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Antigone

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INTRODUCTION

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AUTHO~

hND BACJ:GROUND

It seems thot in March, +1' •.C., the Antigone made Sophocles farncus. The poet, fifty. five years old, had now produced thirty-two plaY'; because of th is one, tradition relates, the people of Athens elected him, the next year, to high office. We hear he shared the cornDlIndof the second fleetrent to Samos. When the people of Sames failed to support the government just e>tablUhed for them by forty Athentan ships, Athens sent a fleet of w.ty ship> to restore democracy and remove the rebels. The Aegean t\len wa> an Athenian sea, Pericles, the gt successful presentation of Antigone, Sophocles had become Pendes' friend. In 1-+f, when the AthcllliUl people chose Pericles as their leader. they demanded greatness: democracy combined with imperialism. Periclean democracy meant free speech, free aswciatloll. and open accea to PO'W'Cf limited by law; iot, assuming that intelligence IS born 111 .U, law created by all is the best ruler. Illlpen.:olism-to which the Samian War is to be referred-emeant wealth, the power to enjoy. If, moreover, enjoyment J.s itself a kind of PO'HCT, it too must be limited by law: the law which defines enjoyment .. qe.uty. Freedom, justice, and beauty are the components of greataess which the Athenians had chosen for themselves when thcy granted "fit literary acclaim. and then imperialduty, to Sophocles. Sophocles and hi, fellow-citizens chose to widen democracy and ex-

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INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION

tend imperialism. The alternative for the east-Greek peoples was olio t'ltthy and Spartan influence. This choice-which the Sarnians tried II) make for themselvcs-involved Iess exploitation. but far m~ re. .ion. The inhabitants of oligarchic states lacked freedom and, o/tcn,'bcauty; instead, the principle of justice was rationalized by their ;§ apologists, who broadly wed terms such lIS "order" and "stability," in I:. . ~ich they claimed to find the CSSCI)CC of good rule. In this world IJ) ., c1~te, it is not surprising that the Athenians WIShed the author of -l.< "? ARl/iOne to hold military office. A man who was so skilled was aho ~ wile. Sophocles might be expected to [udge rightly and govern well -Q :..:: should the cargo of free society, legal limits, and the acquisitive and , <:! aesthetic instincts shift and clash in the waves of crisis. ~ ~ The few details of Sophocles' life that tradition provides combine ~ iii b, Pericles scolded the poet for showing more interest in a certain l!lIy than in his war duties. Then again, in old age, we hear, SOphocl.... .~ his impotence, likening himself to a slave who had at last e from a maniacal master. Finally, there is the talc that in 4'0 c, wbcn Asclepius was brought to Athens to purify the city, Sophocle kept the god in his own house until a temple was built. From t}J~ i! •Ippcars likely that Sophocles was an officer of the cult of Asclepius, Il It,clillicult not to believe that the author of Antigone was truly ,

work; and third, that Sophocles was not Aristotle's pupil. The first stricture forces, us to concentrate attention On the text itself, without

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.Iet. 'With the Antigone, Sophocles began work on material that. ipte,. Clted"im for the rest of his life. A dozen yea" later-~ps ~ tlIe plague ycar 4'9, the Yelr of Pericles' death-she staged o;;wpus);\u. His last play, Oedipus at Kolouos, may have busied him up to that ~ in 406/5 when, it is said, lIS he recited from the Antigone to some (ricnds, Sophocles died,

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'II

If'ITl.anEfATION OF TIlE PLAY

considering the Antigone, the reader should be aware of three reo strictions: first, that the play is our main source for its story; second, that the Oedipus Rex and Kolonos, written at wide intervals long after, cannot be used safely to criticize events or characters in the early

