丨 NTRODUCTION custom laws(nomima)of all Greece"(Suppliants 311-12). The Kreon of Antigone even seems to relish his punitive authority as he dwells on the details of exposing Polyneikes corpse and on his specific steps to ensure that body will remain unburied(230-35/203-6, 248/217, 451- 58/408-14). He gives four lines(in the Greek)to the honors due to to the de of the traitor's body (217-35/194-206)-a touch of a cruelty that will be seen again later when he sends Antigone to her death. 6 The repeated first-person statements of his opening peech too, though innocuous enough in their context, also sound a note of authoritarian willfulness and self-important sententiousness that will emerge more ominously later(214-15/191, 223-24/198, 238-40/ Both protagonists tum out to have a relation to the city-state(pol different from what the opening scenes might suggest. Kreon's view of nomos, law, one of the crucial words in the play, proves to rest on too narrow a vision of the city. The word nomos also means"custom"and can refer to"practice"or"convention"so embedded in society that it has virtually the authority of the"laws"that derive from formal legis- tion. (The two meanings of phokles'time, in democratic Athens of the fifth century, which is very luch aware of the sovereign power of the assembled citizenry, the demos, to create new laws, abolish old, and replace or modify tradi- tional"laws, "and thereby codify as statute or written decree what had Both protagonists, however, assurme that the gods defend their nomos Kreon increasingly regards the law of the city as an extension of his own authority and assumes, erroneously that the order of the gods is congruent with what he sees as the order of the polis. Antigone, in defying Kreon's laws on the grounds of the "unwritten laws"of the gods, opens up the defnition of both law and the city in directions that Kreon does not understand. The city does, in fact, have obligations to the dead and to the chthonic divinities who protect them and watch over the rituals that separate the dead citizens from the living and move them to their appropriate realm in Hades. Later in the play the prophet Teiresias will announce the dire effect of violating these"unwritten laws"(133-61/1064-86); and he will show that Kreon's attempt to absorb ritual practice and the politics of the gods into his own politics sided vision of both the city and the gods 6. See, e.g. 838-+/777-8o and o/885-90, and the Ne a7. On the reservations that the language of Kreon's open ng spccch may cause the spectator, sce Felix Budelmann, The Language of Sophocles(Cambridge, Eng, 200o),75-78
INTRODUCTIO N custom laws (nomima) of all Greece" (Suppliants 311-12). The Kreon of Antigone even seems to relish his punitive authority as he dwells on the details of exposing Polyneikes' corpse and on his specific steps to ensure that body will remain unburied (230-35 / 203-6, 248 / 217, 451- 58 / 408-14). He gives four lines (in the Greek) to the honors due to Eteokles, nine to the defiling of the traitor's body (217-35 /194-206) —a touch of a cruelty that will be seen again later when he sends Antigone to her death.16 The repeated first-person statements of his opening speech too, though innocuous enough in their context, also sound a note of authoritarian willfulness and self-important sententiousness that will emerge more ominously later (214-15 / 191, 223-24 / 198, 238-40 / 209-10).17 Both protagonists turn out to have a relation to the city-state (polls] different from what the opening scenes might suggest. Kreon's view of nomos, law, one of the crucial words in the play, proves to rest on too narrow a vision of the city. The word nomos also means "custom" and can refer to "practice" or "convention" so embedded in society that it has virtually the authority of the "laws" that derive from formal legislation. (The two meanings of nomos are particularly important in Sophokles' time, in democratic Athens of the fifth century, which is very much aware of the sovereign power of the assembled citizenry, the demos, to create new laws, abolish old, and replace or modify traditional "laws," and thereby codify as statute or written decree what had been more loosely defined as "custom-law.") Both protagonists, however, assume that the gods defend their nomos. Kreon increasingly regards the law of the city as an extension of his own authority and assumes, erroneously, that the order of the gods is congruent with what he sees as the order of the polis. Antigone, in defying Kreon's laws on the grounds of the "unwritten laws" of the gods, opens up