Antigone in the 16th Century. Thomas Watson and Other Adaptations of the Sophoclean Drama, edited by Gherardo Ugolini

Sophocles’ Antigone circulated widely in sixteenth-century Europe, as shown by its many editions, translations, and adaptations. Yet a systematic study of its reception across different national contexts has been lacking. This collection of essays addresses that gap, beginning with Thomas Watson’s Latin version, examined by Dana Ferrin Sutton and Roger S. Fisher for its juridical and political implications. Tristan Alonge and Michele Mastroianni focus on the French reception, highlighting how the Greek lexicon is resemanticized through Christian theology. In the Italian tradition, Antigone becomes a paradigm of female heroism opposing tyranny and injustice, inspiring figures beyond the Sophoclean model (Matteo Bosisio). In intellectual circles such as the Florentine Orti Oricellari, she is also received as a symbol of civic virtue and resistance (Lorena Vallieri). The volume concludes with Giovanna Di Martino and Giulia Fiore’s comprehensive study of Antigone in early modern Europe, with particular attention to Italian, French, and Latin translations in the context of Reformation and Counter-Reformation tensions. In this period, Antigone is often reshaped into a model of heroic piety and resistance to tyranny, frequently stripped of its original tragic ambiguity. A particularly emblematic case is the vernacular translation by Guido Guidi (1607), inspired by the Protestant interpretation of Naogeorgus.