ANTIGONE, in Greek mythology, is a daughter of the incestuous marriage between Oedipus, king of Thebes, and Queen Jocasta. Antigone accompanied her father into exile but returned to Thebes after his death. In a dispute over the throne her brothers, Eteocles and Polynices, killed each other. The new king, Creon, gave Eteocles an honorable burial but ordered that the body of Polynices, whom he regarded as a traitor, remain where it had fallen. Antigone, believing divine law must take precedence over earthly decrees, buried her brother. Creon condemned her to be buried alive. She hanged herself in the tomb, and her grief-stricken lover, Haemon, Creon's son, killed himself. Antigone was the subject of plays by the ancient Greek playwright Sophocles and the 20th-century French playwright Jean Anouilh.
