Truly Bewept, Full of 
Strife: The Myth of 
Antigone, the Burial 
of Enemies, and the 
Ideal of Reconciliation 
in Ancient Greek 
Literature
Matic Kocijančič*
In the second half of the twentieth century, the myth of Antigone 
gained enduring prominence in Western public discourse under the 
influence of its rich literary, dramatic, philosophical, and philological 
reception.1 In this reception, one can recognize some clear interpre-
tive trends, namely: interrogating the meaning of individual and 
collective revolt, in-depth treatments of fundamental existential and 
ontological questions (seen through Antigone’s situation), and more 
or less successful comparisons of the struggle between Antigone and 
Creon with modern political phenomena.
Some such traditions of reception – for instance the Slovenian, 
Polish, and Argentine ones – also have certain distinctive features that 
strongly diverge from the central interpretive trends.2 Two of these 
distinctive features are particularly evident. The first is that connections 
* University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Arts, Department of Comparative Literature 
and Literary Theory, Aškerčeva 2, 1000 Ljubljana; matic.kocijancic@ff.uni-lj.si.
1 This article was written in the framework of research program no. P6-0239, 
which was co-funded by the Slovenian Research Agency. For the Slovenian ver-
sion, on which the English one is based, see Kocijančič, “Objokovati Mnogo-
zdraha.”
2 For an introduction to these features in Slovenian and Polish tradition, see 
Inkret, “Agnieszka, Antigona,” 361–77. For an introduction to Argentine inter-
doI: https://doi.org/10.4312/clotho.3.2.55-72
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MATIC KOCIJANČIČ56
are drawn between the myth of Antigone and the concrete historical 
issues of the unburied victims of mass killings in the Second World 
War and later conflicts of the twentieth century. The second – related 
to the first but raising its own set of problems – is that connections are 
drawn between the myth and socio-political projects of reconciliation 
(this holds especially true for Slovenia, where the project of so-called 
national reconciliation played a pivotal role in cultural life in the 
second half of the 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s).
The leading contemporary interpreters of the myth of Antigone 
most often deal with its most famous formulation, Antigone by So-
phocles. Less attention is paid – hardly any of it outside philological 
debates – to its broader classical context, its epic sources, other tragic 
versions of it, and the responses to them in late antiquity. What, 
then, are the fundamental features of this almost thousand-year-long 
ancient tradition, and to what extent do they connect with the cen-
tral emphases of the Slovenian – and in important ways also of the 
Polish and Argentine – reception of its core myth: the questions of 
the unburied dead and reconciliation?
PRE-SOPHOCLEAN SOURCES OF THE ANTIGONE MYTH
Some of the key characters and motifs of the Theban myth appear 
for the first time in Greek literature already in Homer. Oedipus is 
fleetingly mentioned in Book 23 of the Iliad (677–80):
Εὐρύαλος δέ οἱ οἶος ἀνίστατο, ἰσόθεος φώς,
Μηκιστῆος υἱὸς Ταλαϊονίδαο ἄνακτος, 
ὅς ποτε Θήβασδ᾿ ἦλθε δεδουπότος Οἰδιπόδαο
ἐς τάφον· ἔνθα δὲ πάντας ἐνίκα Καδμείωνας.
Euryalus alone uprose to face him, a godlike man, son of king 
Mecisteus, son of Talaus, who one time had come to Thebes for the 
burial of Oedipus, when he had fallen, and there had worsted all the 
sons of Cadmus.3
In the Odyssey (11.271–80), the outlines of the myth of Oedipus have 
already become more straightforward and its details somewhat more 
recognizable:
pretations of the Antigone myth, see Fradinger, “An Argentine Tradition,” 67–89.
3 Translation by A. T. Murray.
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TRULY BEWEPT, FULL OF STRIFE 57
μητέρα τ᾿ Οἰδιπόδαο ἴδον, καλὴν  Ἐπικάστην,
ἣ μέγα ἔργον ἔρεξεν ἀιδρείῃσι νόοιο
γημαμένη ᾧ υἷι· ὁ δ᾿ ὃν πατέρ᾿ ἐξεναρίξας
γῆμεν· ἄφαρ δ᾿ ἀνάπυστα θεοὶ θέσαν ἀνθρώποισιν.
