In this book, Wm. Blake Tyrrell and Larry J. Bennett examine Sophocles' Antigone in the context of its setting in fifth-century Athens. The authors attempt to create an interpretive environment that is true to the issues and interests of fifth-century Athenians, as opposed to those of modern scholars and philosophers. As they contextualize the play in the dynamics of ancient Athens, the authors discuss the text of the Antigone in light of recent developments in the study of Greek antiquity and tragedy, and they turn to modern Greek rituals of lamentation for suggestive analogies. The result is a compelling book which opens new insights to the text, challenges the validity of old problems, and eases difficulties in its interpretation.

Wm. Blake Tyrrell is professor of classics at Michigan State University and the author of Amazons: A Study in Athenian Mythmaking (Johns Hopkins) and, with Frieda S. Brown, Athenian Myths and Institutions: Words in Action (Oxford). Larry J. Bennett has coauthored articles on the Antigone with William Blake Tyrrell which have appeared in the American Journal of Philology and Classical World.

Chapter 1 Foreword
Chapter 2 Preface
Chapter 3 Introduction: Insights, Contexts, Methods
Chapter 4 Ismene's Choice: Prologue (1-99)
Chapter 5 The Dust:Parodos and the First Episode (100-331)
Chapter 6 Antigone,Teras: First Stasimon and Second Episode (332-581)
Chapter 7 Haemon, Son and Citizen: Second Stasimon and Third Episode (582-780)
Chapter 8 Antigone, Bride of Hades: Third Stasimon and Fourth Episode (781-943)
Chapter 9 The Prophet Speaks: Fourth Stasimon and Fifth Episode (994-1114)
Chapter 10 Creon's Defeat: Fifth Stasimon andExodos (1115-1352)
Chapter 11 Bibliography
Chapter 12 Index