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precluding comparison with the Theban legends;' the second frees us from comparison in anticipation. (If I were concerned primarily with the later plays, I should start with Antigone.) The danger of Anstotelian criticism lies not only in ill anachronism but in a basic confusion as to the purpose of poetry. Even were we more secure m our assump' tions concerning Aristotle's own meaning, we could not understand Sophocles better 'lor this. We would be, at best, seeing the poet through the eyes of one of hi, spiritual great-great-grandchildren, a less rewarding discipline, probably, than to regard him from our own view. point. Worse, we could be confining our judgment of poetry to the requirements of an irrelevant moral philosophy. Sophocles as poet showed what he believed to be actual. In Antigone. he presented the fall of the just and the evil consequences of good acts, The Antigone doubtless disgusted Aristotle (Poetics, '4 pb. 4.{;). Until new evidence appears, one must presume' that Sophocles in( vented many events in the story of his Antigone: (I) the form of Kreon's decree; (2) the quarrels between Antigone and Ismene; (3) the double bunal of Polyncices by Antigone and the final cremationburial by Kreon; (4) the love of Antigo~eand Hal~on; (5) the e~. ) tombment of A.ntigOne;. (6) Teiresias intervention and Kreon s change of mind: and (7) the suicides of Antigone. Hairnon, and Eurydice. " Some of these inventions pose problems: What is the poetic or dra. matie purpose of the double burial? Why IS the love story introduced at all, and then made known only when the action is nearly half over? Why is Kreon made, contrary to instructions, to bury Polyneices first and then proceed, too late, to try to save Antigone? Is Eurydice mtroduced merely to add to Kreon's sorrow? These are some of the ques. tions that need to be answered chiefly from internal evidence. The difficulties of the Antigone are clue in large part to thematic complexity; this in turn IS due to variety of vision, or duplication of viewpoint, partly inherent in the subject, then intricately schemanzcd in treatment. The Theban myths are stories of royal families. Such stones are, on the surface at least, necessarily split into public and domestic facts.

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This double aspect of the activities of Its characters is obviously important In the Antigone. But here too It i~ well to remember that the

Athenians believed the city-state was based on kinship. 111e poet', I. See Appendix, Pp- 9)'98, where these legends are detailed.

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INl'ODUCTION

INTRODUCTION

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again when he interprets legend for his contemSophocles deliberately anschromzes when Kroon is addressed q ,..·Homeric king and i0F6'tP democratic ugmntmts like an olipn:f!.-whiledeporting himself like a tyrant. .' Aiiother complicating factor .. the purely dramatic splitting of viUoq between audience and a variety of speakers. The characlm do )( not'~'· act; far more. th comment on action, critiau: motives. :,/-'-' aDil ideo>; all these moral utterances are .. tute or 00Wh; crude ' ; Ofptle, intentionallyor accidentally ironic, just .. the author wilhes. >(\" 'The viIion of each character IS limited in such a way ~ to enable the ~ audicrtce, wit Its ~ 5 IV to com re, cnticll.e, and graduaUy assemble a composite vuion. Th~ audience i.s II viewpoint: the character>, it ;, a part of the author's imaginatlon. Sophocles' :" mcaa!P& ClW, in the ensemble of characters " it affects an audience of ~ Periclean age, -which now." then, cxi>lo in the imagination. ~te ill doubJinp of vision, the play .. extraordinarily mavin.&''-llInMnity is never frozen into symbol. It may be taken at tribute ~ tile """'"" of the ....ntigone that it hu been found llCltto impouibli,' by thoSe who study the play; not to describe the characters at real

tively; and this dichotomy-<:crtainly a vital one for Athenians of +p when' the price and rewards of empire were on the scales of conscience-c-is promment throughout Sophocles' play. Again. the story of ....mphion'..... rgive wife Niobe IS used directly to iIIummate the figure of Antigone, who applies the parallel to herself (979'85). then alludes (' 0 17., 8) to Argela and Polyneiccs, in whom we may again see the misfortune of ....mphion, destroyed by his marriage. The fact that Polyneices' name makes him a "fighter in roomy battles" and at the "me time a "party in many quarrels" is noted by the Chorus (1,9'4 0) when they reproach him, in retrospect, for bringmg war horne from Argos.

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The names Antigone and Hairnon also seem part of the recel ved

legend. It appears that Sophocles took their mearung seriously, lor he created an Antigone who, "born to oppose." relics On innate courage In facing tyranny, and he devised the manner of Hannon's death, where "blood";' poured wastefully forth. It iJ not surprising that Teiresias ap~rs in the AlltigOJle. Any irnpo~nt oo.:une~ce in Thebes might demand the use of prophetic power; for any such event would probably attract the attention of ' those gods whom the Thebans considered their own. In fact, the gods who figure in the play are all participants 10 the story of Kadmos, where they appear m this urder: Zeus, Apollo, Ares, Athena, Aphrodite, and Dionysos. What these gods do and mean 10 the Antigone will be considered shortly. The Theban legends, from which Alltigone was built. display a double Vision of reality: action is divine and human. Human action, 1iIS: noted, is S:Ubd.i.vide.d into facts of public and of prIVate. life. In the human and pU~hc aspects th~re IS special ~eleva~ce to ~he 440$ D.C.

