Antigone Article 03

H. D. F.

I wili begin with Haernon's exit. He came In to plead with Creon for Antigone's life, and has been so brutally repulsed tbat he has gone out making obscure threats towards his father. At this point the chorus performs an ode, a typical choral ode, filling a pause in the action with appropriate com- \thONSJ rnent. Thinking of the unfllial conduct of Haemon theycsrng ~ about the power of Love, Eros, which can pervert the minds even of the upright. They go on to observe that Eros Is a power that ranges through the whole universe-man, animals, gods: Aphrodite sits enthroned beside the Great Powers, and wieids absolute sway. Whereupon Antigone is led in, and the action continues.

KJTTO ON THE ROLE OF THE GODS IN ANTIGONE

"h [H. D. F. Kitto (1897-1982) was a professor of Greek at the University of Bristol. England. and a well-known classical scholar. Among his publications are Form and Meaning in Drama (1956), The Greeks (1957), and Greek Tragedy: A Literary Study (1966). In this extract, Kitto declar,:s tbat tbe role of the gods is crucial to the understanding of Antigone. both In the conflict between Antigone and Creon and between Creon and Haemon.]

But if this is the way in which we understand the ode-'Here the Congregation wiil sing a Hymn-e-we have scarcely begun to understand Sophocles, It is true that these reflections on the power of Love are suggested to the chorus by what Haemon has said to his father: it is also true that time after time in thiS play the chorus says things which are true, but are said about the wrong person-as when in the second ode they speak of the wicked lawbreaker. and in the thlrd ode about evil seeming good to the one whom the god is minded to destroy: in each case they are thinking of Creon's adversary, but in each case it is Creon himself whom the words fit. The two stanzas on Lover;•• are not religious poetry written as an interlude by a pious dramatist; they are an important Rart of the real drama'0:reon (' ,fOn has already defied one part of divine law In refusing bunal to a ~ fellow human being: now he defies another of the majestic powers of the Universe in brutally disregarding Haernons love for Antigone.)At this point Sophocles remarks to us: 'Eros, Aphrodite, are gods. They are not to be played with: they are pretty strong. Just wait and seeJ'-for this is the way in which the ode would be taken by an audience which had not had the advantage of reading books about Greek Tragedy, and was not misled by ideas derived from more romantic kincs of tragic drama.

Mr. F. L. Lucas bas recently declared his opinIon that the final scenes of the Antigone are weak: the piay flags when Antigone is removed. Mr. Lucas is by no means the first critic to say this. The criticism proves one thing conclusively, that the critic has not understood what the play is about. On the 'one level 1\'\r. Lucas has understood the play well enough, that on which the heroic and passionate Antigone defies the tyrant at the cost of her life. On this level the gods do indeed come Into the picture. since Antigone is convinced that she is doing the gods' wiil. But this Is only part of the picture. and if one sees only a part. under the Impression that one is seeing the whole, it is not surprising if one finds the picture iii-designed, Mr, Lucas and those who agree with hIm think that the Antigone, like other Greek plays, Is concerned with exciting or at least interesting people and actions-as of course It is-and when the most exciting one disappears from the action he begin;;.tp yawn. What the critic is really yawning about is the gOdS: he does not realize that they are there. and have been from the beginning. They enter into the structure of this play more than some of us realize.

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Accordingly, when this audience heard, later in the play, how the desperate Haemon turned from his lover's dead body upon his father and tried to klli him, and then killed himself, and thus led straight to the suicide of the Queen and the total extinction of Creon's house, it would not say. as we do. 'This is

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all vel)' exciting, no doubt. but. really, ! am much more interested in Antigone than in Creon: It would say 'What an awful illustration of the folly of a man who presumes to anger a god! -,-H. D. F. Kitto, Sophocles: Dramatist &. Philosopher (London: Oxford University Press. 19581. pp. 35-37