Throughout his speech Creon was able to effectively achieve his purpose of convincing his audience to agree with his decision on not burying Polyneices with the use of contrasting diction. In order to convince his audience that his way of ruling is the correct way Creon uses the rhetorical device of contrasting diction in his speech. This is done when Creon announced, “Eteocles, who died as a man should die, fighting for his country, is to be buried with full military honors, with a ceremony that is usual when the greatest heroes die…”. When talking about Eteocles and his honorary death, Creon uses words with a positive diction such as “honors, ceremony, and greatest heroes”, each of these words are linked to the positive connotation of a man with honor and great dignity. On the other hand, when speaking of Polyneices, Creon turns to the use of negative diction. Creon declared, “...Polyneices, who broke his exile to come back with fire and sword against his native city and the shrines of his father's’ gods, whose one idea was to spill the blood of his blood and sell his own people into slavery….is to have no burial”. While discussing the terms of Polyneices’ burial, none, Creon is sure to include words with negative diction linked to dishonor. Some examples of these words in his speech include “exile, fire, sword, spill the blood, and slavery”.