Wesleyan professors frequently publish articles based on their research in The conversation in the United Statesa non-profit news organization whose slogan is “Academic rigor, journalistic flair”. In a new article, Elizabeth Bobrick, visiting scholar of classical studies and visiting assistant professor of liberal studies, writes about the lessons of Sophocles’ Greek tragedy. Antigonea piece that, she writes, “reflects the current state of America’s disunity.”
What the Greek tragedy Antigone can teach us about the dangers of extremism
In a Greek tragedy written in the mid-5th century BC, three teenagers wrestle with a question that could be asked today: what happens when a ruler declares that those who resist his dictates are enemies of the State and that this leader has as many supporters as he has detractors?
The story of Antigone by Sophocles and the cursed royal family of Thebes belongs to the mythical prehistory of Greece.
Greek tragedy depicts in broad strokes the cruelties that take place within families and cities, but keeps them separate from the mythical past. The mythic past provided a safe space to present contemporary issues without outright political affiliation.
The play, named after its young heroine, reflects America’s current state of disunity: political and moral opinions are framed in terms of fight between patriot and traitordefenders of civic order and its enemies, of law and conscience.
A shocking decree
The play begins just hours after the end of a civil war and is set in the royal household of Thebes.
Oedipus, the Greek king, is the father of Antigone, Eteocles and Polyneices.
After Oedipus was banished from the city, Antigone’s two brothers, Eteocles and Polyneices, were to share the kingship. But Eteocles exiled Polyneices and made himself sole ruler. Before his death, Oedipus cursed his two sons, saying that they would die against each other.
Polyneices returned with a small group of warriors; Eteocles fought him with the city’s army. As their father said, the brothers died against each other. Polyneices’ allies were driven out, leaving his corpse outside the city walls.
The two heirs to the throne having died, their uncle Creon declared himself king, as was his right.
Creon then issues a shocking decree: no one must perform funeral rites for Polyneices, because he was a traitor. His body must be left to rot in the sun and fall prey to vultures and scavenging dogs. Anyone caught trying to bury him will be executed.
Family versus civic order
Refusing funeral rites to traitors was not unknown in the time of Sophocles; it was an accepted means of crushing sympathizers.
But not burying a loved one was different.
Creon’s situation was out of the ordinary. As head of the family, he was obligated by religious custom to supervise his nephew’s burial. But in the broader civic context of the country he ruled, he could deny these rites to a traitor. Creon chose to maintain civic order, as only he intended.
We first see Antigone as she rushes to tell her sister Ismene the news. She is sure that Ismene will join her in disobeying the decree, because the gods are offended by an unburied body; without a proper burial, their brother’s spirit cannot enter the underworld. And most importantly, he is their brother, traitor or not, and it is their duty, as the remaining members of his family, to bury him.
Yet Ismene begs her not to challenge their uncle Creon. We’re just girls, she said. We cannot fight against the decree. The dead will not judge us. We are dying ; what will it be used for?
Antigone immediately turns on her sister and says: “You, go ahead and dishonor what the gods honor, if you think it is better. »
Antigone tells Ismene that she hates her and rushes behind the scenes to carry out her plan: to leave the walls of the city, where her brother’s body rests, and cover it with a few handfuls of dust. It’s the best she can do.
‘I am ungodly’
She is provocative and contemptuous. His challenge to his authority only increases Creon’s determination. When his son Haemon, Antigone’s fiancé, tries to reason with him, he refuses to listen.
Ismene, full of remorse, claims that she buried the body herself, to which Antigone responds with contempt.
In their lonely crusades for justice, Creon and Antigone ignore the grief of their loved ones.
Creon orders that Antigone be taken to a cave and left to starve; she is taken away. He then receives a message from a prophet telling him that the gods will punish him for putting a living soul underground and keeping a corpse on the surface.
Creon rejects the prophecy, but the chorus of citizens convinces him to go save Antigone and bury Polyneices. He rushes to his grave, too late. He finds two corpses there. Antigone hanged herself, and Haemon, Creon’s son, fell on his sword. When Creon’s wife learns the news of her son’s death, she also commits suicide.
“Take me,” Creon said, stunned, to the city elders. “I am worse than useless; I am ungodly.
Extreme danger
Creon started from a position of defending the civil order: traitors must be punished, and those who show love to them are also traitors.
But his principles led to the deaths of many people, including his son, Haemon, who was not a rebel, only a young man in love.
Haemon was a moderate who, with Ismene, tried to persuade Antigone and Creon to abandon their intransigence. But ultimately, they too were dragged to the brink of chaos and violence. Even Haemon’s mother, who never goes on stage, becomes a victim.
Every character in the play was forced into the arena of good versus evil, either because they loved each other or because they loved their own beliefs.
It is impossible for a character to stay in the middle – they are forced into extremes, where death or grief is either chosen or forced upon them.
“The moderates suffered the most”
What can we learn from the tragedy of Antigone?
At least this: when fellow citizens become enemies, their bonds of friendship and family are weakened, even destroyed. When primary identity is reduced to “us” and “them,” the definition of justice narrows. It simply becomes what helps us and hurts them.
When a leader urges citizens to identify his enemies as enemies of the state, what those citizens may end up having most in common with each other is anger, fear, and mutual contempt.
And what of the Ismenes and Haemons of the world, those who try to dissuade others from rash acts and ease tensions?
THE the historian Thucydidesthe younger contemporary of Sophocles, observed that when a community is at war with itself, “the moderates suffer the most, for they are subject to attacks from both factions.”
Sophocles offers another lesson in Antigone. Namely, that a single person in power, if he persuades or frightens enough people, can cause the suffering of innocents and the loss of the institutions and customs on which civil order is based.
It is a lesson we have witnessed more than once in living memory.
Elizabeth Bobrickguest researcher in classical studies, Wesleyan University
This article is republished from The conversation under Creative Commons license. Read it original article.