INTRODUCTION of death, not of renewed life, she who"has received [Antigone's] dead among the shades"(954-55/893-94 Antigone's role as an unrisen Persephone parallels that of Hairmon s the young man who dies"out of season, aoros, a term that is used of youths who will not make the transition between the bloom of ad- lescence and adulthood but will die before their time. In this respect the two suicides are symmetrical in their perversion of the normal attern of life-generating marriage. Antigone remains too close to her house of origin. Instead of going to the house of the bridegroom-the usual pattern of patrilocal marriage in classical Athens- she goes to the Hades that holds her parents and brother. She thereby reenacts the introverted kin ties characteristic of the house of Oidipous. 3 Marrying Hades, staying in her house of origin, and being the child of an in stuous marriage are all in a way equivalent aspects of Antigone's tragic situation, her sacrifice of the normal progression to womanhood to the bonds of family and to devotion to the dead. the of her parents is the inverse of her nonmarriage, but it belongs to a similar failure of"normal" family life. The excessive closeness of incest(same staying with same)short-circuits the union of same and other in normal marriage and so parallels Antigone's refusal to separate herself from her natal family in a union with a bridegroom of another house. Haimon, analogously, undoes all the expectations of the groom. He not only goes to his bride's "house"(instead of bringing her to his)but also the marriage in an act of reverse penetration that leads to the spilling of his blood. like the maiden s instead of seed In Antigone's long lyrical lament as she prepares to enter the cave, she looks to another female model from the realm of myth, Niobe, the grieving mother who weeps incessantly for her lost children and is turned into a rock from which streams of water flow perpetually(883 93/823-33). The chorus objects that Niobe is a god and Antigone mere mortal, and in response Antigone feels pain at what she takes to be mockery(8ooff. /839ff ) There is irony too in the fact that Niobe is the mother of many children, Antigone of none. Yet Antigone can lentify with the eternity of lament into which this mater dolorosa is frozen forever. Both the eternity and the stony end speak to her con- dition. The image of Niobe is also a negation of the fruitful aspect of 3. For the way in J.J. winkler and F L. Zeitlin, eds, Nothing to Do with Dionysus?(Princeton, 1g9o), I30-67, especially i5o-5
INTRODUCTIO N of death, not of renewed life, she who "has received [Antigone's] dead among the shades" (954-55 / 893-94). Antigone's role as an unrisen Persephone parallels that of Haimon as the young man who dies "out of season," aoros, a term that is used of youths who will not make the transition between the bloom of adolescence and adulthood but will die before their time. In this respect the two suicides are symmetrical in their perversion of the normal pattern of life-generating marriage. Antigone remains too close to her house of origin. Instead of going to the house of the bridegroom —the usual pattern of patrilocal marriage in classical Athens —she goes to the Hades that holds her parents and brother. She thereby reenacts the introverted kin ties characteristic of the house of Oidipous.53 Marrying Hades, staying in her house of origin, and being the child of an incestuous marriage are all in a way equivalent aspects of Antigone's tragic situation, her sacrifice of the normal progression to womanhood to the bonds of family and to devotion to the dead. The incest of her parents is the inverse of her nonmarriage, but it belongs to a similar failure of "normal" family life. The excessive closeness of incest (same staying with same) short-circuits the union of same and other in normal marriage and so parallels Antigone's refusal to separate herself from her natal family in a union with a bridegroom of another house. Haimon, analogously, undoes all the expectations of the groom. He not only goes to his bride's "house" (instead of bringing her to his) but also attacks his father (recalling Oidipous' patricide) and then consummates the marriage in an act of reverse penetration that leads to the spilling of his blood, like the maiden's, instead of seed. In Antigone's long lyrical lament as she prepares to enter the cave, she looks to another female model from the realm of myth, Niobe, the grieving mother who weeps incessantly for her lost children and is turned into a rock from which streams of water flow perpetually (883- 93 / 823-33). The chorus objects that Niobe is a god and Antigone a mere mortal, and in response Antigone feels pain at what she takes to be mockery (899ff . / 839ff.). There is irony too in the fact that Niobe is the mother of many children, Antigone of none. Yet Antigone can identify with the eternity of lament into which this mater dolorosa is frozen forever. Both the eternity and the stony end speak to her condition. The image of Niobe is also a negation of the fruitful aspect of 53. For the way in which the house of Oidipous is characteristic of a Theban pattern of introverted family ties, see Froma I. Zeitlin, "Thebes: Theater of Self and Society in Athenian Drama," in J. J. Winkler and F. I. Zeitlin, eds., Nothing to Do with Dionysus? (Princeton, 1990), 130-67, especially 150-52. 29
