THE LACANIAN SPLENDOUR OF ANTIGONE

She wants to bury her dead brother Polynices; King Creon forbids it.

The battle between Oedipus’ daughter Antigone (with her ethical and deadly desire) and Oedipus’ brother-in-law Creon (with his moral and uncompromising law) forms the dramatic arc of this Ancient Greek tragedy. Lacan devotes a section of Seminar VII, The Ethics of Psychoanalysis to the play, as follows:

THE ESSENCE OF TRAGEDY: A Commentary on Sophocles’ Antigone

Chapter XIX: The Splendour of Antigone
Chapter XX: The Articulations of the Play
Chapter XXI: Antigone Between Two Deaths

Lacan in Australia recently performed Sophocles’ Antigone in full, over two acts. Both recordings are available below. From September 2026, our weekly Reading Seminar turns to Lacan’s three chapters on Antigone in Seminar VII, The Ethics of Psychoanalysis. All welcome.