Antigone

Reading Check and Short Answer Questions on key plot points are designed for guided reading assignments, in-class review, formative assessment, quizzes, and more.

Scene 1 and 1st Ode

1. What is the new law that Kreon has introduced?

2. Why does Ismene refuse Antigone’s request?

3. Which type of law does Antigone follow?

4. What does Ismene say she will do for Antigone?

5. What is the subject of the 1st Ode by the Chorus?

Short-Answer Response

Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Who is Oedipus? What is the story of Oedipus that happened before this play begins?

2. Who is Antigone? How does she compare with Ismene?

Paired Resource

Oedipus Rex

• The SuperSummary guide to the Ancient Greek tragedy by Sophocles
• In which ways is Oedipus similar to Antigone? In which ways are the two protagonists different?

Scene 2 and 2nd Ode

Reading Check

1. Who is Kreon?

2. What does Kreon ask of the Chorus?

3. What news does the guard bring?

4. What does Kreon command of the guard?

5. Which theme does the chorus discuss in the 2nd Ode?

Short-Answer Response

Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Describe the different burials that Polyneikes and Eteokles will receive. Why does Kreon want their burials to be different?

2. Compare and contrast Kreon’s and the Chorus’s responses to the covering of Polyneikes in Scene 2. Who do they each think did this? Why?

Scene 3 and 3rd Ode

Reading Check

1. Why does the guard return with Antigone?

2. Who does the Chorus compare Antigone to?

3. In the 3rd Ode, the Chorus states: “No pride on earth is free of the ___ of heaven.” What is the missing word in this quote?

Short-Answer Response

Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Why does Kreon request Ismene’s presence during his meeting with Antigone? Describe the encounter.

2. How are Antigone and Ismene to be punished, according to Kreon? How does this decision complicate matters further for Kreon’s son?

Paired Resource

Excerpt from Oedipus at Colonus

• An excerpt from a dialogue between Ismene and Oedipus in Sophocles’s Oedipus at Colonus
• Compare and contrast the characterization of Ismene and Antigone in Oedipus at Colonus.

Scene 4 and 4th Ode

Reading Check

1. Who is Haimon?

2. How does Haimon respond to Kreon’s decision regarding Antigone and Ismene?

3. What does Kreon believe is an “evil” in societies?

4. What does the 4th Ode reveal about how the Chorus feels about Antigone?

Short-Answer Response

Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. In his monologue, Kreon focuses on the importance of discipline and obedience. Describe his primary concern at the end of the monologue: He is most worried about his men losing to whom?

2. What is the general public’s opinion of Antigone, according to Haimon?

3. In their disagreement, Kreon and Haimon each believe the other is in the wrong. Why? On what basis does each believe the other to be at fault?

Scene 5 and 5th Ode

Reading Check

1. What punishment does Kreon declare for Antigone in Scene 5?

2. What does Antigone wish upon Kreon?

3. According to the Chorus in the 5th Ode, what cannot be changed?

Short-Answer Response

Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. In this scene, Antigone and the Chorus clash on several issues. What are their differences?

Scene 6 and 6th Ode

Reading Check

1. Who is Teiresias?

2. What future does Teiresias predict for Haimon?

3. Who helps Teiresias walk away?

Short-Answer Response

Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. What words of caution does Teiresias share with Kreon?

2. What does the Chorus advise Kreon to do? How does Kreon react?

Paired Resource

Excerpt from Oedipus Rex

• An excerpt from the dialogue between Teiresias and Oedipus in Sophocles’s Oedipus Rex (please read lines 300-407)
• Compare and contrast the reactions of Kreon in Antigone and Oedipus in Oedipus Rex in their conversations with Teiresias.

Scenes 7 and 8

Reading Check

1. What news does the Messenger bring to the Chorus?

2. Who is Eurydice?

Short-Answer Response

Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Describe what happened to Polyneikes’s body, according to the Messenger’s account in Scene 7.

2. What does Kreon discover in the palace in Scene 8?

Paired Resource

Eurydice in Thebaid (Book 10. 783-827)

• The account of Kreon’s wife, Eurydice, by the Roman poet Statius
• In Thebaid, Eurydice mourns for her children; however, the circumstances are different. What are the circumstances in the Roman poem versus the Greek play?

Recommended Next Reads

Antigone, In a Version by Bertolt Brecht

• The 1948 play by German playwright Bertold Brecht, who retells the story of Antigone set during World War II
• Compare and contrast the representation of Antigone in Sophocles’s and Brecht’s versions of the story.

Antigone: An Introduction

• A short video introducing Greek tragedy and the play Antigone
• The National Theatre in London created this resource to accompany its 2012 production of Antigone.
• Watch some of the scenes from the National Theatre production above. Does this interpretation of the play differ from your understanding or expectations? If yes, how so?