pcopIe. the onginality of much of the ,tOly of Antigone, we can see \\ Ij-'? portion. of Theban myth may have been prototypes of .\, ,'0' I tbeplafl persons, events, and themes, and that these could have had • ~\~ clear rrJc.ance to the +\'" B.C. . . well.. to general hu'tnan nature. S ~ 'toned "lOWTl men" (Spanoi) and so incited them to fra- -\0 ~ .war. Lykes imprisoned .... ntiope. I think it not unli~y that ,,~vi\ Ktcoo', decree (,9'11)' and later.entombment of ....ntigone (9,1"1 1) '\;. 10Q,) rclIcct those two bit. of legend. One remembers too that Kreon, like ";;,~ Ka4me" he c:aJ1J him a slave, and effcc- ,. .I~ ti~ lCllds him to his death (9.8-.. ). Lykos, like Kroon. walregtnt ,; l}-"''j ~ becoming king. Kreon's name-which can mean nothing but M~tIJ~ I \ ~ ruler." "the regent"-is provided by tradition; Sophocles lUes \ - o\;. ~~ of this, for Kreon's rule iJ, if legitimate, ignoble. . ;;: I figules of Amphion and Zethos are also relevant to the An~'> tI&one. The brothers personify the arts of peace and of war, respec~I

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~ Here too the vrewpoint IS split. An Athenian might enjoy-being reminded of ancient enmity between Boeotians and Peloponnesians. It Qj\QI . i.I interesting, in this regard, that. Sapltodes does Hot presuppose or ~ '\o~71 prepare the ....ttic tale of Theseus' mtcrventicn ill Thebes and enforce. ment of burial of the ....rgive war dead. (Teiresias seems to allude to this possibility in 1170-7 and "57'9' Kroon. however. does m fact bury S<~ o <, Polyn~lces, and so removes the motive for Theseus' famous settle\Q; Q,V'- ment.) Sophocles suppresses iii Aattermg tale and eliminates Theseus as iii potentia~ hero ex machma. Hi,S Intention in so doing IS surely that he wanted his Thebes to represent more than the Thebes of history, and its people to. struggle with problems which no clever Intruder couldsolvesimply. Here are no tricks of popular appeal, The Thebes of Antigone is an image of the city-state. As such, it o

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INTKODUCT

Illust show some public facts of Importance to Periclean Athemans: these faets arc ideas in conAict. Kreon (&>
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duality, divine and human. The Thcban legends emphasize SIX major deities; the persons of the Alltigolle tend to interpret one another and explain phenomena With reference to these gods. Both Kreon ("4) \> and Antigone (550-1) assume the approval of Zeus; to Krcon, he repC)v"\ resents power, to Antigone Justice. Yet, Antigone attributes her IamJ ily's misfortunes to 111m (6-8), and Kreon blames hIS rum on an un'-) named god (1467; could he be Eros?). The Sentry and Chorus (3 "T 1 I Q,\1 '/.' '('II ~6, 350-1) assign the first bunal of Polynetces to the gods; Kreon \,O\e"S denies H1lS categorically. The onlooker IS convinced the characters believe what they say when they say It, but cannot tell which among them IS nght. The gods arc unreliable, their role ambiguous. Tciresias presumably representing Zeus and Apollo. appears too late to aYe~ disaster: if the gods do not clearly intervene there, one doubts that '
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9 6

INTRODUCTION

Human Jivine, like public and private. may be the dual images of on integral object. The Antigone displays schematic pairing and annthcsis In structural detail as well as in idea. TIle Tbcban myths arc well suited to double vision, to curious couplings. and to division of natural pairs. Minos and Rhadarnanthys. Zethos and Ampluon. the metamorphoses of Tcircsias-ccach a two.m.onc relation of a different

sort-suggest even more complicated relationships within the legend at the point where Antigone begins.

