ABSTRACT
It was Bertolt Brecht who stressed that the myth of Antigone tells an entirely human story. Here people has two tragedies, two roles and ultimately two Antigones. It was initially the first image of Antigone, as the daughter who devotes herself to her blind old father, that attracted the attention of later writers. It is the one work that presents the whole of the story of Antigone on stage. The German philosopher Heidegger returned to Holderlin's analysis and took it to its ultimate extreme: for him, Antigone provides an example of transgression. Since the Second World War the myth of Antigone has gone from strength to strength. After 1944, Antigone touched the emotions of more people than she had done since Sophocles first presented her drama on the slopes of the Acropolis in 441 BC. The Athenian tragedy was re-staged by great national theatres and small provincial companies or youth groups alike.
