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Ancient Greek Religion Notes
Themes antigone
What wAs the theme for antigone
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Antigone: Divine Law vs. Human Law
Possibly the most prominent theme in Sophocles' "Antigone" is the concept of divine law vs. human law. In the story the two brothers, Eteocles and Polyneices have slain each other in battle. The new King Creon, who assumed the throne after Eteocles' death, decrees that because Polyneices committed treason against the king, he shall not be buried, but instead "He shall be left unburied for all to watch
The corpse mutilated and eaten by carrion-birds and by dogs" (Sophocles). Herein lies the dilemma; in Greek culture, the spirit of a body that is not buried by sundown on the day that it died cannot find rest but is doomed to walk the earth.
This is the Crux of the theme, the conflict between the law of King Creon, and the law of the gods. In fact, according to Greek belief, Creon would have been ordained by the gods to be king, and thus, should not his law be their law as well? This is the hurdle that Antigone has to face; should she abide by the law of Creon and leave her brother to rot, under penalty of death? Or should she disregard Creon's edict, follow the law of the gods and bury her brother? Creon is a brother to Jocasta, and thus next in line to become king after Etocles is killed in battle. The king is believed to be the chosen of the gods and to rule in their stead. Why then would the king attempt to punish Polyneices after death and so blatantly violate the rules of the gods? However, Creon is the king, and the penalty for disobeying this law of his is very real and very brutal, death.
On the other side of the argument, the law of the gods rules over all, even the king. The punishment for breaking the gods law is not death but according to the Greeks something far more eternal. Since it is the will of the gods that Creon be king, should it not therefore be their will that Polyneices be punished? Possibly not, because the Greek gods are far different from the God of modern religions. The Greek gods were not omnipotent, or omniscient, they had their own human flaws and they did not pre-ordain, in fact they spent much of their time bickering amongst each other. Another question is whether or not Creon ever thought or realized that he was breaking a divine edict with his decree to punish Polyneices.
The main conflict in the story Antigone is between the king of Thebes, also the antagonist, Creon and Antigone the Protagonist. When Antigone's brother dies in war Creon does not want to bury him, But Antigone feels its her brothers rights bestowed on him buy the gods to be able to be buried and that it would be disrespectful not to. For example in scene one page two Creon says "He’ll be left unburied, his body there for birds and dogs to eat, a clear reminder of his shameful fate.That’s my decision." As you can see here Creon thinks he has the authority and makes the laws about what is going to happen but really that is divine authority. Another example is in scene two page three when Creon is interrogating Antigone, Antigone says "Yes. Zeus did not announce those laws to me. And Justice living with the gods below sent no
First off, Creon’s belief in civil law caused him to do a grave action which in time lead to his downfall, he lied to the city of Thebes. Creon was never meant to be the king of Thebes, until the deaths of both princes, Polynices and Eteocles, he had no choice but to step up to the throne. He was unprepared and unqualified, he had to tell the city of Thebes the story of how both man died. So, Creon lied about what happened between the two brothers, making one the hero and one the villain; “Well, what else could I have done? People had taken sides in the civil war. Both sides couldn’t be wrong; that would be too much. I couldn’t have made them swallow the truth.” (Anouilh
The opening events of the play Antigone, written by Sophocles, quickly establish the central conflict between Antigone and Creon. Creon has decreed that the traitor Polynices, who tried to burn down the temple of gods in Thebes, must not be given proper burial. Antigone is the only one who will speak against this decree and insists on the sacredness of family and a symbolic burial for her brother. Whereas Antigone sees no validity in a law that disregards the duty family members owe one another, Creon's point of view is exactly opposite. He has no use for anyone who places private ties above the common good, as he proclaims firmly to the Chorus and the audience as he revels in his victory over Polynices.
In the play Antigone, created by Sophocles Antigone is a foil to Creon because their personalities contrast. This makes Creon a Tragic Hero because he thinks that he is a god but in reality he is a mortal upsetting the god's and he will eventually meet his demise. At the start of the play the reader is introduced to a character named Creon, who is the king of Thebes, the previous king, Eteocles, was killed by his brother Polyneices. There is a law arranged by Creon, so nobody could bury the body of Polyneices but Antigone, the sister of both Eteocles and Polyneices, wants to bury her brother and is willing to risk her life to bury him. She eventually gets caught and is sentenced to death by Creon.
