How about the names of everyone else? Seeing as how Oedipus is long gone by the time this story roles around, I decided to choose Antigone, Creon, Ismene, Haemon, Eteocles, Polyneices, and Eurydice to do name-meaning research on. From Oxford Reference Online, I found the proper criteria - except for Ismene's meaning, found elsewhere.
Let us begin! To start off, Antigone's name is a combination of a couple things. The anti means "against" or "contrary." The second half translates to "born." This character is contrary-born. It makes sense. One usually isn't birthed by your mother and your father/brother. Why it fits with Antigone herself better than Ismene though has to do with personality. She's the rebel of the two sisters - the one who is against Polyneices disgrace by Creon. (Cha-ching!)
The name Creon means "lord" or "ruler." I think it's important that Sophocles didn't choose a name for him that meant rash or stubborn. While the character does, indeed, act that way, Sophocles chose to instill a name that would allow this particular king to have a reasonable side. An important characteristic in the plays that would follow....
Ismene's name, according to the site I visited, means "knowledgeable." From the descriptions I've come to take as standard over the years, Ismene is usually counted just as Antigone's opposite: unwilling to do what the headstrong Antigone can and will. I've provided a clip from the beginning of the play where only Antigone and Ismene are the players:
With Haemon, I expected to find a meaning that was more along the lines of Antigone's meaning - maybe something rash or brave or dramatic... instead there was an area, Thessaly, known as "Haemonia" back in the day. It was very close to Thebes. It is possible that Haemon could have been taken from this name.
The names Polyneices (the disgraced brother) and Eteocles are much more straightforward. Eteocles means "true glory" and Polyneices means "much strife." (It seems Creon would have been content with those definitions...)
Finally, there's the minor character, Eurydice, Creon's wife. Hers was very interesting, as the name stems from Greek mythology. She was the wife of Orpheus, the amazing lyre player. Upon her death, Orpheus was granted his wish of going to the underworld to retrieve her - on the condition that she travel behind him and he not to turn and look at her as they exit. Sadly, he does glance behind him and she is lost to him forever. As is the wife of Creon....
Thus concludes the characters' names I researched! Es muy interesante.
Works Cited
"Antigone" A Dictionary of First Names. Patrick Hanks, Kate Hardcastle, and Flavia Hodges. Oxford University Press, 2006. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. Central Washington University. 28 October 2010 Albert Schachter " Creon (1)" The Oxford Classical Dictionary. Ed. Simon Hornblower and Anthony Spawforth. Oxford University Press 2009. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. Central Washington University. 28 October 2010
Herbert Jennings Rose , B. C. Dietrich "Pelasgus" The Oxford Classical Dictionary. Ed. Simon Hornblower and Anthony Spawforth. Oxford University Press 2009. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. Central Washington University. 28 October 2010
Bruno Helly "Thessaly" The Oxford Classical Dictionary. Ed. Simon Hornblower and Anthony Spawforth. Oxford University Press 2009. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. Central Washington University. 28 October 2010
"Orpheus" The Oxford Dictionary of English (revised edition). Ed. Catherine Soanes and Angus Stevenson. Oxford University Press, 2005. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. Central Washington University. 28 October 2010
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