''Antigone'' is a play by

Jean Cocteau Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau (, , ; 5 July 1889 – 11 October 1963) was a French poet, playwright, novelist, designer, filmmaker, visual artist and critic. He was one of the foremost creatives of the s ...

, written in Paris in 1922. The play is the myth as written by

Sophocles Sophocles (; grc, Σοφοκλῆς, , Sophoklễs; 497/6 – winter 406/5 BC)Sommerstein (2002), p. 41. is one of three ancient Greek tragedians, at least one of whose plays has survived in full. His first plays were written later than, or c ...

in 441 BCE, albeit a concise or abridged version. Cocteau himself called it a 'contraction' of the Sophocles text. The Antigone of Cocteau is modern, yet more traditional than the 1944 adaptation by

Jean Anouilh Jean Marie Lucien Pierre Anouilh (; 23 June 1910 – 3 October 1987) was a French dramatist whose career spanned five decades. Though his work ranged from high drama to absurdist farce, Anouilh is best known for his 1944 play ''Antigone'', an a ...

. Cocteau's fondness for mythological subjects is shown in this piece (as in The Infernal Machine (1934)).

Antonin Artaud Antoine Marie Joseph Paul Artaud, better known as Antonin Artaud (; 4 September 1896 – 4 March 1948), was a French writer, poet, dramatist, visual artist, essayist, actor and theatre director. He is widely recognized as a major figure of the E ...

played the role of

Tiresias In Greek mythology, Tiresias (; grc, Τειρεσίας, Teiresías) was a blind prophet of Apollo in Thebes, famous for clairvoyance and for being transformed into a woman for seven years. He was the son of the shepherd Everes and the nym ...

. It is dedicated to Genica Athanasiou, who played the title role.

Adaptations to television

* 1967 : ''Antigone'' (by Jean Cocteau, after Sophocles), TV movie by Jean-Claude de Nesle {{Oedipus 1922 plays Plays by Jean Cocteau Plays based on Antigone (Sophocles play)