Once upon a time two brothers, Eteocles and Polynices, died fighting against each other to win the throne of Thebes. Creon, their uncle and now the king, ordered Eteocles buried as a hero and the body of Polynices left on the battlefield to rot and be ravaged by wild animals, because the king deemed Polynices a traitor for waging war against the city. This desecration would condemn Polynices to wander the earth forever as an unhappy spirit.
The brothers’ sisters, Antigone and Ismene, were devastated by this repudiation of tradition and the law of the gods, but only the fiery Antigone dared defy Creon’s edict. Slipping out of the city, she performed the funeral rites over her brother’s body and covered him with a thin veil of earth. When she later found the dirt removed, she began conducting a second burial rite when a sentry apprehended her and brought her before Creon. After an acrimonious exchange, the king ordered Antigone sealed into a cave that would become her tomb.
