The Story of Antigone

"The Story of Antigone by Ali Smith, Illustrated by Laura Paoletti This is my favourite of the five books I’ve recommended. To be honest, I prefer Ali Smith’s version to Sophocles’s. It’s a lot funnier, for a start. But it follows the same plotline and is part of the ‘Save the Story’ series from Pushkin Press, which gets the best writers to retell great stories from around the world and across history for today’s children. The story goes like this: Antigone is the daughter of exiled Theban king Oedipus. Her two brothers, Polynices and Eteocles have been killed battling with each other for the Theban throne. The new king, Antigone’s uncle Creon, has ordered that Polynices – who attacked the city to reclaim power from his brother Eteocles – is a traitor and shouldn’t be given a proper burial. As a grieving sister who doesn’t want her brother’s body to be left to the animals, Antigone defies her uncle’s orders, even though she knows that death is the penalty. Outraged at having his will challenged, Creon orders Antigone – who also happens to be his son’s fiancée – to be shut up in a cave and left to starve to death. Although he later has a change of heart, it’s too late. Antigone has killed herself inside the tomb and Creon’s son kills himself in grief as well, as does Creon’s wife. In this way, Creon finds his punishment. The crow narrator is a stroke of genius. He reminds me a little of Statler and Waldorf from the Muppets – cynically watching events unfold from his greedy vantage point above the battlefield, casting snide aspersions on the cast of humans (or ‘still-alives’ as he calls them) but also, in a completely unsentimental way, showing his appreciation for the bravery of Antigone. There’s a brilliant little interview between Smith and the crow at the end of the book, in which she explains that she chose him as a narrator because Sophocles’ version of the drama is full of crows, who stand poised to devour the bodies of the unburied dead. This in turn leads to a discussion about the separation between the supposedly civilized, tame world of humans and uncivilized, savage world of animals, and how fine the line is between them. Ancient Greek dramas usually featured a chorus of some kind – a group of people (maybe town citizens, as in this case) who respond and comment in unison on the action as it unfolds. They also hold up a mirror to the reaction of the spectators in the theatre and reflect on the moral conflicts at stake in the story. In The Story of Antigone , the elders act as Creon’s voice of conscience in a way, nudging him towards realizing the awfulness of what he’s done. But Smith also injects moments of almost Python-esque humour into the chorus scenes which I love. There’s one early on when the chorus is reciting away in verse, and they suddenly stop mid-sentence because they can’t think of a rhyme for temple, and start throwing out all kinds of daft alternatives like ‘bemples’ and ‘demples’. Nah! If they’ve survived the Greek myths, they will be fine with this (it’s not like I’ve suggested they read Oedipus. That really would mess with their heads). I think it’s important that children learn not to be afraid of unhappy endings but in a way, despite the bleakness of this story, there is something curiously uplifting about it. It’s about love and being brave enough to be the lone voice standing up to tyranny, when going along with the crowd would be easier."