What happens in Prologue – Antigone and Ismene of Antigone?
The play begins at dawn outside the palace gates of Thebes. Antigone has secretly called her sister Ismene to share heartbreaking news: their brother Polynices, who was killed in the civil war against Eteocles, has been denied a proper burial by the new king, Creon. While Eteocles will receive full military honors, Polynices will be left unburied on the battlefield, his body exposed to animals—a significant violation of Greek religious beliefs. Antigone has already decided to bury Polynices herself and asks Ismene to join her. Ismene refuses, arguing that as women, they lack power and must obey Creon's decree. She urges Antigone to stay within the law and yield to those in authority. Unmoved, Antigone tells Ismene she will go through with her plan alone, even if it means dying for it—a fate she sees as honorable and beautiful. The sisters part ways in disagreement: Ismene retreats into the palace, while Antigone heads toward the battlefield. The prologue sets up the central conflict as something Antigone has already accepted, framing it as a predetermined choice before the actual drama unfolds.
Analysis
Sophocles begins with striking boldness: the protagonist has already made her choice. There’s no scene of deliberation, no moment where Antigone weighs her options. This choice tightens the moral conflict into the dynamic between the sisters, shifting the prologue from mere plot setup to exploring two opposing worldviews. Ismene isn’t a coward—Sophocles provides her with clear, even sympathetic reasoning—but she operates within the realm of the living, focusing on the practical and the survivable. In contrast, Antigone functions within the realm of the dead and the divine, and Sophocles reflects this in her language: she speaks in absolutes, her syntax direct and unqualified.
The theme of burial—what the earth owes a body—is introduced here as both a religious obligation and a political statement. Creon's decree blurs the line between civic law and divine law, and Antigone's defiance first asserts that these two orders are fundamentally different.
The primary artistic technique in the prologue is tonal contrast. Ismene’s speech is careful, conditional, and filled with qualifications; Antigone’s is assertive, almost liturgical. The dawn setting emphasizes this: light breaks onto a world already split. Sophocles also establishes the play’s central irony early on—Antigone's view of death as freedom mirrors the rationale Creon will later use to assert his authority, although neither character recognizes the reflection the other presents.
Key quotes from Prologue – Antigone and Ismene
“And now what is the proclamation that they say the commander has just made to the two of us? Do you know it? Have you heard it? Or does it escape your notice that the evils of our enemies are marching against those we love?”
Antigone opens the dialogue by pressing Ismene, framing Creon's edict immediately as a personal and familial wound rather than a political matter.
“I will bury him myself. And even if I die in the act, that death will be a glory.”
Antigone states her intention and her acceptance of its consequences, collapsing the distance between duty and self-sacrifice into a single declaration.
“We must remember that we two are women, so not to fight with men; and that since we are subject to stronger power, we must hear these orders, or any that may be worse.”
Ismene articulates the pragmatic case for compliance, grounding her refusal in social reality rather than moral indifference—a position Sophocles treats with notable fairness.