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./"lftcoklcs and Polyneices, and their sisters, Antigone and lsmene. arc children of Oedipus and his mother [ocasta: the two pairs are the

brothers and sisters of Oedipus, their father, and the grandchildren of ~~ "t\thClf mother [ocasta, The two boy~ h~ve.been sundered In rivalry for ~ vtf\{f\'-' 'power. and have killed each other In smgrc combat. Kreon: by decree, 5 has sent Etcokles to the Underworld and kept Polyncices m the ~\1 ·upper air; the one, buried, is free, while the oth~r, left exposed, IS con-

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Similarly, dunug the wa,r, one of Kreon s two son,s. Megarcus

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(or Menoikios), has died by his own hand and temporarily saved the city; the other, Halmon, survives, but Will, at the end of the play, also die by suicide, after failing to save Antigone. When the play begins. then. Antigone and Jsmene have been parted ,from their br,oth:fS. and Haimon has been separated from Mcgarcus, ,by death. while Eteokles and Polyncrccs, united in dying, have been divided in death. In the firstscene, Antigone aud Ismcnc quarrel and part. The Chorus Invoke "Zeus, Arcs. and Dionysos. Kreon enters. hears of the first \~'buflal of Polyncrccs. and accuses and disuusses the Sentry. The ~\,)~Chorl1s sing an ode about the dual nature of mankind: like the god,S in daring, but mortal; and possessmg equally great potential for evil and good. ( Schcuianc p;millg continues as th,e Sentry returns to report tl~c SCCOll d burial and the capture of Antigone. The second and final dismissal of the Sentry is followed by a second and final break between I Q)t\. ) Antigone and lsrnene, both of whom Kroon considers guilty. The ;( "Chorus Slug about the fall of men and the eternal p<Jwer O.f us, ~ ) concluding that when gods destroy a man they cause hun to confuse \ \«,Ol'{ good and bad. aile for one. Next, Hairnon and ,Kreo.n talk. ThiS I~ t~ V· \ ceuter of the play; at the exact center is Kreon s claim that obedience (f"O"1Eldcrs saves men's lives In battle. Kreon condemns Antigone and dnves his son away. The Chorus sing of Love under two asr:cts: gen\ "tic and inescapable, a playful conqueror and an eternal law. Antigone ~oe..\aISo considers Love and War as she goes to her prison, comparing her(self to Niobe and further noting that Polyncices ~icd in war because Ze.

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of his marriage In Argos, while because of this she must herself die unmarried, The ensuing ode alludes to the power of Zeus and of Dlony50S, and the indifferenceof Ares to human suffering. The Tetresias Scene also is in two parts. The first part mirrors both the Sentry's report of the first burial and Hannon's Interview with reon. Like the Sentry, Teiresias is accused of taking bribes, when, using arguments similar to Haimon's In the pica for Antigone, he asks Kroon to bury Polyneices, In the second half of the scene, Teireslas tells Kreon his crime IS double. . The Chorus call upon Dionysos for the second and last time. The 1\ ~t Messenger, like the Sentry at his second entrance, finds the Chorus \J f' alone; then: iust as the Sentry was lamed by Kreon (468), the Mes\ senger lS met by Eurydice (1359). He tells first of thecrernationburial o.f Polyneices. then Of. the second and final parting of Kreon and Hairncn, that lS the death of the latter. He concludes that the dead are joined together. Haimon and Antigone are together. b;;t Polyncices and Etcokles, Haimon and Mcgarcus too, are all now on the same side of the earth. When Kreon returns, Eurydice has died. Kreon, is led into the palace, where only Ismene remains. ) The Antigone seems compounded of pairs which life sunders: Eteokles and Polyneices, Megareus and Harmon, Ismene and Anngone, Kreon and Harmon, Antigone and Haimon. The last, the most Vital pair, never meet during the play, This somber keynote-doomed pairs-is sounded by Ismene (56.7»; Oedipus and [ocasta begm the tale, and Kreon may end it with Ismene and Antigone. Parting is the doom life offers. This is the dramatic lesson of the prologue, where Antigone and Ismene disagree almost from the start; there IS no hint of such a break in Aeschylus' Seven-it is evidently Sophooles' invention. \ --oe;th, 011 the contrary. ullites and reunites. This is a fact of faith ( for Antigone (1047'51) as she faces death; she will join her father, ' \ mother, brothers: though she does 110t now know it, her tomb will be ) her wedding chamber (1436-7). Those who die arc reconciled. Kreo11 I and Ismene, who alone survive the action of this play, remain separate and solita[)'-Why, if death cancels rifts, can life not do so? Surely ~7~:'3'e, !2. t,~e world of the AntIgone. love IS absent from life. ~ is responSible. It lS he who parts what should be inseparable. The Chorus repeatedly see, in the play's grim partings, the operation of the curse of Laios. but attach the hereditary guilt to Antigone. Tlus is doubtful. The same old courtiers blame Love-in the third stasnnon-cfor quar-

