“Antigone” opens up by giving a background to the tragedy that is soon to unfold. Eteokles and Polyneikes are two brothers leading opposite sides in the Theban Civil War. The two brothers ultimately kill each other in battle. Kreon, who has just been appointed King of Thebes, declares that Eteokles body will receive the proper burial rituals and shall be honored for staying loyal to Thebes, while Polyneikes’ body shall be left unburied. Kreon, in reference to Polyneikes, says that “it is now a crime for Thebans to bury him or mourn him. Dogs and birds will savage and outrage his corpse – an ugly and a visible disgrace.” (lines 236-239). Antigone, sister to Polyneikes and Eteokles, is outraged by the kings decision to honor one brother and disgrace the other. She takes it upon herself to defy the kings law and give a proper burial to her brother, despite his betrayal to Thebes.
Antigone’s action of defying Kreons law could be seen as the right thing to do because in the end, the proper burial of a human is a law of the gods. Antigone says “I deny your edicts – since you, a mere man, imposed them – have the force to trample on the gods’ unwritten and infallible laws.” (lines 490-492). Aware of her fate, Antigone is staying loyal to the gods and honoring the dead as the gods would ultimately want.
In ancient Greece, the burial of a human was a huge part of their culture and would be a sign of respect to the person. The body would be cleaned and properly prepared for burial, and sealed with a golden coin which, as the Greeks believed, would be taken with them to the underworld so they could pay the ferryman of Hades who carries the souls of the newly dead across the river Stxy which divided the world of the living from the world of the dead. Those who were left unburied would be left to wander the shores for 100 years. With this context, you could see why the burial of Polyneikes was so important to Antigone.
- Was Kreon’s declaration to leave Polyneikes’ body disgraced without burial and to become food for animals a sign of respect to Thebes, or was it a sign of him abusing his power and acting as a tyrannical ruler?
- Being that Kreon was evidently disobeying the gods law, do you think that he viewed himself on the same level as the gods?