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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I personally enjoyed reading Antigone by Sophocles. I thought it was an interesting way of putting family on the line. Antigone was standing up for her brothers right to be buried yet her uncle, Kreon, was eager to sentence her for disobeying him. He felt very strongly that no one, especially one of his own household could break any of his laws/rules. Personally I feel that she was right in doing what she believed in, although if I was in that predicament I'm not exactly sure that I would risk my life. But in her case she really had nothing to live for if she gave up her right to rebel.
I took down some quotes from the book because I found certain points in the dialogue very interesting. For example, Kreon says to the sentry in lines 385-388 on page 33,"You'll hang alive till you tell me who did it, just so you, 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". Although he is being dishonorable for accusing a man of a crime he did not commit this quote made sense to me because it relates to today. People are often just concerned with their own well being and will do anything to get what they want even if it is wrong. If you don't earn something the right way then you shouldn't have it because it was deceitfully attained. In return, speaking to the king, the sentry says, "the man who did it irritates our mind. I just bother your ears" on page 33, lines 397-398. While reading that I instantly made a connection to my life today, it quickly reminded me of the other quote that's been floating around since I can remember, "Don't shoot the messenger for delivering the message". I clearly saw that the sentry was telling him to stop viewing him as the criminal who broke his law because he was just trying to tell him what happened, and he only got upset with the sentry because he was the one to tell him out of everyone.
On pages 42-43 lines 657-669, Ismene and Antigone talk about how she didn't want to take part in helping her in the beginning and now she wants to take partial blame because she realized that if he sister were to die because of this she would have nothing more to live for since she was her only living family. Having an older sister I know what it feels like to disagree and I thought that Ismene trying to help in the end by taking some of the fault also showed that she wanted to show her sister that she wasn't alone. I enjoyed knowing that she thought about her sister although it was a bit late in the story. I think it's better late than never because Antigone would have died thinking her sister didn't care. At least she got to see that she cared about her and wouldn't want to live without her sister.
I didn't like that on pages 46-48 lines 777-825 Kreon was telling his son Haimon that he should listen to his father because he knows better than a woman. Because he is king he knows best and I didn't like his attitude toward women. He says very sexist things like saying that women are manipulative, yet know nothing. Haimon fought telling his father that Antigone has not clouded his mind with ideas that are nonsense, in fact he understood where she was coming from and wanted him to know that he shouldn't send her into exile and isolation til death because she had reason , although disagreeable by the king the people agreed with her and thought the king was making a mistake. I favored the part in the dialogue that he stands up for her because he loves her and knows that she does not deserve death or such harsh punishment for what she did.
Haimon, a young man with big ideas was telling his father that although he is king he should try to be lenient, or at least have consideration for his people and what they want. Most of the people of Thebes thought that he was making a mistake by not giving Antigone the chance to live. On page 49, lines 870-871 he says to his father, "It would be best if we were born knowing everything; but it is honorable to learn from honest men." I interpreted this as, don't speak with all of the breath you have, and listen to what others want. But after Haimon said that the king rebuttals that a young man knows nothing about the wise because young people are not wise, wisdom comes with age. In addition, Haimon says "And you expect to talk but not listen, and to speak but not be judged by what you say" on page 51 lines 916-917. I believe what he said is true because when you talk over and over not letting anyone interject with their thoughts or to add anything or help you in what you say you could be potentially giving the wrong information and sound like a completely terrible person for not taking anyone into consideration.
Later Antigone tells Kreon that the reason she did it was because she didn't have family, that she would be dying alone, since her parents were dead, her brothers dead and her sister so mentally distant from her. Makes me feel very bad for her and she seems to feel very depressed and like she took the death of her parents very bad. Even though she is engaged to Haimon she doesn't feel as pulled towards life as she does toward death because she is so willing to just give her life, rather than fight for her life.
When Teiresias goes to Kreon to tell him that he should stop, I really thought what he said is wise because its true, you can be stern and rule a state but if you don't give any leeway people will never love nor honor you because you will be more like a heartless dictator rather than a glorious king. On page 60 lines 1085-1090 Teiresias tells him that being stubborn is not the way to rule because he would be more hurting himself and his land than helping it. The piece that I really thought made sense was when he said, "What good is it to kill the dead again? What kind of power is it?" I thought it would make an impact on the king because surely something that would make him look stupid he would have to change right? But the king still didn't want to change his mind after he said that.
Later, after the queen Eurydice finds out from the messenger that her son killed herself she leaves the common room where they are talking and Koryphaios tells the messenger to check on her, but he replies that she may want to grieve alone. But he insists for him to go. He says "I think that too much silence is more serious than futile outcries" on page 69 lines 1448-1449. I completely agree because at least when people scream or cry you know whats on their mind but someone in silence is a mystery and that could be very dangerous.
The messenger goes and sees that she has also committed suicide, then when the king comes back carrying his son finds out that his wife has also killed herself he knows that he should have listened to Teiresias because if he did from the beginning he would have gotten to Antigone on time before she killed herself. If she never hung herself his son Haimon would have never stabbed himself, and the queen Eurydice would have never killed herself. Despite the tragic ending the king finally learns that he should not take minuscule things so far because they have severe consequences. I thought it was sad that his entire family had to die for him to realize he went to far, but in life then and now that's the only way people learn. As they say "you don't know what you have till its gone", so he took what he had for granted and in an instant it was all taken from him. Even a king cannot bring back the dead so he must now live in grief and shame for being so cruel and narrow minded.
Overall I really enjoyed the story, because it relates to today's world.
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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. 
