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The Theban Plays #3
Antigone
The curse placed on Oedipus lingers and haunts a younger generation in this new and brilliant translation of Sophocles' classic drama. The daughter of Oedipus and Jocasta, Antigone is an unconventional heroine who pits her beliefs against the King of Thebes in a bloody test of wills that leaves few unharmed. Emotions fly as she challenges the king for the right to bury her own brother. Determined but doomed, Antigone shows her inner strength throughout the play.
Antigone raises issues of law and morality that are just as relevant today as they were more than two thousand years ago. Whether this is your first reading or your twentieth, Antigone will move you as few pieces of literature can.
To make this quintessential Greek drama more accessible to the modern reader, this Prestwick House Literary Touchstone Edition includes a glossary of difficult terms, a list of vocabulary words, and convenient sidebar notes. By providing these, it is our intention that readers will more fully enjoy the beauty, wisdom, and intent of the play.
Antigone raises issues of law and morality that are just as relevant today as they were more than two thousand years ago. Whether this is your first reading or your twentieth, Antigone will move you as few pieces of literature can.
To make this quintessential Greek drama more accessible to the modern reader, this Prestwick House Literary Touchstone Edition includes a glossary of difficult terms, a list of vocabulary words, and convenient sidebar notes. By providing these, it is our intention that readers will more fully enjoy the beauty, wisdom, and intent of the play.
80 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 442
1819 people are currently reading
53791 people want to read
About the author
Sophocles
2,613 books2,674 followersSophocles (497/496 BC-406/405 BC), (Greek:
Σοφοκλής
; German:
Sophokles
, Russian:
Софокл
, French:
Sophocle
) was an ancient Greek tragedian, known as one of three from whom at least one play has survived in full. His first plays were written later than, or contemporary with, those of Aeschylus; and earlier than, or contemporary with, those of Euripides. Sophocles wrote over 120 plays, but only seven have survived in a complete form: Ajax, Antigone, Women of Trachis, Oedipus Rex, Electra, Philoctetes, and Oedipus at Colonus. For almost fifty years, Sophocles was the most celebrated playwright in the dramatic competitions of the city-state of Athens which took place during the religious festivals of the Lenaea and the Dionysia. He competed in thirty competitions, won twenty-four, and was never judged lower than second place. Aeschylus won thirteen competitions, and was sometimes defeated by Sophocles; Euripides won four.
The most famous tragedies of Sophocles feature Oedipus and Antigone: they are generally known as the Theban plays, though each was part of a different tetralogy (the other members of which are now lost). Sophocles influenced the development of drama, most importantly by adding a third actor (attributed to Sophocles by Aristotle; to Aeschylus by Themistius), thereby reducing the importance of the chorus in the presentation of the plot. He also developed his characters to a greater extent than earlier playwrights.
The most famous tragedies of Sophocles feature Oedipus and Antigone: they are generally known as the Theban plays, though each was part of a different tetralogy (the other members of which are now lost). Sophocles influenced the development of drama, most importantly by adding a third actor (attributed to Sophocles by Aristotle; to Aeschylus by Themistius), thereby reducing the importance of the chorus in the presentation of the plot. He also developed his characters to a greater extent than earlier playwrights.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 8,323 reviews
February 23, 2009
Suck on that, Creon. They named the play after her.
December 26, 2023
I know all too well I’m going to die—
how could I not?—it makes no difference
what you decree. And if I have to die
before my time, well, I count that a gain.
When someone has to live the way I do,
surrounded by so many evil things,
how can she fail to find a benefit
in death?
*Strong female characters did not exist before modern times*
*Old books are boring and outdated*
Antigone premiered in 441 B.C.E. She's still as relevant today as she was centuries ago.
Each time I re-read this masterpiece, I am in awe of its brilliance. I can say with absolute certainty that Antigone is my favorite classic. I first read it in high school. I read the classics because I had to, not because I enjoyed them. Does any teenager enjoy reading? I suppose some of them do. I was more concerned with friends, cool accessories, and rock bands. If you had asked me then what the best book ever written was, I would have said Twilight. (I'm sure some of you are wondering why you even added me as a friend on Goodreads). But even then, at the peak of my teenage angst, I knew Antigone was special. I've read it several times, and it still holds up.
You know how each time you re-watch Titanic, you hope it won't hit the iceberg? Well, each time I re-read Antigone, I hope she gets a happy ending. I know what happens in the end, but I'm saddened regardless. I expect two things from Greek mythology: incest and tragedy. I don't like the first one, but I'm kind of into angst.
*spoilers*
Medea is fascinating, but she's also batshit crazy. Electra is dumb as a post, and I can't stand her. Prometheus deserved better. Iphigenia also deserved better. Antigone's daddy, Oedipus, is the epitome of tragedy. The dude married (unknowingly) his mother. And that's not even the craziest thing in the book. Antigone's book shouldn't have been able to top all that drama, but it did.
I have been a stranger here in my own land: All my life.
I'm sure most of you have heard the story of Oedipus. The man is so legendary Freud named his complex after him. To say Antigone had a lot of family issues would be an understatement. She finds out her father is also her brother, her mother is also her grandmother, her father/brother killed her grandfather, her two brothers died fighting on opposite sides of the civil war, and her uncle refuses to give one of her fallen brothers a proper burial, and her sister is useless.
Antigone's father is in self-imposed exile, and her mother and brothers are gone. Honor is the only thing that she has left. She decides to bury her brother despite her uncle's threats, knowing that the outcome of such an act is certain death. Her uncle warns her, and her sister begs her to obey his command, but Antigone is too brave and honorable to give in. She doesn't fear death. She embraces it.
Haemon, Creon's son and Antigone's betrothed, takes her side over his father's. He pleads with his father to spare Antigone's life, but Creon remains unmoved. Antigone is punished by being locked inside a tomb while still alive. To spare herself the agony, Antigone takes her own life. When Haemon arrives, he discovers her lifeless body and takes his life as well. Creon regrets his decision, but his realization comes too late.
And so ends the tale of brave Antigone. She stood alone against Creon and his cronies and kept her honor. She proved to be everything a sister should be and more.
Then when I'm out of strength —but only then —I will be stopped.
February 22, 2021
This drama highlights the differences between state and divine law. Especially interesting is the language. Sophocles has done very well to portray this conflict. Even after 2500 years still a worth reading, profound text.
June 12, 2016
Antigone is a real heroine; she stands up for what she believes in. She was faced with a strong dilemma. The law of man, the word of her uncle the king, demands that her brother's body remains unburied in the open with no funeral rights, to be savaged by animals. For King Creon, this is a symbolic justice for a traitor and a rebel, but the laws of the God’s, and the ruling of Antigone’s own mind, demands that she gives him libations (death rights) that all men deserve. She buries the body and faces the consequences of the crime.
Creon: And still you had the gall to break this law?
Antigone: Of course I did. It wasn't Zeus, not in the least,
who made this proclamation-not to me
Nor did that justice, dwelling with the gods
beneath the earth, ordain such laws for men.
Nor did I think your edict had such force
that you, a mere mortal, could override the gods.
So, like I said she’s a heroine, for standing up against tyranny, but she isn’t the play’s tragic hero: it’s clearly King Creon. Who has the right of this situation? It is easy to brand Creon a tyrant, though to do so overlooks the reasoning behind his actions. In punishing Antigone’s dead brother, her rebellious dead brother, he is sending a political message to those that threaten the peace of Thebes. In reality he is being an effective, albeit harsh, ruler. When his niece breaks his law, he has no choice but to punish her as he would any man. He couldn’t allow her to be an exception to the rule, to do so would be to undermine the law of the land and his politics: it would be to make him a hypocrite. But, to sentence her to death, that’s a little extreme.
Thus, Sophocles presents a beautifully conflicted situation. There is no longer a discernible sense of right or wrong, only a thin line of morality that separates a tyrant from a man of justice. And his conviction only gets worse; he refuses to hear what his son and the city (the chorus) think about the situation. He only sees his narrow-minded sense of justice, and ignores the effects it will have on his loved ones. He has no doubts about his actions, and demonstrates the questionable nature of a cold approach to kingship. The laws of man are not always right. Something Creon simply cannot perceive. To his mind, he is morally right, a man of good character and a king of honour. Is this not the most dangerous of leaders?
Creon: I will take her down some wild, desolate path
never trod by men, and wall her up alive
in a rocky vault, and set out short rations,
just the measure piety demands
to keep the entire city free of defilement.
There let her pray to the one god she worships:
Death—who knows?—may just reprieveher from death.
Or she may learn at last, better late than never,
what a waste of breath it is to worship Death.
And this is what makes him the play’s tragic hero. His hamartia, his tragic flaw in Aristotle terms, is his severe lack of judgement, and his inability to perceive the wrongness of his decree. The reversal, recognition and suffering come in the form of the priest Tiresias, an old wise man who speaks to the Gods. He tells Creon what will happen if he persists down his current path, and after much resistance, Creon finally relents his folly. But it is far too late. The blood has already been shed. Tragedy has already struck, death has already struck: Creon is left in tatters. It is the hardest of lessons to learn.
So what do we learn from this? Greek tragedy was didactical in purpose; it was used as a learning tool, a means of imparting wisdom to the audience. What is Sophocles message? For me it’s quite simple: open your eyes and your heart. Never presume that you are right and an absolute morale authority. For Creon, his realisation came too late. The result was a sacrifice he will never forget, Antigone's death, and the one most readers seem to sympathise with. But I implore you to look further into the play, and consider the full role of Creon. To overlook him is to overlook the point of the work:
“All men make mistakes, but a good man yields when he knows his course is wrong, and repairs the evil. The only crime is pride.”
This play is a spectacular piece of work. I need more Greek tragedy in my reading diet.
Penguin Little Black Classic- 55
The Little Black Classic Collection by penguin looks like it contains lots of hidden gems. I couldn’t help it; they looked so good that I went and bought them all. I shall post a short review after reading each one. No doubt it will take me several months to get through all of them! Hopefully I will find some classic authors, from across the ages, that I may not have come across had I not bought this collection.
Creon: And still you had the gall to break this law?
Antigone: Of course I did. It wasn't Zeus, not in the least,
who made this proclamation-not to me
Nor did that justice, dwelling with the gods
beneath the earth, ordain such laws for men.
Nor did I think your edict had such force
that you, a mere mortal, could override the gods.
So, like I said she’s a heroine, for standing up against tyranny, but she isn’t the play’s tragic hero: it’s clearly King Creon. Who has the right of this situation? It is easy to brand Creon a tyrant, though to do so overlooks the reasoning behind his actions. In punishing Antigone’s dead brother, her rebellious dead brother, he is sending a political message to those that threaten the peace of Thebes. In reality he is being an effective, albeit harsh, ruler. When his niece breaks his law, he has no choice but to punish her as he would any man. He couldn’t allow her to be an exception to the rule, to do so would be to undermine the law of the land and his politics: it would be to make him a hypocrite. But, to sentence her to death, that’s a little extreme.
Thus, Sophocles presents a beautifully conflicted situation. There is no longer a discernible sense of right or wrong, only a thin line of morality that separates a tyrant from a man of justice. And his conviction only gets worse; he refuses to hear what his son and the city (the chorus) think about the situation. He only sees his narrow-minded sense of justice, and ignores the effects it will have on his loved ones. He has no doubts about his actions, and demonstrates the questionable nature of a cold approach to kingship. The laws of man are not always right. Something Creon simply cannot perceive. To his mind, he is morally right, a man of good character and a king of honour. Is this not the most dangerous of leaders?
