Antigone

Yes, Antigone is justified in her attitude throughout her confrontation with Creon in "Antigone" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, Theban Princess Antigone has the right to defend and protect herself and her brother Polyneices against her uncle King Creon. She manifests courage in her interactions with this stalker who brooks no independent thinking and cheats people out of their hard earned rights.But she needs to tone down the way in which she expresses her disappointments in Creon and his godless rule over Thebes.

To check out a disturbing rumor that he isn't his parents' biological son is the reason why subsequent Theban King Oedipus visits the Delphic Oracle. Specifically, he hears that he's the adopted heir apparent of King Polybus and Queen Merope of Thebes. He isn't satisfied with the hedging reactions of his parents. So he thinks that he'll learn the truth from the Oracle at Delphi.

But the Delphic Oracle doesn't answer Oedipus' question as to the identity of his parents. Instead, the Oracle describes Oedipus as fated to marry his mother after having killed his father. Oedipus is horrified at the prospect of becoming a murderer and a sex offender.

In his horror, Oedipus forgets that there are questions as to whom or where his parents really are. All he can think about is getting as far away from what he thinks is his hometown of Corinth as possible.

The irony lies in the fact that every step he takes, every choice he makes, and every action he engages in just lead him ever closer to his ultimate disgrace.

Because of the information from Teiresias and through the influence of the chorus leader, Creon decides to release Antigone and properly bury Polyneices in "Antigone" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, Teiresias the blind prophet warns Theban King Creon of the consequences of disobeying divine law and disrespecting the gods. He says that what goes around comes around: the suffering of all Thebes caused by Creon's edict of non-burial of the disloyal Theban dead will be visited upon the royal household. Creon is so angry that he does not budge from his hostility towards Teiresias. But he asks the chorus leader for a second opinion and the leader recommends doing what Teiresias says: end the pestilence by burying Polyneices and releasing Antigone.

That it is an impossible task is Ismene's reason for not going along with Antigone in "Antigone" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, Theban Princess Antigone asks her sister Ismene to help bury their brother Polyneices. Princess Ismene fears disobeying King Creon, their guardian and their uncle. She also fears the death sentence that the civil disobedience automatically carries. She also feels that men need to lead and women need to follow. She observes that this is an impossible task that involves even more painful and shameful consequences than those suffered by their incestuous parents, disgraced Theban monarchs Oedipus and Jocasta.

Antigone's death, Polyneices' burial and Creon's overthrow are the ways in which the struggle between Antigone and Creon is resolved in "Antigone" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, Theban Princess Antigone and her uncle King Creon struggle over which authority must be obeyed. Antigone believes that the gods rule and that divinely ordained burial rights for all Thebans must be respected for all, loyal or disloyal to Thebes. In contrast, Creon believes that he rules and that rights can be enforced for Antigone's loyal brother Eteocles and denied for her disloyal brother Polyneices.

The punishment for disobeying Creon's law is death. It is treasonous to disrespect a king, Creon is the Thebes' earthly ruler, and so Antigone dies. But at the same time it is offensive to disrespect the gods. A pestilence is sent and will be ended only with the righting of the wrongs. Polyneices' body therefore is honored with the below-ground burial and funeral rites to which all Thebans are guaranteed by the gods. Creon is overthrown for disrespecting that will. The struggle is over.

Anger, love, sadness and sorrow are emotions portrayed by Antigone and Ismene in "Antigone" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, Theban Princess Antigone exhibits anger in her interaction with her uncle King Creon. She expresses love in referring to her brother Polyneices and other dead family members whereas Ismene only expresses it once in terms of Antigone and once in terms of Antigone and Prince Haemon. Antigone manifests brief sadness over her fate. She shows sorrow over her family's fate whereas Ismene only manifests it over her and her sister's fates.

Completely alienated from, disappointed in and disenchanted with her husband is how Eurydice feels about Theban King Creon before she dies in the play "Antigone" by ancient Greek playwright Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, Theban Queen Eurydice learns that her son, Theban Prince Haemon, is dead by his own sword in the cave where his first cousin and bride-to-be, Theban Princess Antigone, hangs herself with threads from her own clothing. Eurydice blames the suicides on Antigone being sentenced to death within a walled-up cave and on Haemon thereby being separated from the love of his life. Eurydice lets everyone in the palace know that she blames Creon for these two recent deaths and for the tragic deaths of the couple's other children. She stabs herself to death rather than spend one minute more in her husband's company.

A series of three plays is the part of "Antigone" by Sophocles(495 B.C.E. -- 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, "Antigone" is chronologically last in the series. It is preceded chronologically by "Oedipus at Colonus." This play in turn is preceded chronologically by "Oedipus the Rex."

Save the life of the infant Oedipus is what the shepherd of Thebes and the shepherd of Corinth do in "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. -- 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, the three-day-old Oedipus is supposed to die by exposure on the mountains outside Thebes. His parents, Theban monarchs Laius and Jocasta, prefer their son to die rather than grow up and fulfill a prophecy that he will kill his own father. Knowing nothing of the prophecy, the Theban shepherd cannot bring himself to kill the infant, and the Corinthian shepherd thinks only of the joy of his Corinthian monarchs, Polybus and Merope, in fostering a son and heir in their childless household.

Creon issues the decree that concerns and angers Antigone in "Antigone" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, Theban King Creon issues an edict that makes funeral services and below-ground burials a privilege instead of a god-given right to all Thebans. He then allows his nephew Eteocles to be buried, but leaves the body of his nephew Polyneices above ground and exposed to the ravages of weather and wildlife. Antigone is happy over the respect shown to Eteocles and angry about its lack to Polyneices.

