[3] This version is mentioned in no other extant classical writing, but the scene is represented on a sixth-century BC Corinthian black-figure amphora now housed in the Louvre.

[3] In another tradition by early fifth-century poet Ion of Chios, Eteocles's son Laodamas burned Ismene alive together with Antigone inside Hera's temple.

[2] Ismene is not named, but is seen at the end of Oedipus Rex as her father/brother laments the "shame" and "sorrow" he is leaving her and her sister.

The chorus (in this play the elders of Colonus) tell him that because he has walked on the sacred ground of the Eumenides, he has to "perform rites of purification."

Later in the play, in an attempt to force Oedipus to return to Thebes, Creon tells him that he has seized Ismene and takes Antigone away as well.

Ismene appears again at the end of the play with her sister as they mourn the death of their father and lament that they cannot join him.

[6] In the opening scene of the play Antigone tells Ismene of her plans to bury their brother Polynices, and asks her to join her.

At the end of the play the Chorus narrates Ismene and Antigone entering to sing a funeral dirge together for both of their brothers.