NTRODUCTION the mother figure in the Demeter-Persephone myth. It evokes De- meter's role as a mother of sorrows, lamenting her lost daughter, Per- sephone, as she wanders over the earth in her desperate search for the abducted girl. This is also the aspect of Demeter that applies to the other mother fgure in the play, Kreon's wife, Eurydike, whose name, literally of broad justice, "orwide-ruling, "is also an epithet for the queen of the dead. As the "all-mother"of the dead Haimon, as we have noted, she is associated with grieving maternity. Antigone, doomed die childless, is also drawn into the model of the grieving mother when she laments over the body of Polyneikes like a mother-bird that finds her nest emptied of Fledglings(469-71/42 he simile of gi motherhood once more points to the unfulfilled life of this bride of Hades. She is a Persephone who will not ascend and a sorrowing De- meter/Niobe who will always lament. The images of the mother in this play, in fact, are all of the mourn- ing, dying, or murderous mother, not the fertile mother. This is true even of the fourth stasimon's myth of Danae, imprisoned like Antigone and"made to exchange the light of the sky for a dark room bolted with mated by Ode golden shower and bear his son, Perseus(1o17-18/95o), but the ode dwells rather on her imprisonment and on the ineluctable doom given her by the Fates or Moirai(1o18-20/951-53). The final strophe of the ode tells the story of another imprisoned mother and centers on sons cide(67-68/53-54) but by whom Antigone feels loved and whom she in the underworld( 6o/898) f the six formal odes, only the first stasinon, the Ode on man seems to have no immediate connection with the events enacted on stage. Yet on further refection it has profound implications for the eaning of the play as an interpretation of the human condition, 54 The ode s celebration of the confdent domination of nature by human elligence and technology is undercut by the themes of the subse- S4. For further discussion, see my"Sophocles' Praise of Ma Interpreting Greek Tragedy(Ithaca, N Y, 1986). 137-61 rthy is Martin Heidegge rtheless, eludes and de ultimate nothingness 9),146-65, conveniently accessible in Thomas Woodard, ed, Sophocles: A Collection of Criticai ssds(Englewood Cliffs, N.. 1966), 86-100. The quotation is on 7. See also Steiner, Antigone
INTRODUCTIO N the mother figure in the Demeter-Persephone myth. It evokes Demeter's role as a mother of sorrows, lamenting her lost daughter, Persephone, as she wanders over the earth in her desperate search for the abducted girl. This is also the aspect of Demeter that applies to the other mother figure in the play, Kreon's wife, Eurydike, whose name, literally "of broad justice," or "wide-ruling," is also an epithet for the queen of the dead. As the "all-mother" of the dead Haimon, as we have noted, she is associated with grieving maternity. Antigone, doomed to die childless, is also drawn into the model of the grieving mother when she laments over the body of Polyneikes like a mother-bird that finds her nest emptied of fledglings (469-71 7423-25). The simile of grieving motherhood once more points to the unfulfilled life of this bride of Hades. She is a Persephone who will not ascend and a sorrowing Demeter/Niobe who will always lament. The images of the mother in this play, in fact, are all of the mourning, dying, or murderous mother, not the fertile mother. This is true even of the fourth stasimon's myth of Danae, imprisoned like Antigone and "made to exchange the light of the sky for a dark room bolted with bronze" (1012-14 / 944-47). She will, of course, be impregnated by Zeus' golden shower and bear his son, Perseus (1017-18 / 950), but the ode dwells rather on her imprisonment and on the ineluctable doom given her by the Fates or Moirai (1018-20 / 951-53). The final strophe of the ode tells the story of another imprisoned mother and centers on the blinding of her two sons by the jealous stepmother. And in the background is lokaste, who "violently disfigured her own life" by suicide (67-68 / 53-54) but by whom Antigone feels loved and whom she hopes