Hegel called Sophocles' Antigone "the most magnificent figure ever to have appeared on earth." In the past decades, Antigone's star has again risen. The seminar is devoted to reading two Sophoclean plays, Antigone and the Oedipus at Colonus, and selections from the Oedipus Tyrannus and Euripides' Phoenician Women. We will also read influential modern and postmodern readings (Hegel, Lacan, Irigaray, Butler) and consider the reception of Antigone in political theory, gender studies, and ethics. The original Greek texts will be discussed in class. Students outside Classics with an interest in working in translation should contact the instructor.