INTRO This is, moreover, only one of several instances where an image which Creon starts against the opposition rises grad ually to more explicit, concrete form and turns against him to create a poignant irony in respect to his judgment. Thus the recurrent images of this sequence not only help to de- velop the large questions of the nature and source of law which are raised within the play; they interwork with the treatments of evaluation, vision, goal, and governance(per sonal,public, and final)which are offered by the dominant image sequences In general, the recurrent images of the play have at least a double value. They have the denotative value of their pa ticular use, in a limited context. but they also take meanings from the pattern of similar images of which they are a part. And each pattern is to some extent qualified by the others Their values are such as to characterize the points of view of different figures in the play and set them in sharp opposi tion on fundamental matters. At the same time the sequences of recurrent images, in a still further symbolic role, help to bring into the play the basic issues or facts of human ex- perience which the dramatist saw as relevant to the under- standing of his tragic theme The six dominant image sequences which accomplish this most fully for the Antigone are those which recur with the greatest degree of frequency--excepting the many images which can be grouped under the general heading of images of bodily action. Images from four fields of experience recur with particularly marked frequency. They are money and merchandising, warfare and military activity, animals and the control of animals, and the sea and sailing. Besides these, images of disease and images of marriage form significant sequences slightly more restricted in diversity and frequency of application. Generally speaking, the monetary, military, and animal patterns have characterization as a prominent function, especially with respect to Creon. They develop, that telling characteristics and colors in his mode of judgment and bring out acutely the implications of shortsightedness in the methods of governance to which these characteristics lead This content downloaded from 128... 148 on Thu, 23 Mar 201709: 44: 03 UTC Allusesubjecttohttpaboutjstor.org/terms
INTRODUCTION This is, moreover, only one of several instances where an image which Creon starts against the opposition rises gradually to more explicit, concrete form and turns against him to create a poignant irony in respect to his judgment. Thus the recurrent images of this sequence not only help to develop the large questions of the nature and source of law which are raised within the play; they interwork with the treatments of evaluation, vision, goal, and governance (personal, public, and final) which are offered by the dominant image sequences. In general, the recurrent images of the play have at least a double value. They have the denotative value of their particular use, in a limited context. But they also take meanings from the pattern of similar images of which they are a part. And each pattern is to some extent qualified by the others. Their values are such as to characterize the points of view of different figures in the play and set them in sharp opposition on fundamental matters. At the same time the sequences of recurrent images, in a still further symbolic role, help to bring into the play the basic issues or facts of human experience which the dramatist saw as relevant to the understanding of his tragic theme. The six dominant image sequences which accomplish this most fully for the Antigone are those which recur with the greatest degree of frequency—excepting the many images which can be grouped under the general heading of images of bodily action. Images from four fields of experience recur with particularly marked frequency. They are money and merchandising, warfare and military activity, animals and the control of animals, and the sea and sailing. Besides these, images of disease and images of marriage form significant sequences slightly more restricted in diversity and frequency of application. Generally speaking, the monetary, military, and animal patterns have characterization as a prominent function, especially with respect to Creon. They develop, that is, telling characteristics and colors in his mode of judgment and bring out acutely the implications of shortsightedness in the methods of governance to which these characteristics lead This content downloaded from 128.122.230.148 on Thu, 23 Mar 2017 09:44:03 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
INTRODUCTION him. The nautical, disease, and marital patterns have as their most obvious function the integration to the play of more ultimate facts and mysteries about the nature of evil and the relation of man and the gods. but the two sides of the matter are closely connected, and each sequence of images shares in some measure both of these general functions. This perhaps will become most apparent in the sequence of animal imagery Used chiefly by Creon relation to him, this imagery both characterizes him as a person and serves a critical role for the understanding of the man-god relationship and its decisive moral bearing within the tragedy This content downloaded from 128... 148 on Thu, 23 Mar 201709: 44: 03 UTC Allusesubjecttohttpaboutjstor.org/terms
INTRODUCTION him. The nautical, disease, and marital patterns have as their most obvious function the integration to the play of more ultimate facts and mysteries about the nature of evil and the relation of man and the gods. But the two sides of the matter are closely connected, and each sequence of images shares in some measure both of these general functions. This perhaps will become most apparent in the sequence of animal imagery. Used chiefly by Creon or in relation to him, this imagery both characterizes him as a person and serves a critical role for the understanding of the man-god relationship and its decisive moral bearing within the tragedy. This content downloaded from 128.122.230.148 on Thu, 23 Mar 2017 09:44:03 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
