Sophocles' Antigone

Oedipus the King, the book by Sophocles was about a man trying to avoid a prophecy yet in turn fulfills the prophecy. The prophecy being that his father would die of his hand and his mother would be wed by her own son.


Antigone is one of his daughters left with her uncle Kreon after the prophecy was been brought to light. With great shame Jocasta (Oedipus' mother/wife) committed suicide, very soon after that Oedipus takes needles she used to needlepoint to stab his own eyes because he did not want to face his father in the afterlife after being the man who brought him to his demise.


Kreon, in this epic Greek tragedy is the king who takes over Thebes after both Jocasta and Oedipus have fallen, and has taken in his two nieces and nephews. Kreon is happy being a stern king who prides himself on his strength to and ability to never give in and always sticks to his word. Little does he know the last rule his family will ever hear will be the one he must change his mind about.


Antigone is the sister to Ismene her only sister, Eteokles who died fighting for the honor of their country, and Polyneices who died fighting against the country as a rebel. After the death of the kings nephews he decided that Eteokles would be buried honorably with a funeral and people there to mourn his death whereas on the other hand Polyneices would be left out in the sun for the vultures to pick at him with flies eating away at his wounds and starving dogs at his flesh. Kreon was very firm on his judgement that no one would bury Polyneices because he should be seen by the country to be ashamed of going against his own birthplace. After hearing Kreon's order that no one would bury him or else their own life would be taken because it would be going against their own kings rule Antigone knew she had to do something about it. She thought that he should be buried as any other would.


Antigone tells her sister that she wants to clean him up and bury him because no matter what they are blood related and they are the only family they had after their parents died. Her sister Ismene told her it was not a good idea that she would die for it, but Antigone knew and was willing to pay the consequences for what she believed to be the right thing.


A sentry comes to tell the king Kreon that someone buried him and he gets enraged because he ultimately cannot believe that someone or a group of people had gone against his word. He begins to think that the people who did it were convinced with money, because he thinks they're greedy. Kreon doesn't know what to do about it because he doesn't know who did it, he says on page 33, in lines 385-388, "you'll hang alive till you tell me who did it, just so you'll, all of you, know from then on not to take bribes, and learn that your love of getting what you can where you can is wrong".


In turn the sentry tells him that he should not be punished for a crime he didn't commit and would be only convicted of it because there was no one else to blame and he was merely the messenger. Moreover, the sentry later replies to Kreon, "The man who did it irritates your mind. I just bother your ears", on page 33 lines 397-398.


The Sentry leaves then comes back with Antigone as his prisoner telling Kreon that he and the other grave men saw her cleaning up Polyneices' body and burring him once again. He allowed the sentry to be released from whatever punishment he was going to give him and questioned Antigone, asking her if she denies doing it and going against his word. Claiming that she was responsible for burying him she said without shame nor remorse that she is ready for any consequence. After him telling her she had just risked her life she told him that a life of not standing up for what you believe in is no life at all.

Before I give away the entire book, I will skip to what I thought about the story.
Go to "Antigone Reflection".
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