God V. Man In Antigone
Choragos: There is no happiness where there is no wisdom;
No wisdom but in submission to the gods.
Big words are always punished,
And proud men in old age learn to be wise. (158)
Throughout Sophocles’ drama, Antigone, there are many themes that can be traced. One of the most predominant themes is god versus man, which appears not only in Antigone, but also in many of the classic Greek tragedies written in Sophocles’ time. This quotation above serves as the moral for this tragedy, which includes an illustration of the theme as it was applied to the play. In the drama, Antigone, the theme of the inner struggle between allegiance to human law versus divine law can best be ...
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she chose to obey the wishes of the gods and bury him. At the time of the drama, the Greeks believed that a decent burial was essential for the soul to be at rest. Kreon accused Polyneices of fighting against his own country and forbade all citizens of Thebes to prepare his body. Instead, it was left to decay on the field on which he was killed. When Antigone first hears this news, she immediately reacts by telling her sister, Ismene, that she wants Polyneices’ soul to be at rest, and therefore is going to bury him on the field. Fearing Kreon’s reaction, Ismene declines the offer to help her sister, and Antigone goes on without her. She justifies her blatant disregard for the King’s law by commenting,
Antigone: But I will bury him; and if I must die,
I say that this crime is holy: I shall lie down
With him in death, and I shall be as dear
To him as he to me.
It is the dead,
Not the living, who make the longest demands:
We die for ever… ...
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the rule of a higher power, which Kreon does not approve of. Kreon sentences her to death by locking her in a stone vault and leaving her to fend for herself. She makes one final plea to the people of Thebes in defense of her actions before leaving the presence of the King . . .
Antigone: Thebes, and you my fathers’ gods,
And rulers of Thebes, you see me now, the last
Unhappy daughter of a line of kings,
Your kings, led away to death. You will remember
What things I suffer, and at what men’s hands,
Because I would not transgress the laws of heaven. (153)
Before the guards take Antigone away, she makes a point of telling everyone that she buried her brother, ...
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"God V. Man In Antigone." Essayworld.com. September 17, 2004. Accessed November 22, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/God-V-Man-In-Antigone/14490.
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