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reb. The true heir to Laios' fault IS Krenn. The curse is nothin su r- Oe.O.l Ilatuml. but rather a rc hum;)1 00 foolish to mark the warnings of family history. Laios first betrayed Pclops, king of Argos. then exposed his own SOil, Oedipus; in so doing he created enmity with the Argives, and defiled his own home. Kreon, who had abetted Eteokles' treacherous usurpation of the Theban throne, and who allowed his son to die in the course of the consequent war. insulted dead Polyneices along with the Arg.vc dead, then disowned hIS younger son and buried his niece

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alive. Krcon chose two ways to I....aios· one, to exacerbate Argive hostility, amI five ways to violate his own familv's sancti~. Kreon is Lai~' "

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ape and his exaggeration. Betrayal of faith and dIsregard of fanllly bonds are the themes of KrePn's rejgn permt'
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humcs Antigone, he ends them. In the first thud of the play, there arc two further burials. of Poly-

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v, ",\ ov.S cru Ity.lII t lIS regard, is still clearer '"te~ (1193'1>0<») when ~ _ 'JS~\ cusesTwcslas-who has asked him, on plain grounds of piety. to bury '"

Po)ynelccs-Qf the same venality, TI,e second burra! of Polyn"'ces shows that Antigone not cons irators. did the deed, and not for

money, but or love, Kreon relects love when he condemn,S hIS niece, While Antigone was prompted by her love to fulfill a religious duty. llaimon IS inspired to political acnvity. to argument. Kreon rejects with militanstic slogans (7')8-8'4) the democratic arrd humane views Haimon presents. Kreon's love's ar uments are a

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drawn directly (d. "4'9) from command In wartime, At the close of the episode (934'4 1 ) Kreon orders Antlgones bunal. Then in th~ ode which directly follows, when the Chorus hymn Love. one