to see soon in the underworld (960 / 898). Of the six formal odes, only the first stasimon, the Ode on Man, seems to have no immediate connection with the events enacted on stage. Yet on further reflection it has profound implications for the meaning of the play as an interpretation of the human condition.54 The ode's celebration of the confident domination of nature by human intelligence and technology is undercut by the themes of the subse- 54. For further discussion, see my "Sophocles' Praise of Man and the Conflicts of Antigone," in my Interpreting Greek Tragedy (Ithaca, N.Y., 1986), 137-61. Noteworthy is Martin Heidegger's celebrated existentialist interpretation of the ode as a reflection on the mysterious and "uncanny" nature of our humanness, which makes us both violent and creative, both citiless outcasts and allpowerful conquerors of a world that, nevertheless, eludes and defeats us as we are "tossed back and forth between structure and the structureless," between order and the ultimate nothingness of death: Martin Heidegger, An Introduction to Metaphysics, trans. Ralph Manheim (New Haven, 1959), 146-65, conveniently accessible in Thomas Woodard, ed., Sophocles: A Collection of Critical Essays (Englewood Cliffs, N.J., 1966), 86-100. The quotation is on 97. See also Steiner, Antigones, »74-77- 30
INTRODUCTION quent odes and by the subsequent actions. Sophokles'contemporaries ight well read this contrast as a critique of the human-centered ra tonalism of Athens'Periklean Age. The achievements of this extraor- dinary period include the high classical art and architecture that extol the human form(especially the male body)as the standard of beauty and a rationalistic view of religion, law, medicine, history, language, and the founding of cities, and so on, as creations of human intelli- gence and progress, not gifts of the gods. Infuential here are thethe- ries of the Sophists, such as Protagoras or Hippias, and of scientists and philosophers, such as Anaxagoras, Parmenides, or the atomist Leu- kippos,and of medical writers such as Hippokrates. While it would be simplistic to identify this spirit of scientific inquiry with Kreon, the play does insist on his materialism and shallow ration- alism. In the face of events that might have a supernatural cause, like the initial burial of Polyneikes, where there are no signs of human or animal presence (284-94/249-58), or Teiresias announcement of widespread pollution, Kreon's first response is an accusation of bribery and conspiracy Men, he assumes, always act for "proft, "one of favorite words. But in Antigone, as later in Haimon and Teiresias, he encounters motives that cannot be reduced to material gain or to his mode of reasoning, Antigone dismisses all calculation of personal ad vantage, including life itself. "If I die before my time, she says in her speech of defiance to Kreon, "I count that as my proft"(5o8-10/461- 62). Until he finally backs down in the face of Teiresias, prophecy, Kreon assumes that he understands the ways of the gods and that their values coincide with his. Hence his anger and scorn at the chorus's suggestion that the gods might have buried Polyneikes(319-20/278- 79), a possibility that the play in fact leaves open. '5 Such too is his s,e Oi the mUrch disused question of the socalled dou ble bria,d ee Hd. D, F:ikto,From ad while Isnof human agency, the fact that the frst watch of the day ( 88/253)finds the body speaking in"this very night"(a/ 16), and Ant to bury the body on the occasion when she is caught, even though the first"burial"would suffice and her curses on thase who have uncovered it (468-73/423-28)imply her having performed the urial: see winnington-Ingram, Soph- to be working through if they do not directly, and the play offers a double perspective on the ew in the background and Kreon's insistence Seale, Vision and Stagecraft, 87-9. Kitto, 154, suggests that the g n parallel paths. Analogously, Ruth Scodel, Sopho he gods may not directly intervene in either burial but rites on both occasions. In any case, the chorus's explicit sugges
