Introduction
Antigone is an extremely well known and popular figure in Greek mythology. As a strong woman who speaks out against what she feels is wrong, she resonates with many people. The Greek tragedy Antigone written by Sophocles in 441 BC tells her story fighting against Creon. Both Antigone and Creon’s actions are motivated by cultural and social expectations as their roles as a woman and leader respectively in ancient Greece. When analyzing the story, there are a few perspectives that can be taken and it is essential to understand the ancient motivations, ancient perspectives, and modern perspectives when doing so. Upon further exploration of the play it becomes clear that the play may not be so simple and that is may actually raise more questions than answers through the clashing of extreme human principles.
The Play
After the death of Oedipus, the father of Antigone, Ismene, Eteocles, and Polynices, the two brothers fight over control of the city. Eteocles refused to step down, after the agreement to alternate ruling the city, and has the support of Creon, their uncle. Polynices leaves Thebes to build an army in order to reclaim power. The following battle results in Polynices and Eteocles killing each other, and Creon taking power of Thebes. Creon then declares Polynices a traitor who will not be buried and that anyone who tries to bury him will also die, while Eteocles gets a proper hero’s burial (Sophocles, Mulroy 2013). This creates a dilemma for Ismene and Antigone on if they will follow the law and their civic duty, or follow their obligation to bury their brother. The play Antigone begins when Ismene and Antigone hear what happened to their brothers and Creon’s order. Antigone says she wants to bury Polynices prompting Ismene to question defying Creon. Antigone then responds that Creon “has no right to sever me from mine” (Sophocles, Mulroy 2013), showing that she represents and cares more about her family than the law. Ismene states that she will not help her bury their brother and defy Creon. Antione goes and buries Polynices anyways, but is caught and confronted. After finding out what Antigone has done, Creon carries out his order and states that she must die and be buried alive for breaking the law. However, Creon later changes his mind, but it is too late and Antigone hangs herself becoming a bride of death, instead of the slow death Creon sentenced her. Haemon, Creon’s son who was engaged to Antigone, also kills himself after hearing of Antigone’s fate. The death of Haemon then causes Eurydice, Creon’s wife, to kill herself over the loss of her son. Antigone and Creon, and the play as a whole, “pits one form of loyalty against another” (Yack 2019). Antigone represents family and unwritten moral laws and is pitted against Creon, who represents government and written law. Antigone and Creon represent and act on two extremes of human behavior which results in them losing everything.
Motivations
Antigone
Creon
In ancient Greece there were many expectations and limitations placed on women, which would have motivated Antigone to act in that way. These expectations included, getting married and pregnant young, staying at home to take care of the family, and taking care of funeral rites (Fantham 1995). Greek women also had very little ownership rights and had limited political participation, which explains why Antigone and Ismene were not even considered for power of Thebes and it was only the Polynices and Eteocles then to Creon. At funerals a woman’s central role was to be a mourner and “the grave had to be continually visited and provided with offerings” (Fantham 1995). Burials were important in ancient Greek culture to ensure the soul finds rest and because it was the wishes of the gods (Rosivach 1983). Because Greek women were tasked to care for graves of family Antigone felt she had an obligation to bury Polynices despite Creon’s law. Antigone wanted to honor her family and brother by giving him a proper and respectable burial.
Historically and culturally there may have been a few reasons that Creon decided to order Polynices body not to be buried. Despite the fact that Eteocles refused to give up power of Thebes to his brother like they had agreed, Polynices attacked Thebes with an army, making him a traitor. Athenians “sometimes refused burial in Attic soil to traitors and temple robbers” (Rosivach 1983). He may have also wanted the body exposed to the elements and animals. This was a way to mutilate the body and “further punishing one’s enemies even after death” (Rosivach 1983). This beats up the body thus a way to dishonor disrespect the enemy. This is one of the reasons that pushes Antigone to bury him, as she does not want him as “a tasty treat for passing birds” (Sophocles, Mulroy 2013). Additionally Creon may have felt he needed to carry out his ruling and could not give Antigone an exception; he was a ruler and not following through could impact his reputation. Creon could use these reasons to justify not burying Polynices, but to Antigone and many other readers, it was unjust and harsh.
