“Oh god, is there a man alive / who knows, who actually believes...” (Sophocles, Antigone 1162-63). Religious corruption has led to a complete dismissal of religion; the world has lost its tune with the divine, spirituality has become a myth and a doctrine for the elderly. Gazing back into the depths of time reveals vital yet lost opinions on Divinity which have vanished in modern cultures. Within the ancient Greek works, a careful analyzation unfolds the authors opinions on whether the gods and oracles are worthy of veneration or just tools in a political battle of power.
An individual's opinion is a possession completely unfettered; one can lose freedom, mobility, and even life, yet opinion remains personal and immortal. A person’s opinion provides insight into his mind and oftentimes a direct window into the rationale of a culture. The seemingly random tangents in
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He speaks of it as above the gods, something which even they cannot control. This is visible when Antigone argues with Creon saying, “Do as you like, dishonor the laws / the gods hold in honor” (lines 91-92). The gods hold things in honor that are above them, thus natural law must be a binding force which holds the deities responsible. Throughout the play Antigone, Sophocles never mentions a particular god as the cause of Creon’s tragic situation. This indicates that the tragedies are a natural result of Creon’s blatant disobedience of the laws of nature. The natural laws then are gods themselves, visible as such when Antigone describes them as: “the gods / the great unwritten, unshakable traditions” (lines 504-05). Consequently, because the Natural laws are gods themselves, and because the other gods hold them in honor, they deserve a respect higher than them. This is what Herodotus emphasizes throughout The Histories, He abstains from giving an opinion about the lesser divinities, only stating natural law demands