INTRODUCTIO N quent odes and by the subsequent actions. Sophokles' contemporaries might well read this contrast as a critique of the human-centered rationalism of Athens' Periklean Age. The achievements of this extraordinary period include the high classical art and architecture that extol the human form (especially the male body) as the standard of beauty and a rationalistic view of religion, law, medicine, history, language, and the founding of cities, and so on, as creations of human intelligence and progress, not gifts of the gods. Influential here are the theories of the Sophists, such as Protagoras or Hippias, and of scientists and philosophers, such as Anaxagoras, Parmenides, or the atomist Leukippos, and of medical writers such as Hippokrates. While it would be simplistic to identify this spirit of scientific inquiry with Kreon, the play does insist on his materialism and shallow rationalism. In the face of events that might have a supernatural cause, like the initial burial of Polyneikes, where there are no signs of human or animal presence (284-94 / 249-58), or Teiresias' announcement of widespread pollution, Kreon's first response is an accusation of bribery and conspiracy. Men, he assumes, always act for "profit," one of his favorite words. But in Antigone, as later in Haimon and Teiresias, he encounters motives that cannot be reduced to material gain or to his mode of reasoning. Antigone dismisses all calculation of personal advantage, including life itself. "If I die before my time," she says in her speech of defiance to Kreon, "I count that as my profit" (508-10 / 461- 62). Until he finally backs down in the face of Teiresias' prophecy, Kreon assumes that he understands the ways of the gods and that their values coincide with his. Hence his anger and scorn at the chorus's suggestion that the gods might have buried Polyneikes (319-20 / 278- 79), a possibility that the play in fact leaves open.55 Such too is his 55. On the much discussed question of the so-called double burial, see H. D. F. Kitto, Form and Meaning in Drama (London, 1956), 138-44, 152-54, and my Tragedy and Civilization, 159, with the references cited in n. 25, 442-43. In favor of possible divine intervention are the absence of any marks of human agency, the fact that the first watch of the day (288 / 253) finds the body while Ismene and Antigone are still speaking in "this very night" (21 / 16), and Antigone's return to bury the body on the occasion when she is caught, even though the first "burial" would suffice for the funerary ritual (290-93 / 255-56). On the other hand, interpreters have argued that Antigone's response when she sees the body uncovered and her curses on those who have uncovered it (468-73 / 423-28) imply her having performed the initial burial: see Winnington-Ingram, Sophocles, 125, with n. 31. Yet Sophokles' language even here is vague enough to leave open other possibilities. In any case, the gods seem to be working through Antigone, even if they do not intervene directly, and the play offers a double perspective on the events in the contrast between the mysterious details in the background and Kreon's insistence on what is visible and tangible: so Scale, Vision and Stagecraft, 87-91. Kitto, 154, suggests that the gods and Antigone "are working on parallel paths." Analogously, Ruth Scodel, Sophocles (Boston, 1984), 55-56, suggests that the gods may not directly intervene in either burial but help Antigone's success in performing the rites on both occasions. In any case, the chorus's explicit suggestion of divine intervention 31
NTRODUCTION confidence in the narrow legalism of putting Antigone to death in a ids pollution to the city(in contrast to his ori threat of punishment by public stoning, 46-47/36), his bold assertions of what can and cannot bring pollution, and his use of death or Hades as an instrument of political control All these views turn on him with terrible consequences. The Ode on Man warns that death is the one thing that humankinds techno- logical progress cannot overcome. The marriage that Kreon thinks Ha des will stop(626/575)takes place in the Hades-like cave, from which comes the final wave of death and pollution that submerges Kreon's life. The association of Eurydike's name with the underworld, noted earlier, further suggests that death and Hades, far from being something that Kreon can inflict on others, are already deep within his own house The Ode on Man suggestively links Kreon's attitude of domination and control with a larger worldview in which nature is an inert resource to be exploited by human technology. The ode's description of yoking the horse, for example, echoes Kreon,'s metaphor of the yoke for power over the Thebans (336/ 291-2). His frst response to Antigone's speech of defiance is also a metaphor of tempering iron by fire and taming horses with the bit(521-28/473-79). When Haimon offers alternative images of trees by a Rooding river that bend with the current or ships that slacken sails in high winds instead of fighting the winds(768-77 /710-17), Kreon responds with anger at being chastised by a younger The sharpest opposition comes, of course, from Antigone, who values the invisible world of the dead over the surface. material world that Kreon would dominate as the plow of the Ode on Man wears down the surface of the inexhaustible earth and renders it serviceable for humankind. Kreon translates his political and legal conflict with her into a conflict of genders, male versus female. He may be refecting some of the anxieties of Greek males about strong womens assertion of power; but he also reflects a deeper polarization of worldviews. 