Antigone, daughter of Oedipus and Jocasta, confronts king Creon

Antigone was a striking character for her courage, loyalty and integrity. Her role grew in Sophocles' three Theban plays, culminating in the play Antigone.

In Oedipus Rex, Antigone is one of four children of Oedipus and Thebes' queen Jocasta. In that famous play, Oedipus, adopted son of the king and queen of Corinth, visits the Oracle of Delphi, who prophesies that he will kill his father and marry his mother. Appalled, Oedipus vows never to return to Corinth, but he does not realise he is adopted, and his new path promptly leads him to kill his real father and marry his mother, Jocasta.

The second play, Oedipus at Colonus, centres on Oedipus, blind and crippled, being supported by Antigone.

In the third play, the eponymous character confronts the new king, Creon, making a powerful and seminal case for natural law as a higher law than the arbitrary law of tyrants. Her courage is all the more remarkable for a woman in ancient Greece.