ἀλλ̓  ὁ μὲν ἐν Θήβῃ πολυηράτῳ ἄλγεα πάσχων
Καδμείων ἤνασσε θεῶν ὀλοὰς διὰ βουλάς·
ἡ δ᾿ ἔβη εἰς Ἀίδαο πυλάρταο κρατεροῖο,
ἁψαμένη βρόχον αἰπὺν ἀφ᾿ ὑψηλοῖο μελάθρου,
ᾧ ἄχεϊ σχομένη· τῷ δ᾿ ἄλγεα κάλλιπ᾿ ὀπίσσω
πολλὰ μάλ̓ , ὅσσα τε μητρὸς  Ἐρινύες ἐκτελέουσιν.
And I saw the mother of Oedipodes, fair Epicaste, who wrought a 
monstrous deed in ignorance of mind, in that she wedded her own son, 
and he, when he had slain his own father, wedded her, and straight way 
the gods made these things known among men. Howbeit he abode 
as lord of the Cadmeans in lovely Thebe, suffering woes through 
the baneful counsels of the gods, but she went down to the house 
of Hades, the strong warder. She made fast a noose on high from a 
lofty beam, overpowered by her sorrow, but for him she left behind 
woes full many, even all that the Avengers of a mother bring to pass.4
The passage describes Oedipus’ incestuous relationship with his mother 
– in Homer, her name is Epicaste, in Sophocles, Iocaste – but Homer 
does not mention any children from this relationship. However, the 
Iliad (4.376–86) does also feature Polyneices and Eteocles (whom a 
vital part of the literary tradition prior to Attic tragedy held to be the 
sons from Oedipus’ second marriage):
ἦ τοι μὲν γὰρ ἄτερ πολέμου εἰσῆλθε Μυκήνας
ξεῖνος ἅμ᾿ ἀντιθέῳ Πολυνείκεϊ, λαὸν ἀγείρων·
οἱ δὲ τότ᾿ ἐστρατόωνθ᾿ ἱερὰ πρὸς τείχεα Θήβης,
καί ῥα μάλα λίσσοντο δόμεν κλειτοὺς ἐπικούρους·
οἱ δ᾿ ἔθελον δόμεναι καὶ ἐπῄνεον ὡς ἐκέλευον·
ἀλλὰ Ζεὺς ἔτρεψε παραίσια σήματα φαίνων.
οἱ δ᾿ ἐπεὶ οὖν ᾤχοντο ἰδὲ πρὸ ὁδοῦ ἐγένοντο,
Ἀσωπὸν δ᾿ ἵκοντο βαθύσχοινον λεχεποίην,
ἔνθ᾿ αὖτ᾿ ἀγγελίην ἐπὶ Τυδῆ στεῖλαν Ἀχαιοί.
αὐτὰρ ὁ βῆ, πολέας δὲ κιχήσατο Καδμεΐωνας
δαινυμένους κατὰ δῶμα βίης  Ἐτεοκληείης.
4 Translation by A. T. Murray.
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MATIC KOCIJANČIČ58
Once verily he came to Mycenae, not as an enemy, but as a guest, in 
company with godlike Polyneices, to gather a host; for in that day they 
were waging war against the sacred walls of Thebe, and earnestly did 
they make prayer that glorious allies be granted them; and the men 
of Mycenae were minded to grant them, and were assenting even as 
they bade, but Zeus turned their minds by showing tokens of ill. So 
when they had departed and were with deep reeds, that coucheth in 
the grass, there did the Achaeans send forth Tydeus on an embassage. 
And he went his way, and found the many sons of Cadmus feasting 
in the house of mighty Eteocles.5
A key aspect of Homer’s fleeting treatments of the Theban myth is the 
following. Precisely due to their fleeting nature and lack of explana-
tions, one can read out of them the presumption that they were widely 
familiar, from which one may deduce that the myth is considerably 
older yet. At the same time, it is plain that the myth differs in certain 
essential features from its most celebrated portrayals in Attic tragedy: 
the Homeric Oedipus falls in an armed struggle; there is no informa-
tion in the text about his blindness or his exile; after the disclosure 
of his incestuous relationship, he continues to rule Thebes, where he 
also dies in the end (the epic tradition is consistent concerning these 
significant differences from Sophocles’ representations).6
For our purposes here, the most crucial difference is that Antigone 
does not appear at all in Homer. Other vital characters from Antigone, 
however, do appear in Homer, albeit not in any way that would be 
comparable to their role in Sophocles’ version of the Theban story: 
Tiresias plays a notable role in the Odyssey (11); the Iliad also mentions 
Haemon (4.391–400) and Creon (9.98), and the latter is also mentioned 
in the Odyssey (11.269–70).
Antigone is also absent from later sources up to the fifth century 
BC, although some key texts about the Theban myth – e.g., the The-
baid, which according to Christiane Zimmermann’s speculations, 
is the likeliest candidate for a mention of Antigone in the early epic 
literature7 – have been lost (except for a few fragments and testimonies 
that make at least a partial reconstruction possible).
