In the spring of 440 BCE, the people of Athens gathered at their annual festival of Dionysus to watch Sophocles’ Antigone — the tragedy of a young woman protesting against the state’s treatment of her dead brother Polyneices. On Martin Luther King Jr Day, students from the Department of Classical Studies will read passages from this ancient play, after which there will be a discussion of its relevance to current issues of patriotism, justice, violence, and dissent.