AntigonebySophocles

Sophocles (496-406 B.C.) came from awealthy family in Athens and took an ac-tive role in that city-state's political life. He

wrote 123 plays, but only seven of them havesurvived to the present. Antigone was a huge suc-cess for him at the dramatic festivals held inAthens. Ancient texts reveal that he was electeda general in the Athenian military because of thepopularity of this work.

Events in History at the Time the PlayTakes Place

Legends of the Bronze Age. The story ofAntigone is drawn from Greek mythology, a greatbody of oral tales that inspired later Greek paint-ing, sculpture, poetry, and theater. Scholars haveused ancient Greek writings that record theseoral tales, as well as inscriptions found by mod-ern archaeologists, to determine the genealogy,or family tree, of the legendary rulers of Thebes,the Greek city in which Antigone takes place.

According to legend, Thebes first came toprominence and power around 1380 B.C. underthe rule of a man named Cadmus, who was saidto have moved there from Phoenicia (present-day Syria). The people and events that Sopho-cles portrays in his play were thought to have oc-curred in the 1200s B.C., some eight hundredyears before Sophocles lived. This earlier periodof time is often referred to as the "Bronze Age"because the metal was commonly used by peo-ple of the era to fashion their weapons and house-hold tools.

Ancient myths, contemporary conflicts. TheTheban "cycle" of myths (about the legendaryrulers of Thebes) is one of three that were cen-

THE LITERARY WORKA play set in thirteenth-century B.C. Thebes;first performed in 442 B.C. in Athens,

SYNOPSISAntigone disobeys the laws of her ruler, Creon,in favor of the unwritten laws that she feelsmore properly govern society. She is con-demned to a ch if ling fate.

tral to Greek mythology; the other two are theTrojan War cycle and the stories of Jason and theArgonauts. The events in these myths are imag-ined to have taken place in the thirteenth andtwelfth centuries B.C., although this need not im-ply the historical existence of these heroes at thistime. Even the fifth century B.C. historian Thucy-dides, a contemporary of Sophocles, realized thatit was unwise to regard tales from the past as be-ing true:

In investigating past history . . . it must beadmitted that one cannot rely on every detailwhich has come down to us by way of tradition.People are inclined to accept all stories ofancient times in an uncritical way

[P]oets . . . exaggerate the importance oftheir themes, . . . the prose chroniclers . . . areless interested in telling the truth than incatching the attention of their public and[their] authorities cannot be checked and[their] subject matter, owing to the passage oftime, is mostly lost in the unreliable streams ofmythology.

(Thucydides, 1.20-1)

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In practice, Athenian playwrights often usedthe traditional stories to make points abouttheir own era, and they often used mythologi-cal conflicts to portray contemporary ones toan audience. Removing the action to the mythicpast, and using heroic characters, a playwrightwas able to touch on the profound and signif-icant issues of his day from a safe distance. Inthe Antigone, Sophocles focuses on the possibleconflicts between one's religion and one's pol-itics. His drama pits the laws of the gods againstthe laws of the state as reflected in one girl'sdecision to, contrary to city law, perform reli-gious burial rites for her brother, a traitor. TheAntigone may also be commenting on the con-flict in fifth-century Athens between the ancientaristocracy (which supported worship of fam-ily gods, ostentatious burial and oral tradition)and the newborn democracy (which supportedrespect for city gods, modest burials, and writ-ten laws).

The Play in Focus

The plot. By the time Sophocles wrote his play,the tragic dynasty of Oedipus, King of Thebes,had already been the subject of many poems andplays. The most famous of these were four playsby Aeschylus, another playwright of the same erawho was regarded as the first great writer ofAthenian tragedy. Athenian audiences thus knewthe tale of Oedipus intimately.

The story of Oedipus was used by Sophoclesto set the scene for the events depicted inAntigone. King Oedipus discovered that he hadby accident killed his father and married hismother. Horrified to discover the manner of hisfather's death and the identity of his wife, Oedi-pus blinded himself and went into exile. Onesource has Oedipus commending his childreninto the care of his mother's brother Creon; an-other of Sophocles' plays has Antigone faithfullyaccompanying Oedipus into exile, as his atten-dant. Oedipus later died, as did his wife andmother Jocasta, who hanged herself. Creon, whohad subsequently assumed the throne of Thebesas regent until Oedipus's two sons should growup, is now king in his own right.