Creon: I will take her down some wild, desolate path
never trod by men, and wall her up alive
in a rocky vault, and set out short rations,
just the measure piety demands
to keep the entire city free of defilement.
There let her pray to the one god she worships:
Death—who knows?—may just reprieveher from death.
Or she may learn at last, better late than never,
what a waste of breath it is to worship Death.
And this is what makes him the play’s tragic hero. His hamartia, his tragic flaw in Aristotle terms, is his severe lack of judgement, and his inability to perceive the wrongness of his decree. The reversal, recognition and suffering come in the form of the priest Tiresias, an old wise man who speaks to the Gods. He tells Creon what will happen if he persists down his current path, and after much resistance, Creon finally relents his folly. But it is far too late. The blood has already been shed. Tragedy has already struck, death has already struck: Creon is left in tatters. It is the hardest of lessons to learn.
So what do we learn from this? Greek tragedy was didactical in purpose; it was used as a learning tool, a means of imparting wisdom to the audience. What is Sophocles message? For me it’s quite simple: open your eyes and your heart. Never presume that you are right and an absolute morale authority. For Creon, his realisation came too late. The result was a sacrifice he will never forget, Antigone's death, and the one most readers seem to sympathise with. But I implore you to look further into the play, and consider the full role of Creon. To overlook him is to overlook the point of the work:
“All men make mistakes, but a good man yields when he knows his course is wrong, and repairs the evil. The only crime is pride.”
This play is a spectacular piece of work. I need more Greek tragedy in my reading diet.
Penguin Little Black Classic- 55
The Little Black Classic Collection by penguin looks like it contains lots of hidden gems. I couldn’t help it; they looked so good that I went and bought them all. I shall post a short review after reading each one. No doubt it will take me several months to get through all of them! Hopefully I will find some classic authors, from across the ages, that I may not have come across had I not bought this collection.
October 15, 2024
Of all the Greek theatre, few works remain. Antigone is one of the most famous short pieces we still have. It is deserving. This tragedy is a powerful, deep, immense, great work. You had to be Sophocles to do this to us. It's enormous, beautiful, and intense!
October 15, 2015
This was a reread for me.
The first time I read this play was in my sophomore year or high school and I remember liking it but I LOVED it this time around.
It's fabulous and now I want to read the rest of the Theban plays.
The first time I read this play was in my sophomore year or high school and I remember liking it but I LOVED it this time around.
It's fabulous and now I want to read the rest of the Theban plays.
February 8, 2025
"Your soul is blowing apart."
Antigone ~~ Sophokles Anne Carson
I love Antigone. I think it is one of the very best of the Greek tragedies ~~ no one of the very best of all tragedies ever written.
Random thought ~~ I suspect there is a play that is part of this cycle that is missing ~~ a play that focuses on the brothers.
This review will not focus on the play itself, but on the wonderful translation by Anne Carson.
Anne Carson is a poet. She is a wordsmith in the highest sense of the word. She has an ear for modern language that makes this translation fresh and contemporary while honoring Sophokles true intention. Carson's translation is full of dry, dark humor and avoids the pitfalls of those dour, humorless translations that are of one note and written to emulate a funeral dirge. But more importantly, Carson shows that Kreon, not Antigone, is the true tragic character of the work. He refuses to heed the wisdom of others, when Kreon relents at the last, only to find his family dead and his city in despair.
The residue of those boring, stuffy late 19th / early 20th century translations that attempted to emulate Elizabethan English and place Antigone in the realm of a Shakespearean tragedy have been cast off by Carson. But, ultimately, I think it would be best to call this an adaptation rather than a translation.
ANTIGONE: WE BEGIN IN THE DARK AND THE BIRTH OF DEATH IS US
ISMENE: WHO SAID THAT
ANTIGONE: HEGEL
ISMENE: SOUNDS MORE LIKE BECKETT
ANTIGONE: HE WAS PARAPHRASING HEGEL
Antigone
Anne Carson means to have a good time with Antigone, and thankfully she invites us along to the party.
Antigone ~~ Sophokles Anne Carson
I love Antigone. I think it is one of the very best of the Greek tragedies ~~ no one of the very best of all tragedies ever written.
Random thought ~~ I suspect there is a play that is part of this cycle that is missing ~~ a play that focuses on the brothers.
This review will not focus on the play itself, but on the wonderful translation by Anne Carson.
Anne Carson is a poet. She is a wordsmith in the highest sense of the word. She has an ear for modern language that makes this translation fresh and contemporary while honoring Sophokles true intention. Carson's translation is full of dry, dark humor and avoids the pitfalls of those dour, humorless translations that are of one note and written to emulate a funeral dirge. But more importantly, Carson shows that Kreon, not Antigone, is the true tragic character of the work. He refuses to heed the wisdom of others, when Kreon relents at the last, only to find his family dead and his city in despair.
The residue of those boring, stuffy late 19th / early 20th century translations that attempted to emulate Elizabethan English and place Antigone in the realm of a Shakespearean tragedy have been cast off by Carson. But, ultimately, I think it would be best to call this an adaptation rather than a translation.
ANTIGONE: WE BEGIN IN THE DARK AND THE BIRTH OF DEATH IS US
ISMENE: WHO SAID THAT
ANTIGONE: HEGEL
ISMENE: SOUNDS MORE LIKE BECKETT
ANTIGONE: HE WAS PARAPHRASING HEGEL
Antigone
Anne Carson means to have a good time with Antigone, and thankfully she invites us along to the party.
November 21, 2021
11/21/21: I recently saw a production of Antigone, the daughter of Oedipus who defied King Creon to bury her brother, knowing that to obey divine law in this moment was the right and just thing to do. It's a little complicated from her on in, but what follows is a review of a kind of adaptation of the Antigone story set in Nazi Germany. Antigone is about family, pride and its difference from arrogance, about the assumption of political (and male) dominance, and about love. I reflect in the following about Sophocles' Antigone through this adaptation, which is a model for young people and old about doing the right thing, about resistance, and activism for justice. I have since read a few books about The White Rose, Sophie Scholl, and German resistance within Germany to Nazi fascism.
Original review, 5/29/19: Seeing a Middle School Production of Antigone in Munich: The Sophie Scholl Story and Reflecting on How to Foster Youth Resistance in Meaningful Ways: A Meditation
“I am not afraid of the danger. If it means death, it will not be the worst of deaths--death without honor”--Antigone
Antigone: We begin in the dark and birth is the death of us.
Ismene: Who said that?
Antigone: Hegel.
Ismene: Sounds more like Beckett.
Antigone: He was paraphrasing Hegel--The chorus in Anne Carson's translation of
Sophocles’ Antigone, to make the point that many writers and thinkers across time were and still are paraphrasing Sophocles
I just saw a middle school production of a play of which I had never heard, Antigone in Munich: The Sophie Scholl Story, by Claudia Haas, about a high school girl, Sophie, who follows her college philosophy student brother Hans in getting involved in a German student resistance organization, The White Rose Society, that courageously opposed Hitler. My daughter was in the crew for the production (stage left props), as I once was for a production of Antigone when I was in college decades ago. Like Antigone, Sophie was a teenager who defended her brother honorably, following in their activist footsteps, doing the right thing in the face of a patriarchal authority who, like King Lear, raged with demands of loyalty.
“All men make mistakes, but a good man yields when he knows his course is wrong, and repairs the evil. The only crime is pride”--Antigone
I thought the play was ambitious for a middle school, as it circled back from Nazi resistance to Sophocles’ play about the daughter of Oedipus and Jocasta who insisted on defying King Creon’s order to bury her brother Polynices. Creon’s law forbidding the public mourning and burial of a member of one’s own family, maybe especially one seen as resistant to the state, punishable by death, is inhuman, it’s immoral. I listened to a translation of the original play and also read some of Anne Carson’s adaptation of the play, and of course saw (and read) Claudia Haas’ play.
Philosophy professor Hans Huber, who guided The White Rose Society, was executed for resistance to the Nazi state:
"And thou shalt act as if
On thee and on thy deed
Depended the fate of all Germany,
And thou alone must answer for it."
The Nazi regime also executed Huber’s student Hans and his younger sister Sophie Scholl on February 22, 1943.
I admired my daughter’s drama department’s ambition to stoke student activism through the production. The student body of my daughter’s school had staged a walkout this year protesting political inaction on school shootings. They made signs, wrote and signed petitions, and some of them were interviewed by the media. When I was in high school we shut down the school on a couple occasions, insisting that the curriculum reflect growing concerns with the Vietnam War, racism, the environment. We made signs, we wrote pamphlets, we created sit-down strikes, and we got some concessions and curricular changes. I lived to tell my tale, but four students were killed for protesting the Vietnam War at Kent State (and more students across the country were also killed for protesting that war) during my time in school:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRE9v...
Here’s some recent Chicago student climate change protesters:
https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/c...
“Do not fear for me. Make straight your own path to destiny”―Antigone
Original review, 5/29/19: Seeing a Middle School Production of Antigone in Munich: The Sophie Scholl Story and Reflecting on How to Foster Youth Resistance in Meaningful Ways: A Meditation
“I am not afraid of the danger. If it means death, it will not be the worst of deaths--death without honor”--Antigone
Antigone: We begin in the dark and birth is the death of us.
Ismene: Who said that?
Antigone: Hegel.
Ismene: Sounds more like Beckett.
Antigone: He was paraphrasing Hegel--The chorus in Anne Carson's translation of
Sophocles’ Antigone, to make the point that many writers and thinkers across time were and still are paraphrasing Sophocles
I just saw a middle school production of a play of which I had never heard, Antigone in Munich: The Sophie Scholl Story, by Claudia Haas, about a high school girl, Sophie, who follows her college philosophy student brother Hans in getting involved in a German student resistance organization, The White Rose Society, that courageously opposed Hitler. My daughter was in the crew for the production (stage left props), as I once was for a production of Antigone when I was in college decades ago. Like Antigone, Sophie was a teenager who defended her brother honorably, following in their activist footsteps, doing the right thing in the face of a patriarchal authority who, like King Lear, raged with demands of loyalty.
“All men make mistakes, but a good man yields when he knows his course is wrong, and repairs the evil. The only crime is pride”--Antigone
I thought the play was ambitious for a middle school, as it circled back from Nazi resistance to Sophocles’ play about the daughter of Oedipus and Jocasta who insisted on defying King Creon’s order to bury her brother Polynices. Creon’s law forbidding the public mourning and burial of a member of one’s own family, maybe especially one seen as resistant to the state, punishable by death, is inhuman, it’s immoral. I listened to a translation of the original play and also read some of Anne Carson’s adaptation of the play, and of course saw (and read) Claudia Haas’ play.
Philosophy professor Hans Huber, who guided The White Rose Society, was executed for resistance to the Nazi state:
"And thou shalt act as if
On thee and on thy deed
Depended the fate of all Germany,
And thou alone must answer for it."
The Nazi regime also executed Huber’s student Hans and his younger sister Sophie Scholl on February 22, 1943.
I admired my daughter’s drama department’s ambition to stoke student activism through the production. The student body of my daughter’s school had staged a walkout this year protesting political inaction on school shootings. They made signs, wrote and signed petitions, and some of them were interviewed by the media. When I was in high school we shut down the school on a couple occasions, insisting that the curriculum reflect growing concerns with the Vietnam War, racism, the environment. We made signs, we wrote pamphlets, we created sit-down strikes, and we got some concessions and curricular changes. I lived to tell my tale, but four students were killed for protesting the Vietnam War at Kent State (and more students across the country were also killed for protesting that war) during my time in school:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRE9v...
