Guide to Sophocles)

Creon's First Speech and the

ANTIGONE
Reply of the Chorus
A Student Edition with Commentary,

Grammatical Notes, & Vocabulary (161- 2 1 4J

iNTRODUCTION

JOAN V. O'BRIEN .l\. ITER THE IRONICALLY Joyful entrance of the Cho. singing and
dancing their hymn to Dionvsos celebrating the king's victory over

Sam'"- 6; b. Q.w-d
the seven Argive invaders and especially over the dead traitor
,4,-hc\e.. )L Polymces, the king enters to give his inaugural address to the elders.
0. s, -f" r Ar+ io, Ll, I 3) The audience immediately perceives that his priorities differ from
those of his niece: the./?Q1i.: and not ll!liJiE..is his guiding principle.
It.{ Still, in one important respect, there seems to be a family resem-
blance: he, like she, radiates self-confidence or perhaps arrogance.
Southern Illinois Uniuersity Press It IS difficult at first to determine which of the two qualities It

CARBONDALE AND EDWARDSVILLE

IJrfU'S
e. 0(;
IS.
We shall note here some of the ways C:.'s style reveals the
man In this first speech and shall try to ascertain how the Athenian

Fejfer & Simons, Inc.

~,. o.rt-, audience would :ea~t to his s:ated. principles.
..yhIS There is one significant stylistic linkage between uncle and ruece
and that is in their mutual penchant for the first person pronoun.
LoNDON AND AMSTERDAM After the bond between the sisters is ent midway through the
Prologue, An. discards the duals and s eaks with a predominating
ego. The slyle is highly irregular for a woman, let alone so young
f"rn 31