These two sons, Eteocles and Polynices, hadbeen cursed by their father because they hadtwice insulted him. The curse included aprophecy that the boys would grow up to killeach other. Upon reaching adulthood, Eteoclesand Polynices fought over their inheritance; theyhad agreed to alternate the kingship, but, once

in power, Eteocles refused to give up the throne.Polynices left Thebes in anger and married intothe royal family of Argos. In Argos he assembledan army and attacked the city of his birth. Theseven gates of Thebes were assailed by seven he-roes, one of whom was Polynices himself. Allseven heroes died during the siege. Polynicesdied at the hands of his brother, who was mor-tally wounded during the struggle as well. Oedi-pus's prophecy was thus fulfilled.

Sophocles's play begins with Antigone and Is-mene, who were sisters of the recently deceasedPolynices and Eteocles. Antigone, obviously dis-tressed, reveals to Ismene the latest news: be-cause Polynices has been fighting against the cityof his birth, King Creon has now forbidden any-one to touch the corpse or give it a decent bur-ial. Antigone and Ismene argue about whether ornot they should bury Polynices' body. Ismene re-fuses to help in the illegal act, but Antigone se-cretly performs a ritual burial, dusting the corpsewith a light sprinkle of earth. Antigone's defianceof the king's wishes causes her to be arrested byCreon's guards and brought before him.Antigone admits and staunchly defends hercrime. When she is taken away, Creon's sonHaemon, who is engaged to Antigone, calmly at-tempts to convince Creon to yield his wrath. ButCreon is unbending, and Haemon leaves in arage. Creon then sentences Antigone to be en-tombed in a cave with barely enough food to liveon, a punishment to which she surrenders withbravery and dignity. Shortly thereafter, theprophet Teiresias arrives to warn Creon thatPolynices must be buried. Creon again refuses tolisten to advice. A messenger arrives with thenews that Antigone has hanged herself and thatHaemon, upon discovering her, killed himselfalso.

Religion and civic pride. Creon's anger atAntigone's disobedience may seem totally un-reasonable to modern readers. But her excusefor breaking his law might have seemed equallyunreasonable to an ancient Athenian audience:Antigone claims that a law higher thanCreon's—the law of Zeus—has directed her toact as she has. But the ancient Greeks did notlive according to a single code of ethical be-havior. No single god or organized church orparticular way of living was singled out as thebest. Religion was viewed more as a matter ofcivic identity and pride. Each city-state had itsown special gods that it worshipped. Citizenswere free to worship other gods if they so choseas long as they did not neglect the city's gods,

Antigone

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I Antigone

who were expected to watch over the city'sinterests.

Worship practices included making publicsacrifices or gifts to the city's gods and partici-pating in ceremonies with other city-dwellers.Every community cared for its own local ritualsin much the same way that it cared for its pub-lic affairs. In fact, religious activity was a signif-icant aspect of political life in Greek society. Thereverse was also true—civic duty and pride be-came a sort of religious obligation. This associa-tion between civic duty and religious practice

was so strong in Athens in the years immediatelyafter Antigone was first performed that worshipof the goddess Athena had turned more or lessinto worship of the city itself.

This situation in fifth-century Athens is clearlyreflected in the Antigone, despite the play's muchearlier Theban setting. Here, Polynices's betrayalof his city and Antigone's rejection of the civiclaw that forbids her from burying her traitorousbrother has serious, almost religious, implica-tions. Although Sophocles does not mention anyparticular god of Thebes in the play, Antigone

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refers to Zeus as the source of the law by whichshe acts. Sophocles may have included this ref-erence to suggest that she has perhaps aban-doned her local god in favor of a more universaldeity.

Unwritten laws. Antigone claims that "unwrit-ten and unfailing rules" led her to bury Polyn-ices. Sophocles thus alludes to an issue that wasa subject of much debate in fifth-century B.C.Greek society. How much power did such "un-written" laws have when they came into conflictwith civic laws?

Creon: Did you know that an edict hadforbidden this action?Antigone: I knew it, inevitably. It was nosecret.Creon: And still you dared to transgress theselaws?Antigone: Yes, for it was not Zeus whoproclaimed that edict to me, nor did that Rightwho dwells with the gods below lay down suchlaws for mankind; and I did not suppose thatyour decrees had such power that you, a mortal,could outrun the gods' unwritten and unfailingrules.

(Sophocles, Antigone, 446-57)

Pericles, the great Athenian general who dom-inated the social and political scene at the timethe play was written, addressed the issue of un-written laws, also known as laws of conscience.As one scholar notes, he seemed to suggest "thatthey are concerned with various matters outsidethe reach of ordinary laws. At least he claims thatthe Athenians respect them" (Bowra, p. 161).

