Antigone by Sophocles - is an Athenian tragedy written by Sophocles in (or before) 441 BC and it was first performed at the Festival of Dionysus of the same year. It is thought to be the second oldest surviving play of Sophocles, only after Ajax that was written around the same period. The play is one of the three tragedies, known as the three Theban plays, following the stories of Oedipus Rex and Oedipus at Colonus. Even though it is the third in order of the events depicted in the plays, Antigone is the first that was written. The story expands on the Theban legend that predates it, and it picks up where Aeschylus' Seven Against Thebes ends. The play is named after the main protagonist Antigone.Prior to the beginning of the play, the brothers Eteocles and Polynices, leading opposite sides in Thebes' civil war, died fighting each other for the throne. Creon, the new ruler of Thebes and brother of the former Queen Jocasta, has decided that Eteocles will be honored and Polynices will be in public shame. The rebel brother's body will not be sanctified by holy rites and will lie unburied on the battlefield, prey for carrion animals, [a] the harshest punishment at the time. Antigone and Ismene are the sisters of the dead Polynices and Eteocles.