Antigone

by Sophocles

Remember we are women, we’re not born to contend with men. Then too, we’re underlings, ruled by much stronger hands, so we must submit in this, and things still worse.

leave me to my own absurdity,

you cannot know a man completely, his character, his principles, sense of judgment, not till he’s shown his colors, ruling the people, making laws.

whoever places a friend above the good of his own country, he is nothing:

our country is our safety. Only while she voyages true on course can we establish friendships, truer than blood itself

Money! Nothing worse in our lives, so current, rampant, so corrupting. Money—you demolish cities, root men from their homes, you train and twist good minds and set them on to the most atrocious schemes. No limit, you make them adept at every kind of outrage, every godless crime—money!

napping on the job,

R12308050459 If this means what this literally means, then it i interesting how perennial this is.

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, the great unwritten, unshakable traditions. They are alive, not just today or yesterday: they live forever, from the first of time, and no one knows when they first saw the light. These laws—I was not about to break them, not out of fear of some man’s wounded pride, and face the retribution of the gods.

I am not the man, not now: she is the man if this victory goes to her and she goes free.

He was a wise old man who coined the famous saying: “Sooner or later foul is fair, fair is foul to the man the gods will ruin”—

R12308080450 This dichotomy/duality is prevalent in the Bible.

that man the city places in authority, his orders must be obeyed, large and small, right and wrong.

R12308080453 Authoritarianism - reeks of Thucydides

Anarchy— show me a greater crime in all the earth! She, she destroys cities, rips up houses, breaks the ranks of spearmen into headlong rout.

Better to fall from power, if fall we must, at the hands of a man—never be rated inferior to a woman, never.

Whoever thinks that he alone possesses intelligence, the gift of eloquence, he and no one else, and character too . . . such men, I tell you, spread them open—you will find them empty

No, it’s no disgrace for a man, even a wise man, to learn many things and not to be too rigid. You’ve seen trees by a raging winter torrent, how many sway with the flood and salvage every twig, but not the stubborn—they’re ripped out, roots and all. Bend or break. The same when a man is sailing: haul your sheets too taut, never give an inch, you’ll capsize, and go the rest of the voyage keel up and the rowing-benches under. Oh give way. Relax your anger—change!

R12308080458 Openness to experience

CREON: Am I to rule this land for others—or myself? HAEMON: It’s no city at all, owned by one man alone.

But she was a god31, born of gods, and we are only mortals born to die.

And yet, of course, it’s a great thing for a dying girl to hear, even to hear she shares a destiny equal to the gods, during life and later, once she’s dead.

Oh it’s hard, giving up the heart’s desire . . . but I will do it— no more fighting a losing battle with necessity.

Creon shows the world that of all the ills afflicting men the worst is lack of judgment.