Orthodox View
A popular view of Antigone is that Antigone is right and Creon is wrong; which is called the Orthodox view (Ormand 2012). The foundation of this viewpoint is that Antigone represents the individual, divine justice, and fighting for a larger cause; while Creon represents human and political justice. Creon puts being a ruler over his own family by denying the burial of his nephew and then ordering that Antigone also dies for defying him, which eventually leads to the loss of his wife and son. One example of the difference between Antigone and Creon is how they use the word philos meaning ‘dear ones’. Antigone uses it as a word to refer to relatives while Creon uses it to refer to political friends (Ormand 2012). Another aspect that contributes to this idea is that Creon only labeled Polynices as a traitor, and not Eteocles after he refuses to step down. This raises the question of if every law made by a leader is moral and should be blindly followed. To Antigone and many readers the answer is no, she felt that her moral obligation to her brother was more important than the law. Just because it is a law does not mean that it is right. From the orthodox view, Antigone is a “martyr, ready to defy death for a higher cause” while Creon is the oppressive force motivated politically (Ormand 2012).
Hegelian View and Complexity
Another interpretation of Antigone is called the Hegelian view which states that “Antigone and Creon are both equally right and wrong”; they are right in defending their principles of family and state respectively, but are wrong in being one-sided (Ormand 2012). German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, for whom the Hegelian view is named, also analyzed the play as a conflict between man and woman. Antigone and Creon’s “one-sided approaches to morality are self- defeating…and self-limiting” establishing the complexity of their motivations and actions (Yack 2019). Antigone ends up betraying her family while trying to defend them and loses her life, and Creon acts unjustly when trying to uphold justice and loses his family. To get a deeper understanding of the play, the reader must recognize the complexity and that both characters may be right and wrong at the same time in regards to their obligations in the ancient world. Their one sided actions depict the dangers of extremes as they both lose everything.
Antigone
Antigone is not represented as a typical ancient Greek woman; even though she values family, she disobeys male authority and is extremely outspoken. Furthermore, if a woman’s role was to “produce children and…care for her household”, Antigone also did not fulfill that expectation when she became “bride of Hades” (Fantham 1995). This means she failed in her role of producing male citizens and will forever be remembered as an unmarried woman. Furthermore Antigone states that if it was her “spouse lay dead and decomposing-[she] would not have labored so”, since she will “never see another brother bloom” (Sophocles, Mulroy 2013). Even though Antigone appears to be motivated by family, this only seems to apply to her brother. Since her parents are dead she can not have another brother, so she feels a greater obligation to him. Her reasoning is that she can always remarry or have more kids; which does not support her general motivation of family ties and expectations.
Creon
Creon also seems to be more complex. Even though he represents the political arena associated with men, the polis, his tyrannical behavior as the play progresses would not have been appealing to male citizens (Ormand 2012). He also ends up changing his mind after being convinced by Teiresias, a blind prophet, and decides that he will free Antigone, realizing his order was harsh. He retracts his orders even after being extremely heavy handed. He also puts his position as a leader above his family.
Ismene
Ismene acts as a foil to Antigone’s extreme actions and raises the question of why she doesn’t side with Antigone and help her. Ismene represents the ideal aspects of a Greek woman that Antigone abandons. While Antigone is determined to break the law and defy Creon, Ismene states that she “simply can’t ignore the citizens’ will” and that she is “so terrified for [Antigone]” (Sophocles, Mulroy 2013). While Antigone is willing to die for the cause, Ismene “knows [her] own limitations…and above all to survive” (Ormond 2012). Additionally after Antigone gets caught Ismene says that she is also guilty and accepts her blame. However Antigone will not let her take any credit and says “justice won’t abide your claim, since you held back, and I accomplished this alone” (Sophocles, Mulroy 2013). This raises questions of Antigone’s motivations of whether or not she acted solely because it was right.
Modern Perspective
Reading and interpreting Antigone today allows us to analyze the actions and motivations with the cultural and historical knowledge that the ancient audience would not have had. This knowledge may affect who a reader determines is correct in the situation. A factor that may lead to a difference in interpretation is your cultural background and whether you are from a culture that values the individual or society. This impacts if you agree with Antigone’s decision to break the law, or agree that Creon’s actions as a leader. Additionally, the modern woman also does not have the limitations that Antigone and ancient women did, so modern readers may be more inclined to support her against the oppressive Creon. Furthermore knowledge of historical events of a rebel fighting an oppressive government would also impact if a reader supports Antigone. For example there are many modern adaptations of Antigone, some focusing on Nazi Germany, police brutality, or dictators, showing the morality behind fighting an oppressive force in a way that the modern reader can relate to and understand. This may lead modern readers to sympathize with Antigone and side with the Orthodox view that she is completely in the right. Additionally we are in a place culturally and historically that we question the government and not blindly follow leadership. However in more recent years there has been a political divide in terms of listening to the government versus what is morally right, especially regarding police brutality. Depending on what side a person is on that debate today may influence how they view Antigone and Creon.
