who marries Peleus.
II.Burial of Polynices
After Eteocles and Polynices slew each other in the war of the Seven against Thebes, Creon — now ruler — buried Eteocles with honor but forbade burial of Polynices as a traitor, on pain of death. Antigone performed the burial rites anyway, arguing that the unwritten laws of the gods and of kinship outrank royal decree.
In Sophocles she is caught, condemned to be sealed in a tomb, and hangs herself; Haemon, Creon's son and her betrothed, kills himself beside her, and Eurydice, Creon's wife, follows in grief. Aeschylus's Seven Against Thebes and Euripides's Phoenissae and (lost) Antigone vary details of the edict, capture, and death.
III.Themes and reception
Antigone became the classical emblem of conscience against the state: family piety and divine law versus civic order and autocratic command. Later adaptations — from classical tragedy through modern drama, opera, and political philosophy — continually restage that clash.
Analysis often pairs her with Ismene (obedience versus defiance) and with Creon (whose late repentance comes too late), making the play a study of conflicting goods rather than simple villainy.