Guide /0 Sophocles' ANTIGONE /
a girl, and it g-IVCS the appearance of arrogance. The Icing's initial
sratcmcru, on the other hand, displays appropriate pietv: tlmn, Ihe
gnds, arc the first subject I Iii2). !lut thcy are only the grammatical
subject, one s""n realizes: the real suhject is egl) (164) and remains
so throughollt. Sj ucc the kin~'s professed purpose is to lay down
general norms for his rule, this emphasis on the first person requires
some manipulauon. Hc consistent ly manipulates the language so
as to stress the fact that the remarks are his and to subordinate
thc Iact thaI they arc principles worthy of consideration (19 1 ,
20 7- 10 ) . T'lus ma nj pu lation verges 00 the blasphemous at one point
1184) when the gramrna t icul struct ure of the sentcnce subordinates
Zeus 10 him. The focus thus split between the king's principle
and hIS ego results In a somewhat confused present aucn of his
rules of conduct. Yet, the initial confusion seems understandable
In a ncw long anxious to establish hIS authority. 'the sustained
pontifical tone, however, is inclined to remind the thoughtful lis-
tencr of An.'s earlier IIlsinuation about the king's autocratic bent
fill·
In other respects, Cr.'s style differs sharply from that of his
niece. The "Ionl( rolling sentences, thc weighty rhythms, the gran-
diloquern usc of plurals show power conscious of itself." j But there
are other revealing aspecls of his style: his addiction to sententious
statements of principle, valid enough in themselves, but rigidly,
even ruthlesslv applied to the case of hIS nephew; and his pompous
generalities (17B, 182) 209) that put him on a level with the platitu-
di nous Ruar~, 10 the ne~t scene." Such a.presentatlon may initially x):
dazzle the eho. and IIn.,r"s the audIence, but the thoughtful_lIln~\
IlStencr gradllally perceIves that the long IS attempting to cover r~ l\leS
up the baSIC IJ1sccuntics of "a weak man, used In taking second. t..c-vfJ
plac".n Thebes."" (rICp\a.ce. .Cl ".wit-\" ( .' ;+ 'b0otil'>~) I\'IS i
!-lIS main means 01 concealing thiS l~lsecur~ty IS the in:age _he
proJects of Illmsclf as the helmsman stralghtcllIng aocl redIrecting 50.1
the shIp of state. He has personally steadicd the storm-tossed ship fIIe;l-o.P.
and can contain any futurc tempests by hIS straight sailing. His
use of the nautIcal metaphor IS the first sustained figure 111 thc
play and it is.clear that his goal is straight and upright navigation \ .
of the-._state (163-90), a goal that .he intends to achieve at any As
D.OII1C.
~(bhh-67)· An., we bcgln to realize, knew her uncle quite well j..>"",-tv
32
•
Creon '.< First Speech and the Reply uf the Chorus
when she advised Ism, to proceed on her course and keep her ship
):.S"""stralght (83). Such counsel in effect consigned the girl to Cr.'s ship.
Although the ship of state is Cr.'s favorite figure' and straight
sailing his goal (see "Vocabulary," chap.B, underorlhoJ and related
words), the figure has a much more pregnant usage in the play
S....as a whole. ]n the musings of the Cha., the sea is a constant symbol
0Wf'J both of man's resourcefulness ancl of the limIts of that re-
~ sourcefulness ('360 n.). Man's daring makes him victorious over
the sea (334 ff.), but the swelling sea driven by, the Thracian winds
creates chaos, churrung up the dark mud from the ocean ADO!".
engul fing Innocent and guilty al ikc (586-92). Such is the destructive
power of aii, "disaster," as the Cho. reminds us in thc foreboding
rhythms of the second stasirnon." In addition, the youthful Hae.
\{\:l5 and the aRcd seer T'iresla<: both try 10 vain to warn the king that
~of~-r. hIS narrow conception of naVigation will be lata: only the flexible
't\,' pilot will survive (710-18; cl. 994). In the unifying Image at the
cnd of the play, the king finally cnes out: "Oh, inexorable harbor
sc. ~ Hades, why, oh why, have you destroyed me now?" !I 284-85 . rOil'
A~ and n.). In the light of that final goal, the terrible ~ of Cr.'s) •
aphorism in thIS speech IS fully revealed: "One cannot fully know
\ the nature, spIrit, and Judgment of a man until he proves hImself
C) , in the administration of the laws" (175-77). It is only In the light
!(tl~ of that final goal that one .,ercelves just how superficial the similari-
I ties between unele and nicce were: her ap.,arent arrogance In the
\ I Prologue masks a deep conviction that her cause is just; his self
c,~ confidence rests onl1' on the tenuous strength of his ~ (see
34 8 n.).
So much for the style of the man. What about the substance
of his argument? How would the Athenian audience react to Cr.ts
nomos, his law and guiding principle, that the straight sailing of
. \1f\lJ the polis transcends all personal ~onside:~t1on (T 78 ff.)? It w~s: of
!/or course, a commonplace of Athenian political thought that friend-
ship and family love can only exist in a healthy polis. Indeed, Cr.'s
words here find an echo in Thucydides' account of Pericles' famous
Funeral Oration (Thucvdides 2. 60); and the king in Euripides'
e Medea (written a decade later) almost agrees with Cr.-but with
one Important reservation: his children mean more to him than
the state (Medea 329). We know, too, that Dernosrhenes, a century
33
 Cuuie to Salihue/cs' ANTtGONE /
later, found this whole speech cxcmpl arv of pruper official conduct
since he quoted it as a corrective against Acschincs."
Thus the klllg's prindplc S('Cn1:i theoretically sound. It is in
his rigid application of the theory to the stinking corpse of his
nephcw that thc playwright Icads the audience to question the
regal position. The Athenians admired the flexibility of Pericles!
p<llitical performance. Cr.'s rigidity and brutality foreshadow the
tactics of Pericles' Sll(TCSSOr Clean who "had a vulgar mind, acute
in a second-rate manner, wn hout Intelligence or humanity.
It was not Ills [Joli('), that was dangerous it was his character.
In such hands any policy would ~o wrong." 7 A few facts
from Athenian political hl!llor , its burial customs and the oet's
ear ler p <IV, tlC 1./f1X. will shed light on the judgment SORh. was
Icading the audicncc to make.: S",p h o C
.-'e.s' tJ,. J2.. vn e.
\ \. First of all, Soph. and his audience were breathing the clear
\~~L(}.- )air of tree Athens at the pinnacle of her civilization after their
~1) \(,[).,ov older brot hcrs had died at Marathon to defend the freedom of
po..v·J the i ndivtdua l aga mst the tyranny of the Invading forces of the
Pcrsi an despot. At this ln-n-f moment 111 Athenian history, there
was a dialectical tC'O!'iiOI1 between mclividu al and cornmuu nv , wuh
the scale tlppl11g toward the' i ndivrdual. Although Pericles was to
urge the Athenians to have a love nffair with their city (Thucydidcs
2. 4:l. f) and although tlus love demanded g-reat sacrifice, the very
base of the love affair was the respect for the ri,~hts of the mdividual.
Such was no! the case in coutem porar)" Sparta where CI".'::; pri nci ples
~()~and netruns would have parallels in political pracucc." Pcrhap::;
'i:o\. only at Athcn::; and only dunng tht" Periclean age CQuid the Au
().. '~It.- \YI have bcen written. The legend that Soph. died rehearsing the All."
-1", 6'0\~ may, if true, reflect his tragic realization that the creative tension
'r\,s I between IJflhf and person had already gone slack In the forty Inter-
verung years.
Soph.ts own concern for the individual's religious anel human
nght of burial was not nrw In 4-42 or 441 when he wrote this , -\'\~~
play. In the las: scene or his earlier Ajax, Odysseus, bitter enemy "::,S ~J \YI
01 the dead AJaX, eloquently rejects the decision of the sceptered ~&
Atrcidac to expose Ajax's body as "rood fur the sea-birds." His ~'cY!:"-/
rebuttal to their decision has long been recognized as the best .~t.
commentary on the central act of the All. anywhere in the Sopho-\pv'1 . \
34
Creon's First Speech and the RclJiy q! the Chm ,
clean corpus: HO O not let your violent hatred blind you to trample
justice under fool. He was my most bitter enemy .. yet you
would be unjust if you dishonor him. For you would not wrong
him but the laws of the gods (taus thriin lIomaus)."
The concern of Odysseus here (Ajax 1332 H.) and the concern
that the poet makes the audience feci throughout the An. i~
\ the corpse'::; legal rights so much as outrage at the degrading,
i'f'r,e,fI'(!,' inhumane treatment of the dead (see 29-30, 199 206, 410 t z,
: 697-98, 1016-22, 1039 44, 1080-83, 1198). So, although Cr., the
king. had responsibilities different from those of Cr., the nearest
male relative to the deceased, thiS first speech reveals Cr. the king
RimpervtOu::; to the dutie!'i of Cr. t~e kinsman. 1 he king's conscious
\rtJ'c\,J repetition of, the idea of «cQm~.6_? blood," twic~ in a fe~ lines
()~o"
S (19
8- 20 1) points to a fundamental Irony hiS pOSItIOn: he IS both
10
\.:. ,...," aware of Polynlces' neglect of hIS kin and IS blindly repeatlOg
e.,.f'" Polynice:->l pattern. This insensitivity to human concerns, especially
to blood concerns, culminates in the episode with his son whose
very name denotes "Blood" (see 658 n.). But in this first speech
the rejection of blood-rights is only implied. The audience would
see a rigidity out of step with the concern for burial that impelled
the Athenians at Marathon to bury the Persian enemy (Pausamas
t • :J2. 5); and they would not, to our knowledge, recall any Athenian
precedent for such defamation of the traitor's corpse (the closest
parallel in Hellenic records is denial of burial Within Aurea, in
Xenophon Hell auca i . 7. 22).
- ",'Still, the only sign of disapproval the Cho. registers IS contained
thor" s ~.~ the tiny partIcles PO" ge, "1 su prose." Wi th these monosyllables,
-c 6\>~~rthey heSitantly suggest their reluctance, while acknowledging the
vJ'IP- king's power (kratas) to carry out hiS ruthless decree: "It IS withm
your /Jower, I suppose (fIOU gel, to legislate for us all, both hying
and dead" (213-14). The timid Cho. lacks the courage to say more.
Q...
The untranslatable gc by throwing the emphasis on the word
"power" is their pathettc suggestion that power does not make
it right.
Thus An.ts passion and rigid adherence to her beliefs in the
Prologue is followed by the authoritative address of the new king
With its own principles rigidly and sententiously presented. Soon
the two antagonists will meet in heated confrontation (441 ff.).
~~.
. ~