Here’s some recent Chicago student climate change protesters:
https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/c...
“Do not fear for me. Make straight your own path to destiny”―Antigone
December 16, 2019
Book Review
4 out of 5 stars to Antigone, the third in a trilogy of Theban plays written around 441 BC (yes, almost 2500 years ago) by Sophocles. In my junior year of high school, our Advanced Placement English teacher assigned all three Theban plays. This is a mini-review on the final one, Antigone, which was my second favorite -- Oedipus Rex was of course, my favorite. In this Greek tragedy, Antigone, Oedipus Rex's daughter, fights to have a proper burial for her brother. She is strong-willed, determined and forceful, yet respectful and fair in her arguments. What I love about these plays is that ability for the characters to call on your emotions, logic and your intelligence. The plots are incredibly complex and shocking, but the players are what help you fall in love with Sophocles as a writer. Given its 2500 years old, and a translation, there are a number of areas where might not fully understand, especially if you aren't familiar with your Greek Gods and Goddesses. The words themselves are beautiful. The images you see are intense. It's a fantastic read. But read them in order. And think of Antigone as your very own Wonder Woman.
About Me
For those new to me or my reviews... here's the scoop: I read A LOT. I write A LOT. And now I blog A LOT. First the book review goes on Goodreads, and then I send it on over to my WordPress blog at https://thisismytruthnow.com, where you'll also find TV & Film reviews, the revealing and introspective 365 Daily Challenge and lots of blogging about places I've visited all over the world. And you can find all my social media profiles to get the details on the who/what/when/where and my pictures. Leave a comment and let me know what you think. Vote in the poll and ratings. Thanks for stopping by.
4 out of 5 stars to Antigone, the third in a trilogy of Theban plays written around 441 BC (yes, almost 2500 years ago) by Sophocles. In my junior year of high school, our Advanced Placement English teacher assigned all three Theban plays. This is a mini-review on the final one, Antigone, which was my second favorite -- Oedipus Rex was of course, my favorite. In this Greek tragedy, Antigone, Oedipus Rex's daughter, fights to have a proper burial for her brother. She is strong-willed, determined and forceful, yet respectful and fair in her arguments. What I love about these plays is that ability for the characters to call on your emotions, logic and your intelligence. The plots are incredibly complex and shocking, but the players are what help you fall in love with Sophocles as a writer. Given its 2500 years old, and a translation, there are a number of areas where might not fully understand, especially if you aren't familiar with your Greek Gods and Goddesses. The words themselves are beautiful. The images you see are intense. It's a fantastic read. But read them in order. And think of Antigone as your very own Wonder Woman.
About Me
For those new to me or my reviews... here's the scoop: I read A LOT. I write A LOT. And now I blog A LOT. First the book review goes on Goodreads, and then I send it on over to my WordPress blog at https://thisismytruthnow.com, where you'll also find TV & Film reviews, the revealing and introspective 365 Daily Challenge and lots of blogging about places I've visited all over the world. And you can find all my social media profiles to get the details on the who/what/when/where and my pictures. Leave a comment and let me know what you think. Vote in the poll and ratings. Thanks for stopping by.
July 20, 2022
"All men make mistakes, but a good man yields when he knows his course is wrong and repairs the evil. The only crime is pride."
Polynices and his brother died in their battle to become the sole ruler of Thebes. Creon, the new King, decreed that Polynice, the invader, should be denied proper burial rites and his body left to rot and be eaten by carrion and dogs. According to Greek religion, this punishment would prevent his soul from entering the underworld. Creon added that anyone who ignored his edict and tried to bury Polynices would be sentenced to death. Creon's edit becomes Antigone, Polynice's sister's central dilemma. She must determine where her primary loyalty lies to her family or the state. Antigone chooses to bury her brother.
Sophocles uses Antigone's decision to examine the nature of power, arbitrary rules, and their effects on the family and social order. As Antigone was engaged to Creon's son, he must also choose between family and state.
Although written in the 5th century BC, Antigone remains relevant today. It presents debates that are nuanced and multifaceted. The writing is full and rich, and finely constructed lines often jump out at you. I read the play and listened to an excellent, full-cast, audible podcast production.
Highly recommend.
Polynices and his brother died in their battle to become the sole ruler of Thebes. Creon, the new King, decreed that Polynice, the invader, should be denied proper burial rites and his body left to rot and be eaten by carrion and dogs. According to Greek religion, this punishment would prevent his soul from entering the underworld. Creon added that anyone who ignored his edict and tried to bury Polynices would be sentenced to death. Creon's edit becomes Antigone, Polynice's sister's central dilemma. She must determine where her primary loyalty lies to her family or the state. Antigone chooses to bury her brother.
Sophocles uses Antigone's decision to examine the nature of power, arbitrary rules, and their effects on the family and social order. As Antigone was engaged to Creon's son, he must also choose between family and state.
Although written in the 5th century BC, Antigone remains relevant today. It presents debates that are nuanced and multifaceted. The writing is full and rich, and finely constructed lines often jump out at you. I read the play and listened to an excellent, full-cast, audible podcast production.
Highly recommend.
October 9, 2025
Antigone is another great play I have come across in my journey with Greek dramatists. This is my second play by Sophocles, and it differs from all others I have read so far in presenting a tragic heroine.
I absolutely adored the protagonist, Antigone. As the first tragic heroine I encountered in a Greek play, she fascinated me. Her courage, the defiance she showed against men's injustice, her loyalty to her family, even in death, despite the personal peril that threatened her, and her fierce adherence to God's decrees, placing her faith and trust in god's justice, is remarkable. Antigone stands alone in her battle against King Creon's decree that forbade a proper burial for Polynices, her brother, who turned traitor to his birth city. To the King, Polynices is a traitor not worthy of a proper burial since he has committed an offense of the highest degree against Thebes. Polynices must be dishonoured in equal measure, and denying funeral rites was the best way. But to Antigone, Polynices is her brother. Family bond called her to stand for justice for her dead brother. Also, the decree was a violation of god's law. Antigone relies on both these defenses in her defiant action against the tyrannical order of King Creon.
Antigone pays dearly for her actions. But according to Sophocles, Antigone's doom is not the result of this single defiant action of hers. Antigone is the daughter of King Oedipus, whose incestuous marriage is told in Oedipus Rex. As a child of such a union, tragedy is part of her inheritance.
It is Oedipus's curse that continues through his descendants. All must end in tragedy since their birth is also a tragedy. Oedipus's two sons (Eteocles and Polynices) die fighting against each other; Antigone dies for defying the law, and Ismene survives to face unbearable grief.
King Creon, the antagonist, equally interested me. I knew a different Creon from Oedipus Rex and was horrified to meet this vindictive man. (I learned that Sophocles wrote Antigone before Oedipus Rex, which accounts for the discrepancy in the character.) Creon in Antigone is a tyrant. Although he claims to have imposed rules for the greater good of the city, his aims are more personal. In his argument with his son, Haemon, Creon says, "the city is the King's-that's the law!" which confirms his attitude. Creon is proud and stubborn. As a King, he doesn't take well to advice. He is full of himself and even stands upto the gods. He violates the sacred decrees of the gods by denying the rites of the dead. The prophet Tiresias chastises Creon for his stupidity.
Tiresias prophesies what would befall Creon for thinking he, a mortal man, is above the gods.
Sophocles demonstrates his view of the superiority of the gods and the consequences of being a tyrant. Greek was a democracy at the time of Sophocles. And the Greeks have suffered under dictatorship. So he needed to immortalise a play to support democracy and defeat any future dictatorship. Antigone expressly highlights that no mortal can go against the gods' laws. The wisdom of men is limited, so no ruler should be conceited.
Sophocles refers to collective wisdom here, a collective wisdom ensured by a democracy. At the same time, Sophocles emphasises the importance of adhering to old rules that are wisely passed down because those rules are made to keep harmony between men and gods. This is the bitter truth Creon learns through tragedy.
I highly enjoyed Sophocles' Antigone. To me, it was even better written than his Oedipus Rex.
More of my reviews can be found at http://piyangiejay.com/
I absolutely adored the protagonist, Antigone. As the first tragic heroine I encountered in a Greek play, she fascinated me. Her courage, the defiance she showed against men's injustice, her loyalty to her family, even in death, despite the personal peril that threatened her, and her fierce adherence to God's decrees, placing her faith and trust in god's justice, is remarkable. Antigone stands alone in her battle against King Creon's decree that forbade a proper burial for Polynices, her brother, who turned traitor to his birth city. To the King, Polynices is a traitor not worthy of a proper burial since he has committed an offense of the highest degree against Thebes. Polynices must be dishonoured in equal measure, and denying funeral rites was the best way. But to Antigone, Polynices is her brother. Family bond called her to stand for justice for her dead brother. Also, the decree was a violation of god's law. Antigone relies on both these defenses in her defiant action against the tyrannical order of King Creon.
Antigone pays dearly for her actions. But according to Sophocles, Antigone's doom is not the result of this single defiant action of hers. Antigone is the daughter of King Oedipus, whose incestuous marriage is told in Oedipus Rex. As a child of such a union, tragedy is part of her inheritance.
" Once the gods have rocked a house to its foundations
the ruin will never cease, cresting in and on
from one generation on throughout the race."
It is Oedipus's curse that continues through his descendants. All must end in tragedy since their birth is also a tragedy. Oedipus's two sons (Eteocles and Polynices) die fighting against each other; Antigone dies for defying the law, and Ismene survives to face unbearable grief.
King Creon, the antagonist, equally interested me. I knew a different Creon from Oedipus Rex and was horrified to meet this vindictive man. (I learned that Sophocles wrote Antigone before Oedipus Rex, which accounts for the discrepancy in the character.) Creon in Antigone is a tyrant. Although he claims to have imposed rules for the greater good of the city, his aims are more personal. In his argument with his son, Haemon, Creon says, "the city is the King's-that's the law!" which confirms his attitude. Creon is proud and stubborn. As a King, he doesn't take well to advice. He is full of himself and even stands upto the gods. He violates the sacred decrees of the gods by denying the rites of the dead. The prophet Tiresias chastises Creon for his stupidity.
"All men make mistakes, it is only human.
But once the wrong is done, a man can
turn his back on folly, misfortune too,
if he tries to make amends...
Stubbornness brands you for stupidity-pride is crime."
"You have no business with the dead,
nor do the gods above-this is violence you have forced upon the heavens."
Tiresias prophesies what would befall Creon for thinking he, a mortal man, is above the gods.
Sophocles demonstrates his view of the superiority of the gods and the consequences of being a tyrant. Greek was a democracy at the time of Sophocles. And the Greeks have suffered under dictatorship. So he needed to immortalise a play to support democracy and defeat any future dictatorship. Antigone expressly highlights that no mortal can go against the gods' laws. The wisdom of men is limited, so no ruler should be conceited.
"Creon shows the world that of all the ills
afflicting men the worst is lack of judgment."
"Wisdom is by far the greatest part of joy,
and reverence toward the gods must be safeguarded."
Sophocles refers to collective wisdom here, a collective wisdom ensured by a democracy. At the same time, Sophocles emphasises the importance of adhering to old rules that are wisely passed down because those rules are made to keep harmony between men and gods. This is the bitter truth Creon learns through tragedy.
"It's best to keep established laws
to the very day we die."
