Antigone

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Today the United States is controlled by three branches, but the executive branch is the branch that is commonly referred to when mentioning the United States; the President. Who was once just a loyal friend of Oedipus, now the ruler of Thebes, Creon can be considered Thebes’s president. A ruler who believes and insists that his word is final when it deals with anything under his jurisdiction, meets a match in Antigone, the daughter of the former ruler of Thebes before he parted unto the other side. “When the unstoppable object collides with an unmovable object,” can be used to describe the two opposing views of Antigone and Creon.

Every hero or heroine must go through a three part journey: the departure and separation, the decent/ initiation/ struggle/ achievement, and finally the return. Things are a little different in this case. I personally feel that Oedipus was a hero and passed his “hero ness” to Antigone; as if Antigone inherited it as a trait. So its more of a six part journey; the original three, followed by the reincarnation, and the last two parts of the journey repeated. Before Oedipus was cast out of Thebes, Antigone was not known to be as bold as she shown with her objection to Creon’s orders of refusing her brother a proper burial, after her father‘s death. As she guided her father through life, his “hero ness” was slowly infiltrating Antigone and was fully installed into her with her father’s death.

After Antigone heard of the orders of Creon, regarding her brother Polynices, she knew that something had to be done for the proper burial of Polynices. Antigone’s sudden rise in spirit and bravery to fight for the honor of her family name is what places her under the category of being an archetypal heroin...

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...ok some time before Antigone actually gained individualism, she gained it. Every heroine must cross the threshold of dependency and arrive on the opposite side, which is individualism. Not meaning she cant accept the help of others, but more along the lines of not having to rely on others for assistance.

Antigone has changed dramatically compared from the character she was when she was first introduced. Inheriting the “hero ness” from her father, she took steps towards individualism and achieved the status of an archetypal heroine. Embarking on a physical and mental journey to and though Thebes, she was forced to answer her call and become a heroine. Completing the second to last step in a heroine’s quest, Antigone enters the final phase of the journey, the return. Being released from her tomb, her quest is complete and the family name is purified once more.

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