Antigone Unmasked

Ancient Greek dramatists borrowed myths from the oral tradition and shared the belief systems they practiced as well as the theories of the origin of life. Any transformation was attributed to the gods who putatively manipulated and changed males into females and humans into animals. The theories of origin the Greeks embraced were the belief that three distinct sexes existed: male, female, and hermaphrodite. They evolved from spherical wholes, two people joined as one at the front with their faces and genitals on the posterior. The gods allowed them to search for their other halves. I have focused on Sophocles'' three Theban tragedies involving the Labdacid clan and viewed them from a twenty first century perspective. As a deconstructive work I include a chapter on translation for the benefit of understanding diachronic alterations and furnish Jean Anouilh''s construction in contrast where Antigone experiences an existential dilemma. Therefore I follow the philosophies of several existential philosophers and what we know of the manifestations of consanguineous matings in order to discover the essence of Antigone.