the definition of both law and the city in directions that Kreon does not understand. The city does, in fact, have obligations to the dead and to the chthonic divinities who protect them and watch over the rituals that separate the dead citizens from the living and move them to their appropriate realm in Hades. Later in the play the prophet Teiresias will announce the dire effect of violating these "unwritten laws" (1133-61 / 1064-86); and he will show that Kreon's attempt to absorb ritual practice and the politics of the gods into his own politics of the city rests on a one-sided vision of both the city and the gods. 16. See, e.g., 838-42 / 777-80 and 944-50 / 885-90, and the Notes on these passages. 17. On the reservations that the language of Kreon's opening speech may cause the spectator, see Felix Budelmann, The Language of Sophocles (Cambridge, Eng., 2000), 75-78. 9
NTRODUCTION If Antigone seems initially to disregard the legitimate claims and needs of the polis, the course of the action dissipates the sympathy for reon aroused by the first ode and by the civic sentiments of his open ing speech. The turning point is the scene with Haimon, who, for the first time allows other voices in the be heard(747-55/69 oo). Antigone, defying Kreon to his face earlier, had said that th elders of the chorus shared her view but had their mouths sealed by fear of Kreon whose rule she describes as turannis, " one-man rule (556-58/506-7). The word does not yet carry the full associations of our word"tyranny, "but it does connote autocratic power, the absolute rule of a single man, and it begins to undercut Kreon s claims to rer resent the city as a whole. Knowing his father, Haimon cannily begins with a declaration of loyalty and obedience but then endorses Antig one's position with increasing force. He might be thought a bias reporter of the citizens' sentiments when he echoes Antigone's words ind defends her as one who merits "golden honor"(754/699). Tei resias' warnings, however, will validate this other voice and give it the authority of the gods In condemning Antigone to death, Kreon callously disregards her marriage with Haimon "It's Hades who will stop this wedding for me, Kreon says to Ismene(626/575). But Hades in fact fulfills this mar riage, later, in its way; as the messenger recounts, Haimon"in the end has had his wedding ceremony-but in the house of Hades"(1325-27 /1240-41). It's Hades who desires these laws"for the living and for the dead, Antigone says earlier, in defending herself before Kreon(570/ 519). Yet Kreon begins with confidence in his power to use Hades that is, death -as an instrument of political control. However, Hades laws operate more terribly on living and dead than even Antigone had imagined. "Only from Hades will he not procure some means of es cape, the chorus had sung in their ode on the achievements of human ilization(403-5/361-62), and their pronouncement is spectacularly fulfilled in Kreon 's doom Kreon carefully arranges Antigone's death to leave himself and his ity free of pollution. But her suicide in the cave doubly undoes his schemes. She takes control of her own death and turns it into a pol luting death after all. 8 She thereby initiates a cycle of pollutions Kreon's house parallel to the pollutions that his nonburial of Polyneike has brought to the city. At the end, when Kreon's wife s suicide leaves him totally bereft, he cries out, "Ah, Harbor of Hades never to be 18. On Antigone's polluted death, see Nicole Loraux, Tragic Ways of Killing a Woman (i9 8s). trans. Anthony Forster(Cambridge, Mass, 19 87).31-32
INTRODUCTIO N If Antigone seems initially to disregard the legitimate claims and needs of the polls, the course of the action dissipates the sympathy for Kreon aroused by the first ode and by the civic sentiments of his opening speech. The turning point is the scene with Haimon, who, for the first time, allows other voices in the city to be heard (747-55 / 692- 700). Antigone, defying Kreon to his face earlier, had said that the elders of the chorus shared her view but had their mouths sealed by fear of Kreon, whose rule she describes as turannis, "one-man rule" (556-58 / 506-7). The word does not yet carry the full associations of our word "tyranny," but it does connote autocratic power, the absolute rule of a single man, and it begins to undercut Kreon's claims to represent the city as a whole. Knowing his father, Haimon cannily begins with a declaration of loyalty and obedience but then endorses Antigone's position with increasing force. He might be thought a biased reporter of