I highly enjoyed Sophocles' Antigone. To me, it was even better written than his Oedipus Rex.
More of my reviews can be found at http://piyangiejay.com/
January 29, 2023
greek tragedy has this element that is truly lacking in most contemporary works, and it's simply dimensionality. this manicheean idea of a "right" and a "wrong" that oppose each other completely without intersecting is flawed in a multitude of ways and is never applicable to the human psyche and the way we act, so finding it, even in fiction, is incredibly frustrating by its inaccuracy 🙃
May 10, 2020
آنتیگونه محکوم به مرگ توسط کرئون
اُدیپ که بعد از تولد، از پدر و مادر طرد شد
در نزاع جنگی، پدر خود را میکشد و با مادرش یوکاسته ازدواج میکند. از اُدیپ دو دختر بدنیا میآورد که آنتیگونه و ایسمنه نام دارد. یوکاسته وقتی فهمید اُدیپ چه کسی است، خود را کشت.
آنتیگونه آخرین نمایشنامه از سهگانهٔ تب سوفوکل است اما اولین نوشته شده. سهگانهٔ سوفوکل تراژدینویس یونانی، اودیپ شهریار و اودیپ در کولونوس است
برای همچین نمایشنامه تراژد بی نظیر باید از اساتید برجسته و نخبه ی ادبیات نوشت:
اقدام آنتیگونه نماد نوعی ایده آل است، ایده آلی به نام وجود یک قانون برتر و فردی تر در برابر قدرت. این تراژدی که ۲۵۰۰ سال پیش نوشته شده، سیاست های برقرار در روحیه شخصی و خشونت را به رخ می کشد. خشونتی که تغییرات سیاسی و اجتماعی بر روی افراد اعمال می کند و حقیقتا این همان لبه تیغی است که فرد را از جامعه جدا می کند. از این رو شنیدن این داستان بسیار جذاب توصیه می شود.
✔نماد:
سندروم کرئون: [حاکم مستبد و اطرافیان مستبد او] (دایی آنتیگونه)
✔️آنتیگونه: [نماد تنهایی] و [رنج و درد عمیق]
بعضی از دیالوگ ها:
✔ای فرزند، مرگ سرنوشت همه ی آدمیان است
آرِمیدن در گودالی خاکی!
باشد این پوششی که بر تو می افتد
تنِ جوانت را با مهربانی در بر گیرد!
✔پادشاه: اگر دولت نیرومند باشد در پرتو آن همه چیز داری
همه: طبیعت سرشار از عجایب است،اما انسان شاهکار این طبیعت است
🔷کاهن: آیا کسی نیست تا بداند،تا بفهمد که خِرَد برترینِ نیکی هاست!!!
پادشاه با خنده: و بی شرمی زشت ترین بدیهاست
کاهن: دیوانه از دیوانگی اش میخندد
آنتیگونه در کنار برادرش پولونیکس
https://ebultan.com/نگاهی-به-نمایشنا...
اُدیپ که بعد از تولد، از پدر و مادر طرد شد
در نزاع جنگی، پدر خود را میکشد و با مادرش یوکاسته ازدواج میکند. از اُدیپ دو دختر بدنیا میآورد که آنتیگونه و ایسمنه نام دارد. یوکاسته وقتی فهمید اُدیپ چه کسی است، خود را کشت.
آنتیگونه آخرین نمایشنامه از سهگانهٔ تب سوفوکل است اما اولین نوشته شده. سهگانهٔ سوفوکل تراژدینویس یونانی، اودیپ شهریار و اودیپ در کولونوس است
برای همچین نمایشنامه تراژد بی نظیر باید از اساتید برجسته و نخبه ی ادبیات نوشت:
اقدام آنتیگونه نماد نوعی ایده آل است، ایده آلی به نام وجود یک قانون برتر و فردی تر در برابر قدرت. این تراژدی که ۲۵۰۰ سال پیش نوشته شده، سیاست های برقرار در روحیه شخصی و خشونت را به رخ می کشد. خشونتی که تغییرات سیاسی و اجتماعی بر روی افراد اعمال می کند و حقیقتا این همان لبه تیغی است که فرد را از جامعه جدا می کند. از این رو شنیدن این داستان بسیار جذاب توصیه می شود.
✔نماد:
سندروم کرئون: [حاکم مستبد و اطرافیان مستبد او] (دایی آنتیگونه)
✔️آنتیگونه: [نماد تنهایی] و [رنج و درد عمیق]
بعضی از دیالوگ ها:
✔ای فرزند، مرگ سرنوشت همه ی آدمیان است
آرِمیدن در گودالی خاکی!
باشد این پوششی که بر تو می افتد
تنِ جوانت را با مهربانی در بر گیرد!
✔پادشاه: اگر دولت نیرومند باشد در پرتو آن همه چیز داری
همه: طبیعت سرشار از عجایب است،اما انسان شاهکار این طبیعت است
🔷کاهن: آیا کسی نیست تا بداند،تا بفهمد که خِرَد برترینِ نیکی هاست!!!
پادشاه با خنده: و بی شرمی زشت ترین بدیهاست
کاهن: دیوانه از دیوانگی اش میخندد
آنتیگونه در کنار برادرش پولونیکس
https://ebultan.com/نگاهی-به-نمایشنا...
October 28, 2021
Antigone is surprisingly insightful and beautiful. The Odes were especially stunning. Antigone is a bold, daring character and I respect her humor and strength 🙇♀️
Shakespeare? No. Sophocles? Yes.
Shakespeare? No. Sophocles? Yes.
January 7, 2022
القدر و الحب و الكبرياء
كانوا مفاتيح مصير انتيجون؛ صاحبة التراجيديا المأساوية الاغريقية المتكاملة
و انتيجون ابنة اوديبوس ملك طيبة ذو المصير المأساوي فلقد قتل اباه و تزوج امه و انجب منها اربع أبناءً!! ا وعندما صدمته معرفة تلك الحقايق؛ فقأ عينيه و هام علي وجهه
و تمت الوقيعة بين ابناؤه قتلا بعض؛ فقرر الحاكم دفن احدهما و ترك الاخر للطيور هنا اصرت انتيجون على دفنه و لو علي موتها
مأساة انتيجون مركبة؛ فقد ورثت عن والدها قدره المظلم و مصيره المأساوي
و حبها الكبير لاخيها جعلها تفضل فقدان حياتها في سبيل تكريم جثمانه
و كبريائها جعلها تحجم عن رجاء الحاكم. لتغيير قراره
كبرياء حماها الحاكم هو الذي اودي بها للمصير الحتمي
لا تخجل من أخطائك فانت بشر*
ولكن اخجل اذا كررتها و ادعيت انها من فعل القدر*ا
انتيجون من اقوى الشخصيات النسائية ادبيا علي الاطلاق؛ هي ليست في قمة الفضل بسبب اصلها و مأستها العائلية ؛ و لكنها ايضا اميرة سابقة؛ و لا تتردي في هوة اللؤم و الخسة
اسبغ عليها سوفوكليس من الاف السنين؛ صفات رفيعة فجعلها مثال للشجاعة؛ التدين؛ الصرامة؛ و الصمود كإسمها؛ و معناه الصامدة
رغم الوضع المتدني الذي كانت تغرق فيه النساء في هذا العصر المنصرم؛ منذ الفين و خمسمائة سنة
دوافع انتيجون انسانية دينية؛
فوقفت امام قوانين وضعية ظالمة؛ طمعا في اخرة افضل؛ لتعبر عن المدي الذي قد تتطرف اليه المرأة في سبيل اقامة العدل
كانوا مفاتيح مصير انتيجون؛ صاحبة التراجيديا المأساوية الاغريقية المتكاملة
و انتيجون ابنة اوديبوس ملك طيبة ذو المصير المأساوي فلقد قتل اباه و تزوج امه و انجب منها اربع أبناءً!! ا وعندما صدمته معرفة تلك الحقايق؛ فقأ عينيه و هام علي وجهه
و تمت الوقيعة بين ابناؤه قتلا بعض؛ فقرر الحاكم دفن احدهما و ترك الاخر للطيور هنا اصرت انتيجون على دفنه و لو علي موتها
مأساة انتيجون مركبة؛ فقد ورثت عن والدها قدره المظلم و مصيره المأساوي
و حبها الكبير لاخيها جعلها تفضل فقدان حياتها في سبيل تكريم جثمانه
و كبريائها جعلها تحجم عن رجاء الحاكم. لتغيير قراره
كبرياء حماها الحاكم هو الذي اودي بها للمصير الحتمي
لا تخجل من أخطائك فانت بشر*
ولكن اخجل اذا كررتها و ادعيت انها من فعل القدر*ا
انتيجون من اقوى الشخصيات النسائية ادبيا علي الاطلاق؛ هي ليست في قمة الفضل بسبب اصلها و مأستها العائلية ؛ و لكنها ايضا اميرة سابقة؛ و لا تتردي في هوة اللؤم و الخسة
اسبغ عليها سوفوكليس من الاف السنين؛ صفات رفيعة فجعلها مثال للشجاعة؛ التدين؛ الصرامة؛ و الصمود كإسمها؛ و معناه الصامدة
رغم الوضع المتدني الذي كانت تغرق فيه النساء في هذا العصر المنصرم؛ منذ الفين و خمسمائة سنة
دوافع انتيجون انسانية دينية؛
فوقفت امام قوانين وضعية ظالمة؛ طمعا في اخرة افضل؛ لتعبر عن المدي الذي قد تتطرف اليه المرأة في سبيل اقامة العدل
January 22, 2024
Эта трагедия имеет гораздо более глубокий смысл, чем «Царь Эдип». Жить по неписаным человеческим законам, или по Божьим законам, поступать по морали - вот чем руководствуется Антигона, несмотря на смертельный риск ослушаться приказа. Ее чувство справедливости деятельное, активное, идущее от сердца. Она действует в меру своих сил, полная скорбных чувств. Ее героизм заключается в одиночном выступлении против могущественной власти, противопоставлении порядочности и нравственности самодурной мстительности царя Креонта. Исмена, напротив, является воплощением слабости, и она абсолютно незаметный персонаж, создающий фон для Антигоны.
У Креонта своя логика, она ложна, она ошибочна, потому что он пытается оправдать свои негуманные действия по наказанию предателя Полиника интересами города-государства. Здесь мы видим типичную для тирании отсылку на приоритет государственных интересов над человеческими (божественными), и это указывает на глубину понимания автором природы деспотизма.
Все люди связаны между собой прежде всего узами любви. Эти узы любви приводят к невозможности жить без любимых. И эти узы любви являются карающими для Креонта, потерявшего всех, кто ему был дорог. Это то, что называется Роком. Слепой Тересий предсказал, что не будет благополучия городу. Народ ропщет. Вот результат тирании.
У Креонта своя логика, она ложна, она ошибочна, потому что он пытается оправдать свои негуманные действия по наказанию предателя Полиника интересами города-государства. Здесь мы видим типичную для тирании отсылку на приоритет государственных интересов над человеческими (божественными), и это указывает на глубину понимания автором природы деспотизма.
Все люди связаны между собой прежде всего узами любви. Эти узы любви приводят к невозможности жить без любимых. И эти узы любви являются карающими для Креонта, потерявшего всех, кто ему был дорог. Это то, что называется Роком. Слепой Тересий предсказал, что не будет благополучия городу. Народ ропщет. Вот результат тирании.
May 27, 2023
is it not astonishing how timeless certain pieces of literature are? is it not incredible how fictionalised heroines given to us are memorialised throughout history thanks to the written word for us to discover and find individual power in?