...e next king, however, he offers the crown to whoever can solve the riddle instead. When Oedipus solves the riddle, Creon willingly hands over the throne and Jocasta’s hand in marriage. This shows that Creon is not power hungry and truly wants what is best for the city. The reader can see that Creon is trustworthy and doesn’t go back on his word, which also supports why he needed to punish Polynices, even after he was given reason not to.
Antigone’s views of divine justice conflict with Creon’s will as head of the state. Two brothers fighting against one another in Thebes’ civil war died while fighting one another for the throne. Creon, who had become the new ruler of Thebes, decided that one brother Eteocles would be honored, while Polyneices would be put through public shame. The body of Polyneices was to not be sanctified by holy rites, but was planned to be left unburied on the battlefield for animals to prey on it. Antigone, the sister of the two brothers wants to properly bury Polyneices’ body, but in doing so she would by defying king Creon’s edict. When Creon’s orders the Sentry to find out who had buried the body of Polyneices, Antigone is found to have buried the body of her dead brother. Since she disobeyed authority, her and her sister are temporarily imprisoned. He then wishes to spare Antigone’s sister Ismene and bury Antigone alive in a cave. To some up the foregoing, in honoring her brother she is performing the role of woman and warrior...
Antigone, as a character, is extremely strong-willed and loyal to her faith. Creon is similarly loyal, but rather to his homeland, the city of Thebes, instead of the gods. Both characters are dedicated to a fault, a certain stubbornness that effectively blinds them from the repercussions of their actions. Preceding the story, Antigone has been left to deal with the burden of her parents’ and both her brothers’ deaths. Merely a young child, intense grief is to be expected; however, Antigone’s emotional state is portrayed as frivolous when it leads her to directly disobey Creon’s orders. She buries her brother Polynices because of her obedience to family and to the gods, claiming to follow “the gods’ unfailing, unwritten laws” (Sophocles 456-457). CONTINUE
Antigone’s pride caused her to go against Creon’s will and break the law to bury her brother, Polyneicês’s body. Antigone tells her sister Ismene of Creon’s decisions about the burial of their brothers. She asks Ismene to help her bury Polyneicês’s body. When Ismene refuses Antigone tells her sister “But I will bury him; and if I must die, I say that this crime is holy: I shall lie down with him in death, and I shall be as dear to him as he to me,” (193). Antigone believes what she is doing is the right thing, that her actions of deciding to bury her brother’s body are worth even though it means she is going against Creon’s law. Antigone’s pride also lead to her death because it caused her to be stubborn. When Antigone is speaking with Creon and the chorus she says “What things I suffer, and at what men’s hands, because I would not transgress the laws of heaven,” (228). She is saying that her punishment is due to her actions of not breaking heaven’s laws. She believes that her actions are the right thing to do, that the gods agree with her actions. Her stubbornness due to her pride leads her to be unwilling to see that what she has done was wrong in any way. She was stubborn and her prideful thinking that her decision to go against the law and bury Polyneicês’s boy was right brought about her death. Antigone’s pride lead her to cause her own
His pride and anger becomes an obstacle and he is unable to see things for what they truly are. In an excerpt from the play Creon says, “You say – why it is intolerable – say the gods could have the slightest concern for that corpse… The hero who came to burn their temples ringed with pillars… Exactly when did you last see the gods celebrating traitors (Sophocles 319-327)?” As the uncle of Polynices, Creon is ashamed and hurt that his own nephew dared to raise an army against his own birthplace. This betrayal devastates Creon, which leads to the reader’s revelation of his many flaws and his growing disgust toward others. Joseph Tomain explores whether positive law, embodied by Creon’s policies, is subject to be overridden by some form of higher law, or the God’s will that Antigone tries to obey. In this, he states that there is not a clear answer to which one supersedes the other (Tomain). However it is clear that in the midst of Creon’s hatred, he establishes a law that goes against the will of the gods and leads to the demise of the virtuous Antigone which causes the downfall of other
Fellow Thebans, we gather today to determine the case of Antigone. She stands accused of treason for following the will of the gods by burying her own brother, Polynices. You may ask, why would the state carry a law that contradicts the demands of the gods? I tell you good people, Creon's decree, which forbade the burying of Polynices for fighting his home city will be met with stoning. The law was forged by impulse and anger. By disobeying the "laws the gods all hold in honor", Creon disintegrated his own virtue and the virtue of Thebes itself (Sophocles, Antigone). Therefore, the actions of Antigone should not be met with stoning, but with honor and praise. For she is fighting an injustice within our laws and preserving justice, "the bond of men" (Aristotle, Politics).