the citizens' sentiments when he echoes Antigone's words and defends her as one who merits "golden honor" (754 / 699). Teiresias' warnings, however, will validate this other voice and give it the authority of the gods. In condemning Antigone to death, Kreon callously disregards her marriage with Haimon. "It's Hades who will stop this wedding for me," Kreon says to Ismene (626 / 575). But Hades in fact fulfills this marriage, later, in its way; as the messenger recounts, Haimon "in the end has had his wedding ceremony—but in the house of Hades" (1325-27 /1240-41). "It's Hades who desires these laws" for the living and for the dead, Antigone says earlier, in defending herself before Kreon (570 / 519). Yet Kreon begins with confidence in his power to use Hades — that is, death —as an instrument of political control. However, Hades' laws operate more terribly on living and dead than even Antigone had imagined. "Only from Hades will he not procure some means of escape," the chorus had sung in their ode on the achievements of human civilization (403-5 / 361-62), and their pronouncement is spectacularly fulfilled in Kreon's doom. Kreon carefully arranges Antigone's death to leave himself and his city free of pollution. But her suicide in the cave doubly undoes his schemes. She takes control of her own death and turns it into a polluting death after all.18 She thereby initiates a cycle of pollutions in Kreon's house parallel to the pollutions that his nonburial of Polyneikes has brought to the city. At the end, when Kreon's wife's suicide leaves him totally bereft, he cries out, "Ah, Harbor of Hades never to be 18. On Antigone's polluted death, see Nicole Loraux, Tragic Ways of Killing a Woman (1985), trans. Anthony Forster (Cambridge, Mass., 1987), 31-32. 10
INTRODUCTION purified! Why, why do you destroy me?"(1371-72/1284-85) His house has now taken on the pollutions from hades that he had tried to avoid for the city, and these will not be cleansed In his prophecy, Teiresias explains how Kreon has done violence to is own favored realm of the gods above, the Olympians, because he kept on earth what did not belong to them(114o-44 /1070-73) As a result, the " late-punishing"avengers, the Furies of both Hades and the ods, lie in ambush for him(1145-47/1074-75). Like Antigone, he ow suffers an immersion, while alive. in the realm of Hades. for he enters the tomb and sees her dead and his son mad with grief, and then also dead; and, like Antigone, Kreon suffers the deaths of h closest kin. This man of the city is left, like Oidipous, in a house mptied by the suicide of a wife and the bloody deaths of two sons Kreon's wife, Eurydike, in her dying curse, calls him killer of sons" and so makes him, like Oidipous, responsible for the death of his two sons(1391-92/1304-5)9 In his first speech Kreon had referred to his timate kinship with Oidipous as the basis for the rule(194-95/173-74), but this close tie with Oidipous' house takes on sinister meaning by the end of the play. In the tragic irony of his reversal, Kreon gains not just the city of Oidipous but the house of Oidipous as well Antigone, silenced by her being immured in the cave, is symbolically present at both stages of Kreon's doom, first in the recognition of the and lower worlds in Teiresias' prophet which hark back to her defiant speech to Kreon on the Justice that of lament that Eurydike ulley. 95-518 / 450-7o), and later in the cries dwells with the gods below over her last son, for these echo Antig. one's cries over the body of her last brother. 20 Antigone's suicide too both anticipates Eurydike's suicide and motivates Haimon's. Yet the for the equal burial of both her brothers do not intervene for her as an individual. Their absence suggests Sophokles'deeply tragic world iew, which includes the remoteness and inaccessibility of the divine third ode(64-5°/5946 he curse, as parents' curses on childr later that the"Furies, who avenge Hades and the gods"(146-47/107-76) ill lie in wait for kreon. 20.comparE1389/1302and14o2/1316(ofEurydike)with35-36/28and468-72/422-27(of