The Thebaid is part of the Theban cycle, which included the Oe-
dipodea and two works of lesser relevance for our topic, the Epigoni 
and the Alcmeonis. The Thebaid and the Oedipodea held an important 
5 Translation by A. T. Murray.
6 Cf. Cingano, “Oedipodea,” 221.
7 Zimmermann, Der Antigone-Mythos, 66.
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TRULY BEWEPT, FULL OF STRIFE 59
place in ancient Greek literature: the Greek geographer Pausanias, 
who lived around 110–180 CE, bestowed on the Thebaid the title of 
the third most crucial poetic work after the Iliad and the Odyssey.8 
They also formed the primary written source of Theban mythology in 
the Greek world before the Attic tragedy (and were also the primary 
source on which the tragedians drew for their fresh interpretation of 
this mythological material).9 Together they form an extensive poetic 
work, comparable to the Odyssey in length, in terms of the total verse 
count. Their authorship has often been attributed to Homer, although 
even ancient writers already had their doubts. The present-day con-
sensus on their dating holds that they are younger than the Homeric 
epics but that places in the latter indicate knowledge of the Thebaid 
and summarize it. Therefore, researchers speculate that this poetry 
had lived in the oral tradition before the Iliad was composed and was 
most likely written down in the first half of the sixth century BC.10 The 
Oedipodea is, in all probability, the first poem in the Theban cycle 
and is, therefore, older than the Thebaid; however, it is currently not 
possible to date its composition more accurately.11
What characteristic contents, then, can one reconstruct from the 
few fragments (two fragments of the Oedipodea and eleven fragments 
of the Thebaid) and testimonies available to us? The two preserved 
fragments of the Oedipodea12 are both extremely intriguing concerning 
the broader context of the myth of Antigone, and they offer insights 
into the originality of Sophocles’ approach to the inherited myth. In 
the first fragment, we learn that the Sphinx killed “great and small,” 
among them also “the most handsome and loveliest of all, the dear 
son of blameless Creon (Κρείοντος ἀμύμονος), noble Haemon.” Here 
for the first time, the family relationship between Haemon and Creon 
is defined the way we know it from Antigone. However, at the same 
time, the content of the fragment is entirely different from Sophocles’ 
story: Creon is characterized in a very positive way as a noble man free 
of any guilt, and Haemon dies as a victim of the Sphinx, a creature 
that Oedipus will later defeat, thus triggering the tragic unfolding of 
his story. This means, of course, that the Haemon of the Oedipodea is 
considerably older than the Haemon in Sophocles (and the Haemon 
in later variations on the story of Antigone), and that he plays no role 
8 Cf. West, Greek Epic Fragments, 42–43; Torres-Guerra, “Thebaid,” 228.
9 Torres-Guerra, “Thebaid,” 227.
10 Ibid., 243.
11 Cingano, “Oedipodea,” 214–215.
12 Cf. West, Greek Epic Fragments, 38–43.
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MATIC KOCIJANČIČ60
in the crucial events of Theban mythology which follow. From the 
perspective of our topic, he died before Antigone was even born.13
In the second fragment – summarized from Pausanias’ testimony 
– one learns that Oedipus did not have children with his mother 
Epicaste / Iocaste in the Oedipodea either, but instead had his “four 
children” with his next wife, Euryganeia. From the information 
about the number of children, one may conclude (though only con-
tingently, as Pausanias relies on the broader pre-tragic outlines of 
the myth and uses the Oedipodea only as proof of the true mother 
of Oedipus’ children) that the two sisters of Polyneices and Eteocles 
had already appeared in the Theban cycle. They might have at least 
been mentioned, even though they do not appear in the preserved 
fragments. Pausanias begins his testimony with the words “That he 
[Oedipus] had children by his mother, I do not believe,” supporting 
his view with an interpretation of Homer’s Odyssey and a reference 
to the content of the Oedipodea (9.5.10–9.5.11). Here, then, Pausanias 
uses older sources to polemicize against the later transformation of 
the myth of Oedipus that characterizes Sophocles’ Theban trilogy. 
Why was this emphasis so crucial to the ancient geographer, and why 
did it also interest the Greek epic poets, as it clearly did? According 
to one of the most convincing historical explanations, the reason is 
that Greek aristocratic families often justified their status with their 
blood descent from the heroic lineages of epic mythology, including 
that of Oedipus; the emphatic rejection of his incestuous offspring thus 
served an understandable function in affirming this tradition.14 From 
the fragment under discussion and its historical background, one may 
deduce that Attic tragedy – with Sophocles leading the charge – pro-
vocatively sharpened the elements of incest in the myth of Oedipus 
and, thereby, the starting points for the tragic fates of his four children.