that Antigone has called Kreon's decree martial (39-4

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Eros., Aph~ite, in the family and the state-~ c.:ntral to 10 mcanlOg as to ]'X2tign. . If the first b~riallcts ~reon discount the divinity of a reveren: act, .... the second bunallets him argue, again wrongly, againtt love, and to rout and dn,:"Love, from .~. and from Thebes. In 6~siJ. Kreon ca,n only transfer h,s pohtic#l c1kM. the double dnty ofltw;irding fll~ds a?d harming enemies. to the case of Etcokles amq'olyneiecs. HI$ p~bhe argument has no place for love, since hit pu~c~ arc III ) fact dictated by the sp.irit of enmity, Antigone realized~l'om the \ start (IN5), When TellQlllS reports bad Q!IlCns and u~ to relefot,hit account includes a description (115"7) of the a"lb;rds atlac~lIlg each other: they are virtually at war because al'Xr""n', ~dl:Cj' .As Kr~n's suppression of love has~ed civil dishanllony a., destroyed 111$ home, .t has abo mterposed ,trife betw«n men and the no",,:oIa= to divine knowledge. , Antigone's devotion to her brother is truly a kind of reverence (1O,~). She. who (6'1"3) WlIS born to love both her brothetsdesprrc the nft between them, has had the sharpest insight mto KJ'C\l{l', error of.fission ~ (ef.• 10-11), In " "18, she is compared by the ScAlly to a mother bird: such is the nature of her concern for Poly~When she leaves f~r the tomb, Amigone bewails her childless l!ate i »), Docs she think, 11$ death apprOK!la,' that she has been wroncrThit is another double focus on love, '1be love that made A n _ bury Polynelces IS a moral force; the love she regrets m lbe kmu!ln j, a ~tural force: both together are the "mandate" of the third~imon. Antigone it :ertainly not at "fault:' She obeyed love va.t~,;ro)ynerces, ,she. did not thereby reiect the living love of HaIl1l0......'.':'.~ had no choice m the first. and was prevented by Kroon from cbocilii.g the os;, .seeond; Antigone "feels pain" only for the second, thoug/:l'it;... for the first that, to avoidpain, she dared and dies, .~ ~e question cfKreon's choice in disposing of PolYlleic:e. before seeing to Antigone is treated ill the nf!!,~,~ ',313
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still, Kreo", last error, then, IS his first. He learns this in Antigone's tomb. As he hllrries tl,ere, he still divides love from the law hy which he lives. As to Eurydice, I have hinted in the resume (p. II) that she ts a kind of double of Krcou. The "marriage ill Hades' house" Kroon originally suggested (to Antigone, 644-6, then to Hairnon, 794'5) has been consummated (1436-7). TI,e death of Antigone and Haimon thas, as ItS offspring, the death of Eurydice. As I have noted, Kreon's 'o,'v entry early in the play (468) corresponds to Eurydice's (1359), In the \J first, Kreon returns as the Sentry tells the Chorus that Antigone is I guilty of burying Polyneiccs. The Sentry completes his report to Kreon, who thereupon resolves to execute Antigone. As a result of this resolve, Kreon condemns himself, as well as Antigone, to.a living death. When Eurydice enters, at an approximately corresponding position toward the end of the play, the Messenger is telling the Chorus of Haimon's dcath. He completes the tale, adding Antigone's suicide, to Eurydice, who then consigns herself to death. She dies eu"ing Kreon, not for Haimon's only, but for Megareus' fate as well. The dual scheme IS completed: Kreon euned himself when he ordered Antigone to 60 punIShed, The 'onglllal sentence was stoning, but Kreon changed It to immurmg in Older to avert a curse from the city (934'7). Perhaps the change of sentence also represents a retreat m policy forced on Kreou. (Agam ",ePY\ 1I0te: no penalty IS specified III the Seven Agamst Thebes.) Harmon ../M~ had said the people of Thebes approved Antigone's deed (8,9-5°). W \/ Public stomng, in which the whole community could participate, was fAoo.'J punishment for public enemies. If the Thebans would refuse to take J part in such an event, Krcon IS well advised not to require it of them. ;),\,l}O"Q. But here too the two-in-one scheme is a picture-of Kreon's reversed ~ understanding. Teiresias emphasizes the direct, rev~rsal of natur,e ovJ ("40-7)' which is, however, typical of Krcon s thinking. Kreon 0 "principles" arc themselves blameworthy (117')' Tciresias, moreover, is a technician, an aug~r; he finds Kreon's wrongdoing formally offensive. By the doubled crime of separation, of keeping Poiyneices in the light and segregating Antigone (d. 55) from the liVing, Kreon hll$ _interfered both with gods of the Underworld .nd with the O~ympians in their respective domains. The mechanical nature of Kroon s offense IS eh.ractcristle. It IS also, III its duality, typical of the whole play~ offense to the gods of the netherworld, Kreoll finally offends Zeus (1170-7: 1202'5)· Yet, in :l sense, Krcon did not change thc sentence. When an out-

r"\

tv

. "vuuLlluN

raged community stoned a public enemy, it performed a kind of ~I rite, covering and concealing the offender. When Kreon prollOUAl:e3 doom on Antigone (93H) he has her "hidden ... in a ~_liol. IOW when he seeks to exhume her, it is trom stone (I 39B-9J\MO'Ieover, we know that the ene~y of the people is nor Antig~ ) Kr~n ..When he buries Antigone In stone, Kreon is hillllClf"jn', lIia II

;

h t .' , .

~

eshlJ1a. hO~. . ' the c?mmunity, the state (ct. 885'9); but Kreon buria, •.. ~th A?~, his better idf, and does 50 in the presence of the bu!:.

nfied C1lizem. He hopes, by a technicality, to cover guilt· really lle stifles corudence.> I

'

.'

Teirerilu says (1148) that Kreon is Wollking "the ra~."1 cdge.. .' . Kreon's balance, clearly, hll$ failed him more than once-(Kreon f1Ib a~y from love; by hi.! martial Olat=ft, he wrecks the Slabilityhe liN sought for the co".'munity; he loses his home through tyranny: ilU

II

show this appea~ to be the main purpose of the double confron~ between Isrnene and Antigorn:, "mene and Kreoo/(65 1'718). Kreonbegl,ns the scene, ..yiog he hal nursed twin plagues, a lllIit~

