Antigone: List 1

by Sophocles
After defying her uncle, the king of Thebes, Antigone is sentenced to death. This classical tragedy, translated from the Greek by Francis Storr, explores the tension between duty and family.

This list covers vocabulary from "Ismene, sister of my blood and heart"–"no man cares to hear ill news."

Here are links to our lists for the play: List 1, List 2, List 3

Here is a link to our list for Oedipus the King by Sophocles.
15 words 12812 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. grievous
    causing or marked by grief or anguish
    To me, Antigone, no word of friends
    Has come, or glad or grievous, since we twain
    Were reft of our two brethren in one day
    By double fratricide
  2. lament
    a cry of sorrow and grief
    But Polyneices, a dishonored corse,
    (So by report the royal edict runs)
    No man may bury him or make lament—
    Must leave him tombless and unwept
  3. promulgate
    put a law into effect by formal declaration
    Such is the edict (if report speak true)
    Of Creon, our most noble Creon, aimed
    At thee and me, aye me too; and anon
    He will be here to promulgate, for such
    As have not heard, his mandate
  4. transgress
    act in disregard of laws, rules, contracts, or promises
    ...'tis in sooth
    No passing humor, for the edict says
    Whoe'er transgresses shall be stoned to death.
  5. abet
    assist or encourage, usually in some wrongdoing
    Say, wilt thou aid me and abet?
  6. abhor
    feel hatred or disgust toward
    Bethink thee, sister, of our father's fate,
    Abhorred, dishonored, self-convinced of sin,
    Blinded, himself his executioner.
  7. abide
    dwell
    How sweet to die in such employ, to rest,—
    Sister and brother linked in love's embrace—
    A sinless sinner, banned awhile on earth,
    But by the dead commended; and with them
    I shall abide for ever.
  8. specious
    plausible but false
    A specious pretext.
  9. vindicate
    maintain, uphold, or defend
    Against our land the proud invader came
    To vindicate fell Polyneices' claim.
  10. paean
    a hymn of praise
    For Zeus who hates the braggart's boast
    Beheld that gold-bespangled host;
    As at the goal the paean they upraise,
    He struck them with his forked lightning blaze.
  11. miscreant
    a person without moral scruples
    But for the miscreant exile who returned
    Minded in flames and ashes to blot out
    His father's city and his father's gods,
    And glut his vengeance with his kinsmen's blood
  12. precedence
    the act of coming before in time or order or rank
    ...never by my will
    Shall miscreants take precedence of true men,
    But all good patriots, alive or dead,
    Shall be by me preferred and honored.
  13. inter
    place in a grave or tomb
    The corpse had vanished, not interred in earth,
    But strewn with dust, as if by one who sought
    To avert the curse that haunts the unburied dead:
    Of hound or ravening jackal, not a sign.
  14. gainsay
    take exception to
    Our quest was at a standstill, when one spake
    And bowed us all to earth like quivering reeds,
    For there was no gainsaying him nor way
    To escape perdition
  15. perdition
    the place or state in which one suffers eternal punishment
    Our quest was at a standstill, when one spake
    And bowed us all to earth like quivering reeds,
    For there was no gainsaying him nor way
    To escape perdition
Created on Wed May 29 19:54:36 EDT 2013 (updated Tue Aug 05 10:44:25 EDT 2025)

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