In an earlier tragedy, Antigone, he had portrayed the ultimate doom of Oedipus’ house. The play opened amid the aftermath of civil war. Oedipus’ two sons, fighting over the kingdom, both lay dead before the walls of Thebes. Only one, though, Eteocles, was to be afforded proper burial: for their uncle, Creon, succeeding to the throne, had decreed the second brother, Polynices, to blame for the war, and that as punishment his corpse be left as food for dogs and birds.
