Both characters are shown to be both right and wrong, and there is care shown to avoid trapping the story in the ancient Athenian setting. Despite this, Antigone does not particularly use propaganda to make definite arguments for or against the sides of Antigone and Creon. (Sophocles, 2008.)Īround the writing of Antigone, Sophocles was serving the military as a general leading an expedition against Samos. As she becomes the central protagonist of Sophocles’ Antigone, she comes into her own as a hero-type figure who is determined to uphold the will of the gods and help her brother enter the afterlife. Before Oedipus dies in Oedipus at Colonnus, Antigone appears as a minor character in order to lead her blind father into exile, staying solely in the context of familial duty. She is introduced as being happily engaged to her cousin, Haemon-she is fulfilling the duty of the female citizen by marrying, and reproducing more Greek citizens. On the surface, Antigone is presented as a respectable, dutiful Greek woman. Antigone is portrayed as a stubborn woman, who is willing to go so far as to defy her male guardian (who is also her ruler), and defy state law. However, she disobeys her kyrios when he refuses to allow her to bury Polynices, who is viewed as a traitor of the state for attempting to seize the Theban throne. (Wikipedia)įollowing the deaths of her father Oedipus and brothers Polynices and Eteocles, Antigone is placed under the care of her uncle, Creon… who happens to be the king of Thebes. “Antigone au chevet de Polynice” by Jean-Joseph Benjamin-Constant, 1868. “There is no happiness where there is no wisdom Antigone’s defiance of the Theban king Creon may have simply been an act of familial love, but it has been adapted into many modern creations as a symbol of an individual act of rebellion spiralling into a large-scale revolution. Antigone’s quest to deliver the proper burial rites to her fallen brother Polynices does not align with the socially-acceptable idea of an ancient Greek woman rather, when viewing Antigone’s actions in the context of Ancient Greece, they are far more radical and conventionally masculine compared with how a reader with a modern bias might view them. The story’s significance largely originates from the uncommon depiction of a female protagonist in antiquity who is portrayed as a hero while defying state law. 420-206 BCE, Antigone has endured two millennia to the modern day. During the 5th century BCE, readers were introduced to a written version of the myth of Antigone, a daughter of Oedipus. You may have heard of Oedipus, the mythological figure who gave his name to the Oedipus Complex, the Freudian condition in which a man is said to be naturally inclined to be sexually attracted to his mother and resentful towards his father. ( Wikipedia) Mythology “King Oedipus” by Emil Teschendorff, 1898. “Antigone in front of the dead Polyneices” by Nikiforos Lytras, 1865.