Oh Sister Ismene

I played Antigone once in my sixth grade production. I still remember the first line and the pleading look on my eleven-year-old face when I said it: "Oh sister Ismene! Unhappiness, calamity, disgrace, and dishonor have fallen upon us!"

Researching the play today, I tumbled into an internet rabbit-hole trying to pin down the meaning of Antigone's name. Like all etymological slip-and-slides, definitiveness is impossible, but the multivalent possibilities of those four little syllables are quite provocative.

We're all familiar with the prefix "Anti," which means against, opposed to, or the opposite of.

The second part of her name, however, poses more questions. Some sources claim it's related to the Greek word "gnomos" which means opinion or thought. An interpretation of this version or her name would be "one who goes against the opinions of others."

Another interpretation claims that the "gone" derives from the word "gonia" which means angle or bend (as in polygon). This gives us a vision of an Antigone who is unbending or unyielding.

Finally, there could be a relationship with the word "gonos," which means seed or semen, and is related to procreation as well as motherhood. This is the tricky interpretation. Was Antigone the first "man-hating feminist" of anti-feminist lore? Was she opposing motherhood and the "natural" flow of generations in the way she took on the masculine responsibility of defending her family's honor?

Oh Sister Ismene, for at least 2400 years, women who go against the opinions of others and hold to their beliefs in unbending ways have risked being seen as the enemy of mankind. All we want to do is bury our brother's body.