The Thebaid described the dispute between Polyneices and Ete-
ocles and the ensuing military campaign of the seven – Polyneices 
and the six Argive heroes (with their accompanying army) – against 
Thebes (with its seven city gates and their seven defenders, headed by 
Eteocles), in which the Argives were defeated and the two brothers 
killed each other, thus fulfilling the curse pronounced on them by 
Oedipus. From the preserved fragments15 we learn some details about 
13 Walter Kaufmann sees this detail as one of the most significant illustrations of 
Sophocles’ original departures from the mythological source material: Kauf-
mann, Tragedy and Philosophy, 110.
14 Cingano, “Oedipodea,” 223.
15 Cf. West, Greek Epic Fragments, 42–54.
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TRULY BEWEPT, FULL OF STRIFE 61
the background of Oedipus’ curse on his sons. However, these details 
presuppose an acquaintance with an essential segment of Oedipus’ 
personal history. As we know from the wider Theban mythology, 
Oedipus as a young man, on his way to Thebes, killed a stranger who, 
he would later learn, was his father and the former king of Thebes, 
Laius; thus was fulfilled the first part of the prophecy that Oedipus 
would kill his father and marry his mother.16 In one of the fragments 
of the Thebaid, Polyneices gifts his father a table and a cup that had 
belonged to King Laius, and Oedipus sees his son as trying to evoke 
the memory of his patricide, seeking to weaken his authority. In this 
fragment, he curses his sons: they shall not divide their inheritance 
amicably; rather, the inheritance shall be the cause of unending strife 
and fighting. In the second fragment, one learns that at every sacrificial 
slaughter, following custom, Eteocles and Polyneices sent their father 
the ritually prescribed part of the animal; this time, however, they 
had sent him an inappropriate, inferior part. The reasons why this 
troubled Oedipus vary – some researchers see it simply as a mocking 
dereliction of duty, continuing his sons’ weakening of the authority 
of their king and father, whereas others, in line with the previous 
fragment, also see in it a symbolic hint about the incest committed 
by Oedipus.17 Either way, having received this dishonorable gift, Oedi-
pus radically intensifies his curse and prays to Zeus that his sons kill 
each other in combat.
16 The classical sources differ over how Laius had earned this curse. The pre- 
Sophocleans, such as Pindar (the second Olympian Ode 39–42), above all men-
tion his disobedience to the oracle of Apollo. The tragic writers, especially Euri-
pides (the lost play Chrysippus), and later texts add the rape of Chrysippus, one 
of the sons of Pelops (Pelops prayed to Zeus for Laius to be punished, and his 
prayer was heard through the intervention of Apollo). Some researchers think 
rape was the primary cause of the curse in older versions of the myth as well. Cf. 
Lloyd-Jones, Justice of Zeus, 120. In any case, the transgressions of Laius stand 
at the beginning of the tragic fate that befell his line. Cf. Kyriakou, The Past in 
Aeschylus and Sophocles, 45–48. The motif of Laius’ rape of Chrysippus may also 
have been present in Aeschylus’s lost tragedy Laius. Cf. Kovacs, “The Role of 
Apollo in Oedipus Tyrannus,” 367. Kovacs speculates that Sophocles did not go 
over this background in his trilogy because it was already general knowledge at 
the time. Ibid.; cf. also Lamari, “Phoenician Women,” 264. Thomas K. Hubbard 
holds that Euripides’ treatment of Laius’ rape (as the source of the curse on his 
descendants) – which he, contrary to Lloyd-Jones, interprets as the tragedian’s 
invention – is a sign of changes in the Athenian sexual culture at the end of the 
fifth century BC. Hubbard, “History’s First Child Molester,” 223–244.
 17 Torres-Guerra, “Thebaid,” 231.
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MATIC KOCIJANČIČ62
The other preserved fragments do not refer to motifs of parti-
cular relevance to the development of Antigone’s background. In 
the secondary testimonies about the narrative arch of the Thebaid, 
however, there is a critical connection to our topic: Adrastus, king 
of Argos, who had managed to flee the clash of the seven, after the 
battle expresses the wish to bury his fallen comrades-in-arms; the 
Thebans grant his request (ibid. 227). Moreover, in connection with 
this episode, the secondary sources attribute excellent oratorical skills 
to Adrastus.18 The pre-tragic myth of the clash between Eteocles and 
Polyneices already describes the beginnings of the unburied attackers 
of Thebes. However, in the Thebaid, it is resolved without further con-
flict, and personal distinctions are attributed to the leading actor in 
this agreement (the later tradition, e.g., Aeschylus, ascribes the central 
role in this resolution to Theseus).19
At these critical points in the development of the Theban myth, 
too, we are still lacking any preserved source for the character of 
Antigone. In connection with this, it is particularly intriguing 
that her sister in Sophocles’ work, Ismene, appears as a heroine of 
Greek literature already in the seventh century BC with the poet 
Mimnermus.20 Although Ismene does not explicitly have family ties 
to the Theban royal family, she does appear in the battle for Thebes. 
