Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art: The Dinner Party: Heritage Floor: Antigone

Antigone, a tragic character from Greek literature, was the daughter of Oedipus. She defied King Creon by burying her brother, who had been put to death for attacking the Greek city of Thebes and denied burial to increase his shame. For her crime, Antigone was sentenced to die by being sealed in a cave, but the blind prophet Tiresias convinced the king to release her. However, they reached the cave too late: Antigone had hanged herself. Mad with grief, her fiancé, Creon's son, tried first to kill his father, then killed himself.