June 11, 2019
I really enjoyed this. It’s easy to read (minus a few of the long chorus paragraphs), and Antigone is the heroine of Greek tragedies I never knew I needed. She’s got a backbone, a level of principles high above those around her, and she’s not afraid of anyone. Least of all King Creon. Honestly, she’s so ahead of her time, I did not expect the high levels of sass I got while reading this, and it’s surprisingly funny in places too. The overall short length stopped this getting too ‘bogged down’ too.
I’m really glad I picked this up. I might even delve into more Greek tragedies in the future if they’re like this. It’s not as dry as it seems.
I’m really glad I picked this up. I might even delve into more Greek tragedies in the future if they’re like this. It’s not as dry as it seems.
January 12, 2010
Antigone is a strong contender in the Plays That Keep You Awake at Night competition. The background of the story reads, no surprise, like a Greek tragedy: Antigone is the orphaned daughter of Jocasta and Oedipus (the mother and father/brother team from Oedipus Rex) who has now lost both her brothers as well — they killed each other fighting over who got to rule Thebes. Uncle Creon, the new king, decreed that the “traitor” brother is to go unburied. The conflict is that Antigone plans to ignore Creon’s decree and bury her brother anyway, while Creon says if she does, he’ll have her killed.
While the conflict seems simple enough, it involves two competing arenas, political and religious. Politically, Antigone represents the aristos, the old ruling families, who aren’t as loyal to law as they are to their own families, and Creon represents the demos, or the voting masses, whose primary focus is the interest of the state and the rule of law. In the religious arena, Antigone wants to honor the gods’ laws by burying her brother, while Creon ignores the gods’ laws in favor of his own decrees. So who’s right? What is the balance of power between individuals and the state? The laws of man and the laws of gods? Governing with firmness and listening with reason?
The good news is that Sophocles gives each character a leg to stand on, but only one. Antigone is right to honor the gods’ laws but wrong to disobey the king’s decree, and Creon is wrong to disregard the gods’ laws but right to expect the laws of the land to supplant individual wishes. I’m guessing Sophocles would argue that the play’s success comes from the tension between these ideas as played out by two flawed characters. On the one hand, Antigone is a strident vigilante who doesn’t care that she’s breaking the law. And on the other hand, Creon is an insecure blowhard who doesn’t care that he’s breaking custom and the will of the gods by leaving his nephew’s corpse to be eaten by birds. Neither character is easy to side with, but each has a point.
However, the bad news is that Sophocles clearly sides with Creon — through the airtime he gives Creon (far more than he gives Antigone), through the chorus’s support (who are supposed to state the opinion of the audience), and through the plot itself, which gives Creon the realization of his mistakes and the cathartic “Woe is me” ending. Creon, not Antigone, follows the tragic hero trajectory. Antigone’s real tragedy is simply that she’s a member of a spectacularly dysfunctional family. While the plot vindicates Antigone’s position, Sophocles undermines her character at every turn, and for some reason this drives me bonkers. Obviously nobody would read Pride and Prejudice and **SPOILER ALERT** say, “Poor Wickham got short shrift! Jane Austen was clearly in the bag for Darcy. How unfair!” because those characters exist only as the author created them. Wickham is a scoundrel because Jane Austen created a scoundrel. However, the characters in this play existed before Sophocles and therefore outside Sophocles, so I don’t think I’m a lunatic for being irritated that Sophocles was manipulative in his treatment of them. In his real-life zeal to promote the interest of the polis, Sophocles weakens Antigone’s position by characterizing her as imbalanced and unnatural, which makes the didactic focus of the story political. That was his point, and in keeping with Greek tragedy of the 5th century BC, but it still irks me.
While the conflict seems simple enough, it involves two competing arenas, political and religious. Politically, Antigone represents the aristos, the old ruling families, who aren’t as loyal to law as they are to their own families, and Creon represents the demos, or the voting masses, whose primary focus is the interest of the state and the rule of law. In the religious arena, Antigone wants to honor the gods’ laws by burying her brother, while Creon ignores the gods’ laws in favor of his own decrees. So who’s right? What is the balance of power between individuals and the state? The laws of man and the laws of gods? Governing with firmness and listening with reason?
The good news is that Sophocles gives each character a leg to stand on, but only one. Antigone is right to honor the gods’ laws but wrong to disobey the king’s decree, and Creon is wrong to disregard the gods’ laws but right to expect the laws of the land to supplant individual wishes. I’m guessing Sophocles would argue that the play’s success comes from the tension between these ideas as played out by two flawed characters. On the one hand, Antigone is a strident vigilante who doesn’t care that she’s breaking the law. And on the other hand, Creon is an insecure blowhard who doesn’t care that he’s breaking custom and the will of the gods by leaving his nephew’s corpse to be eaten by birds. Neither character is easy to side with, but each has a point.
However, the bad news is that Sophocles clearly sides with Creon — through the airtime he gives Creon (far more than he gives Antigone), through the chorus’s support (who are supposed to state the opinion of the audience), and through the plot itself, which gives Creon the realization of his mistakes and the cathartic “Woe is me” ending. Creon, not Antigone, follows the tragic hero trajectory. Antigone’s real tragedy is simply that she’s a member of a spectacularly dysfunctional family. While the plot vindicates Antigone’s position, Sophocles undermines her character at every turn, and for some reason this drives me bonkers. Obviously nobody would read Pride and Prejudice and **SPOILER ALERT** say, “Poor Wickham got short shrift! Jane Austen was clearly in the bag for Darcy. How unfair!” because those characters exist only as the author created them. Wickham is a scoundrel because Jane Austen created a scoundrel. However, the characters in this play existed before Sophocles and therefore outside Sophocles, so I don’t think I’m a lunatic for being irritated that Sophocles was manipulative in his treatment of them. In his real-life zeal to promote the interest of the polis, Sophocles weakens Antigone’s position by characterizing her as imbalanced and unnatural, which makes the didactic focus of the story political. That was his point, and in keeping with Greek tragedy of the 5th century BC, but it still irks me.
June 14, 2019
“ Son nata per amar, non per odiare.”
Nell’antica Grecia non dare degna sepoltura al corpo di un uomo, lasciarlo in pasto ai rapaci era un gesto empio e contrario al volere degli dei. Il corpo di Polinice che si è macchiato di tradimento contro la sua terra, non può essere sepolto per ordine del nuovo re di Tebe, Creonte.
Antigone è una guerriera. Ha deciso contro ogni ordine che seppellirà il fratello Polinice. Combatte da sola la sua battaglia per difendere quanto di più sacro ha: la sua famiglia, anche contro le leggi, ingiustamente emanate.
“Antigone: Andrò da sola
a seppellirlo e sento che bello
sarà morire in questa occupazione:
cara con lui a me caro, giacerò
ad una sacra colpa consacrata.
Più che ai vivi, piacer devo ai morti,
che in eterno con loro rimarrò”.
E di questo è orgogliosa. Rispetterà le leggi degli dei andando contro la legge dell’uomo che non perdona. E così morirà degnamente.
“Potevo io sfidare degli dèi
la punizione per avere avuto
paura di un uom che nulla vale?”
La lotta è fra uomo e donna, fra re e suddito. E sono conflitti insanabili. Lei fiera e altera, pronta a tutto pur di ottenere vittoria; il re Creonte cieco al volere degli dei, ascolta solo l’astio che lo alimenta e cerca riscatto per la sua terra. Ma il sovrano pagherà la sua tracotanza, la famosa hybrys greca, con quanto di più caro ha al mondo.
Più fili tragici si intrecciano: la sepoltura di Polinice, l’allontanamento di Ismene, il debole che soccombe al più forte, l’ordine che sovverte il caos.
Antigone è una figura fortissima, una donna fiera, un esempio di ribellione contro l’ingiusto.
Splendida anche la figura di Tiresia, il cieco indovino:
“Rifletti, figlio mio,
lo sbagliare è comune ai mortali,
ma il saggio è sempre pronto a riparare
l'errore. Stolto è colui che riparo
non prende mentre il male diventa
maggiore”.
L’attualità del messaggio che da questi testi emerge sempre mi sconvolge. A distanza di secoli non perdono la loro forza e la lettura è bellissima, fonte di riflessioni intense e a volte amare. “ La sorte che aiuta l'infelice, colpisce il fortunato:
nessun può dire quando finirà” .
Si paga sempre. Il conto prima o poi arriva.
“Felice è chi la sua vita trascorre
lontan dai mali, se invece la casa
è sconvolta da un dio, la sventura
prende a infierire sull'intera stirpe
così come un'ondata marina
trascinata dalla furia del vento,
il fondo dell'oceano sconvolge
e si avventa sonora sulle spiagge” .
.
Nell’antica Grecia non dare degna sepoltura al corpo di un uomo, lasciarlo in pasto ai rapaci era un gesto empio e contrario al volere degli dei. Il corpo di Polinice che si è macchiato di tradimento contro la sua terra, non può essere sepolto per ordine del nuovo re di Tebe, Creonte.
Antigone è una guerriera. Ha deciso contro ogni ordine che seppellirà il fratello Polinice. Combatte da sola la sua battaglia per difendere quanto di più sacro ha: la sua famiglia, anche contro le leggi, ingiustamente emanate.
“Antigone: Andrò da sola
a seppellirlo e sento che bello
sarà morire in questa occupazione:
cara con lui a me caro, giacerò
ad una sacra colpa consacrata.
Più che ai vivi, piacer devo ai morti,
che in eterno con loro rimarrò”.
E di questo è orgogliosa. Rispetterà le leggi degli dei andando contro la legge dell’uomo che non perdona. E così morirà degnamente.
“Potevo io sfidare degli dèi
la punizione per avere avuto
paura di un uom che nulla vale?”
La lotta è fra uomo e donna, fra re e suddito. E sono conflitti insanabili. Lei fiera e altera, pronta a tutto pur di ottenere vittoria; il re Creonte cieco al volere degli dei, ascolta solo l’astio che lo alimenta e cerca riscatto per la sua terra. Ma il sovrano pagherà la sua tracotanza, la famosa hybrys greca, con quanto di più caro ha al mondo.
Più fili tragici si intrecciano: la sepoltura di Polinice, l’allontanamento di Ismene, il debole che soccombe al più forte, l’ordine che sovverte il caos.
Antigone è una figura fortissima, una donna fiera, un esempio di ribellione contro l’ingiusto.
Splendida anche la figura di Tiresia, il cieco indovino:
“Rifletti, figlio mio,
lo sbagliare è comune ai mortali,
ma il saggio è sempre pronto a riparare
l'errore. Stolto è colui che riparo
non prende mentre il male diventa
maggiore”.
L’attualità del messaggio che da questi testi emerge sempre mi sconvolge. A distanza di secoli non perdono la loro forza e la lettura è bellissima, fonte di riflessioni intense e a volte amare. “ La sorte che aiuta l'infelice, colpisce il fortunato:
nessun può dire quando finirà” .
Si paga sempre. Il conto prima o poi arriva.
“Felice è chi la sua vita trascorre
lontan dai mali, se invece la casa
è sconvolta da un dio, la sventura
prende a infierire sull'intera stirpe
così come un'ondata marina
trascinata dalla furia del vento,
il fondo dell'oceano sconvolge
e si avventa sonora sulle spiagge” .
.
