A Clash of Values

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Sophocles’ Antigone is a Greek tragedy that portrays a conflict between two ancient Greek values. Creon, the king of Thebes, touts the importance of loyalty towards the state, and Antigone, his niece, shows the willingness to sacrifice her life for the ultimate purpose of shining light on the importance of loyalty to one’s family. In Sophocles’ Antigone, Sophocles uses the clash between Creon’s value of loyalty to the state and Antigone’s value of loyalty to family in order to demonstrate not only the potential damage that could result from placing too high of an importance on loyalty to the city-state, but also the challenges involved with being a leader in ancient Greece.

In the beginning of Sophocles’ Antigone, Antigone defies Creon’s decree by conducting a burial for her deceased brother Polyneices. Antigone’s act of burial signifies the onset of her resistance against the leadership of Thebes. When the Sentry captures and subsequently escorts Antigone to Creon, Antigone does not hesitate to take responsibility for the peppering of soil over Polyneices’ corpse. Antigone firmly believes that all humans possess a religious right to a burial and that Creon’s refusal to allow for the burial of her brother constitutes as a rebellious act against the Gods. She holds that she had acted in favor of true justice and concludes that she has not committed any crime. Antigone is willing to sacrifice her life because she feels that allowing her brother to go unburied would cause her more suffering than death itself. Based on her actions and words in the play, one can gather that Antigone places the concept of family on a pedestal. One can draw the same conclusion about Antigone’s sister Ismine. Although Ismene refuses to help her sister b...

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...pletely uncompromising and being an indecisive pushover.

By examining the clash of the two primary values found in Sophocles’ Antigone, one can infer that the citizens of ancient Greece were heavily conflicted in their views regarding the importance of loyalty to the state. Some felt that the loyalty to the state trumps all other values, while others maintained that this is not necessarily the case for every situation. Sophocles clearly supported the latter idea and chose to use the value of loyalty to one’s family in order to illustrate an example. At the same time, he used the conflict of these two values to demonstrate the challenges faced by individuals in positions of power. The story depicted by Sophocles provides insight into a point of contention within the society of ancient Greece and displays the potential damage that results from irrational leadership.

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