The premiere of Seamus Heaney’s The Burial at Thebes, following an operatic makeover, at the Globe Theatre in London last month, was a fascinating development for this particular literary work.

The Burial at Thebes had its genesis in the centenary celebrations of The Abbey theatre when its Director commissioned a series of re-workings of ‘great’ plays. Seamus Heaney, Ireland’s Nobel Prize-winning writer, offered a version of Antigone – a tragedy by the ancient Greek poet, Sophocles.

This autumn’s new revision of Heaney’s play will, arguably, bring it closer to its Greek progenitor because of the operatic/musical element and the open-air performance. The ongoing appeal of ancient Greek tragedy and, possibly, Antigone in particular, merits some attention.

Ancient Greek Tragedy
The origins of what developed into Greek tragedy are uncertain, but what we now call Greek tragedy refers to a genre which reached its peak in 5th century BC Athens. The three great exponents were Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides.

While this may suggest that Greek tragedy was parochial in origin, it spread throughout the Mediterranean world and its popularity is evidenced by the remains of open-air theatres which can still be seen by anyone holidaying anywhere between southern Italy and Turkey. So why was this literary form popular in classical antiquity and why does it remain so nowadays for writers and audiences alike?

The golden era of tragedy followed, in many respects, the fortunes of the city of Athens. That trajectory saw Athens emerge from obscurity to become an imperial power in the Mediterranean world, and then saw that hegemony and prestige decline. An essential element in this path was the emergence of the polis or city-state and its attendant political organisation – democracy: rule by the people.

This was accompanied by an important clash/crisis in the value system as the move towards the city-state and its sense of communal value was a significant shift from the arrangements of scattered, smaller communities of an older Greek world where an individual lord/king sought prestige and honour for his position. Significantly, the notion of honour (timç, pronounced tee-may in ancient Greek) was based on material wealth rather than the more abstract concept which we have now. However, it really isn’t such an alien or ancient concept as the popular catch-phrase “keeping up with the Joneses” can testify!

One scholarly approach to Greek tragedy has spoken of ‘the moment of tragedy'. This refers to the fact that the subject material of Greek tragedy was taken from the traditional material or myths of archaic Greek society.

Furthermore, the crossover of this material into the world of the polis was somewhat anachronistic because it saw characters from heroic society placed in situations where they faced the concerns of contemporary society. The festival at which tragedies were originally performed was tied up with a celebration of Athens’ status in the world. Some scholarship has downplayed this ‘democratic’ element and instead emphasises how tragedy inherits its significance from the stories and concerns of the past.

This is in many respects a reference to Homer. There is a cliché about Homer being the bible of the Greeks and it is undeniable that the works attributed to Homer had a profound effect on the ancient Greek artistic and moral imagination. Aeschylus is said to have described his tragedies as "slices from the banquet of Homer".

It is clear that the enduring strength of tragedy lies in its ability to negotiate its past with the concerns of its present. This further explains Greek tragedy’s enduring ability to demand attention from subsequent writers and, just as importantly, engagement from later audiences.

Sophocles’ Antigone
The Sophoclean tragedy is centred around a dispute over the burial of a dead warrior, Polyneices, and its repercussions. Polyneices is, in fact, Antigone’s brother, but he died fighting her other bother, Eteocles, for control of the city of Thebes. In the immediate aftermath of battle, their uncle, Creon, who is the new ruler of the city, has issued a decree refusing to allow the burial of Polyneices’ corpse. Transgressors are to be executed.

The tragedy begins with Antigone revealing to her sister her determination to defy the decree. Thereafter, the plot follows various twists in the story together with typical Sophoclean dramatic moments, which make a great theatrical spectacle and an effective tragedy.

There is a diptych/two-part structure to the overall action. The first part covers Creon’s attempt to assert his decree culminating with the discovery of Antigone’s defiance. The position is made more complex by a possible off-stage divine intervention offering partial burial to the body. Honourable burial was an essential part of ancient Greek social life.

Nonetheless, Creon presses ahead and is determined to execute Antigone. He kills her by sealing her up in a cave. The second part of the play concerns the undermining of Creon’s position and a march towards his utter ruin. His position is shown to be wrong; his expressions about democracy are revealed to be autocratic and hollow. His downfall involves the suicides of his son, Antigone’s betrothed, and his wife. The tragedy ends with a scene displaying both of their corpses.

The Burial at Thebes
The Burial at Thebes was Heaney’s second attempt at writing a play. His first was a version of Sophocles’ Philoctetes which he called The Cure at Troy. A significant difference between the two plays is that Heaney didn’t deviate from the text of Antigone. In The Cure of Troy, Heaney introduced specific references to the conflict in Northern Ireland, such as the hunger striker’s father and the policeman’s widow, into the text of the play. There were no obviously contemporary intrusions into The Burial at Thebes. Nonetheless, public comments showed that Heaney saw contemporary resonance in the tragedy with its rhetoric about democracy and freedom.

The play premiered in the aftermath of the invasion of Iraq and it seems Heaney saw George Bush was a Creon-type figure. Furthermore, he also recalled the RUC’s attempt to take control of the body during the funeral of the hunger striker Francis Hughes at Toomebrigde in May 1981.

However, Heaney didn’t tamper with Sophocles’ overall text, though it is composed very much in the flavour of Heaney’s poetry. As a dramatic text, of course, it really comes to life when it is performed and the context is important.

The director of the original production in The Abbey introduced modern and contemporary elements in the dramatic setting. The palace background suggested architecture of a communist state; and Creon was adorned the attire of a military dictator. Both elements must have been a deliberate attempt to inject a sense of a totalitarian state.

In its revival in The Peacock earlier this year, the characters’ costumes pointed towards a 1940s setting and, with the set design showing a background wall dotted with bullet holes, it hinted at the fascism of World War II. The operatic version suggests its setting is “an ailing South American republic”. The political context and the ruler’s (ab)use of power are profoundly important thematic elements of this play.

Heaney is not, of course, the first artist to compose a version of Antigone. Since the 18th century, writers, composers and philosophers have all grappled with this particular Sophoclean tragedy and its meaning. Its exploration of conflicts between family and state, divine law and human law, male authority and female resistance continues to strike responsive chords in artists and audiences. This new version is a welcome addition to the ongoing tradition of representation and interpretation of Sohocles’ Antigone.

Dr David Fitzpatrick has researched Greek tragedy, with particular emphasis on Sophocles, at UCD and Nottingham. He contributed to the volume 'Sophocles: Selected Fragmentary Plays' which was published in 2006.