Hello everyone,
Although I understand why Creon is mad at Polyneices, I still can not accept his overall decision not to bury him. While it is true that Polyneices was a betrayer who went to war with his own country, it does not necessarily follow that he does not deserve to be buried. I believe that everyone deserves a proper burial, no matter what they did in life. Besides, by focusing on anger Creon overlooks the deeper problem of religion. It seems to be that he is dismissing the religious obligations and going against the God. Even though Creon is a king of Thebes, he has no right to deny Polyneices’ burial because it is up to God to decide the rest of Polyneices’ way. Therefore, I think that Polyneices deserves to be buried because it does not matter what he did any more; he is gone.
Please let me know what you think on this matter.
Best,
Svitlana T.
You say “I believe that everyone deserves a proper burial, no matter what they did in life.” But why is that so? A proper burial is a form of respect to the departed, and what you imply is that everyone is deserving of respect, regardless of what they did in life. This doesn’t sit right with me. Everyone does not deserve respect, and there are certain ways in which people deserve to continue after death. One of these ways is to die remain in dishonor.
Hi, Svitlana, I am leaving a comment with what I remember about a burial, from comic books I read in my childhood (about Ancient Greek History) as well as adding to what Cutolo said. I think a proper burial for a dead man was for respect to him and also letting him enter the afterlife in Underworld where Hades, the god of death, rules. For human, going to the underworld after a death was what gods intended and those who defy the gods would suffer forever without being treated properly like Sisyphus or someone who store fire from gods. Means of proper treatment/funeral would be such as putting two coins on dead man’s eyes for payment of passage to the underworld, to a boatman or burning a corpse on woods (movie Troy). So, Creon didn’t want his body to go through the proper process for his betrayal.
Hello Svitlana,
I agree with you on the matter that everyone deserves a proper burial. Although Polyneikes was a traitor, it was not Kreon’s place to forbid the Thebans to mourn or bury him. For this reason, I also agree with you that Kreon “dismiss[ed] the religious obligations and [went] against” the gods. Furthermore, Antigone denies that Kreon’s “edicts–since [he], a mere man,/imposted them–have the force to trample on/the gods’ unwritten and infallible laws” (490-492). She is basically saying that she rejects to follow his order not to bury her brother because as a mere mortal, he has no power over the law of the gods. Kreon ruled irrationally with his emotions and his anger with Polyneikes reflected in his actions. Even his son, Haimon, questions Kreon, “What is it you protect by scorning the gods?” (823). For these reasons, Kreon was wrong to deny Polyneikes his burial.
Thank you for your thought-provoking post,
Veronika Solon