Antigone is another great play I have come across in my journey with Greek dramatists. This is my second play by Sophocles, and it differs from all others I have read so far in presenting a tragic heroine.
I absolutely adored the protagonist, Antigone. As the first tragic heroine I encountered in a Greek play, she fascinated me. Her courage, the defiance she showed against men’s injustice, her loyalty to her family, even in death, despite the personal peril that threatened her, and her fierce adherence to God’s decrees, placing her faith and trust in god’s justice, is remarkable. Antigone stands alone in her battle against King Creon’s decree that forbade a proper burial for Polynices, her brother, who turned traitor to his birth city. To the King, Polynices is a traitor not worthy of a proper burial since he has committed an offense of the highest degree against Thebes. Polynices must be dishonoured in equal measure, and denying funeral rites was the best way. But to Antigone, Polynices is her brother. Family bond called her to stand for justice for her dead brother. Also, the decree was a violation of god’s law. Antigone relies on both these defenses in her defiant action against the tyrannical order of King Creon.
Antigone pays dearly for her actions. But according to Sophocles, Antigone’s doom is not the result of this single defiant action of hers. Antigone is the daughter of King Oedipus, whose incestuous marriage is told in Oedipus Rex. As a child of such a union, tragedy is part of her inheritance.
” Once the gods have rocked a house to its foundations the ruin will never cease, cresting in and on from one generation on throughout the race.”
It is Oedipus’s curse that continues through his descendants. All must end in tragedy since their birth is also a tragedy. Oedipus’s two sons (Eteocles and Polynices) die fighting against each other; Antigone dies for defying the law, and Ismene survives to face unbearable grief.
King Creon, the antagonist, equally interested me. I knew a different Creon from Oedipus Rex and was horrified to meet this vindictive man. (I learned that Sophocles wrote Antigone before Oedipus Rex, which accounts for the discrepancy in the character.) Creon in Antigone is a tyrant. Although he claims to have imposed rules for the greater good of the city, his aims are more personal. In his argument with his son, Haemon, Creon says, “the city is the King’s-that’s the law!” which confirms his attitude. Creon is proud and stubborn. As a King, he doesn’t take well to advice. He is full of himself and even stands upto the gods. He violates the sacred decrees of the gods by denying the rites of the dead. The prophet Tiresias chastises Creon for his stupidity.
“All men make mistakes, it is only human. But once the wrong is done, a man can turn his back on folly, misfortune too, if he tries to make amends… Stubbornness brands you for stupidity-pride is crime.”
“You have no business with the dead, nor do the gods above-this is violence you have forced upon the heavens.”
Tiresias prophesies what would befall Creon for thinking he, a mortal man, is above the gods.
Sophocles demonstrates his view of the superiority of the gods and the consequences of being a tyrant. Greek was a democracy at the time of Sophocles. And the Greeks have suffered under dictatorship. So he needed to immortalise a play to support democracy and defeat any future dictatorship. Antigone expressly highlights that no mortal can go against the gods’ laws. The wisdom of men is limited, so no ruler should be conceited.
“Creon shows the world that of all the ills afflicting men the worst is lack of judgment.”
“Wisdom is by far the greatest part of joy, and reverence toward the gods must be safeguarded.”
Sophocles refers to collective wisdom here, a collective wisdom ensured by a democracy. At the same time, Sophocles emphasizes the importance of adhering to old rules that are wisely passed down because those rules are made to keep harmony between men and gods. This is the bitter truth Creon learns through tragedy.
“It’s best to keep established laws to the very day we die.”
I highly enjoyed Sophocles’ Antigone. To me, it was even better written than his Oedipus Rex.
Rating: 4/5