INTRODUCTIO N purified! Why, why do you destroy me?" (1371-72 / 1284-85). His house has now taken on the pollutions from Hades that he had tried to avoid for the city, and these will not be cleansed. In his prophecy, Teiresias explains how Kreon has done violence to his own favored realm of the gods above, the Olympians, because he kept on earth what did not belong to them (1140-44 / 1070-73). As a result, the "late-punishing" avengers, the Furies of both Hades and the gods, lie in ambush for him (1145-47 / 1074-75)- Like Antigone, he now suffers an immersion, while alive, in the realm of Hades, for he enters the tomb and sees her dead and his son mad with grief, and then also dead; and, like Antigone, Kreon suffers the deaths of his closest kin. This man of the city is left, like Oidipous, in a house emptied by the suicide of a wife and the bloody deaths of two sons. Kreon's wife, Eurydike, in her dying curse, calls him "killer of sons" and so makes him, like Oidipous, responsible for the death of his two sons (1391-92 / 1304-5)19 In his first speech Kreon had referred to his intimate kinship with Oidipous as the basis for the legitimacy of his rule (194-95 / 173-74), but this close tie with Oidipous' house takes on a sinister meaning by the end of the play. In the tragic irony of his reversal, Kreon gains not just the city of Oidipous but the house of Oidipous as well. Antigone, silenced by her being immured in the cave, is symbolically present at both stages of Kreon's doom, first in the recognition of the symmetries between upper and lower worlds in Teiresias' prophecy, which hark back to her defiant speech to Kreon on the Justice that dwells with the gods below (495-518 / 450-70), and later in the cries of lament that Eurydike utters over her last son, for these echo Antigone's cries over the body of her last brother.20 Antigone's suicide too both anticipates Eurydike's suicide and motivates Haimon's. Yet the gods who have vindicated Antigone's chthonic Justice and her demand for the equal burial of both her brothers do not intervene for her as an individual. Their absence suggests Sophokles' deeply tragic world view, which includes the remoteness and inaccessibility of the divine 19. Although Oidipous' curse on his two sons is not explicitly mentioned in the play, it is a familiar feature of the myth from at least the sixth century BCE on and is dramatized by Sophokles in his Oidipous at Kolonos. It was also prominent in Aiskhylos' Seven against Thebes. In our play Antigone also alludes to the curse in her opening lines, and it is probably also in the background of the third ode (642-50 / 594-603). The "Fury in the mind" mentioned here (650 / 603) also suggests the curse, as parents' curses on children are regularly fulfilled by the Erinyes or Furies. Compare Teiresias' prediction later that the "Furies, who avenge Hades and the gods" (1146-47 / 107-76) will lie in wait for Kreon. 20. Compare 1389 / 1302 and 1402 / 1316 (of Eurydike) with 35-36 / 28 and 468-72 / 422-27 (of Antigone). 11
INTRODUCTION beings who permit the catastrophic waste and loss of the courageous nd passionate young people who have championed their cause In retrospect, Antigone's unyielding commitment to her beliefs and the dignity and courage of her defiance of Kreon are perhaps the only things that illuminates the darkness of this tragic world. Hence to many, influenced by the highly politicized versions of Jean Anouilh and Bertolt Brecht in the 194o5, the history of the play is"the history of the European conscience. 2 And yet, in Sophokles'play, antigone very intensity of commitment has triggered the disaster. Given her de- motion to her family and her passionate nature, the fact that she re- sponds as she does bears the Sophoklean stamp of tragic inevitability She resembles other Sophoklean tragic protagonists-Aias, Elektra, Philoktetes: admirable in her inner strength and integrity, but also dan gerous to herself and to others in her one-sidedness, violent emotions, and unbending will, zZ Kreon, of course, is just as rigid as Antigone Fresh in his authority, eager to display his full control of a crisis barely averted, and determined to assert his newly gained power, he cannot afford failure in this frst challenge to his command. To be faced down by a woman, and in public, is particularly humiliating. He has, how ever, more options than Antigone, more space for yielding or finding areas for compromise. But in these heated circumstances and between these two personalities, no compromise is possible 4 Interpreters of the play after Hegel have often idealized Antigone for heroism and love of family. Jebb's remark, in the preface to his great commentary, is typical: "It is not without reason that moderns have recognized her as the noblest, and the most profoundly tender, bodiment of woman's heroism which ancient literature can she Some half a century later, Cedric Whitman offered a brilliant reading of Antigone as the exemplar of an existential hero who holds bravely to her integrity and her grandeur of spirit in total isolation. "In world of hollow