However, this love story between her and one of the Theban warriors 
ends with her murder. Early Greek literature thus connects Ismene 
to the motif of the juvenile love affair that leads to death, which C. 
Zimmermann sees as one of the (minor) precursors to the Antigone 
myth.21 One may see this as extending and confirming the specula-
tive framework for the supposition that Sophocles – whose Ismene 
is a minor character with no explicitly tragic fate – developed the 
character, motivation, and fate of Antigone by displacing, merging, 
and accentuating some aspects from the secondary characters and 
motifs of the Theban epic heritage. At the same time, the case of the 
pre-Sophoclean Ismene again confirms, as does that of Haemon, that 
Sophocles’ depiction of events after the attack of the seven features 
characters whom earlier portrayals of the myth had let die during 
the battle or even well before it.
We will touch on one more pre-tragic source of significance to our 
topic. The Theban myth appears in the poet Stesichorus (630–555 BC), 
18 Torres-Guerra, “Thebaid,” 237.
19 Cf. Sommerstein, “Tragedy and the Epic Cycle,” 470.
20 Cf. Allen, The Fragments of Mimnermus, 133–144.
21 Zimmermann, Antigone-Mythos, 70.
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TRULY BEWEPT, FULL OF STRIFE 63
in an untitled poem that the philological reception likewise has named 
the Thebaid. Here, an important role is played by the queen of Thebes, 
the mother of Eteocles and Polyneices. It is not entirely clear whether 
this is Iocaste / Epicaste or Oedipus’ second wife (in light of the histor-
ical reasons described above, researchers incline toward the latter), but 
her role is, in any case, more prominent than in previous portrayals of 
the mother of Oedipus’ children. In Stesichorus, the queen resolutely 
intervenes in the beginning stages of the dispute between her sons and 
attempts (unsuccessfully) to achieve their reconciliation.22
Here, then, there appears for the first time in connection with 
the dispute between Polyneices and Eteocles, a female character 
with strong family ties, one who stands for the values of love and 
reconciliation at the outset of a lethal conflict in the family and the 
state.23 In this, one may, of course (under the speculative framework 
outlined above), recognize yet another pre-tragic motif that found a 
place in Sophocles’ condensed and transformed version of the myth, 
both in the context of Antigone’s (equally unsuccessful) attempt at 
reconciliation in Oedipus at Colonus and in the love-hate dichotomy 
that is a distinctive dimension of Sophocles’ Antigone. Stesichorus’ 
queen character, whose speech implicitly reveals that saving her sons 
matters more to her than the fate of the polis, also foreshadows the 
treatment of the tension between γένος and πόλις in tragedy.24
In the pre-Sophoclean tragic corpus, the first significant mile-
stone in developing the Antigone elements in Theban myth is the 
lost tragedy of Aeschylus, the Eleusinians (Eleusínioi, approx. 475 
BC). Thanks to Plutarch’s Life of Theseus,25 we know that this is the 
earliest known work to touch the question of the unburied attackers 
against Thebes and deal explicitly with the dispute over their burial. 
A key role in its resolution is played by Theseus, the mythic founder 
of Athens, who, just like Adrastus – who here asks Theseus for help 
– distinguishes himself with his peaceful, diplomatic approach. 
Plutarch adds that the bodies obtained were consequently buried 
in Attic soil.26 From this development of the myth and the role that 
Theseus, the leading Athenian hero, gains in it, one may read a strong 
connection between Attic cultural identity and the issue of burying 
wartime enemies.
