Antigone

Antigone is the rebel in "Antigone" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, Theban Princess Antigone becomes a rebel by taking a stand against a controversial, unjust, unpopular law that denies god-given burial rights to Thebans. She moves from a position within the established governmental and social framework to outside it when she breaks her uncle King Creon's royal edict of non-burial. That move therefore turns her from a law-abiding citizen to a civilly disobedient rebel.

That Creon is led away from his former subjects and inside the palace is what happens in the end of "Antigone" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, Theban King Creon is found to be in the wrong. He issues a law that contradicts divine will and Theban traditions, and it catches and trips him up. He therefore loses his family, friends, home, job and reputation.

Great great great grandfather to great great great grandson is how Cadmus and Oedipus are related in the play "Oedipus Rex."

Specifically, Cadmus is the founder and first king of Thebes. The royal line is supposed to descend from him. Succeeding generations indeed include the descendants of Cadmus and his wife, first Theban Queen Harmonia:

1. Their son Polydorus, who marries Nycteis;

2. Their grandson Labdacus, whose wife is unspecified;

3. Their great grandson Laius, whose wife is Theban Queen Jocasta;

4. Their great great grandson Oedipus, who unknowingly marries his own mother.

Yes, the Theban townspeople beg Theban King Oedipus to save them from the plague. A pestilence threatens the people, the livestock, and the crops of Thebes. According to the interaction in the Prologue, the people see Oedipus as a problem solver.

In fact, a problem solver is what Oedipus shows himself to be in his very first interaction with his future subjects. The city is being forced to pay high taxes to the Sphinx. Additionally, the Sphinx camps right outside Thebes. Anyone going to or coming from the city is subjected to a riddle. A lack of an answer or an incorrect response results in death. This all ends only with Oedipus having the correct response. He alone realizes that a human is the life form that gets about on fours in the morning of life, on twos in the afternoon, and on threes in the evening.

Fighting Thebans, invading Argives, and Oedipus' two sonsare killed in "Antigone" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. -- 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, a battle takes place before the action of the play and is referenced throughout by the main characters. In that battle, disloyal Thebans led by Polyneices and supported by invading forces from Argos as well as Thebans loyal to Eteocles kill each other off. In the course of the play, three more deaths occur. But each one is a suicide: Princess Antigone, Prince Haemon and Queen Eurydice.

Free will is what causes Antigone's death in "Antigone" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, Theban Princess Antigone is aware of divine curses on the Theban royal house of which she is a descendant and current member. But there is no mention of any specific prophecy regarding her fate. Additionally, she chooses to break a royal law for which any violation carries an automatic death sentence.

A royal edict of non-burial of the disloyal Theban deadis the law that Antigone breaks in "Antigone" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, Theban Princess Antigone's brother Eteocles finds his god-given rights to a below-ground burial and proper funeral rites honored by his uncle King Creon's recent edict. But her brother Polyneices' rights are denied, and his body is left above ground and exposed to weather and wildlife. Antigone accepts that proper procedure is followed regarding Eteocles, but not in regard to Polyneices.

Threats to the guards, fury over the law-breaking, and commitment to punishment and prevention are Creon's reactions to the news of Polyneices' burial in "Antigone" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, Theban King Creon threatens the guards with torture and death if they do not give him complete information and arrest the guilty. He then expresses great anger against whomsoever is guilty of breaking his law against burial of the disloyal dead from the recent civil war over royal succession. He finishes with the promise to hunt down all perpetrators, prevent similar disobedience and punish all law-breakers with death.

Protection of the state is the reason that Creon gives for passing the new law in "Antigone" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, Theban King Creon reminds the chorus of Theban elders of the recent, violent civil war over the Theban royal succession. He speaks of the need to protect the state and secure its people. He states that the new law of non-burial of the disloyal Theban dead protects the state and its people from disasters and enemies.

Yes, the seer wants Creon to bury Polyneices in "Antigone" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, the birds that he uses in ritual sacrifices and dogs are eating the flesh of the unburied dead. The non-burial is offensive to the gods, who guarantee funeral services and below-ground burial to all Thebans. Additionally, interpreting divine will through ritual sacrifices cannot be done because the birds are contaminated by eating the flesh of dead bodies. This also is offensive to the gods, so the dead bodies need to be buried in the way the gods want them to be to Teiresias' way of thinking.

Alienated, angry and embittered is how Haemon and Eurydice feel about Theban King Creon at the moment of death in the play "Antigone" by ancient Greek playwright Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, Theban Prince Haemon is angry that his first cousin and bride-to-be Antigone hangs herself rather than die in the walled-up cave to which Creon, her uncle and Haemon's father, sentences. Theban Queen Eurydice blames her husband, Creon, for the suicides of her son and of her intended daughter-in-law. Not one of them - Antigone, Eurydice, Haemon - feels connected any longer to a Thebes so dominated and ravaged by Creon as the city's foremost leader and as the royal household's dominant and dominating member.

That they commit suicide because of family opposition to their love is a comparison of the tragedies of Antigone and Haemon in "Antigone" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.) and of "Romeo and Juliet" by William Shakespeare (Baptized April 26, 1564 - April 23, 1616).

Specifically, Theban Princess Antigone and Prince Haemon respectively commit suicide for unspecified reasons and in loving despair. Antigone does not get to marry her first cousin Haemon because she is sentenced to death by her uncle, King Creon, who dislikes her. In contrast, Romeo kills himself because he believes Juliet dead, and then Juliet commits suicide because she finds Romeo really dead. The couple is married even though their families object.

It is more with honor than with glory that Antigone is concerned in "Antigone" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, Theban Princess Antigone cares about the honor of her family, gods and traditions. She is committed to Polyneices' honorable entry with an intact body into the Underworld of the afterlife. She likewise is dedicated to her own welcome reunion with all her dead family members in death.

That the non-burial causes the conflict and the pestilence are reasons why Creon buries Polyneices, not Eteocles who already is buried, before rescuing Antigone in "Antigone" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, the play opens with the conflict of whether or not to bury exposed body of disgraced Theban Prince Polyneices. A royal edict prevents it being done even though divine will guarantees below ground burials for all Thebans, disloyal and loyal. A pestilence settles in because of the pollution from the bodies, which must be buried to end the conflict, the offense against the gods and the pestilential punishment.