Ismene's Forced Choice: Sacrifice and Sorority in Sophocles' Antigone

This essay proposes a new solution to the problem of the first burial in Antigone and argues as well for taking seriously the sororal relationship, more loving than bitter, between Antigone and Ismene, evidence of which is examined in detail. Drawing on classics and political theory literature as well as Lacan and Lacanian thought, the essay argues that Romantic and liberal receptions of Antigone, committed to heroic or conscientious models of action, have occluded solidaristic forms of action evident in the play. The aim is to expand contemporary models of political agency as well as the play's dramaturgical repertoire.