men, she is real. More recent critics, however, have increasingly questioned Jebb's alleged"tenderness"and stressed he darker side. With her "heart that's hot for what is chilling "(1o5 /88), she is more involved with her dead relatives than with her living sister z1. See Pierre Vidal-Nacquet, Le miroir bris: Tragedie athenienne et politique( Paris, 2001),47-51; lso Steiner, Antigone, 170-71, 193-94 See also Maria-Grazia Ciani, ed, Sofocle, Anouilh, Brecht: On these and related qualities in the Sophoklean hero, see Bernard Knox, Heroic Temper,Io- Whitman has to delete lines 9o5-12 of the greek text, See the Notes on 67-79/9o5-15 For views of Antigone similar to Whitmans, see Oudemans and Lardinois, 107-10
INTRODUCTIO N beings who permit the catastrophic waste and loss of the courageous and passionate young people who have championed their cause. In retrospect, Antigone's unyielding commitment to her beliefs and the dignity and courage of her defiance of Kreon are perhaps the only things that illuminates the darkness of this tragic world. Hence to many, influenced by the highly politicized versions of Jean Anouilh and Bertolt Brecht in the 19405, the history of the play is "the history of the European conscience."21 And yet, in Sophokles' play, Antigone's very intensity of commitment has triggered the disaster. Given her devotion to her family and her passionate nature, the fact that she responds as she does bears the Sophoklean stamp of tragic inevitability. She resembles other Sophoklean tragic protagonists—Aias, Elektra, Philoktetes: admirable in her inner strength and integrity, but also dangerous to herself and to others in her one-sidedness, violent emotions, and unbending will.22 Kreon, of course, is just as rigid as Antigone. Fresh in his authority, eager to display his full control of a crisis barely averted, and determined to assert his newly gained power, he cannot afford failure in this first challenge to his command. To be faced down by a woman, and in public, is particularly humiliating. He has, however, more options than Antigone, more space for yielding or finding areas for compromise. But in these heated circumstances and between these two personalities, no compromise is possible. Interpreters of the play after Hegel have often idealized Antigone for her heroism and love of family. Jebb's remark, in the preface to his great commentary, is typical: "It is not without reason that moderns have recognized her as the noblest, and the most profoundly tender, embodiment of woman's heroism which ancient literature can show." Some half a century later, Cedric Whitman offered a brilliant reading of Antigone as the exemplar of an existential hero who holds bravely to her integrity and her grandeur of spirit in total isolation.23 "In a world of hollow men, she is real." More recent critics, however, have increasingly questioned Jebb's alleged "tenderness" and stressed her darker side. With her "heart that's hot for what is chilling" (105 / 88), she is more involved with her dead relatives than with her living sister 21. See Pierre Vidal-Nacquet, Le miroir brise: Tragedie athenienne et politique (Paris, 2001), 47-51; also Steiner, Antigones, 170-71, 193-94. See also Maria-Grazia Ciani, ed., Sofocle, Anouilh, Brecht: Variazione sul mito (Venice, 2001). 22. On these and related qualities in the Sophoklean hero, see Bernard Knox, Heroic Temper, 10- 27, especially i6ff. 23. C. H. Whitman, Sophocles: A Study in Heroic Humanism (Cambridge, Mass., 1951), 88-91. The following quotation is from p. 90. In order to save Antigone's heroic perfection, however, Whitman has to delete lines 905-12 of the Greek text. See the Notes on 967-79 / 905-15. For views of Antigone similar to Whitman's, see Oudemans and Lardinois, 107-10. 12
NTRODUCTION or fance. In the grandeur of her unshakable certainty she towers above everyone else in the play, but as Bemard Knox has emphasized, she shares the harshness and intransigence of most Sophoklean protago- nists,and precisely because of her nobility and integrity she brings terrible suffering to herself and those around her One can agree with the later Hegel that Kreon(initially, at least) may have some "right"on his side, but the tragic situation consists in the intertwined, interactive responsibility of both protagonists. The play, like most of Sophokles extant plays, as we now increasingly ac knowledge, has not one but two foci of tragic concern. 