These "various matters" are not clearly artic-ulated. Even the Greek historian Thucydides,who recorded the general's words, provides noadditional information on specific unwrittenlaws. Nonetheless, Pericles held that "we [Athe-nians] give our obedience to those whom we putin positions of authority, and we obey the lawsthemselves, especially those which are for theprotection of the oppressed, and those unwrit-ten laws which it is an acknowledged shame tobreak" (Pericles in Thucydides, 2.37). Pericleshere recognizes the power of unwritten laws butdoes not specify what they are or whether or notthey are supposed to take precedence over civiclaws.

Yet Sophocles insists in Antigone that such un-written laws are more important in regulating hu-man actions than any formal legal code workedout by men. Perhaps this commentary is a reac-tion to events taking place in Athens at the timeSophocles lived. Athenians were so proud of their

city and its political and artistic achievementsthat a form of city-worship arose. "In an age whenAthens was almost taking the place of her godsas an object of worship, the poet protested thatthe priorities were wrong and that if there is aconflict between divine and human law, there isno doubt which claims first obedience" (Bowra,p. 163). Sorting out which laws are human andwhich are divine could be difficult, however. Thelaw of Zeus that Antigone claims has guided heraction may actually be the law of her own con-science, as there were no universally applicableor "unfailing" laws attributable to Zeus or anyother Greek deity.

Creon vs. Antigone. The conflict betweenAntigone and the king of Thebes exists on manydifferent levels. Antigone is the daughter (andhalf-sister) of King Oedipus, to whose throneCreon has ascended. Her family history puts herin an uncertain social position in the court of thenew king, who may be hostile to the relatives ofhis predecessor.

Furthermore, Antigone's decision to bury herbrother is not only a violation of Creon's decree,but also an expression of disregard for the socialconstraints placed on young women of the era.Throughout ancient Greek history, women hadno say in political affairs whatsoever. They couldnot vote or hold public office. They were rarelyseen outside the home, except at such majorevents as festivals, marriages, and funerals.Antigone's sister Ismene reminds her of this sub-ordinate status when she says, "We must re-member, first, that we were born women, whoshould not strive with men" (Antigone, 46-47).Creon's thoughts regarding his battle of willswith Antigone are shaped in large part by hergender. When his son Haemon urges him to re-consider his terrible anger, the king responds,"While I am alive, no woman shall rule over me"(Antigone, 525). He seems to feel that his rule isthreatened by the decision of one woman to acton her own authority. In his depiction of the ten-sion between the willful Antigone and her uncleCreon, Sophocles suggests that the king's actionsstem partly from the prevailing philosophy aboutthe appropriate status of women.

Sources. Sophocles took the characters forAntigone from a well-developed body of Greekstories about the tragic family of Oedipus. Hemust have been especially aware of the work ofhis fellow playwright Aeschylus, who had alreadywritten about the Theban dynasty in his playSeven against Thebes. In writing Antigone, Sopho-cles created a separate tragedy that centered on

Antigone

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one of the lesser characters in Aeschylus's play.Sophocles used the familiar characters of theroyal family of Thebes but changed their actionsto suit his own dramatic purposes. Antigone's de-fiance of Creon, for instance, is a plot elementthat other writers do not mention in relating thestory of King Oedipus and his family.

Events in History at tine Time the PlayWas Written

Pericles, Creon, and Athenian democracy. Ac-cording to some critics, the character of Creonwas modeled at least in part on the great Athen-ian general Pericles, who dominated the Athen-ian political scene during much of Sophocles'public life. Sophocles was one of Pericles' fellowmilitary leaders and possibly his friend. If theportrait of Creon as a power-hungry, autocratic,and harsh leader does resemble Pericles, how-ever, the extent of that friendship is perhaps inquestion. In 442 B.C., when Antigone was firstperformed, Pericles' career was at its highestpoint. One school of thought argues that the fig-ure of Creon, who abuses his power, may havebeen intended as a veiled warning to Pericles and

ANTIGONE HONORS THE DEAD A SECOND TIME

Guard: When we arrived there ,,+ we wiped away all thedust that covered the corpse, stripped the damp body wel I,

and sat on top of a Nil! to windward, taking care that the smellfrom the body should not reach us.... After a long time .., thegirl was seen; and she uttered a piercing cry, the shrill note ofa bird, as it cries when it sees, in its empty nest, the bed bereftof nestlings- So she, when she saw the corpse bare, broke outin lamentation, and called down curses on those who had car-ried out the deed, And at once she brought thirsty dust in herhands, and lifting up a fine bronze ewer she paid her respectsto the corpse with a threefold libation.

(Antigone, 408-31}

the Athenian people about the dangers of dicta-torship. In the play, Creon stubbornly insists thatAntigone suffer an awful fate for her actions. Hisrefusal to listen to any line of reasoning servedto remind the Athenian audience of the terrorsthat tyranny could bring.

