Antigone Research Paper

Words: 460
Pages: 2

“Antigone” is a Greek tragedy written by Sophocles. It was performed for the first time in Athens in 442 B.C., during a ceremony honouring Dionysus, the God of wine and fertility in ancient Greece. The tragedy is the last one of the three Theban plays which include the “Oedipus Rex” and the “Oedipus at Colonos” as well. The play narrates the sequence of events which lead to the death of Antigone, who was born from the incestous relationship between Oedipus and his mother Jocasta and had three other siblings: Ismene, Eteocles and Polyneices. Her two brothers were both killed in battle at the time of the Thebes’ civil war. Kreon, new head of the city, agreed on the burial of Eteocles and on his brother’s disgrace as he was the one who built up an army aimed to go against his relative. …show more content…
Antigone did not support Kreon’s decision: she wanted to entomb her brother more than anything else. “I’m going to bury my brother… I won’t betray him.”. Claiming and doing so, she directly goes against all the principles that were unbreakable at that time and, more particularly, she betrays her ruler, Kreon. From this conflict, the whole play develops showing the dispute between two such similar and different people at the same time. Both Antigone and Kreon have divergent opposing values. While Kreon’s observance of the laws of the city induces him to discard other convictions, moral or religious as they are. Kreon is not willing to waive the laws imposed by the polis in favour of philia (friendship) or of a fondness relationship. He is the symbol of the alleged human superiority on the unfathomable divine