Throughout the start of Antigone by Sophocles, Creon is characterized as a authoritarian, sexist, and prideful. These attributes demonstrate the different Greek values that were present at the time the play was written.
Creon, the King of Thebes, when finding out that Antigone a family tie has committed a crime against his word proceeded to carry out his punishment. “Do you want me to show myself weak before the people? Or to break my sworn word? No i will not. The woman dies” (Sophocles 54). When faced with punishing his own family member, Creon follows through on his proclamation and “sworn word” thinking that he will be seen as “weak before the people” (Sophocles ?) and not see as a equal and just leader. This action demonstrates the choice that Creon made between Oikos and Polis, this inevitably lead to his choosing Polis by pursuing his law given to the city instead of protecting Antigone.
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‘The man who has done this thing shall pay for it! Find the man, bring him here to me” (Sophocles 34). This repetition of male pronouns lets the reader realize that Creon does not know that the so called “man” was in fact a woman. This dramatic irony. Antigone was never a suspect for she was merely a woman, yet when she was caught for her crime the mindset of the people changed. “She has much to learn. The inflexible heart breaks first, the toughest iron cracks first” (Sophocles 43). The metaphor that Creon says set a image in the reader’s mind and expresses how Creon and society see women as “inflexible” and fragile. These words do not contain a powerful tone and hints towards the role that women are expected to play in the society and their Theoi. Through Creon's tone and words the reader can deduce that women are not as important and prominent as the men are. Men are seen as higher than woman because “man only knows how to give commands” (Sophocles 54) and men have “command” over