Democracy was a relatively new social devel-opment in Sophocles' Athens. It had been born

in the late sixth century B.C., after a long periodof dictatorship. Concerned that dictatorshipmight return, the populace set up strong laws de-signed to protect against just such a possibility.Athenian males who were not slaves could voteon the city's political and economic business. Asystem was devised wherein the city was man-aged primarily by ten generals. Each of these tengenerals came from one of the ten tribes intowhich democratic reformers had divided theAthenian people. To prevent power plays basedon family or regional biases, each tribe includedmembers from all over the state.

As one of the ten generals of Athens, Pericleswas subject to regular electoral approval and thuscould not establish a dictatorship through leg-islative means. Pericles did not need to establisha formal dictatorship, however; he was im-mensely popular and was, in essence, "the un-crowned king of Athens" (Wilcoxon, p. 207).

Other critics insist that Creon behaves as hedoes precisely because of the democratic ideal.He does not take into account his family ties toAntigone and Polynices when making his judg-ments. Instead, he treats them as though they arecommon citizens who have acted against the bestinterests of the city. In fact, when Ismene asksCreon to pardon Antigone because she is such awonderful match for his son Haemon, the kingretorts, "There are arable fields of others"(Antigone, 569), clearly reflecting Creon's viewthat Antigone is just another woman. As onescholar notes, "Creon, the political leader, cate-gorizes and simplifies; one female equals an-other. . . . In a perverse way, Creon's refusal to dis-tinguish, to particularize, to see differences, maymake him more the democrat than the tyrant"(Saxonhouse, p. 74).

Burial rites. Funerals in Greece were largely theresponsibility of women during Sophocles's time.They washed and dressed the body, adorned itwith flowers, and then covered it up. Only closerelatives participated in this ritual. After a death,the "prepared" corpse was laid out for two daysin the home and then taken away for burial be-fore the dawn of the third day. The funeral pro-cession—led by men and followed by lamentingwomen—wound slowly outside the city gates toa cemetery, where the body would be laid to rest.

The Greeks practiced cremation as well as bur-ial. If the former practice was chosen, the bodywas either burned in its grave or burned on a sep-arate pyre, after which the ashes were buried. Thedead person was typically buried with a varietyof offerings, including pottery, stone vases, and

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Antigone

personal possessions. By some accounts, traitorsand people who robbed temples were not enti-tled to be buried within Athenian territory, butthe historical record is far from consistent on this.Thus, as Andrew Brown points out in his trans-lation of Antigone, "whether [Creon] is justified inforbidding burial to Polynices is not clear. It wasevidently normal practice, at Athens and else-where, to forbid burial on their native soil to menconvicted of treason.... In such cases, however,the body would be cast outside the borders, ratherthan left in a place where it could cause pollu-tion to the city" (Brown in Sophocles, p. 6). Leftout in the sun for wild dogs to pick at, Polyn-ices's rotting body has just this effect. Creon's re-fusal to let anyone touch the corpse thus seemspoorly reasoned in this respect.

The sophists. Fifth-century B.C. Athens saw therise of a revolutionary group of teachers andphilosophers. Called the sophists, they turnedtheir attention away from the gods and goddessestoward the study of mankind. The opening ofAntigone features the famous "Ode to Man,"which echoes the ideas of this philosophicalmovement:

Wonders are many, and none more wonderfulthan man.... Subtle beyond hope is his powerof skilled invention, and with it he comes now

to evil, now to good. Respecting the laws of theland and the right of oaths sworn by the gods,he is a man of a lofty city; cityless is he whorecklessly devotes himself to evil.

(Antigone, 332-75)

The sophists were individual teachers whodiffered in their views as well as their standardsbut agreed that the main subject of their teach-ing should be human actions. A particular areaof study and emphasis was mankind's politicalviews. Teachers of middle-class origin, thesophists educated the young sons of the wealthyabout the practice of democracy. Pericles wasclosely acquainted with certain of the notablesophists in Athens and supported their influenceon the city's intellectual life.

Antigone, of course, features not only the "Odeto Man" but also several dramatic events thatpoint out a number of the faults of mankind. TheGreek word deina, which is sometimes translatedas "wonderful," can also mean "terrible." Somereaders contend that Sophocles seems to makeuse of this double meaning in his work, arguingthat his use of the word signifies a veiled criti-cism of a world view focused too intently on man.