22 Finglass, “Stesichorus, Master of Narrative,” 90–91.
23 Zimmermann, Antigone-Mythos, 76.
24 Ibid., 77.
25 Perrin, Plutarch, 67–69.
26 Ibid., 69.
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MATIC KOCIJANČIČ64
The preserved fragments of the tragedy contain a hint that one of 
the bodies posed a particular problem in the dispute – “the matter 
was urgent, the body was already putrefying”27 – but have no proof 
that this was about Polyneices.28 There is no (preserved) mention 
of Antigone here either, nor Ismene. At the same time, the critical 
difference from Sophocles’ treatment is that the issue of the unbu-
ried in the Eleusinians is developed and resolved primarily on the 
political, though inter-state, level, and not connected with the issue 
of religious or family obligation: the dead here belong primarily to 
the polis.29
SOPHOCLES’ ANTIGONE  
IN LIGHT OF THE BROADER TRAGIC CORPUS
Antigone first appears by name in the fifth century BC, but is first 
mentioned already before Sophocles, in a fragment by the mytho-
grapher Pherecydes of Leros / Athens.30 Pherecydes names all four 
of Oedipus’ children, but their mother is still Euryganeia, Oedipus’ 
second wife. As shown in our survey of the develop ment of the 
Theban myth, Greek literature before Sophocles had al ready drawn 
up some of the motifs, on which Sophocles’ portrayal of Antigone 
is based: the issue of burying fallen enemies, the prominent role of 
a figure of reconciliation, the tension between obligations to one’s 
family and one’s state. Still, most researchers agree that the central 
dramatic idea of Sophocles’ Antigone – with all its fundamental 
intellectual and political consequences that have fascinated modern 
thought and art – is highly original. The conflict between Antigone 
and Creon does not appear before Sophocles; there is no similar 
dispute in any previous source. The uniqueness of the tragedy was 
recognized by Sophocles’ contemporaries, confirming his stature 
as a giant of tragedy, and according to traditional biographical 
accounts, he was even appointed a general based on the fame it 
brought him.31 Even so, the core ideas of Sophocles’ Antigone were 
provocative both to his contemporaries and to their immediate 
successors.
27 Sommerstein, Aeschylus, 56–57.
28 Zimmermann, Antigone-Mythos, 85.
29 Ibid., 87.
30 Cf. Cairns, Sophocles: Antigone, 9; Zimmermann, Antigone-Mythos, 89.
31 For reservations, see Ruth Scodel, “Sophocles’ Biography,” 30–31.
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TRULY BEWEPT, FULL OF STRIFE 65
THE ENDING OF AESCHYLUS’ SEVEN AGAINST THEBES
Aeschylus’ Seven Against Thebes (467 BC), which describes the Theban 
campaign and its background – especially from the perspective of Ete-
ocles – ends in the style of Sophocles’ Antigone, but with specific vital 
differences. The burial of Polyneices is not forbidden by the autocrat, 
but is instead an impersonal decree of the state that has been voted on 
and is announced by a herald; Antigone’s declaration of disobedience 
is followed by a split in the chorus – the first half joins her, the second 
half goes with Ismene to the funeral of Eteocles. Some researchers32 see 
in this a divide of chorus’ opinion concerning Antigone, although the 
split could be understood in a less conflictual way. This dramaturgical 
solution, namely, has the chorus participating proportionally in both 
funerals, and the explanations for the decisions of the two half-choruses 
do not exclude each other; thus, the author of this ending is perhaps 
merely stating (rather guardedly) that both brothers deserved burial 
regardless of their blame and merit.
Seven Against Thebes is, of course, older than Antigone, but the 
ending outlined above is – in the opinion of most modern researchers 
– most likely pseudo-Aeschylean and was added to the tragedy some 
fifty years after it was written, due to the popularity of Sophocles’ 
Antigone. Aeschylus’ work is thought to have originally ended with 
the joint lamentation of the chorus for both brothers without pro-
blematizing the burial of Polyneices. Nevertheless, the problematic 
ending of the Seven – regardless of its authorship and exact dating – 
reveals essential aspects of the Attic understanding of the Antigone 
myth that was already pointed to in connection with the interpreta-
tion of Sophocles’ Antigone.33 At the same time, as Miola has acutely 
pointed out,34 it is also its first literary reinterpretation (assuming 
that the predominant view of the dating is correct) and thus forms 
the beginning of a vibrant literary tradition that one can follow from 
antiquity to the twenty-first century.
