Antigone: a new version - Softcover

Brendan Kennelly's new version of Sophocles' Antigone is probably the most substantial Irish drama since W.B. Yeats was writing...This is, of course, a political tragedy. Antigone, in deciding to bury her disgraced dead brother, is playing true to the laws of the gods and to the instincts of the family. But she is playing against the man-made law of Creon, who believes, as he must, that civil law and order must be the saving of society in Thebes. -- David Nowlan * Irish Times *

After the death of Oedipus, his sons turn on each other. When both are killed, the inflexible Creon becomes King of Thebes. While the loyal Eteocles is buried with due honour, Creon orders that the body of his rebellious brother Polyneices should be left to rot. But his sister Antigone refuses to let this happen. Sophocles' great play dramatises the resulting conflict, a battle of wills which leads to inevitable tragedy. Antigone was a set text on the new Leaving Certificate syllabus in Ireland. This edition includes short essays by Brendan Kennelly, Terence Brown and Kathleen McCracken. It is out of print in this edition but the whole text is included in When Then Is Now: Three Greek Tragedies.