6 (319-20/278-79) is particularly important, for it strongly signals the possibility of divine interaction. ity is raised and has some plausibility, even if the play offers s 6. On the male-female conficts in the play, see my Tragedy and Civilization, 183-86. Helene P. 49-73, drawing in part on the work of Carol Gilligan, suggests that the two protagonists represent contrasting notions of moral responsibility; she contends that Antigone thinks in terms of specif and personal contexts, involving"care and responsibility, "whereas Kreon operal eds in Greet Literature and Society(Princeton, 20o ) 17-36, especially 116-35, on the range and
INTRODUCTIO N confidence in the narrow legalism of putting Antigone to death in a manner that avoids pollution to the city (in contrast to his original threat of punishment by public stoning, 46-47 / 36), his bold assertions of what can and cannot bring pollution, and his use of death or Hades as an instrument of political control. All these views turn on him with terrible consequences. The Ode on Man warns that death is the one thing that humankind's technological progress cannot overcome. The marriage that Kreon thinks Hades will stop (626 / 575) takes place in the Hades-like cave, from which comes the final wave of death and pollution that submerges Kreon's life. The association of Eurydike's name with the underworld, noted earlier, further suggests that death and Hades, far from being something that Kreon can inflict on others, are already deep within his own house. The Ode on Man suggestively links Kreon's attitude of domination and control with a larger worldview in which nature is an inert resource to be exploited by human technology. The ode's description of yoking the horse, for example, echoes Kreon's metaphor of the yoke for power over the Thebans (336 / 291-92). His first response to Antigone's speech of defiance is also a metaphor of tempering iron by fire and taming horses with the bit (521-28 / 473-79). When Haimon offers alternative images of trees by a flooding river that bend with the current or ships that slacken sails in high winds instead of fighting the winds (768-77 / 710-17), Kreon responds with anger at being chastised by a younger man (786-87 / 726-27). The sharpest opposition comes, of course, from Antigone, who values the invisible world of the dead over the surface, material world that Kreon would dominate as the plow of the Ode on Man wears down the surface of the inexhaustible earth and renders it serviceable for humankind. Kreon translates his political and legal conflict with her into a conflict of genders, male versus female. He may be reflecting some of the anxieties of Greek males about strong women's assertion of power; but he also reflects a deeper polarization of worldviews.56 (319-20 / 278-79) is particularly important, for it strongly signals the possibility of divine interaction. It suffices for the play that the possibility is raised and has some plausibility, even if the play offers no definitive answer. 56. On the male-female conflicts in the play, see my Tragedy and Civilization, 183-86. Helene P. Foley, "Antigone as Moral Agent," in Michael S. Silk, ed., Tragedy and the Tragic (Oxford, 1996), 49-73, drawing in part on the work of Carol Gilligan, suggests that the two protagonists represent contrasting notions of moral responsibility; she contends that Antigone thinks in terms of specific and personal contexts, involving "care and responsibility," whereas Kreon operates with more abstract and impartial notions of rights and justice (64). See, however, the critique by Michael Trapp, ibid., 74-84, and Mark Griffith, "Antigone and her Sister(s): Embodying Women in Greek Tragedy," in Andre Lardinois and Laura McClure, eds., Making Silence Speak: Women's Voices in Greek Literature and Society (Princeton, 2001), 117-36, especially 126-35, on tne range and 32