No, Creon is not an epic hero in "Antigone" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, the play takes the literary form of drama, not epic poetry. It does not have Creon as its hero either. A hero calls upon great inherent powers to carry out great deeds. Creon acts from self-interest and in fact is the source of all pain and suffering in the play.

To support his edict is what Creon commands the chorus leader in "Antigone" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, Theban King Creon announces his edict of non-burial of the disloyal Theban dead. The leader of the chorus of Theban elders comments that Creon may do as he wishes as king of Thebes. Creon then in essence directs the leader to make sure that the edict is defended, protected and supported.

Goal-fixated is how Creon's personality may be described in "Antigone" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. -- 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, Theban King Creon first appears when he announces his non-burial edict to the chorus of Theban elders. He makes it clear that enforcement of all of his laws and the survival of the Theban state are his personal interest and professional concern. Since that is all that he thinks matters until it is too late, he clearly operates from the exaggeratedly focused stance of a goal-directed personality who is fixated on success and who brooks no interference.

That she expects two brothers who fight each other to the death from opposing sides to receive equal treatment is the reason why Creon says that Antigone insults Eteocles in "Antigone" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, Theban King Creon decides to deny to the disloyal Theban dead their god-given rights as Thebans to below-ground burials. He decides to leave their bodies above ground and exposed to the desecration and dismemberment of ravaging weather and scrounging wildlife. A consequence of the royal decision is the disparate treatment of the bodies of Eteocles and Polyneices, Creon's nephews and Princess Antigone's twin brothers. Eteocles receives full Theban burial honors whereas Polyneices does not. Creon says that disloyal Theban dead need to be treated as disrespectfully as non-Theban enemy dead and that the hatreds of a civil war over the royal succession carry over from life into death.

From a bureaucrat who curries favor with the gods, dislikes conflict and prefers being part of a team, to a dictator who insults the gods, dividesand rules, and bows to none is the way in which Creon changes between "Oedipus Rex" and "Antigone" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, Creon shuns the limelight, likes team work, and follows proper procedure in "Oedipus Rex." In contrast, he lets everyone know that he rules, plays his cards close to his chest, and brooks no opposition from divine promises or human traditions in "Antigone." He becomes a completely different person between Theban King Oedipus' overthrow just before the end of "Oedipus Rex" and the fatal duel between twin brothers Eteocles and Polyneices just before the beginning of "Antigone."

Happily married man to blind widower, King of Thebes to beggar, resident of the royal palace to refugee, and savior of his people to ostracized criminal and sex offender are the reversals of fate suffered by Oedipus in the play "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. -- 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, a reversal of fate involves the circumstances of life making a 180 degree turn in the opposite direction of the original course. The term describes what happens to Theban King Oedipus once the mistaken sense that he and others have of his identity is corrected. All it takes is finding out that albeit unknowingly he is his father's killer, his mother's husband, and his children's half-brother.

That Teiresias and Creon are conspiring against him is the false conclusion that Theban King Oedipus reaches after quarreling with Teiresias in the play "Oedipus Rex."

Specifically, Teiresias is a long-lived, blind prophet. As advisor to the kings of Thebes since the city's founding by Cadmus, Teiresias is the authority on Theban history, the councillor on current Theban events, and the seer of the Theban future. But Oedipus does not like Teiresias' historical references, the contemporary assessment or the predicted outcome. So he rashly and mistakenly decides that the blind prophet must be planning a royal overthrow with Creon, Oedipus' brother-in-law, co-ruler and uncle.

By being pelted to death by stone-throwing Thebans is the way in which Antigone is supposed to die in "Antigone" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, Theban Princess Antigone breaks a royal edict that carries the death penalty. She knows about the law, its proscribed behavior and its punitive measures. Neither stops her, and at her trial she assumes responsibility for her acts and accepts the painful punishment.

Teiresias' prophecy of sorrow to come in the royal household, Eurydice suddenly leaving the area outside the palace without a word and the chorus leader's and messenger's fearful comments of what that silence means are the ways in which Eurydice's death is foreshadowed in "Antigone" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, foreshadowing is a literary means by which the audience is warned of an upcoming event. For example, Teiresias the blind prophet speaks of the division and sorrow of Theban households being visited upon the royal family. Then Queen Eurydice receives the news that Prince Haemon, her only surviving child, is dead at his own hands. Eerily and like the sudden passage from life to death, she is outside one minute, then quietly gone the next. Finally, the chorus leader and the messenger are unnerved by Eurydice's ominously silent receipt of such terrible news.

Violence is absent from the stage in "Antigone" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, one of the rules in ancient Greek theater is the non-depiction of onstage violence. Instead, it is acceptable to have a messenger or servant report offstage violence. The rule keeps the audience's attention focused on the onstage action and on the points that the dramatist makes in the play.

That the consequences will be painfully miserable, that men must be obeyed and that women need to know their place are the reasons that Ismene gives for refusing to help Antigone in "Antigone" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, Theban Princess Ismene says that punishment for disobeying a royal decree will be even more miserable than their father's shunning, their mother's suicide and their brother's killing each other. It will involve the painful death penalty of being struck with stones thrown by all Thebans. Additionally, she believes that men are strong and deserve to rule. She also says that women are weak and must do as they are told.

Duty, responsibility and truthfulness are the noble qualities that Antigone displays in "Antigone" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, the term noble describes excellent, high, outstanding qualities. The description fits Theban Princess Antigone's commitment to duty, responsibility and truthfulness. For example, she makes it an honorable duty to defend divine will, family ties and Theban traditions. She takes responsibility and tells the truth about burying her brother Polyneices, complying with divine will, and defending divinely sanctioned Theban traditions of below ground burials.