Death plays a big role in Antigone, as it represents different point of view by the characters.  The characters in the story are faced with a big challenge of handling their own death or the deaths of loved ones. Antigone, Haemon and Eurydice each commit suicide. Their actions and the challenges they were put through got them to the point of committing suicide. As the actions were taken one after each tragedy happened, leads to a point that influence the reader to think committing suicide was the only way to truly set them free and escape their fate.

Death:

The idea of the burial of the dead is culturally put down upon in Antigone. Ismene is fearful but Antigone is fearless and decides to attempt to bury her brother who has died in a battle. Antigone takes the initiative herself and decides to bury her brother even though she knows there are possible consequences of her own death. She comes to a point where she would rather die than live with the burden of knowing her brother’s death and the conscious pain it gives her. She states, “My own death is not going to bother me, but I would be devastated to see my mother’s son die and rot unburied”. She is not embarrassed for what she is done and really admits her actions. The Idea of death raises the question of facing the pain of losing someone and maybe it is worth it to bury them and understand they are fully gone instead of questioning themselves.  In the end, Haimon defends Antigone and states “it’s her brother and they have to understand the value of the brother’s life.” It seems as if there was no respect of the dead at that time, only if the person was important or provided value to the king. The king had an idea of a zero-sum game in his mind.

In the tragedy “Antigone”, Sophocles describes the conflict contemporary to his time: the family’s unspoken law against the law of the state. Antigone is the name of the heroin, who choses the burry her brother against the will of the king Kreon. Polyneikes, her brother, is a traitor to the homeland and unworthy of honor to be buried and mourned. Nevertheless, for Antigone the law of Gods and family values are above the fear of a king or even the fear of a death.

Kreon, in contrary, advocates the continuous observance of the state ruling. He does not recognize different opinions and defeats disobedience with cruelty.

Their misunderstanding and confrontation are the problems, that Sophocles wanted to address, emphasizing, that in order to achieve the harmony in society, the religion, family and state have to coexist without harm for each other.

One image in Sophocles’ Antigone which is a prominent, driving force of action throughout the story is law. The cause of discourse between Antigone (eventually along with others) and Creon is whether the law of the land or the law of God prevails in importance when it comes to justice and what is right; it is the collision of the iron-willed beliefs of both Antigone and Creon which brings chaos to Thebes. In this society religion is held dearly by its residents, but seemingly not to the pigheaded king, who’s own law holds highest value to him and expects the same standard of his subjects. Often it is not only the law of the land which causes people to make decisions and act, but religiously based morals and codes. Antigone goes against the King’s order to prevent Polyneicês from receiving a proper burial simply because he is a personal enemy of his, and she takes it upon herself to honor her brother and bury him to fulfill a holy ritual all while knowing full well that she could be killed for doing so. She brazenly values her religious faith’s rules more than the legal boundaries of her country. After Antigone has openly defied Creon’s rule without care, and just before a trusted prophet has told him the future of his actions’ consequence, his own son dares him to question his power and wisdom. Haimon tries to reason with him, “Do not believe that you alone can be right. The man who thinks that, The man who maintains that only he has the power To reason correctly, the gift to speak, to soul–– A man like that, when you know him, turns out empty” (565-569). Creon then begins to lose the trust of his people because of his stubbornness, as they respect the resilient actions of Antigone in the name of personal belief and righteousness. Even later, Creon suffers the suicide of his son after the discovery of Antigone’s suicide; the stubbornness of his will, and his unwillingness to take other’s critique and advice has caused him much loss.
“Yet there are other men Who can reason, too; and their opinions might be helpful. You are not in a position to know everything That people say or do, or what they feel” Haimon, (546-549). It is not in a single man’s right or ability to choose what is right for all men.

In this reading, the corpse of a brother, Polyneikes is an elder son of Oedipus, plays important role.

The King of Thebes ordered not to mourn and bury Polyneikes. It is an enforceable law, custom that should not be broken.

However, Antigone, a sister of Polyneikes, could not just stay silent.

Even though the city is forbidden to mourn and bury him, she wanted to defy the king’s proclamation and his power because she believed that it is just to mourn for the dead.

It is not someone else, but her family.

At the time, it was hard to stand against men for women in the society, so Ismene was scared of what Kreon’s forbidden, and refused to help Antigone.

However, the corpse is not someone else, it is her beloved brother.

