The Nature of Things

Antigone: Full Text and Introduction by Sophocles My rating: 4 of 5 stars It's interesting that Sophocles named his play Antigone . He might just as well have named it Creon , and, indeed, given the relative number of lines that he gives each of those characters, that might have made more sense. The conflict which Sophocles gives us is between the political and the religious interests of ancient Greek society. Antigone represents the ethos of the old ruling families and their loyalty to the gods and to ancient tradition. Creon represents the modern state and the rule of law. Choosing sides in the conflict, it seems evident that Sophocles is more sympathetic to the arguments for a government that represents rule of law. The background of this story is what one may term a typical Greek tragedy. Antigone is the daughter of Jocasta and Oedipus, who was himself the son of Jocasta, and if you don't know how all that came about, then go read Oedipus Rex . Antigone had two brothers an...