.traltoTS, In ~IS home. On~ won~ what that horne is like; u~d,,~ poets Kroons understanding of his $OIlS, lI$ well as of his nieces, ~. may also abstract his word! hom the immediate context, and tliii!!< the two girls represent rebellion and submission, positiveand nega~ l",t.gone rcbcb for a reason Kreon /aib to understand. IsmeneJ.\l(jowly submits, without approving KfCOl'I',j ideas or actions. tbinb t?a:, like the C~rw, I.'mene wiil abandon Kroon at the ~~ end, Thill! the tylllllt. handicap: the brave rebel, while the stand by to bear witn...; the former may actually destroy him,'; ne re;t allow.him corrupt and .deshoy himself (d. 8J7-8, ' ,(reon I comkmnahon of both wterI seems an uneonscous act" , ;roni~ justice; it shows the lyrint is 1IJ deadly to those who penn~ to misrule as to those wIIq tIy.to stop him; and itl,,"cstl that v 'l1ay be han aWllre that thc.lUbject loyal to hi! rule is ClSentialJl'~ I,",to"10 IllS potelltia! for good. W~e" l~e asks Antigone (6'73"i) wh"tlifc will be worth ~ cut love,~M$Swer points to Kreon, The implication is that ~ and Isrnene li'< qe.tined to live on, after the play ends. bereft olall they love or should love. Antigone does not know this: Sophocles !pVCI C, the words weight, Antigone does know, and _011 here to mClIn, tbat' ( Kroon, b\ depriving life of love, h.. emptiOd it Of wlue. In th" cpf7' sode, Antigone and Isrnene are split apart for the xcond time. ~: two scene. (i7'125; 657'91) are mirror-images, In the prologue,~'

:.Joo

t~

15

PI'

85'~",

,,,.,

ngone invited Isrnene to risk death with her; now Antigone rejects Ismcne's offer to be her partner in death. Ismene refused then; now Antigone refuses. Antigone chose to risk death rather than live without love, for to abandon Polyneices' need would have been to abandon her love of him; accordingly, the death she risked was meaningful ~e.-~(12o-,). But Isrnene chose to live on without love (ef. 683), and ;;:'S ; would now choose a useless, seemingly meaningless death, She feared ) death, and so would not help Antigone: now that she cannot help, she \ fearslife. The scheme completes itself. When Isrnene pleads for Antigone's life, to Kreon, she starts with the same question (6<)8")): how can she live without Antigone? Kroon says to forget her. Then Ismene asks about Hairnon: if Kreon can despise the girl his son loves, he does not love his son. Kreon does not. ~ But elsewhere Kreon seems to seek love. When Haimon enters, Kreon \ \ ;}-0 askshim. "Do you love me" (ncrl) "whatever I do and how?" Kreon has confused love with obedience before this, After the first burial of , S 0.; ,/ Q....J Polyneices, Kroon contrasted the behavior of discontented citizens \ o~ with what they should do: "properly shouldering the yoke, , , which ~ s\1'~ is the one way of showing love to me" (36
I>

;j"\jt-

Jj.\W

ffJ

bans' love with hi,S d~ree, and, found it wan:ing; ,now, as he sentences

Antigone for defying the decree, he finds Harmon s love hollow. Kroon is to be pitied for his incomprehension. What he seeks__ is the love of

beast for human master; he has. himself, no love to give, on,ly com' mands.) . ~ Even cruel Arcsloved, though-loved Aphrodite. One should, therefore not be shocked when Kroon leaves the stage heartbroken, Until Hairnon dies, and Eurydice, he seems capable of no emotion but anger. When he condemned Antigone, he said that with her death he had "everything" (606). Now, he prays for his own death, which is everything he still wants (15")' This I~ convin~in~it is disturbing too: the man IS a man, and he IS to be pltied.,One must blame him; but as he blames himself, one wonders. Did he, after all, love his wifeand son? He did, and did not know it, he could not know that In which he did not believe) ~ ' If we sympathize, at last, with at least the humanity of Kreon, It is Jess easy to excuse the Chorus, The old courtiers learn wisdom lat~; perhaps. like Krenn, too late. They, however, arc not fools; in their songs they have shown subtlety and learning. Yet these men ex~"sed and supported Kroon's folly until Kreon. in effect. gave up hIS aU, thority (.,68-77). 1110lIgh they knew what law IS, and ~~ugh they worshiped Love as well as Aresand Dionvsos, nevertheles~,::n while