The decision Antigone made and implemented was solely based on her belief that the law banning to mourn and bury is ephemeral.

That is why she did not regret what she had done for her brother.

In our society, there are legislators who create enforceable law, regulation we should follow. However, if there is a law that disturbs family gathering, would people obey it regardless of

being moral or immoral? Also, is there any law that lasts forever not ephemeral? The consent of society is required to be assisted if the legislator wants to keep the law in effect for a

long time. Kreon had strong authority to enforce a law. However, it was not stronger than Antigone’s will. His brother’s corpse caused her to be deeply saddened, and motivated her to

break the law and custom.

since humanity start to develop culture, the death always had been a important part of it. the traditions related about how to deal with corpses is a must in any culture and is considered taboo to leave it.

In Antigone what I consider a very important part and the beginning of the tragedy is when Polyneikes one of Antigone’s bother wasn’t buried properly. Antigone emphasizes the disgrace, dishonor, pain, etc, of leaving the corpse to fed the birds and dogs. this fact is mentioned across the story and is mentioned multiple times even with the threat of dead. Antigone justify her actions by mentioning the honor one must show to others, the traditions gods impose, the pain she felt, etc. At that time the idea of a life after death was deeply imprinted on people minds and a corpse no treated correctly will represent the eternal suffering for the soul of that body. Many people at that time reinforce that idea to the point that today we can see in the documents left behind, many examples such as the need to put perfume, new clothes, one coin in each eye or under the tongue, and many more rituals considered essential for an appropriate afterlife.

Even in our actual society the fact of leaving a body with no burial is considered immoral and inhuman. The main reason usually discussed is that a corpse may bring illness, but usually the feeling doing something that we must do it, is also an important cause. in our actual culture most religions emphasize the importance of a ritual and even for many of us just the image of a exposed corpse is considered really bad.

As explained before the way to deal with dead body is mentioned many times in the book like in the sentence 30, 290,487, and many more direct as well as indirect references. although I considered that the act of leaving the corpse may have other reasons, is undeniable that this was the spark that initiate the drama.

My ]heart
Is]absolutely
broken ]I can
feel every beat]
Your love ]would be for me
And the Gods would use the sun]to shine in answer
The rays of light on your]face
But the sun did not shine]
Your love ]having been stained
For your love is not for me]

I chose this fragment(4) because I liked how it began with “heart” and ended with “having been stained” with the remains of the piece. I think that the idea of a heart being stained has to do with love and heartbreak and I find that to be a common theme in Sappho’s writing. I think that the remaining words are the bones of a beautiful piece.
Creating the diagram in class helped me further understand the last fragment a lot more. Reading the piece once left me thinking that Sappho was directly addressing the person she loved. But with further consideration, when breaking it down I realized that Sappho had been talking to/about the person who was speaking to the one that she loved. She was praising this person for being so strong and having the courage to face the one she loved face to face and not faltering because of their beauty and grace. She even compares the person to a god, claiming that she would have died had she been in the same situation. The person she loved made her feel ill and weak, and made her “green,” which I interpreted as either green with envy or green, as in physically ill. The diagram allowed me to separate the fragment into pieces that were easier to interpret.

[Hands open and] invites

[Nobody] all not

[You are welcomed to the] feast

[Looking at] Hera

[Loving] as long as

[your destiny allow it]

[when the gods decide]

[the mortals follows]

I chose this part of the poem because the poem because Sappho’s poem is about love and wanting love. The diagram I made helped me understand how with love, suffering also comes along. Her poem shows the different phases of love and life. How one starts to like someone innocently and slowly it turns into love and then compassion. Sappho is hit with jealousy and emotions while watching her lover talk to another man. Making the diagram helped me understand where Sapphos emotions ere coming from and how strong they were.

Opening of her arms] invites

Everyone except her lover] all not

Cherishes the moment] feast

Thinking about her lover, Hera] for Hera

The only problem is, she is not here and will never come back]as long as

Page 31:  I created a diagram to display two specific things, her deep love and her loss of hope. She states in the poem, “He”. It really lights up my ear and it makes me feel as if she is trying to trick the reader into who she really is referring to. As she keeps the reader on their feet she continues discussing her feeling when she hears her lover speaking. She seems impoverished because she does not know how to control her love anymore. She is desperate and she feels like she is almost “dead”, as it seems to her. She describes this lover and her heart beats from love. She compares him equal to gods, which is an extreme sign of respect in greek culture.