Sophocles’ Antigone 1
January 31, 2008
Agenda
• Background
– Play-facts, “Theban Cycle,” Politics, etc.
• Class Discussion
– Cleon versus Antigone
• Gender in Antigone
2
Background
Play-facts, “Theban Cycle,” Politics,
etc.
3
Play Facts
• Sophocles
– ca. 496-ca. 406 BCE
– first victory 468
• “Theban Plays”
– Dates
(“Theban Plays,” cont.)
– Story order
» Oedipus the King
» Oedipus at Colonus
» Antigone
» Antigone
• ca. 441
» Oedipus the King
• ca. 429
» Oedipus at Colonus
• ca. 406
4
Characters
• Antigone
• Ismene
• Chorus of Theban
citizens
• “Leader” = chorus
leader
•
•
•
•
Haemon
Tiresias
Messenger
Eurydice
– koruphaios
• Sentry
5
Myth Background: House of Thebes
Labdacus
Laius
Oedipus
Menoeceus
Jocasta
Creon Eurydice
Jocasta
Polynices Eteocles Antigone Ismene
Haemon
Megareus
Political Background, Themes
“Radical” democracy (Athens,
461-404 BCE)
• “People power” (dēmos,
kratos)
– sovereign assembly
– assembly = citizenry
– democratic council (agendasetting body)
•
•
•
•
•
Paid political service
Election (mostly) by lottery
Egalitarianism
Ethnocentrism
Sexism
Tyranny
•
•
•
•
•
Monarchial rule
Arbitrary rule
Possessive rule
Illegitimate rule
Protective rule
7
Play Analysis (nums. refer to Penguin pages)
Prologue (59 ff.)
Antigone, Ismene (burial)
Parodos (choral entry ode, 65
f.)
victory song
1st episode
Creon, Sentry (Polynices’ burial)
1st stasimon (choral ode, 76 f.)
“Many the wonders …”
2nd episode
Sentry, Creon; Creon, Antigone,
Ismene (Creon-Antigone agōn)
2nd stasimon (91 f.)
“Blest they who escape
misfortune”
3rd episode (92 ff.)
3rd stasimon (101)
madness of erōs
4th episode (101 ff.)
Choral dialogue (kommos) w/
Antigone (bride of death); Antigone,
Creon
4th stasimon (108 f.)
myth parallels to Antigone
5th episode (110 ff.)
Tiresias, Creon (prophecy, warning)
Hyporchema (choral ode, 118 f.)
Dionysus save the day!
Exodos (119 ff.)
Messenger, Eurydice; Choral
dialogue (kommos) w/ Creon
Creon, Haemon (agōn)
8
Class Discussion
Cleon versus Antigone
9
Conflict: Creon versus Antigone
Creon
• bit arbitrary if cityoriented
• non-compromising
• stubborn
• a contest
• under pressure
• concrete thinker
Antigone
• pro-family
• won’t compromise
• NOT a contest
• under pressure
• abstract thinker
• love
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Gender in Antigone
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Sophocles’ Antigone: 2 Readings
Hegel’s…
• Antigone
– divine law
– private sphere
versus
• Creon
– human law
– public sphere
Butler’s…
• Incest as
– interrogation of gender
• Antigone as
– proto-feminist
Antigone’s Claim (Butler’s
book) shows “how a culture of
normative heterosexuality
obstructs our capacity to see
what sexual freedom and
political agency could be” (book
blurb)
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