Read
November 27, 2025I've read the play this time in Anne's Carson translation. And after reading, I've watched it performed in the Barbican theatre with the same text and Juliette Binoche as a lead. It is available to watch on her Youtube channel. The acting is brilliant of course. But the staging of the play is quite special: each person from the chorus also plays a distinctive role. It is disorienting at the beginning but then the effect is quite profound: they are all mixed in the story, all complacent but then also find the strength at the end to be an individual, change their mind and even stop being afraid. Also the minimalistic, modern stage set adds to Carson's austere interpretation.
I was impressed once more how humanistic this play is in a sense that it celebrates the power of a human spirit and intellect including the conquering of nature. I thought it is more the sentiment of the Enlightenment era. But it is more than evident that the enlightenment by itself was not solely due to the scientific progress. They've probably just read the Greeks a new.
many things strange
terrible
clever
wondrous
monstrous
marvellous
dreadful
awful
and
weird
there are in the world
but none more
strange
terrible
clever
uncanny
wondrous
monstrous
marvellous
dreadful
awful
and
weird
than Man
he sails across the sea in blasting winter
he ploughs the inexhaustible earth year after year
the race of birds
the tribes of beasts...
It would be unashamedly self-congratulatory message, but 'to death he (the Man) has no answer' narrows the pathos down somewhat.
It would be interesting to discuss the nature of the law and two contrasting views on its role in the play. However, I think I am bit out of my depth to add something original to this discussion. All I can say that the norms in the society have a tendency to shift. And when the law does not support those norms anymore it would be potentially a conflict that the norms would win eventually. Or so it seems to me. However, my post-modern sensibilities made me struggle with the end of the story and 'lessons learned'. I could not make myself to believe that a tyrant would get reformed through his suffering; or at minimum, he would pay the price of justice. I wish. But it seems their breed successfully reproduce themselves and evolutionary stable with the advantage of 'no shame'.
PS
The link to the play in Barbican I refer to:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVP8r...
I was impressed once more how humanistic this play is in a sense that it celebrates the power of a human spirit and intellect including the conquering of nature. I thought it is more the sentiment of the Enlightenment era. But it is more than evident that the enlightenment by itself was not solely due to the scientific progress. They've probably just read the Greeks a new.
many things strange
terrible
clever
wondrous
monstrous
marvellous
dreadful
awful
and
weird
there are in the world
but none more
strange
terrible
clever
uncanny
wondrous
monstrous
marvellous
dreadful
awful
and
weird
than Man
he sails across the sea in blasting winter
he ploughs the inexhaustible earth year after year
the race of birds
the tribes of beasts...
It would be unashamedly self-congratulatory message, but 'to death he (the Man) has no answer' narrows the pathos down somewhat.
It would be interesting to discuss the nature of the law and two contrasting views on its role in the play. However, I think I am bit out of my depth to add something original to this discussion. All I can say that the norms in the society have a tendency to shift. And when the law does not support those norms anymore it would be potentially a conflict that the norms would win eventually. Or so it seems to me. However, my post-modern sensibilities made me struggle with the end of the story and 'lessons learned'. I could not make myself to believe that a tyrant would get reformed through his suffering; or at minimum, he would pay the price of justice. I wish. But it seems their breed successfully reproduce themselves and evolutionary stable with the advantage of 'no shame'.
PS
The link to the play in Barbican I refer to:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVP8r...
April 1, 2023
Jebać Kreona, Antygona to girlbosska
August 20, 2021
I first read Antigone when I took a course in college dedicated to the early Greek plays. I find it weathers well, but then that should be no surprise since it has already weathered more than 2000 years.
Twice I was taken by the presence of phrases we still use commonly today. Is this the possible first use of “bit the dust”?
Here, there, great Ares like a war horse wheeled;
Beneath his car down thrust
Our foemen bit the dust
And this of “stand your ground”?
Such a man would in the storm of battle stand his ground.
The story revolves around the girl Antigone, daughter of Oedipus, whose brothers have fought and slain one another in battle. The brother on the non-victorious side, Polyneices, is laid out to be eaten by dogs and scavenger birds, and Creon, the king, makes it a crime for anyone to bury him. Antigone, heeding the laws of the Gods over the rule of one man, defies the king and attempts to bury her brother.
What ensues is tragedy. Creon’s insistence that he, and he alone, rules in Thebes, costs everyone in the play dearly, including himself.
His son, Haemon, pleads with him to listen to reason and be swayed by those who see the other side of the question, but he is stubborn and closes his eyes and ears. Haemon’s words are powerful, especially now, when I find so many people have their ideas set in stone and refuse to entertain the possibility of being wrong about anything.
Haemon’s plea:
The wisest man will let himself be swayed
By others’ wisdom and relax in time.
See how the trees beside a stream in flood
Save, if they yield to force, each spray unharmed,
But by resisting perish root and branch.
Finally, there was a stanza that jumped out at me as being so true of our own time and made me stop and think that little really changes over time:
Of evils current upon earth
The worst is money. Money ‘tis that sacks
Cities, and drives men forth from hearth and home;
I was surprised how much of the mythology I have retained from my school days and my subsequent readings of Bulfinch’s and Edith Hamilton, although I will confess to being happy to have Google available for the more obscure references. I realized, after reading this, that I would really enjoy revisiting all these early plays. Perhaps the other Oedipus plays from this trilogy will make my list before the end of the year.
Twice I was taken by the presence of phrases we still use commonly today. Is this the possible first use of “bit the dust”?
Here, there, great Ares like a war horse wheeled;
Beneath his car down thrust
Our foemen bit the dust
And this of “stand your ground”?
Such a man would in the storm of battle stand his ground.
The story revolves around the girl Antigone, daughter of Oedipus, whose brothers have fought and slain one another in battle. The brother on the non-victorious side, Polyneices, is laid out to be eaten by dogs and scavenger birds, and Creon, the king, makes it a crime for anyone to bury him. Antigone, heeding the laws of the Gods over the rule of one man, defies the king and attempts to bury her brother.
What ensues is tragedy. Creon’s insistence that he, and he alone, rules in Thebes, costs everyone in the play dearly, including himself.
His son, Haemon, pleads with him to listen to reason and be swayed by those who see the other side of the question, but he is stubborn and closes his eyes and ears. Haemon’s words are powerful, especially now, when I find so many people have their ideas set in stone and refuse to entertain the possibility of being wrong about anything.
Haemon’s plea:
The wisest man will let himself be swayed
By others’ wisdom and relax in time.
See how the trees beside a stream in flood
Save, if they yield to force, each spray unharmed,
But by resisting perish root and branch.
Finally, there was a stanza that jumped out at me as being so true of our own time and made me stop and think that little really changes over time:
Of evils current upon earth
The worst is money. Money ‘tis that sacks
Cities, and drives men forth from hearth and home;
I was surprised how much of the mythology I have retained from my school days and my subsequent readings of Bulfinch’s and Edith Hamilton, although I will confess to being happy to have Google available for the more obscure references. I realized, after reading this, that I would really enjoy revisiting all these early plays. Perhaps the other Oedipus plays from this trilogy will make my list before the end of the year.
August 22, 2017
The family or the state
6 May 2012
This is probably the closest of all of the Greek tragedies to a Shakespearian tragedy. This is due to the end of the play having a huge bodycount and the action of the play is driven by one person's fatal flaw (not that I actually believe in the fatal flaw argument, but that is beside the point). However it is not Antigone who has the fatal flaw in this play but rather Creon, the king of Thebes. Unfortunately we cannot really look to Oedipus at Colonus to see the beginning of Creon's downfall because this play is not the final part of a trilogy, at least in the Aeschylan sense of a trilogy, though it is noticeable that when the copyists chose seven plays of Sophocles to preserve for posterity three of the Theban plays were kept which in a sense formed a trilogy, and in this trilogy we see Creon go from being a loyal servant of Oedipus to a ruthless tyrant that believes that he is the state and that his words are not to be disobeyed.
First I will discuss the term Harmatia, which is Aristotelian in origin, at least from his text on drama (The Poetics). I shall also look at the action of the play and finish off by discussing the main theme, which is the struggle between loyalty to one's family and loyalty to one's state. Well, no, I will finish off by looking at Creon's character, and how his actions bring about such a sticky end.
The concept of Harmatia is regularly found in the Bible where it has been translated into our word sin. Now, as I think about the concept of Harmatia I am somewhat torn between suggesting that Harmatia and sin are two different ideas, or that our modern understanding of sin does not exactly weigh with how the modern church translates and preaches it. The modern church preaches sin as being rebellion against God (of which we are all guilty), and then goes on to bombard us with what constitutes sin. However, to the Greeks, or at least to Aristotle, Harmatia is a fatal character flaw. Now that concept does not alienate sin because sin, in an of itself, is a fatal character flaw that we have inherited from Adam and Eve. This fatal character flaw of ours is our desire to live independently, and we see this more and more as we meet with people and associate with them. I also see it rampant throughout the church as people try to push God into a box and tell him what sin is rather than letting him demonstrate sin to them.
I say this because the list of sins seems to get longer and longer and we, as humans and those of us who call ourselves Christian, seem to think that sin is made up of our actions as opposed to our desire to rule ourselves. I guess the best explanation is that our actions, especially our selfish actions, are merely a symptom of this character flaw of ours. The Bible is correct when it says that the wages of sin is death, because as we see, especially in Antigone, that Creon's Harmatia leaves him desolate and alone, and as he says from his own lips, it is as if he were dead. Now, the Greek concept of death, the absence of life, and the removal of ourselves from this world, is somewhat different to the Biblical concept of death. In fact our modern understanding of death is more in line with the Grecian view. However the biblical view is that death is more to do with the break down of our relationships, particularly our relationship with God, than it is with the absence of life. To the Bible life is defined by relationships, and when we drive our relationships apart we are little more than dead. In fact it has been suggested that higher suicide rates occur among truly lonely people than it does among people who are surrounded by friends. That, though, is only speculation. However, consider this: even when we are surrounded by friends we can still be alone, especially if these so called friends of ours only seek us out for company and, in their self centred view of the world, seek to only have us by their side to make them feel good and important than really doing anything that is remotely friendly.
Now, the play itself is set after the Theban war, where Etocles and Polyneices killed each other after Polyneices attacked Thebes with his army to remove his brother and set himself up as king. Creon, by default, becomes king and his first order of business is to give Etocles a state funeral while leaving the body of Polyneices exposed. To be exposed was the worst thing that you could do to a corpse in the Ancient Greek world. A proper burial meant that you would at least have a half decent afterlife, while being exposed suggests that you would be left wondering the earth as a ghost, and a tormented one at that. Antigone, the sister of Polyneices, is horrified at this and seeks to bury him, much to Creon's displeasure, so he orders her executed. However the play is not as simple as that because Creon's son is in love with Antigone, and when he finds her dead, he kills himself, and in a fit of grief over the death of her son, Creon's wife also kills herself.
Now one of the main themes that comes out of this play is the struggle between one's loyalty to the state and one's loyalty to one's family and the dilemma that one will face when the state passes a law of which you do not approve. The question that is raised is: do you dishonour the state by breaking the law and honouring your family, or do you dishonour your family by upholding the law even when the law is unjust. In a way, there was nothing wrong with Creon's law, since Polyneices was a traitor, and treachery is seen as one of the worst crimes to commit (even today, though the definition of treason has become very ambiguous in the globalised, interconnected world). However, he was still family, and not only that, Etocles' ascension to the throne was dubious at best. The entire war was not so much about a deposed monarch seeking reinstatement, but rather a family quarrel between two brothers.
