Divine Authority In Antigone

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Recommended: Characterisation in the play antigone

In every story there is a main lesson to learn a kind of "Big idea" your supposed to get called the theme. A stories theme can be anything from a will to survive to a quest for power.In Sophocles' "Antigone" he revealed through conflict, characters, and setting that the central theme is that divine authority is more powerful than human authority.

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 …show more content…

During this argument they get on the subject of divine authority and they say "ANTIGONE: That may be, but Hades still desires equal rites for both. CREON: A good man does not wish what we give him to be the same an evil man receives. ANTIGONE: Who knows? In the world below perhaps such actions are no crime." What Antigone is saying is that she believes that to the gods her burying her brother is no crime and that she will follow the gods laws because they are more important and powerful than human

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