Euripides dealt with the Theban mythology in three works: in the 
Suppliants (423 BC), in the Phoenician Women (ca. 408 BC), and in 
Antigone (412–406 BC, now almost entirely lost). These works, which 
form the last great chapter in the Attic transformation of the Theban 
myth, also form a boundless laboratory for the dissection of Sophocles’ 
inventive legacy. On the one hand, they employ recognizable (hyper-)
32 E.g., Miola, “Early Modern Antigones,” 239–240.
33 See Kocijančič, “‘Nič drugega kot nič,’” 107–127. 
34 Miola, “Early Modern Antigones,” 239.
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MATIC KOCIJANČIČ66
Sophoclean strategies for reinvigorating and re-appropriating the 
myth. Characters that previous versions had already buried along the 
various steps of the myth here survive for considerably longer (or they 
die considerably earlier, as in the case of Eurydice in the Phoenician 
Women), thus providing a maneuvering space for new relationships 
and plots; the familiar motifs of the epic, lyric and tragic heritage are 
gathered and fused in unpredictable reincarnations; the mythological 
heroes’ wild character reversals breathe new meaning into inherited 
situations. On the other hand, the central material on which Euripides 
draws (and contests in many places) is Sophocles.
These procedures are perhaps at their most evident in the Phoe-
nician Women. Already the first scene holds a big surprise: Iocaste, 
who in previous versions of the myth (from Homer to Sophocles) 
commits suicide when it is revealed that Oedipus is her son and her 
husband’s killer, is here alive and introduces us to the events just 
before the attack of the seven. During this attack, she also plays a 
prominent part. One can recognize Euripides’ adaptation of an older 
tradition of portraying the mother of Oedipus’ children as striving 
for reconciliation between the two contending sons (see the section 
on Stesichorus above). Euripides nevertheless takes into account 
Sophocles’ transposition of this motif and doubles the conciliatory 
figure: Iocaste is joined in her peacemaking efforts by Antigone. The 
attempts to bring peace end in failure in Euripides, too; the joint death 
of Eteocles and Polyneices is similar to those in previous portrayals. 
However, the background story of (and the events after) their deadly 
battle differs radically from previous portrayals, and it seems as if 
Euripides finds particular inspiration in reversing the assumptions 
of his tragedian predecessors.
In Seven Against Thebes, Aeschylus paid particular attention to 
Eteocles (in this play Polyneices does not even get a word in), the 
defender of Thebes, who, as Kajetan Gantar notes, is “portrayed in 
panegyrical strokes as a courageous and blameless hero who is con-
stantly consumed by the flames of patriotism; all his thoughts and 
actions are directed toward saving and liberating the homeland”35 
from the enemy army of the traitor Polyneices. Nevertheless, in 
the final scenes of Aeschylus’ play, the evaluation of the characters 
and motivations of the brothers evens out (somewhat surprisingly 
so, considering what place Eteocles otherwise holds in the play). 
At the death of the brothers, the chorus tells us that they have “pe-
rished through their impious intent” (ὤλοντ᾽ ἀσεβεῖ διανοίᾳ, 833) 
35 Gantar, “Ajshil in njegova ‘drama polna Aresa,’” 12.
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TRULY BEWEPT, FULL OF STRIFE 67
as “men of much strife” (πολυνεικεῖς, 832);36 the name of Polyneices 
(Πολυνείκης), which is here applied in the plural to both brothers, 
is composed of the adjective πολύς (many, numerous) and the noun 
νεῖκος (quarrel, dispute); it thus describes a person with an excessive 
bent for conflict (Alojz Rebula translated Polyneices as netilec razdora, 
approx. “sower of division”;37 Kajetan Gantar also offers the alterna-
tives Mnogozdrah, “much strife,” and Zdrahar, “quarrelsome”).38 By 
naming them together in this way, Aeschylus unsettles the meaning 
of the name Eteocles, which is composed of the adjective ἐτεός (true, 
genuine) and the noun κλέος (fame): a “hero who personifies true 
fame”39 or who is “justly famed.”40 However, Aeschylus does not re-
habilitate Polyneices by renaming Eteocles; what balances the scales 
is instead a relativizing of Eteocles’ heroic status, tending toward 
disclosing their shared guilt.
Helen H. Bacon and Anthony Hecht, who place this turn and its 
etymological dimensions at the center of their interpretation and 
translation of the Seven, point out a possible alternative etymo-
logy for the name of Eteocles, substituting the verb κλαίω (I cry, I 
(be)weep, I lament) for the noun κλέος. They defend this reading with 
the fact that in the opening address of Aeschylus’ tragedy, Eteocles 
first pronounces his name in connection with a warning that there 
will be lamentation (οἰμώγμασίν / οἴμωγμα, 7) in the whole city (“the 
sea-lamentation / would sound the name ‘Eteocles’ / as wail and dirge 
all through the city”).41 Following their interpretation, Bacon and Hecht 
somewhat tendentiously insert this attractive philological conjecture 
into the translation, where Eteocles is not only renamed from “justly 
famed” to “justly bewept,” but also to the “true cause of weeping.”42 
Nevertheless, their final assessment of how Aeschylus evaluates the 
relationship between the two brothers does not differ substantially 
from Gantar’s. At the end of the tragedy, it becomes clear that “the 
names and fates of the brothers are interchangeable”; they are both 
“full of strife,” causes of the conflict, and hence “cause[s] of weeping”; 