We still face these dilemmas today, though not to the same extent. The question of whether the drug laws are just is one of them (and I do believe that they are, even though they can be considered to be an outworking of the Nanny State). While it is true that people should be left to make their own decisions, we demonstrate time and time again that we are actually not capable of doing so, therefore the state actually does need to step in to protect us from ourselves. Then there is the war that the state embarks on that many members of the state disapprove of, and as a loyal soldier to the state, do you obey the state by embarking on a quasi-legal adventure, or do you uphold your morals by refusing, and face punishment or even gaol.
Creon mentions a number of times that he, as the king, is the state, and thus his laws are to be obeyed. However, ironically enough, the Chorus objects to this. Now the Chorus does play an important role in Greek tragedy, and usually represents what the Greeks call the 'Oklos', or the crowd. Crowd is actually a rather bad translation as my understanding of the Oklos is that it is a crowd that acts as a single entity and has a single mindset. Now, this is not always the case in Greek tragedy as at times the Chorus will split and then argue with itself, in a way representing division amongst the people. It is a shame that we do not actually see Choruses in plays any more (or not playing a major role as they did in Greek drama).
Now Creon, having become king, has pretty much become corrupted by power. Yet I am not entirely convinced that it is corruption at such an early stage of his reign. In a way, he is the new king, and he wants to stamp his authority on the city, or, as the Greeks called it, the Polis (I won't go into details of the meaning of this word as I have already spent too much time translating Oklos). For him to be disobeyed will suggest that he does not actually have the character to be a king. A king that is not obeyed and not respected is not actually a king because he has no authority. As such Creon wants to make sure that his authority sticks so when this law is broken he is forced to act. However, he is not caught in a dilemma deciding whether it is right to punish Antigone or not - he has already made up his mind, set the path that he wants to travel, and travels down it. However, it ends very, very badly for him, and this is emphasised at the conclusion when the prophet Tiresieus arrives and passes on the message from the gods. He has acted against the proper way and is now to be punished and there is no way to escape from it.
I recently watch a production of this play and have written blog post on some of the ideas that came out of this production.
6 May 2012
This is probably the closest of all of the Greek tragedies to a Shakespearian tragedy. This is due to the end of the play having a huge bodycount and the action of the play is driven by one person's fatal flaw (not that I actually believe in the fatal flaw argument, but that is beside the point). However it is not Antigone who has the fatal flaw in this play but rather Creon, the king of Thebes. Unfortunately we cannot really look to Oedipus at Colonus to see the beginning of Creon's downfall because this play is not the final part of a trilogy, at least in the Aeschylan sense of a trilogy, though it is noticeable that when the copyists chose seven plays of Sophocles to preserve for posterity three of the Theban plays were kept which in a sense formed a trilogy, and in this trilogy we see Creon go from being a loyal servant of Oedipus to a ruthless tyrant that believes that he is the state and that his words are not to be disobeyed.
First I will discuss the term Harmatia, which is Aristotelian in origin, at least from his text on drama (The Poetics). I shall also look at the action of the play and finish off by discussing the main theme, which is the struggle between loyalty to one's family and loyalty to one's state. Well, no, I will finish off by looking at Creon's character, and how his actions bring about such a sticky end.
The concept of Harmatia is regularly found in the Bible where it has been translated into our word sin. Now, as I think about the concept of Harmatia I am somewhat torn between suggesting that Harmatia and sin are two different ideas, or that our modern understanding of sin does not exactly weigh with how the modern church translates and preaches it. The modern church preaches sin as being rebellion against God (of which we are all guilty), and then goes on to bombard us with what constitutes sin. However, to the Greeks, or at least to Aristotle, Harmatia is a fatal character flaw. Now that concept does not alienate sin because sin, in an of itself, is a fatal character flaw that we have inherited from Adam and Eve. This fatal character flaw of ours is our desire to live independently, and we see this more and more as we meet with people and associate with them. I also see it rampant throughout the church as people try to push God into a box and tell him what sin is rather than letting him demonstrate sin to them.
I say this because the list of sins seems to get longer and longer and we, as humans and those of us who call ourselves Christian, seem to think that sin is made up of our actions as opposed to our desire to rule ourselves. I guess the best explanation is that our actions, especially our selfish actions, are merely a symptom of this character flaw of ours. The Bible is correct when it says that the wages of sin is death, because as we see, especially in Antigone, that Creon's Harmatia leaves him desolate and alone, and as he says from his own lips, it is as if he were dead. Now, the Greek concept of death, the absence of life, and the removal of ourselves from this world, is somewhat different to the Biblical concept of death. In fact our modern understanding of death is more in line with the Grecian view. However the biblical view is that death is more to do with the break down of our relationships, particularly our relationship with God, than it is with the absence of life. To the Bible life is defined by relationships, and when we drive our relationships apart we are little more than dead. In fact it has been suggested that higher suicide rates occur among truly lonely people than it does among people who are surrounded by friends. That, though, is only speculation. However, consider this: even when we are surrounded by friends we can still be alone, especially if these so called friends of ours only seek us out for company and, in their self centred view of the world, seek to only have us by their side to make them feel good and important than really doing anything that is remotely friendly.
Now, the play itself is set after the Theban war, where Etocles and Polyneices killed each other after Polyneices attacked Thebes with his army to remove his brother and set himself up as king. Creon, by default, becomes king and his first order of business is to give Etocles a state funeral while leaving the body of Polyneices exposed. To be exposed was the worst thing that you could do to a corpse in the Ancient Greek world. A proper burial meant that you would at least have a half decent afterlife, while being exposed suggests that you would be left wondering the earth as a ghost, and a tormented one at that. Antigone, the sister of Polyneices, is horrified at this and seeks to bury him, much to Creon's displeasure, so he orders her executed. However the play is not as simple as that because Creon's son is in love with Antigone, and when he finds her dead, he kills himself, and in a fit of grief over the death of her son, Creon's wife also kills herself.
Now one of the main themes that comes out of this play is the struggle between one's loyalty to the state and one's loyalty to one's family and the dilemma that one will face when the state passes a law of which you do not approve. The question that is raised is: do you dishonour the state by breaking the law and honouring your family, or do you dishonour your family by upholding the law even when the law is unjust. In a way, there was nothing wrong with Creon's law, since Polyneices was a traitor, and treachery is seen as one of the worst crimes to commit (even today, though the definition of treason has become very ambiguous in the globalised, interconnected world). However, he was still family, and not only that, Etocles' ascension to the throne was dubious at best. The entire war was not so much about a deposed monarch seeking reinstatement, but rather a family quarrel between two brothers.
We still face these dilemmas today, though not to the same extent. The question of whether the drug laws are just is one of them (and I do believe that they are, even though they can be considered to be an outworking of the Nanny State). While it is true that people should be left to make their own decisions, we demonstrate time and time again that we are actually not capable of doing so, therefore the state actually does need to step in to protect us from ourselves. Then there is the war that the state embarks on that many members of the state disapprove of, and as a loyal soldier to the state, do you obey the state by embarking on a quasi-legal adventure, or do you uphold your morals by refusing, and face punishment or even gaol.
Creon mentions a number of times that he, as the king, is the state, and thus his laws are to be obeyed. However, ironically enough, the Chorus objects to this. Now the Chorus does play an important role in Greek tragedy, and usually represents what the Greeks call the 'Oklos', or the crowd. Crowd is actually a rather bad translation as my understanding of the Oklos is that it is a crowd that acts as a single entity and has a single mindset. Now, this is not always the case in Greek tragedy as at times the Chorus will split and then argue with itself, in a way representing division amongst the people. It is a shame that we do not actually see Choruses in plays any more (or not playing a major role as they did in Greek drama).
Now Creon, having become king, has pretty much become corrupted by power. Yet I am not entirely convinced that it is corruption at such an early stage of his reign. In a way, he is the new king, and he wants to stamp his authority on the city, or, as the Greeks called it, the Polis (I won't go into details of the meaning of this word as I have already spent too much time translating Oklos). For him to be disobeyed will suggest that he does not actually have the character to be a king. A king that is not obeyed and not respected is not actually a king because he has no authority. As such Creon wants to make sure that his authority sticks so when this law is broken he is forced to act. However, he is not caught in a dilemma deciding whether it is right to punish Antigone or not - he has already made up his mind, set the path that he wants to travel, and travels down it. However, it ends very, very badly for him, and this is emphasised at the conclusion when the prophet Tiresieus arrives and passes on the message from the gods. He has acted against the proper way and is now to be punished and there is no way to escape from it.
I recently watch a production of this play and have written blog post on some of the ideas that came out of this production.
October 23, 2023
به قدری تجربه خواندن افسانههای تبای فوق العاده بود که بدون وقفه با یک ترجمه دیگر، یکی از اعضای این سهگانه فوقالعاده را مجدد خواندم.
در مروری که بر افسانههای تبای نوشتم؛ بیشتر راجع به نمایشنامه اول و ادیپوس صحبت کردم. اما راجع به آنتیگونه... روایت آنتیگونه روایتی است که همه چی دارد. تراژدی دارد. عشق دارد. دوئل حق و ناحق دارد. داستان دیکتاتوری ها را دارد و... بسیاری از کارشناسان حتی آنتیگونه را در پله ای بالاتر از ادیپوس شهریار قرار میدهند.
روایت سوفوکلس از قدرتنمایی کرئون، و شاهکار دیالوگهایی که بین او و پسرش رد و بدل میشه نمیدونم لحظاتی است که در چه جایی برای من تکرار خواهد شد.
در پایان میخوام بین ترجمه آقای مسکوب و آقای دریابندری مقایسه ای کنم. در ترجمه آقای مسکوب تلاش شده بود که لحن حماسی و اسطوره وار متن در ترجمه فارسی هم نمود داشته باشد که برای من جذاب بود. اما آقای دریابندری چنین تلاشی را نکرده بود. او در پایان مقدمه حتی مینویسد:
"... تراژدی یونانی، به عنوان یک هنر بدوی، در نهایت سادگی و اقتصار کلام نوشته می شده است. طبیعی است که در ترجمه آن هم این سادگی و اقتصار باید رعایت شود. تلاش برای رسیدن به نوعی زبان فاخر یا فخیم برای ترجمه چنین متنی که گاهی دیده می شود- به نظر من تلاش بیهوده ایست و نتیجه آن دور شدن از روح متن اصلی خواهد بود. به همین دلیل در ترجمه من از متن آنتیگونه بنا بر سادگی و پیراستگی بوده است.کسانی که در ترجمه آثار کهن و کلاسیک در پی زبان فاخر می گردند در این ترجمه چنین چیزی نخواهند دید."
البته در مقدمه چاپ 55 ایشان به توجه شان به ترجمه آقای مسکوب اشاره می کند و از ایشان به نیکی یاد می کند.
باید ادامه بدهم که به جز مقدمه دریابندری بر آنتیگونه دو ضمیمه دیگر هم پیش از نمایشنامه وجود دارد؛ یکی متن هایدگر که از مقدمه کتاب مقدمه ای بر متافیزیک آورده شده و ناظر به سرود دوم یا سرود انسان است که در متن هست. ضمیمه دیگر هم متنی است برگرفته از کتاب تعبیر رویای فروید.
در مروری که بر افسانههای تبای نوشتم؛ بیشتر راجع به نمایشنامه اول و ادیپوس صحبت کردم. اما راجع به آنتیگونه... روایت آنتیگونه روایتی است که همه چی دارد. تراژدی دارد. عشق دارد. دوئل حق و ناحق دارد. داستان دیکتاتوری ها را دارد و... بسیاری از کارشناسان حتی آنتیگونه را در پله ای بالاتر از ادیپوس شهریار قرار میدهند.
