This tragic play written by Sophocles in the 5th century BCE has resonated with modern audiences and been adapted by writers such as Seamus Heaney and Bertold Brecht. Nelson Mandela played Creon in the South African version called The Island.
The ancient Greeks really knew how to write tragedies. First you have two brothers who kill each other in battle, then their sister, Antigone the daughter of Oedipus and his mother, kills herself after being walled up in a cave for breaking King Creon’s edict not to bury the brother who had sided with his enemy. Creon’s son, Haemon, who was engaged to Antigone, committed suicide in front of his father when no mercy was shown to his fiancée. On hearing this news, Creon’s wife, Eurydice, takes her own life.
Standing up for human rights, no matter what, might be one interpretation of this tragedy. The power of the state and the extreme measures to quash dissent might be another. It’s interesting that Mandela played the part of the unbending ruler, Creon, in the play performed on Robben Island
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