In the play Antigone, Creon, king of Thebes faces a harsh conflict with himself, involving the values of family and religion verse the civic responsibility he must maintain for the city of Thebes that comes with being the new king. In theory no decision Creon makes is going to be the rite one. Although both Antigone and Creon have justified reasons for believing in there own laws only one can be upheld by the play and how Sophocles interoperates the play himself. Creon must decide whether to punish Antigone, a princess, daughter of king Oedipus, or fail at enforcing his own law and look weak in front of the citizens of Thebes as their new leader. The law stated that anybody who touched the corpse of Polyneices, a prince, and son of Oedipus would be stoned in the town square.
For the sake of his reputation, Creon endorses his own laws over the gods’ laws in order to create a certain image of himself that would impress the State. Creon’s law states that Polyneices, Antigone’s brother, is not to be buried, and if anyone breaks this law, he or she would be sentenced to death. Creon coerces the State to adhere to his law in his first formal address as king:
In Sophocles' Greek tragedy, Antigone, two characters undergo character changes. During the play the audience sees these two characters' attitudes change from close-minded to open-minded. It is their close-minded, stubborn attitudes, which lead to their decline in the play, and ultimately to a series of deaths. In the beginning Antigone is a close minded character who later becomes open minded. After the death of her brothers, Eteocles and Polyneices, Creon becomes the ruler of Thebes. He decides that Eteocles will receive a funeral with military honors because he fought for his country. However, Polyneices, who broke his exile to " spill the blood of his father and sell his own people into slavery", will have no burial. Antigone disagrees with Creon's unjust actions and says, " Creon is not strong enough to stand in my way." She vows to bury her brother so that his soul may gain the peace of the underworld. Antigone is torn between the law placed against burying her brother and her own thoughts of doing what she feels should be done for her family. Her intent is simply to give her brother, Polyneices, a proper burial so that she will follow "the laws of the gods." Antigone knows that she is in danger of being killed for her actions and she says, "I say that this crime is holy: I shall lie down with him in death, and I shall be as dear to him as he to me." Her own laws, or morals, drive her to break Creon's law placed against Polyneices burial. Even after she realizes that she will have to bury Polyneices without the help of her sister, Ismene, she says: Go away, Ismene: I shall be hating you soon, and the dead will too, For your words are hateful. Leave me my foolish plan: I am not afraid of the danger; if it means death, It will not be the worst of deaths-death without honor. Here Ismene is trying to reason with Antigone by saying that she cannot disobey the law because of the consequences. Antigone is close-minded when she immediately tells her to go away and refuses to listen to her. Later in the play, Antigone is sorrowful for her actions and the consequences yet she is not regretful for her crime. She says her crime is just, yet she does regret being forced to commit it.
In the play Creon goes against the Gods by making it illegal to bury Polyneices, Antigone’s brother because he is deemed a traitor. The burying of a dead body is seen as a necessity by all of Greece as it is an unspoken law of the Gods. Antigone goes to bury her brother so his afterlife will be better. She does it in spite of the law that Creon has made. “It is the dead, not the living, who make the longest demands” (192) She tries to explain to her sister, Ismene, that they must bury Polyneices, but even that close relationship has trouble because of the law. Ismene is unwilling to suffer the consequences of the law, to save her brother’s soul “Forgive me but I am helpless: I must yield to those in authority” (192) Even the two sisters who have just lost both of their brothers have different views on the matter. One will not stray from the law and what is deemed right by their king, while the other will accept any punishment, even death just to do what she believes is right.
Sophocles formulates a believable plot through Antigone’s social conflict. The conflict in Antigone centers in Antigone needing to bury her brother because of her belief that natural law is higher than the governing law, and does not want to have the god’s fury pointed at her. It also revolves around the fact, that family is significantly greater to Antigone than that of the justice system. Polyneices, her brother, was a traitor and died going to war with his own blood brother. Creon, her uncle and king, has made a decree stating: “I here proclaim to the city that this man shall no one honor with a grave and none shall mourn. You shall leave him without burial...” (222). Opposing the king, she neglects the decree. Since she broke the king’s decree, she is sentenced to die for being disobedient; moreover, Antigone proudly states her crime. There is no sign of remorse shown by Creon as he states, “No, though she were my sister’s child, or closer in blood than all that my hearth god acknowledges as mine. Neither she, nor her sister, should escape the utmost sentence-death” (530-33). Bobrick explains that Creon values the love for his land more than he values family, and this becomes a struggle for Antigone as it becomes a fight between obeying the laws of man, and the laws of the god’s. The second struggle that Antigone faces, comes when she realizes she is alone.