Creon's Hubris In Sophocles Antigone

Hubris in Greek Tragedies and in important people

The Greek tragedies Oedipus and Antigone explore the excessive pride or, hubris of a central character which ultimately leads their downfall. Sophocles displays hubris in the Greek tragedy Oedipus Rex. Oedipus the protagonist of the play meets a very disastrous yet an inevitable end. His anger leads to his ultimate downfall and it puts Creon back to power. Creon’s tragic flaw which is also anger leads to his son’s and wife’s deaths.

Oedipus and Creon are actually kings who makes stable decisions but their anger flicks on the excessive pride which can cause unfavorable decisions. Oedipus gets his hubris from defeating the Sphinx taking over the kingship of Thebes. Creon didn’t have excessive pride until his decree was violated and his pride was stabbed at from Antigone’s words.

When Oedipus has become the king of Thebes, he makes rash decisions which are affected by his his hubris, this is displayed in Oedipus’ words when he accuses Creon of plotting against him.

Creon tells him that could be mistaken but Oedipus replies “No matter - I must rule” (704). In this scene, it is apparent that Oedipus feels way too important and his excessive pride is affecting the decisions being made. This event can be compared to when Lebron James a starter for the Cleveland Cavaliers made political comments and called out President Trump. Laura Ingraham the Fox news host called out the NBA player for his “barely unintelligible” and “ungrammatical” comments and told him to “shut up and dribble”. Lebron James replied by saying “I definitely will no do that, I mean too much to the youth, I mean too much to so many kids who feel like they don’t have a way out”. In both scenarios, Oedipus and Lebron both have hubris and will not accept being

refuted.

When Creon is king of Thebes, he also makes very bad mistakes. An example of this is when Creon makes a decree that no one can bury the body of Polynices, who attacked the city of Thebes. His niece, Antigone, buries the body and gives it proper burial rites. Creon can’t stand being disrespected and he sentences Antigone to a slow death in confinement. Later, Antigone kills herself and because of this Creon’s wife and sole surviving son, Haemon and Eurydice, kill themselves. This scene can be compared to when a New York Council employee, Susan Peirez, threatened a Delta Airlines flight attendant's job because Peirez was sitting next to a crying baby. In the end Susan Peirez was the one who ended up losing a job. In both scenarios Creon and Peirez make decisions which they think will benefit themselves but in the end they are the ones who suffer because of their hubris. Creon loses the rest of his family and Peirez loses her government job.