"According to Greek legend, Antigone, the daughter of Oedipus, secretly buried her brother in defiance of the order of Creon, king of Thebes. Sentenced to death by Creon, she forestalled him by committing suicide. The theme of the conflict between Antigone and Creon - between the state and the individual, between man and woman, between young and old - has captured the Western imagination for more than 2000 years. George Steiner here examines the far-reaching legacy of this great classical myth.

He considers its treatment in Western art, literature, and thought - in drama, poetry, prose, philosophic discourse, political tracts, opera, ballet, film, and even the plastic arts. A study in poetics and in the philosophy of reading, Antigones leads us to look again at the influence the Greek myths exercise on twentieth-century culture."--BOOK JACKET.