INTRODUCTION Where Kreon stresses differentiation by political allegiance, Antigone stresses the unifying bonds of kinship, notably in her famous exchange of 562-76/511-25. Where he insists on the political labels of"friend or"enermy"as the defining terms, Antigone insists that both her broth ers have an equal right to burial under"Hades' laws, "and asserts, "My nature's not to join in hate but to join in love"(574/523).' In aring herself to Niobe, as we have seen, Antigone conveys her image of eternal devotion to family, lament for dead kin, and fu- erary ritual. But her comparison also suggests a dissolution of the barrier between the human form and the natural world. Niobe is a grieving mother whose body has now become an ivy-covered mountain from which the waters flow as tears would flow down a human face In Antigone's insistence on the sanctity of death, she also affirms, in directly, the sanctity of life and the value of those bonds within the family that derive from generation and blood kinship, not political and legal institutions. s Yet if Kreon forgets that the civic institutions also rest on smaller, more intimate units like the farmily, antigone equally forgets that the family is also part of the city. That the ties within her wn family are so fraught with the double pollutions of incest and fratricidal self-slaughter is one of the plays deep tragic ironies.Her convoluted family ties, as the second stasimon, on the house of oidi- pous, indicates, belong to what is dark, mysterious, and irrational in human life. The chorus's first two odes celebrate, respectively, the vic tory of the city over wild, bakkhantic aggression and of human intel- ligence over the physical and animal world. But the play ends with the darker vision of catastrophe unleashed by the uncontrollable passions of grief and love, bad judgment, and irreverence The final lines on good sense, piety, cautious speech, and learning wisdom by great suffering in old age offer little comfort. Kreon,'s old age is the bleakest possible; but the tragedy has also afflicted the young he new generation of the two houses, who com gether only for violent death, whether at the gates of Thebes, as do Polyneikes and Eteokles, or in the Hades like cave of perverted union, as do Hainon urse, is still alive but she has not been mentioned for some six hundred lines(since(830-31/770-71),and her survival hardly counts fluidity of the female voice in tragedy and the problems of constructing a model of"female 5. See the agage 8. Steiner, Antigone, 287, remarks of the play, "No poet or thinker, I believe, has found a greater, a more comprehensive statement of the 'crime against life
INTRODUCTIO N Where Kreon stresses differentiation by political allegiance, Antigone stresses the unifying bonds of kinship, notably in her famous exchange of 562-76 / 511-25. Where he insists on the political labels of "friend" or "enemy" as the defining terms, Antigone insists that both her brothers have an equal right to burial under "Hades' laws," and asserts, "My nature's not to join in hate but to join in love" (574 / 523).57 In comparing herself to Niobe, as we have seen, Antigone conveys her image of eternal devotion to family, lament for dead kin, and funerary ritual. But her comparison also suggests a dissolution of the barrier between the human form and the natural world. Niobe is a grieving mother whose body has now become an ivy-covered mountain from which the waters flow as tears would flow down a human face. In Antigone's insistence on the sanctity of death, she also affirms, indirectly, the sanctity of life and the value of those bonds within the family that derive from generation and blood kinship, not political and legal institutions.58 Yet if Kreon forgets that the civic institutions also rest on smaller, more intimate units like the family, Antigone equally forgets that the family is also part of the city. That the ties within her own family are so fraught with the double pollutions of incest and fratricidal self-slaughter is one of the play's deep tragic ironies. Her convoluted family ties, as the second stasimon, on the house of Oidipous, indicates, belong to what is dark, mysterious, and irrational in human life. The chorus's first two odes celebrate, respectively, the victory of the city over wild, bakkhantic aggression and of human intelligence over the physical and animal world. But the play ends with the darker vision of catastrophe unleashed by the uncontrollable passions of grief and love, bad judgment, and irreverence. The final lines on good sense, piety, cautious speech, and learning wisdom by great suffering in old age offer little comfort. Kreon's old age is the bleakest possible; but the tragedy has also afflicted the young, the new generation of the two houses, who come together only for violent death, whether at the gates of Thebes, as do Polyneikes and Eteokles, or in the Hades-like cave of perverted union, as do Haimon and Antigone. Ismene, of course, is still alive, but she has not been mentioned for some six hundred lines (since (830-31 / 770-71), and her survival hardly counts. fluidity of the female voice in tragedy and the problems of constructing a model of "female" behavior or language. 57. See the Note on 574 / 523. 58. Steiner, Antigones, 287, remarks of the play, "No poet or thinker, I believe, has found a greater, a more comprehensive statement of the 'crime against life.' " 33