CHAPTER II· IMAGERY OF EVALUATION AND CONTROL The Money sequence loSe to the heart of the dramatic confict of the Antig one are radical differences in the kinds and sources of human motivation embodied in the major figures, and among the questions which the tragedy asks us are those of the value and the valuation of different sorts of basis motivation. a well-developed pattern of monetary and mer- cantile metaphors help to delineate these divergences and these questions. The character who most consistently and emphatically em- ploys such images to judge human conduct is Creon. In various situations, especially when his anger is aroused against opposition which he does not entirely understand, he calls upon monetary images and seeks to brand as money-mad the agents who oppose him. The strongest and fullest expression of this attitude is in the Teiresias scene immediately preceding the dramatic peripety. Faced with Teiresias' warning that the city is polluted because of his course of action and advised by the blind seer to take counsel from one who counsels to his profit(1o32), Creon counters Old man,... many times have I been sold for export and made into cargo by the tribe of seers. Make your profits. Buy and sell electrum from Sardis if you wish, and Indian gold. But you shall not cover that man [Polyneices] with a tomb. (1033-9 The image, touched off in this instance by Teiresias,quiet if the counsellor speak to your profit, continues. C reon ends the speech with the threat They fall, ancient Teiresias, with a shameful fall, even ever clever men-when they speak shameful counsel in noble guise for the sake of gain.(1045-7) I4 This content downloaded from 128... 148 on Thu, 23 Mar 201709: 44: 24 UTC Allusesubjecttohttpaboutjstor.org/terms
CHAPTER II · IMAGERY OF EVALUATION AND CONTROL The {Money Sequence C LOSE to the heart of the dramatic conflict of the Antigone are radical differences in the kinds and sources of human motivation embodied in the major figures, and among the questions which the tragedy asks us are those of the value and the valuation of different sorts of basic motivation. A well-developed pattern of monetary and mercantile metaphors help to delineate these divergences and these questions. The character who most consistently and emphatically employs such images to judge human conduct is Creon. In various situations, especially when his anger is aroused against opposition which he does not entirely understand, he calls upon monetary images and seeks to brand as money-mad the agents who oppose him. The strongest and fullest expression of this attitude is in the Teiresias scene immediately preceding the dramatic peripety. Faced with Teiresias' warning that the city is polluted because of his course of action and advised by the blind seer to take counsel from one who counsels to his profit (1032) , 1 Creon counters: Old man, . . . many times have I been sold for export and made into cargo by the tribe of seers. Make your profits. Buy and sell electrum from Sardis if you wish, and Indian gold. But you shall not cover that man [Polyneices] with a tomb. (1033-9) The image, touched off in this instance by Teiresias' quiet "if the counsellor speak to your profit," continues. Creon ends the speech with the threat: They fall, ancient Teiresias, with a shameful fall, even ever clever men—when they speak shameful counsel in noble guise for the sake of gain. (1045-7) H This content downloaded from 128.122.230.148 on Thu, 23 Mar 2017 09:44:24 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
IMAGERY OF EVALUATION AND CONTROL He matches Teiresias' further warnings with further ex- of the same orde The whole class of seers has always been fond of silver. Out with your secret. But don't speak for profit. (I06I) Be sure of this. You will not speculate (empoleson variant of Creon's monetary imagery(1077), he voices the prophetic warning which subdues once and for all Creon,'s opposition and forms the turning point of the action Prior to the Teiresias scene there are several strong mone- tary images, as well as several less vivid occurrences, which together lend force and carry implications to its sustained appearances in that scene. For example, Creon's first pro- nouncement of his edict, including the death penalty for its violators, ends on this note CH. There is no one so much a fool as to be enamoured of death CR. Indeed just this will be his wage(misthos). Yet, time and again money with its hopes leads men to ruin.(220-2) Again in the same scene, when Creon learns that his edict has already been broken, his analysis of the situation takes the form of an exuberant personification of money as the root and teacher of all evil Nothing so evil as silver ever grew to be current(no- misma) among men. This sacks cities; this drives men from their homes; this teaches and warps honest minds to approach deeds of shame. It has shown men all sorts of villainy and the knowledge of every kind of impiety But whoever did this deed for a fee have accomplished just this: sooner or later they will pay the penalty.(295- Before the close of this scene, the charge that the guards This content downloaded from 128... 148 on Thu, 23 Mar 201709: 44: 24 UTC Allusesubjecttohttpaboutjstor.org/terms