25 In the uncom- promising sharpness of her personality, and the brazenness and stiffness of her defiance, Antigone undercuts whatever hope of compromise there might have been and calls forth from Kreon a complementary intransigence that destroys them both. The passions of the young Antigone's all-absorbing family loyalty in this moment of loss and Hai- love and despair-meet the stubbor mness an their elders at a crisis when the city's safety has only just been secured Interpreters who view Kreon as a champion of civic values and com- munal solidarity stumble against his increasingly autocratic behavior the final judgment of the gods. Their intervention, as expounded by Teiresias, retrospectively clarifies and supports Antigone's instinctive knowledge of what she had to do and why As always in Sophokles, the interaction of human circumstances and uman character are suffcient to account for the tragedy. Suffcient, perhaps, but not final-for in Sophokles' tragic view, human life is always part of a larger continuum, which includes the natural world and the divinities whose power, immanent in the world, makes it what it is. Antigone follows and reveres her values with an intensity for which she is ready to pay with her life. Yet she lives in a world defined by the needs of a city that she rejects. Both antagonists have limited ho- cons, but Kreon ultimately proves to be more disastrously limited and he must finally yield to Teiresias'larger prophetic vision. His power buckles, but too late for Antigone to be saved DRAMATIC STRUCTURE In the prologue Ismene sets out the weakness of Antigone's position Should she persevere in her plan to bury Polyneikes, she, a mere 44. Knox, Heroie Temper, chapter 1, especially 19-23, and also 62-67: R. P. Winnington-Ingram, 5. This important point is established by Albert Machin, mite dans le theatre de Sophocle(Hauteville, Quebec, Canada, 1g81) especially 366-76. See my review in Americana tmal of Philology 107: 3(1986)594-99
INTRODUCTIO N or fiance. In the grandeur of her unshakable certainty she towers above everyone else in the play, but as Bernard Knox has emphasized, she shares the harshness and intransigence of most Sophoklean protagonists, and precisely because of her nobility and integrity she brings terrible suffering to herself and those around her.24 One can agree with the later Hegel that Kreon (initially, at least) may have some "right" on his side, but the tragic situation consists in the intertwined, interactive responsibility of both protagonists. The play, like most of Sophokles' extant plays, as we now increasingly acknowledge, has not one but two foci of tragic concern.25 In the uncompromising sharpness of her personality, and the brazenness and stiffness of her defiance, Antigone undercuts whatever hope of compromise there might have been and calls forth from Kreon a complementary intransigence that destroys them both. The passions of the young — Antigone's all-absorbing family loyalty in this moment of loss and Haimon's love and despair—meet the stubbornness and inflexibility of their elders at a crisis when the city's safety has only just been secured. Interpreters who view Kreon as a champion of civic values and communal solidarity stumble against his increasingly autocratic behavior and the final judgment of the gods. Their intervention, as expounded by Teiresias, retrospectively clarifies and supports Antigone's instinctive knowledge of what she had to do and why. As always in Sophokles, the interaction of human circumstances and human character are sufficient to account for the tragedy. Sufficient, perhaps, but not final —for in Sophokles' tragic view, human life is always part of a larger continuum, which includes the natural world and the divinities whose power, immanent in the world, makes it what it is. Antigone follows and reveres her values with an intensity for which she is ready to pay with her life. Yet she lives in a world defined by the needs of a city that she rejects. Both antagonists have limited horizons, but Kreon ultimately proves to be more disastrously limited, and he must finally yield to Teiresias' larger prophetic vision. His power buckles, but too late for Antigone to be saved. DRAMATIC STRUCTURE In the prologue Ismene sets out the weakness of Antigone's position. Should she persevere in her plan to bury Polyneikes, she, a mere 24. Knox, Heroic Temper, chapter i, especially 19-23, and also 62-67; R- P- Winnington-Ingram, Sophocles (Cambridge, 1980), 128-29, *35- 25. This important point is established by Albert Machin, Coherence el continuite dans le thedtre de Sophocle (Hauteville, Quebec, Canada, 1981), especially 366—76. See my review in American Journal of Philology 107:3 (1986), 594-99. 13