Antiquities and Modernity: A Musicological Anamnesis of Antigone

Deemed by the Romantics as the greatest work of art, Antigone is still performed two millennia after its premiere. Sophocles’ work inspired many composers and Freud’s psychoanalysis. Furthermore, Mendelssohn’s Antigone much likely influenced Freud when the latter coined the term Oedipus complex, especially when we consider Freud’s dejudaization and identification with mythical characters from Antiquity. In the paper, we studied not only the Antigone that influenced Freud, but also later compositions, such as Saint-Saëns’. The latter anticipated Theodorakis’ version by references to not only Greek cultural heritages from Antiquity, but also to modern ones by means of an ethnomusicological approach to composition. A more recent Greek musical version of Antigone by Goyós distanced itself from the use of Greek popular music towards a more personal and contemporary approach. Nonetheless, Goyós’ Antigone heavily relied on the acoustics of Epidaurus thus creating a musical atmosphere very similar to that of Sophocles’ premieres.