ABSTRACT
Lines 904–20 of Sophocles’ Antigone form one of the most vexed and controversial passages in classical literature. 1 Antigone, about to be buried alive as punishment for having defied Creon’s official prohibition against burying her brother Polyneices, proclaims that she would not have done for a husband or child what, at the cost of her life, she has done for her brother. Addressing Polyneices, she says:
