The Burial at Thebes

In The Burial at Thebes Seamus Heaney delivers a powerful contemporary rendering of Sophocles Antigone that reanimates the ancient tragedy for modern readers. The drama centers on Antigone, who defies King Creon by giving her brother Polynices a proper burial, exposing the clash between personal conscience and state law, the costs of unchecked authority, and the tragic consequences of inflexibility. Heaney preserves the poetic intensity of the original while giving the chorus and characters a fresh, resonant voice, making the moral urgency and human suffering immediate and accessible. The result is a compact, devastating exploration of civic duty, familial loyalty, and the price paid when power overrides compassion.