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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 January 2009
This scene constitutes the first meeting between Antigone and her sister Ismene since their dramatic parting at the end of the first scene, in which, as Jebb says (Antig. Introd., p. xxix), there has been shown to be ‘a spiritual division which no emotional after-impulse can cancel’. It is plainly seen that Ismene can never rise to taking part with Antigone in Polyneices’ burial; Antigone realizes this; so do the spectators, and no further scene should be required to emphasize it.
Page 80 note 1 Not, as Webster says of this scene (Greek Interpretations, p. 47), ‘to kill Antigone and spare Ismene’, which in fact he does not do till line 771, after Antigone has been condemned. Vide infra for the significance of this.