and not least – with or without the controversial pseudo-Aeschylean 
ending – they are both worthy of and subject to being “truly bewept.”43
36 Smyth, Aeschylus: Seven Against Thebes, available online.
37 Rebula, Ajshil, 57.
38 Gantar, “Ajshil,” 11–13.
39 Ibid., 11.
40 Bacon and Hecht, “Introduction,” 14.
41 Hecht and Bacon, Aeschylus, 21.
42 Ibid., 57.
43 Bacon and Hecht, “Introduction,” 14–15.
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MATIC KOCIJANČIČ68
This intriguing highlight concludes this overview of the rich an-
cient tradition and its variations of Antigone’s myth, which reveals 
the centrality of the questions of reconciliation and the duty of burial 
as understood in classical antiquity. These issues, while not among 
the main interpretative fascinations in its reception in the twentieth 
and twenty-first centuries, have, as indicated in the introduction, a 
much more significant role in its Slovenian, Polish and Argentinian 
reception. The focus on the question of the burial of the dead and 
the question of reconciliation in these distinct interpretive traditions, 
therefore, establishes a particular bridge with an ancient sensibility 
that has been sidelined in the broader modern reception of the myth 
of Antigone.
Translated by Christian Moe
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TRULY BEWEPT, FULL OF STRIFE 69
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TRULY BEWEPT, FULL OF STRIFE 71
ABSTRACT
In postwar Western culture, the myth of Antigone has been the sub-
ject of noted literary, literary-critical, dramatic, philosophical, and 
philological treatments, not least due to the strong influence of one 
of the key plays of the twentieth century, Jean Anouilh’s Antigone. 
The rich discussion of the myth has often dealt with its most famous 
formulation, Sophocles’ Antigone, but has paid less attention to the 
broader ancient context; the epic sources (the Iliad, Odyssey, Thebaid, 
and Oedipodea); the other tragic versions (Aeschylus’s Seven Against 
Thebes and his lost Eleusinians; Euripides’s Suppliants, Phoenician 
Women, and Antigone, of which only a few short fragments have been 
preserved); and the responses of late antiquity. This paper analyses 
the basic features of this nearly thousand-year-long ancient tradition 
and shows how they connect in surprising ways – sometimes even 
more directly than Sophoclean tragedy does – with the main issues 
in some unique contemporary traditions of its reception (especially 
the Slovenian, Polish and Argentine ones): the question of burying 
the wartime (or postwar) dead and the ideal of reconciliation.
KEYWoRdS: the Antigone myth, ancient Greek literature, Homer, 
Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides
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MATIC KOCIJANČIČ72
OBJOKOVATI MNOGOZDRAHA: MIT O ANTIGONI, 
POKOP SOVRAŽNIKOV IN IDEAL SPRAVE  
V STAROGRŠKI LITERATURI
IZVLEČEK
V povojni zahodni kulturi je bil mit o Antigoni predmet vidnih literar-
nih, literarnokritičnih, dramskih, filozofskih in filoloških obravnav, 
nenazadnje tudi zaradi močnega vpliva ene od ključnih iger dvajsetega 
stoletja, Antigone Jeana Anouilha. Živahna razprava o mitu se je pogosto 
ukvarjala z njegovo najbolj znano formulacijo, Sofoklovo Antigono, 
manj pozornosti pa je posvetila širšemu antičnemu kontekstu; virom 
v epiki (Iliada, Odiseja, Tebaida in Ojdipodeja); drugim tragiškim 
različicam (Ajshilovi Sedmerici proti Tebam in njegovim izgubljenim 
Elevzincem; Evripidovim Prošnjicam, Feničankam in Antigoni, od 
katere je ohranjenih le nekaj kratkih fragmentov); in odzivom pozne 
antike. Prispevek analizira osnovne značilnosti te skoraj tisočletne 
antične tradicije in kaže, kako se na presenetljive načine – včasih celo 
bolj neposredno kot Sofoklova tragedija – povezujejo z osrednjimi 
vprašanji v nekaterih sodobnih izročilnih vejah njene recepcije (zlasti 
slovenske, poljske in argentinske): z vprašanjem pokopa vojnih (ali 
povojnih) mrtvih in idealom sprave.
KLJUČNE BESEdE: Antigonin mit, starogrška literatura, Homer, 
Ajshil, Sofokles, Evripid
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