16

Jhi;)' gricvtd for her. they blamed Antigone for her doom, When they m~t have Used. thea ~oquence to plead with Kroon. they IOOthed thea own conscience with the tal)' lore of hereditary CUl'lCl. Xreon puts these men in their place iurtly ....hen he tells them (71)that they, as well as he, have ~ertniDCd" Antigone's dell, th)lt WII their own tree will that they denied, not AI>tigonc's, when Ihcy '-;ncd so long locked in silence by fear.1be pby's most abnnint"doub\e. focus fixes the men of the Cbo!\lS, who sec truth but do not fal:cit, ( ~ the old gentlemeq.~the Chona persisted in ~ing I ') ~reon a edict as Law, they were not pLaying the past of conoes~atn-es, (\ \ IV) () ~,~n the finer sense; they mereI,' y being cautious. "A law,n !!ley',,",' say ilO <'Ie. m effect ("'17'52 ) , :'IS.~ llJIliI it is ~ngcd," Ismcne, ~ only ..-(S ~ because ~f her proxnruty to the case, did regard the decree aslllljust, Y but considered It necessaryto obey (97"8) at long as otherr'CIid 00. \ This, t.hen, is the plea of the callous and of the weak: conformity. , A~ltgone"ppooed conventional piety'to Kreon's edict. Her ~ nor. -'o-6.jl wu that a law I'llUIt oot violate morality. HaiUsliii, on the OW'r hand, appealed to the COIUeIUus of men: his waJ a democratic argument, based on the belief that a law must be in harmony with the considered opinion of the citizens. The personal motive of both Antigone and Haimoo in opwsing Kroo;;-happens to be identi. ,;oJ: love. In this play, traditional morality and majority opinion happen to agree; that this it a love match not made daily is shown by the

v

w, e r e ,

Seven ApilUt Thebes.

.

.

We may conjecture that, to Sophocles, the question of desnocraey autocracy was more basic than piety vs, secular law, In the An. u,one; ,he seems to a~prove rel,i£iow tradition .. a moral _ because, like consensus, It offen likelihood of truth: tradition is'ti!ited .tcmporany, conscruus also numerically. the first through of Curt,Olll, the second by di~ of individual ideas, The greater probability that Kreon, in his tynmnicaJ isolation, would be WIOll& is demonstrated when he shOWl hinuelf to be wrong; the Idvantaae of democratic consensus is, here, emphasized by its endorsement of plow VI,

CiIUlftS

tradition,

So hodes does. however, admit tlult reIi ion contains troub\c:aomc ambiguities: piety may deman right behavior, but the gods them. selves Ire not reliable guides to what is right. Teiresia.s, one remembe~, appears too late. Similarly, Sophocles does not ignore the possi. blllty ()l mass human error; the majority of Thebans, like Ismene, ag~ with Antigone, but obey Kroon, Fearing Kroon, the people fon Anltgone, who is thereby at isolated in her rectitude as Kreon Ii 111. ,

17

INTRODUCTION

sulated in his perversity. Freedom needs strength as well as sensitivity. TI,e popular attitude toward Kroon is that of the Sentry, whose terror neither stifles his disapproval (39'-404) nor slows his obedience (408. '3, 5>7-37)' From this, one may guess that Sophocles recognized that thc rights of the exceptional Individual are precious, at least when, as with Antigone, such rights confirm the freedoms which the majority continue, even secretly, to approve. To us, to who reon's fla rant misdeed is his invasion of personal and conscIentious lights. Sophoclessays this much: neither shou d the ordinary individual, who is wrong, rule the majority, who are passive, " ..jY nor should the extraordinary individual, if right, acquiesce. The tragic I>'~~ problem of popular rulcrhere free citizens seem to violate by con"'\ \ sensus the rights of minorities and of individuals, unusual and ordinary v~ -is only suggested. The Antigone's complacent courtiers abet one(Ch,r tyrant, and become, in effect, a board of tyrants. We know their like in institutions, agencies, departments. and bureaus, which, for the sake of "the law till it is altered," and such generally accepted purposes as health, defense, education, and finance, erode freedom. Until such old men Jearn wisdom, Antigones will be "born to oppose," who, unless gentleness prevails, will be driven again and again even by the Choruses of democracy, either to civil disobedience or -to criminal withdrawal. The text I have followed IS R. C. [ebb's In Sophocles, Part III: The Antigone (Cambridge, 189'). supplemented by A. C. Pearson's in Sophoclis Fabulae (Oxford: The Clarendon Press, '9'4)' [ebb's prose version and commentary proved consistently valuable. I wish to thank the General Editor for generous help. No one acquainted with his work is in danger of blaming him for the faults of mine. Edmonton, Alberta

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RICHA.RJ) EMIL BUUN'

ANTIGONE