Under the cover of night, dutiful daughter Antigone sneaks out to bury her dead brother, angering the new King of Thebes. She is captured by the watchman and brought before the king, who sentences her to be buried alive in a cave. This decision sets off a chain of tragic events, costing several lives and cutting short the royal line of Thebes.

The final chapter of the Theban plays, Antigone was the first to be written of the three surviving works. Even though it was written in a time of political fervor, the play contains no allusions to the current events of the time. Aristophanes keeps the focus squarely on the characters and the moral failures of tyrants.

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