IMAGERY OF EVALUATION AND CONTROL He matches Teiresias' further warnings with further expressions of the same order: The whole class of seers has always been fond of silver. (1055) Out with your secret. But don't speak for profit. (1061) Be sure of this. You will not speculate (empoleson) with my resolve. (1063) Finally Teiresias cannot restrain his anger and, using a variant of Creon's monetary imagery (1077), he voices the prophetic warning which subdues once and for all Creon's opposition and forms the turning point of the action. Prior to the Teiresias scene there are several strong monetary images, as well as several less vivid occurrences, which together lend force and carry implications to its sustained appearances in that scene. For example, Creon's first pronouncement of his edict, including the death penalty for its violators, ends on this note: CH. There is no one so much a fool as to be enamoured of death. CR. Indeed just this will be his wage (misthos). Yet, time and again money with its hopes leads men to ruin. (220-2) Again in the same scene, when Creon learns that his edict has already been broken, his analysis of the situation takes the form of an exuberant personification of money as the root and teacher of all evil: Nothing so evil as silver ever grew to be current (nomistna) among men. This sacks cities; this drives men from their homes; this teaches and warps honest minds to approach deeds of shame. It has shown men all sorts of villainy and the knowledge of every kind of impiety. But whoever did this deed for a fee have accomplished just this: sooner or later they will pay the penalty. (295- 303)2 Before the close of this scene, the charge that the Guards This content downloaded from 128.122.230.148 on Thu, 23 Mar 2017 09:44:24 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
IMAGERY OF EVALUATION AND CONTROL have sold out for silver or other material profit is made three more times by Creon (3I0-12, 322, 325-6). Just as Creon's suspicion and his monetary estimate of the character of the opposition here is soon proved wrong, so, in le Teiresias scene the reviving of the monetary images and of the bribery theme serves to signal the limitation of Creon's perception and prepares for the dramatic recognition This implication is supported by the use of monetary terms as they are assigned to other speakers in the first half of Haimon, for instance, suggests to Creon that much is involved than his eye sees and suggests that Antigone fact worthy of"golden honor"(699). He urges, too, that, so far as human goods or property are concerned, intel- ligence is by far the supreme endowment from the gods to men(683-4). Thus in both these instances Haimon uses expressions from a sphere which Creon has brought to the foreground. But Haimon uses them in order to argue the value of certain elements of human nature and conduct which he feels that his father has underestimated Antigone's employment of monetary images does the same sort of thing more fully. The first appearance is in her initial explicit reference to Polyneices. She tells Ismene of Creon,s edict--how no one is to bury Polyneices or even mourn him To leave him unwept, unburied, a sweet treasure(glykyn thesauron)for carrion birds to look upon and feast upon at will.(29-3o) Even as antigone calls her brothers corpse a"sweet treasure (a lucky find and rich fare) for carrion birds, it is clear that this treasure is also the repository of her dearest affections is her own"sweet treasure"which she means to try to pro- tect. In the same way later, when Antigone has been caught of the"profit"of death, since she has done that to which family allegiance and her sense of right directed her If I am to die before my time I reckon this too a gain (herds ). For when one lives among evils as i do, how I6 This content downloaded from 128... 148 on Thu, 23 Mar 201709: 44: 24 UTC Allusesubjecttohttpaboutjstor.org/terms
IMAGERY OF EVALUATION AND CONTROL have sold out for silver or other material profit is made three more times by Creon (310-12, 322, 325-6). Just as Creon's suspicion and his monetary estimate of the character of the opposition here is soon proved wrong, so, in the Teiresias scene the reviving of the monetary images and of the bribery theme serves to signal the limitation of Creon's perception and prepares for the dramatic recognition. This implication is supported by the use of monetary terms as they are assigned to other speakers in the first half of the play. Haimon, for instance, suggests to Creon that much more is involved than his eye sees and suggests that Antigone is in fact worthy of "golden honor" (699). He urges, too, that, so far as human goods or property are concerned, intelligence is by far the supreme endowment from the gods to men (683-4). Thus in both these instances Haimon uses expressions from a sphere which Creon has brought to the foreground. But Haimon uses them in order to argue the value of certain elements of human nature and conduct which he feels that his father has underestimated. Antigone's employment of monetary images does the same sort of thing more fully. The first appearance is in her initial explicit reference to Polyneices. She tells Ismene of Creon's edict—how no one is to bury Polyneices or even mourn him but all are ordered: To leave him unwept, unburied, a sweet treasure (glykyn thesauron) for carrion birds to look upon and feast upon at will. (29-30)® Even as Antigone calls her brother's corpse a "sweet treasure" (a lucky find and rich fare) for carrion birds, it is clear that this treasure is also the repository of her dearest affections, is her own "sweet treasure" which she means to try to protect. In the same way later, when Antigone has been caught and is confronted with the threat of death, she can speak of the "profit" of death, since she has done that to which family allegiance and her sense of right directed her: If I am to die before my time, I reckon this too a gain (kerdos). For when one lives among evils as I do, how This content downloaded from 128.122.230.148 on Thu, 23 Mar 2017 09:44:24 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms