The story of Antigone by Sophocles is one most famous stories of ancient Athenian Drama. The story, written in 441 B.C., takes place in Thebes in ancient Greece. The story starts with Antigone asking her sister, Ismene, to help bury their brother Polyneices. Ismene declines her request because of the decree that Creon made stating that if anyone tries to bury him, they will be stoned. Antigone does not care about these threats, and cares more about her brother being treated fairly in the afterlife than her own. She proceeds to do the burial without the help of her sister, and succeeds. A guard tells Creon, and he says that if the guard does not find out who did it he will be charged with the treason and sentenced to death. After this scene …show more content…
She has no guilt and is proud of what she did. They argue for a while and he tells his men to put her in a cave and to starve her to death. Haemon, Creon’s son and Antigone’s fiancé, at first tells his father that he is ok with whatever punishment he wishes to exercise on to her. He also sympathizes with her saying that the people of the kingdom are gathering together, and are saying that she does not deserve to die, and that what she did was very noble. A little while later after Haemon leaves, a messenger enters the room and says that Haemon and Antigone were both found dead, Antigone hung herself and Haemon and stabbed himself with his own sword. Eurydice finds out and is also found dead, leaving a note behind saying that she curses Creon. Now the question is, is Why is Antigone right in her action in disobeying Creon? The first reason on why she is justified is because of the importance of a proper burial in these ancient times. The second reason is because family is a very important thing, and to Antigone it is the most important. The third and final reason on why she was justified is because she was acting in obedience to the …show more content…
The belief was that depending on how someone is buried would be how they were treated in the afterlife. The story emphasizes this a lot, and the audience understands that reasoning from Antigone’s point of view. “Antigone appeals not only to the bond of the kindred blood, but also to the unwritten law, sanctioned by the gods, that the dead must be given a proper burial—a religious principle” (Knox 40). This was not only a thing made by the Greek people, but it was a law followed by the people created by the gods. They did not believe that good people went to heaven, and that bad people went to hell. The burial of the dead was the only important detail for when someone passed away. Those who did not receive proper burial were thought to wander the earth and the entrance of the underworld, and their souls could never rest. The people who had a proper burial would have to go through a complicated ritual to gain access to the underworld, the place where their soul could rest and not be disturbed. “But Creon’s position is not anti-religious: in fact he believes that he has religion on his side” (Knox 40). Creon on the other hand believed that there was no way that the gods would feel that someone who was a traitor would deserve a proper burial because he was trying to fight for a foreign army against Thebes. Teiresias tries to explain to Creon that he is making a huge mistake, and that his inability to admit that