روایت سوفوکلس از قدرتنمایی کرئون، و شاهکار دیالوگهایی که بین او و پسرش رد و بدل میشه نمیدونم لحظاتی است که در چه جایی برای من تکرار خواهد شد.
در پایان میخوام بین ترجمه آقای مسکوب و آقای دریابندری مقایسه ای کنم. در ترجمه آقای مسکوب تلاش شده بود که لحن حماسی و اسطوره وار متن در ترجمه فارسی هم نمود داشته باشد که برای من جذاب بود. اما آقای دریابندری چنین تلاشی را نکرده بود. او در پایان مقدمه حتی مینویسد:
"... تراژدی یونانی، به عنوان یک هنر بدوی، در نهایت سادگی و اقتصار کلام نوشته می شده است. طبیعی است که در ترجمه آن هم این سادگی و اقتصار باید رعایت شود. تلاش برای رسیدن به نوعی زبان فاخر یا فخیم برای ترجمه چنین متنی که گاهی دیده می شود- به نظر من تلاش بیهوده ایست و نتیجه آن دور شدن از روح متن اصلی خواهد بود. به همین دلیل در ترجمه من از متن آنتیگونه بنا بر سادگی و پیراستگی بوده است.کسانی که در ترجمه آثار کهن و کلاسیک در پی زبان فاخر می گردند در این ترجمه چنین چیزی نخواهند دید."
البته در مقدمه چاپ 55 ایشان به توجه شان به ترجمه آقای مسکوب اشاره می کند و از ایشان به نیکی یاد می کند.
باید ادامه بدهم که به جز مقدمه دریابندری بر آنتیگونه دو ضمیمه دیگر هم پیش از نمایشنامه وجود دارد؛ یکی متن هایدگر که از مقدمه کتاب مقدمه ای بر متافیزیک آورده شده و ناظر به سرود دوم یا سرود انسان است که در متن هست. ضمیمه دیگر هم متنی است برگرفته از کتاب تعبیر رویای فروید.
August 10, 2020
"Μέγα καλό και πρώτο της ευτυχίας, η φρόνηση
κανείς δεν πρέπει ν΄ ασεβεί στη θεία τάξη
λόγια μεγάλα ξιπασιάς με συμφορές μεγάλες πληρώνονται
με τον καιρό στα γερατειά θα ρθει κι η γνώση"
Έτσι τελειώνει το σπουδαίο έργο του Σοφοκλή το οποίο σε 1.320 μόλις στίχους ξεδιπλώνει μια σειρά προβληματισμών, δοκιμασιών και αμφισβητήσεων της ανθρώπινης κοινωνίας.
Ένα μεγάλο που ενδεχομένως δυστύχησε που έγινε μάθημα στα ελληνικά σχολεία και ακολουθεί τους Ελληνες ως ένα "μάθημα" κι όχι σαν ένας οδηγός ζωής.
" Η αστοχασιά το ποιο τρανό κακό στον κόσμο" σελ. 117 ή "οι θεοί σπέρνουν στον άνθρωπο το νου, το πιο τρανό προικιό στον κόσμο όλο" σελ. 77
και η πλέον γνωστή ρήση: " Ζω για ν αγαπώ και ν΄ αγαπιέμαι κι όχι για να μισώ"σελ.65
(Ξανα) διαβάζοντας ο λάτρης των βιβλίων μπολιάζεται με μεγάλες δόσεις αλήθειας, φιλοσοφίας και σκέψης....
κανείς δεν πρέπει ν΄ ασεβεί στη θεία τάξη
λόγια μεγάλα ξιπασιάς με συμφορές μεγάλες πληρώνονται
με τον καιρό στα γερατειά θα ρθει κι η γνώση"
Έτσι τελειώνει το σπουδαίο έργο του Σοφοκλή το οποίο σε 1.320 μόλις στίχους ξεδιπλώνει μια σειρά προβληματισμών, δοκιμασιών και αμφισβητήσεων της ανθρώπινης κοινωνίας.
Ένα μεγάλο που ενδεχομένως δυστύχησε που έγινε μάθημα στα ελληνικά σχολεία και ακολουθεί τους Ελληνες ως ένα "μάθημα" κι όχι σαν ένας οδηγός ζωής.
" Η αστοχασιά το ποιο τρανό κακό στον κόσμο" σελ. 117 ή "οι θεοί σπέρνουν στον άνθρωπο το νου, το πιο τρανό προικιό στον κόσμο όλο" σελ. 77
και η πλέον γνωστή ρήση: " Ζω για ν αγαπώ και ν΄ αγαπιέμαι κι όχι για να μισώ"σελ.65
(Ξανα) διαβάζοντας ο λάτρης των βιβλίων μπολιάζεται με μεγάλες δόσεις αλήθειας, φιλοσοφίας και σκέψης....
September 10, 2017
Wait, no, THIS is my favorite of the Oedipus cycle. My love is fickle. How did I not remember how good this was? The extended speeches are just as incredible as those in the other two plays, but what Antigone has over them is lightning-quick back-and-forth arguments that made my heart pound just from how good they were. I’d also forgotten how interesting the character of Antigone is (she milks that walk to her death for everything it’s worth), and how much Sophocles plays with gender stereotypes of strength. Please do yourself a favor and read this one.
April 4, 2024
❝Only a fool could be in love with death.❞
Antigone is truly a timeless play. I cannot believe it was written in 441 BCE! I feel like its themes are still relevant today. It's a shame that so many of Sophocles' plays are lost to history, I would have loved to read them as well.
The characters in Antigone are more complex and nuanced than I was initially expecting. In my view, Creon is not a villain — he is simply doing what he believes is right, and so is Antigone. I completely get why both of them did the things they did, and I like the fact that neither of them are entirely in the wrong.
I had to read this play for my literary history course, and I honestly was not expecting to love it. I thought it would be rather boring and convoluted, but it was not at all what I expected. I guess I just have a very biased view of classical literature... Studying literature at university has really opened my eyes in that regard; I never realised how many preconceived notions I had about certain kinds of books. It has been fun exploring all kinds of "new" books with my classmates.
We had very interesting discussions about this play during class, and discussing Antigone with everyone really made me appreciate it a lot more. I am definitely going to check out more of Sophocles' plays in the future!
❝The power of fate is a wonder,
dark, terrible wonder -
neither wealth nor armies
towered walls nor ships
black hulls lashed by the salt
can save us from that force.❞
September 24, 2022
I started reading the Theban Plays the other day, compiled by Penguin and translated by Robert Fagles. That’s the power combo for now, though I am told half the fun is rereading with different translations. This particular edition presents the three plays in the order in which they were written, starting with Antigone, which is the final play in terms of chronology.
While reading these classics (true classics I guess), I find that I need to read the introduction in order to get a bit more of the context surrounding their writing and/or performance. Robert Knox has been a faithful companion in that sense. Here are a few facts that I appreciated learning about this play (spoilers ahead):
- Creon has a “magnificent” speech at the beginning of the play, stressing that “loyalty to the city takes precedence over any private loyalty, to friend or family”. This would be considered satire today, I think. 2022, the Western world, we are laughing political candidates off if they go near this sentiment. But it looks as though the original audience would have agreed with him! So the speech does not have the “pompous ass” quality that we may ascribe to it.
- The main point of contention in the play is the burial and proper rites denied Polynices. Creon has declared it illegal for anyone to show mercy to the corpse of Polynices, as he became a traitor to the city, coming back to attack the city on the side of the enemy. Knox mentions that, once again, the audience would have been on the side of Creon!
“These vivid phrases would have recalled to them the destruction of Athens and the desecration of its temples by the Persian invaders in 480; they would have had no second thoughts about denying burial to the corpse of any Athenian who had fought on the Persian side. Denial of burial in their homeland to traitors, real or supposed, was not unknown in Greece. Themistocles, for example, the hero of the Persian War, was later driven from Athens by his political enemies, who accused him of pro-Persian conspiratorial activity. Hounded from one Greek city to another he finally took refuse in Persian-controlled territory, where he died.”
- A point that stood out to me as absurd was Antigone’s weird insistence that she would not have risked death by giving burial rites to her husband and child, as they are replaceable, and that a brother is far more valuable to her as he cannot be replaced. Apparently, the inspiration of this sentiment could be sourced to the work of Sophocles’ friend Herodotus, Histories.
“Darius the Great King had condemned to death for treason a Persian noble, Intaphrenes, and all the men of his family. The wife of Intaphrenes begged importunately for their lives; offered one, she chose her brother’s. When Darius asked her why, she replied in words that are unmistakably the original of Antigone’s lines.”
However, as Knox points out, this makes less sense in the play. The wife of Intaphrenes is saving the life of her brother who is still alive, whereas Antione is just being spiteful – Polynices is already dead!
A great introduction to Sophocles. Next is Oedipus the King. I will get my tweed jacket and cigar and make sure my beard is nice and trimmed before getting to that one. Things are about to get Oedipal.
While reading these classics (true classics I guess), I find that I need to read the introduction in order to get a bit more of the context surrounding their writing and/or performance. Robert Knox has been a faithful companion in that sense. Here are a few facts that I appreciated learning about this play (spoilers ahead):
- Creon has a “magnificent” speech at the beginning of the play, stressing that “loyalty to the city takes precedence over any private loyalty, to friend or family”. This would be considered satire today, I think. 2022, the Western world, we are laughing political candidates off if they go near this sentiment. But it looks as though the original audience would have agreed with him! So the speech does not have the “pompous ass” quality that we may ascribe to it.
- The main point of contention in the play is the burial and proper rites denied Polynices. Creon has declared it illegal for anyone to show mercy to the corpse of Polynices, as he became a traitor to the city, coming back to attack the city on the side of the enemy. Knox mentions that, once again, the audience would have been on the side of Creon!
“These vivid phrases would have recalled to them the destruction of Athens and the desecration of its temples by the Persian invaders in 480; they would have had no second thoughts about denying burial to the corpse of any Athenian who had fought on the Persian side. Denial of burial in their homeland to traitors, real or supposed, was not unknown in Greece. Themistocles, for example, the hero of the Persian War, was later driven from Athens by his political enemies, who accused him of pro-Persian conspiratorial activity. Hounded from one Greek city to another he finally took refuse in Persian-controlled territory, where he died.”
- A point that stood out to me as absurd was Antigone’s weird insistence that she would not have risked death by giving burial rites to her husband and child, as they are replaceable, and that a brother is far more valuable to her as he cannot be replaced. Apparently, the inspiration of this sentiment could be sourced to the work of Sophocles’ friend Herodotus, Histories.
“Darius the Great King had condemned to death for treason a Persian noble, Intaphrenes, and all the men of his family. The wife of Intaphrenes begged importunately for their lives; offered one, she chose her brother’s. When Darius asked her why, she replied in words that are unmistakably the original of Antigone’s lines.”
However, as Knox points out, this makes less sense in the play. The wife of Intaphrenes is saving the life of her brother who is still alive, whereas Antione is just being spiteful – Polynices is already dead!
A great introduction to Sophocles. Next is Oedipus the King. I will get my tweed jacket and cigar and make sure my beard is nice and trimmed before getting to that one. Things are about to get Oedipal.
June 27, 2024
A tragedy bleaker than many of Shakespeare’s works. It had a bit of a slow start but then picked up speed very quickly up until the multilayered mournful ending.
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