The Athenian theater. Sophocles's plays werewritten to be performed in public at the greatTheater of Dionysus. Located in the heart of

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I Antigo\ne

Athens, the theater sat with other important citybuildings on the slope of the rocky hill of theAcropolis. Plays were usually staged during thefestival of Dionysus, the god of growth and wine,which took place at planting time in March.Crowds of 15,000 people regularly attended theperformances, and even criminals were releasedfrom prison in order to see the plays. Attendanceat these dramas was perceived to be a civic duty,in part because the plays often addressed im-portant social and political issues.

The dramatic part of the festival's programwas presented as a competition between play-wrights, each of whom put on four plays in the

THE CHORUS ADVISES CREON

Cream To yield is terrible, but it is a terrible project to standfirm and so bring down the blows of ruin upon my spirit*

Chorus: Wise counsel is needed....Creon: What should I do/ then? Tell me and I will obey,Chorus: Go and release the girl from the underground cham-ber, and furnish the unburied body with a tomb.Creon: Is this really your advice? You think I should yield?Chorus: Yes lord, and with all speed.

(Antigone, 1095-1104)

space of one day. The first three were tragedies,often related to each other. The last play was a"satyr" play that poked fun at the serious sub-jects and characters of the three earlier plays. Thesatyr play was followed by a comedy by anotherplaywright, which was part of a separate com-petition for writers of comedy. "For five days theplaywrights showed their productions . . . and theaudience made their preferences clear [by boo-ing or cheering] The plays were then judgedby ten judges, each one selected from one of theten tribes of Athens. These ten then cast theirvotes into an urn and five of the votes were drawnout at random. From these five votes the resultwas announced" (Taylor, p. xxiii). This complexprocess may have been designed to discouragecheating, an illustration of how seriously the dra-matic competitions were taken.

The Chorus. The Greek word choros (chorus)means "dance." An important part of fifth-cen-tury B.C. drama, the chorus was a group ofsingers and actors who either commented onwhat was occurring in the main part of the drama

or actually functioned as a character in the play.The chorus served as a link between the audi-ence and the actors, often portraying a group ofcitizens not unlike the audience themselves. InAntigone, the chorus is a group of Theban elderswho keep shifting their loyalty back and forthfrom Creon to Antigone; their indecision furtherconfirms the complex nature of the issues underdiscussion.

In Greek drama, the chorus was assembledbefore the people involved even knew what playwould be performed: "The making of playsstarted not with the playwright but with the Cho-rus. Five rich men were selected by the city au-thorities and each was required to select, trainand produce a chorus for one of the five days [ofdramatic competition]" (Taylor, p. xxi). Themembers of the chorus were young amateur maleactors who had to be costumed, fed, and trainedfor their role. After the choruses were chosen,civic authorities chose the playwrights whowould produce plays and matched each of themwith one of the choruses and with professionalactors. Choruses were thus matched with play-wrights in fairly arbitrary fashion.

Reviews. When Sophocles's Antigone was firstunveiled, the tough Athenian audience awardedit first place in the dramatic competition. But per-haps more interesting than the ancient Greek re-action to Antigone is the amazing "modern" his-tory of the play. The drama has been praised overthe years by a wide range of writers, includingJohn Keats, William Butler Yeats, George Eliot,Frederich Nietszche, Martin Heidegger, and JeanCocteau. "Between c. 1790 and c. 1905, it waswidely held by European poets, philosophers,[and] scholars that Sophocles's Antigone was notonly the finest of Greek tragedies, but a work ofart nearer to perfection than any other producedby the human spirit" (Steiner, p. 1). Antigone'sdepiction of the clash between individual con-science and governmental law has caused it to bean especially noteworthy play in times of war aswell. It was immensely popular during theFrench Revolution and immediately after WorldWar II, for example. The play has also been citedas an early attempt to explore the issue of equalrights between men and women.

For More Information

Bowra, C. M. Periclean Athens. New York: Dial Press,1971.

Hammond, N. G. L. The Classical Age of Greece.London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1975.

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Saxonhouse, Arlene W. Fear of Diversity: The Steiner, George. Antigones. Oxford: OxfordBirth of Political Science in Ancient Greek University Press, 1984.Thought. Chicago: University of Chicago Taylor, Don, trans. Sophocles: The Theban Plays.Press, 1992. London: Methuen, 1986.

Scodel, Ruth. Sophocles. Boston: G. K. Hall, Thucydides. The Peloponnesian War. Translated by1984. Rex Warner. New York: Penguin, 1972.

Sophocles. Antigone. Translated by Andrew Brown. Wilcoxon, George Dent. Athens Ascendant. Ames:Warminster: Aris & Philips, 1987. University of Iowa Press, 1979.

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Antigone