Summary The conflict between Eteocles and Polynices (the two sons of the dead king Oedipus, who claimed the throne of seven-gated Thebes) results in the death of both of them. The young king Creon orders that Polynices’ body stay unburied since he dared to plot against the city that raised him. His sister Antigone disobeys Creon’s order and buries his body. She is arrested, and Creon, even though she is the fiancée of his son, Haemon, orders her buried alive in a cave. According to prophet Tiresias, however, the law of gods that commands the burial of the dead is superior to human law, and so Creon is persuaded to annul his penalty and free Antigone. It is, unfortunately, too late since Antigone has hung herself, and Haemon kills himself over her dead body. His mother, Eurydice, also follows him in death, and a devasted Creon resigns his throne.