1/24/05
Monday, January 24, 2005
2:30 PM
Sophocles - Antigone (tragedy)
-uses Greek culture to comment on Greek people, politics, and life
-main characters: Antigone and Creon
-Eteocles and Polynices, brothers of Antigone, kill each other in battle but Polynices is considered a traitor and Creon decrees tha= t he is not to be buried
-Antigone goes against Creon's decree and buries Polynices (sister Ismene refuses)
-buried alive in a stone wall
-Haemon, Creon's son, is betrothed to Antigone - kills himself after he finds Antigone dead
-opening question: should one obey a law one deems to be unjust?
-Antigone thinks not - is rebellious from the beginning
-Ismene is much more obedient - sees it as a woman's duty= to obey the law
-Sophocles gives us two forms of loyalty
-Antigone is firstly loyal to family
-Ismene is firstly loyal to state (laws of state)
-Antigone, though often seen as having masculine qualities, is in fact also a defender= of Greek feminine values - family, burial rights (claims that proper burial is= the law of the gods)
-law of the gods eclipses the claims of the polis (pg. 63= )
-Creon believes in civic virtue - first allegiance should be to the state, everyth= ing else comes second (even family)
-philos =3D love/friendship/bond
-Antigone's philos =3D family/friends
-Creon: we should choose our allegiances based on state
-leans toward totalitarianism/authoritarianism (dispute w= ith Haemon)
-obsessed with order, authority
-is dogmatic, paranoid
-at same time, believes that he is rational and possesses good judgment (67)
-therefore, he can guide state most successfully
-tries so hard to control every detail that he loses cont= rol of everything
-turns politics into policing
-Confrontations: main one is Antigone vs. Creon (pg. 81-86: Antigone gives famous speech on civil disobedience)
-says she disobeyed law because it was unjust
-there are two laws: laws made by the polis (man-made) and the unwritten laws of the gods (not arbitrary)
-laws of gods are laws of justice, not necessarily of hum= an beings
-gives a negative presentation - says what Creon's law is= not (i.e. it's not divine law) and offer= s her interpretation of the divine laws (she should bury her brother)
-a big problem for the Greeks - how to justify laws, way = of life, etc.
-Contrasts: man/woman, family/state, religion/state, private sphere/public sphere, human law/justice, civil disobedience/collective obedience, nature/culture
-Creon, in the end, is shown to lack sound judgment (113-117) - has too much pride, narcissistic
-wants order, but in the end becomes anti-political
-Haemon says that politics requires flexibility, not a fo= cus on rigidity, opposing factions, etc.
-politics requires a plurality of ideas and participants<= /p>
-pg. 116 - Creon has an epiphany about his dogmatism, realizes that he was mistaken
-Antigone does appear vindicated by the end of the play
-at the same time, she is also somewhat remorseful - she = has become completely isolated
-recognizes that individuals need to live in a community = with others - realizes that she probably went too far
-Some interpretations/final thoughts of the play
-Conservative <= /span>- how play ends (chorus) - "the wisdom of the ages" - recognize the laws of the gods, exercise, wisdom and sounds judgment, life must go on - b= e a little more moderate
-Antigone model= - human freedom is a gift, one must be sure that one's actions conform to o= ne's views of justice - exercise your freedom/individualism
-Compromise (Ha= emon) - there is no monopoly on political wisdom - mistakes will happen, political truth must be achieved communally - "listen to the many voices"
-no amount of human reason is going to lead to a simple formula/solution
-tries to make our vision of politics much more complex - limits of human reason
-Sophocles is somewhat moving away from the mythology/emphasis on fates
-"Ode to Man" (pg. 76-77) - Chorus discusses what it means to be a human bei= ng
-is an ontology of the human being
-says that man is great and wondrous
-our greatness lies in our ability to overpower nature, to dominate in that respect
-we do so because we need to survive - need to plow the fields, throw the nets, etc.
-prophetic statement about the nature of the human being - our power is a double-edged sword because we can destroy if we are not care= ful (ingenious past all measure)
-how to tame our arrogance: combine the laws of the land = with the justice of the gods
-my interpretation: Antigone and Creon represent the oppo= site ends of this spectrum; this is the downfall of both characters
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