“Antigone and Ferguson”
“When everyone is right (or feels justified), how do we avert the violence that will inevitably take place?”
Antigone and Ferguson is a dramatic reading of the play Antigone. It focuses on police brutality, systematic oppression, and social justice after Micheal Brown’s death in 2014. There are many parallels to Antigone; such as fighting against an oppressive force and doing what is right. With this adaptation of the play Theater of War Productions “aims to generate dialogue, consciousness, compassion, outrage, understanding, and positive action”. A production of the play was put on over Zoom to showcase the perspectives of people in Baltimore impacted by police brutality and COVID-19. This topic is something that unfortunately has been politicized, so where a person stands today may impact how they view Antigone and Creon’s actions when reading the play. This also reflects the complexity of the play and that a persons experience and background will influence the perspective they take. Today’s political climate and spectrum may influence how a modern reader views modern adaptations and the original play, based on their stances. The divide is represented today, but would the divide also have existed within the ancient audience?
Ancient Perspective
The ancient audience did not have this historical knowledge, so how would they have reacted to a woman defying a male authority who then is killed for breaking an unjust law? Especially because of the importance of burials in Greek culture, would they have agreed with Antigone fulfilling her role of burying her brother or with Creon as a leader carrying out his laws? For background, tragedies were typically about heroes and would have been performed at festivals to a vast audience (Carey 2017). Greek tragedies were also more likely to have political issues like gender or status, like Antigone. Loyalty to the city above all else is something that the Greek audience would have related to since it was “a world of citizen soldiers and a citizen was expected to fight and if necessary die for the city” (Carey 2017). Most people reading this today probably would not relate to this. Burial rights were also vitally important and “Athens monopolized its war dead to a degree unmatched by any other Greek state” (Carey 2017). Athens collected the dead to burn and bring home the bones to then bury the war dead in communal graves. Because private burials almost disappear, it seems that public burials specifically warriors matter the most. However later, private burials became more common so the demands between the state and needs of the family, like the obligations of women to bury family, were resolved (Carey 2017). The conflict between burying family and following the state orders in Antigone would have been something the ancient audience would have related to, and demonstrates the clash of important principles to the Greek audience. The ancient audience would have related to Ismene and Antigone’s dilemma between the two competing principles and also would have led to them questioning. Perhaps an ancient audience watching the play they would have sided with the character that most aligns with the principle that they value most, similar to modern readers.
Conclusion
After analyzing Antigone through the Orthodox and Hegelian perspective it appears that the play is more complex. It is essential to recognize the knowledge and perspective modern readers have when deciding who was right and that ancient audiences would not have had that; they would have had different understandings, motivations, and experiences. Antigone is certainly standing up to an oppressive force and doing what is right, but the extent to which a person agrees with that may be impacted by the time period, their experiences, values, and competing principles. The complexity in their actions are also specific to the ancient world, so viewing the play through a modern lens, without the ancient limitations and obligations, may result in different conclusions. These recognitions and the extreme one sided actions may lead to more questions in regards to different perspectives and views when analyzing the play.
Works Cited
Carey, C. (2017). Sophocles’ Antigone in Context. https://www.ucl.ac.uk/classics/classical-play/
Fantham, E., Foley, H. P., Kampen, N. B., Pomeroy, S. B., & Shapiro, H. A. (1995). Women in the classical world : Image and text. ProQuest Ebook Central https://ebookcentral.proquest.com
Lenepveu, J. (1835-98). Antigone Gives Token Burial to the Body of Her Brother Polynices [Painting found in Metropolitan Museum of Art]. Retrieved 2020, from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Antigone_Gives_Token_Burial_to_the_Body_of_Her_Brother_Polynices_MET_1991.267.jpg
Ormand, K. (2012). A Companion to Sophocles. John Wiley & Sons. Incorporated
Project Gutenberg. (2005). Antigone And The Body Of Polynices [Digital image]. Retrieved 2020, from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Antigone_And_The_Body_Of_Polynices_-_Project_Gutenberg_eText_14994.png
Rosivach, V. (1983). On Creon, Antigone and Not Burying the Dead. J.D. Sauerländers Verlag
Sophocles (2013). Antigone. ProQuest Ebook Central https://ebookcentral.proquest.com
The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Picture Collection, The New York Public Library. (1892). Antigone and Ismene Retrieved from https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47e4-37d1-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99
Yack, B. (2019). Loyalty versus Fidelity: A Study in Moral Pluralism. Social Research, 86(3), 671–694.
Women in Antiquity 
