assignment

The Two Worlds of the "Antigone" Author(s): VINCENT J. ROSIVACH Source: Illinois Classical Studies, Vol. 4 (1979), pp. 16-26 Published by: University of Illinois Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/23061131 . Accessed: 02/10/2014 09:46

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

. JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

University of Illinois Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Illinois Classical Studies.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 192.231.40.103 on Thu, 2 Oct 2014 09:46:07 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

2

The Two Worlds of the Antigone

VINCENT J. ROSIVACH

The chorus of Theban elders begins the parodos of the Antigone by wel

coming the rising sun1 which looks down upon the fleeing remnants of the

Argive army defeated the night before (100-109). The chorus then des

cribes the battle itself, which took place at the gates of the city,2 between

Polyneices and his foreign allies on the one hand, and Eteocles and the

forces of Thebes on the other (no fF.). As prototype of the Argive army

the chorus chooses Capaneus, who scaled the wall torch in hand, but was

struck down at the very moment he reached the top (jSaXftiScuv in' aKpan>),

just as he was about to shout his cry of victory (131-133). Capaneus never

crossed the wall but was thrust outward3 and downward to the earth

below (134 f.). The other Argive leaders were killed in their own unspeci fied ways at the other gates of the city (141-143), Polyneices and Eteocles

slew each other (144-147), and the forces of Thebes were victorious

(148 f.). The fact that Capaneus' case is the only one specifically described

by the chorus strongly suggests that it was meant to be typical of the

Argive attack as a whole. If this is so, then the picture which we get of

the battle is one of a besieged city, the enemy on one side of the city walls,

unable to cross in, and the defenders on the other side, on top of the walls,

1 We are to imagine that the chorus sings the parodos as day is breaking and the sun is beginning to rise (E. Coughanawr, CQ_ NS 23 [1973], 22 f.). The prologue between

Antigone and Ismene took place in the dark of night (ev vvktI rfj vvv, 16); see A. T. von S. Bradshaw, CQ.NS 12 (1962), 203 f.

2 The seven gates of the city are mentioned three times in the parodos (101, 119, 141). This particular detail immediately evokes the traditional accounts of the battle (notably Aeschylus' Septem). It also reminds us that the city was besieged (cf. also ayj^ixavibv kvk\oi, 118), and that the battle was fought at the walls and gates of the city, not on the open field (see also below, note 4).

3 TavTaXaiBels (134). See R. Jebb, Sophocles: The Plays and Fragments, Part III: The

Antigone3 (Cambridge, 1900), adloc.

This content downloaded from 192.231.40.103 on Thu, 2 Oct 2014 09:46:07 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Vincent J. Rosivach 17

and hence unable to cross out.4 I would suggest that Sophocles had more

in mind here than simply presenting a particularly vivid scene to his

audience's imagination, for the wall on which the battle was fought can

also be seen as a dividing line which separates two radically different

worlds, the world within the city and the world without.

Within the walls is the polis of Thebes, the city which Greon now rules.

It is a city of light in the new day which the chorus had welcomed (100

109), a day which they hope will bring forgetfulness of the wars of the

past (150 f.). Within the city, and specifically on the stage, the part of the

city seen by the audience, Creon is in control, securing the acquiescence

of the Theban elders to his rule, ordering about the guard, and determin

ing the death of Antigone. Like the chorus, Creon looks to the future. In

his opening speech he tells the chorus what he will and will not do as ruler

(175 ff.), and his decree to bury Eteocles and not to bury Polyneices is the

first step in his implementation of this policy for the future (cf. 192). In

deed, for the greater part of our play Creon seems to be a man with no past.

There is no mention of anything which he did before the play began except

for the decree, and the decree is repeated in the course of the play (194 ff.)

and is thus incorporated into present time. As far as the play is concerned,

Creon could just as easily have come into existence when he came into

power, at the death of Eteocles and Polyneices. Only as the play is about

to end do we learn that Creon has a past, when we are told that he was

in some way responsible for the death of his son Megareus (1303-1313).5

We shall return to this point below.

Creon forms his judgement in terms of the city, or more precisely in

terms of this city. As he sets forth his policies to the chorus, for example,

Creon repeatedly uses the demonstrative rjSe when talking of the city.6

For Creon it is not simply a matter of abstract principle, that one should

be loyal to one's own city; his commitment is concrete and specific, to the

Thebes which the audience sees on the stage before them. Eventually, of

course, in the Haemon scene, Creon identifies the good of the city with

his own will rather than vice versa (cf. 734-738); but it is doubtful that

he has already done so at the beginning of the play. In his first address to

4 Thus there is no mention of a Theban sally to complete the defeat of the Argives

(as there is in Euripides' vivid account of the battle, Phoen. 1189 ff.), and we are left with

the impression that the Argive army abandoned the fight once its leaders were killed.

5 Teiresias does mention some earlier assistance which he gave to Creon, (993-995, cf. 1058), but this probably also refers to the sacrifice of Megareus, and not to some other

event in Creon's past (see below, note 24). 6 189, 191, 195, 203, 209; cf. rotunjs (189) and the chorus' use of rfiSe .. . woAei (212)

in immediate reply to Creon's initial statement.

This content downloaded from 192.231.40.103 on Thu, 2 Oct 2014 09:46:07 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

i8 Illinois Classical Studies, IV

the chorus Creon speaks only of the city: its friends are his friends, its

enemies his enemies (187 f., 209 f.), and none more so than the traitor

Polyneices, who now suffers the fate he deserves, his corpse exposed out

side the city as carrion for dogs and vultures (198-206).

The Greeks buried their dead outside the city walls. Within the walls

is the world of the living, outside is the world of the dead. Polyneices lies

exposed outside the city, and the dead Eteocles must be buried there also

(cf. 23-25), as must Oedipus, Iocasta and Laius, the whole clan of Lab

dacids, all now dead except Antigone and Ismene. Of these two, Ismene

chooses to yield to Creon (63-67) and remains within his control in the

city. Antigone, however, refuses to obey (47 f.), and so goes to bury her

brother, out of the city and into the world of the dead (99).

In the theater this world of the dead lies offstage to the audience's left,

the direction which convention assigns to the countryside outside the city.

When Antigone leaves to bury Polyneices, for example, she exits in this

direction7 (by contrast, Ismene's submission to Creon is visibly reflected

in her simultaneous exit into the palace). Throughout the play this left

side exit is used only as a means of passage to and from the world of the

dead, viz. to Polyneices' corpse and Antigone's tomb.8 The demonstratives

eVei and (i)i<etvos used to describe this outer world and its inhabitants9

also emphasize that world's remoteness and its association with death.10

7 Antigone must leave by the left (at 99), also to avoid becoming entangled with the

chorus which is entering at the same moment from the right (as old men the chorus would be shut up in the city during the siege, and would not be off to the left out in the

countryside). 8 Polyneices' corpse and Antigone's tomb must be fairly close to each other (and there

fore offstage in the same direction), since the burying of Polyneices and the freeing of

Antigone are both part of the same expedition out of the city (cf. 1198-1205). At 162, Creon comes from offstage (cf. Sevpo vttaBm [33] and the chorus' somewhat lengthy

anapestic greeting to Creon [155-161], on which see W. M. Galder, III, GRBS 9 [1968]

393, n. 24), but most probably from the right. There is no reason why Creon would be

returning from outside the city (i.e., from the left) if there had been no battle beyond the

walls (see above, note 4). Creon's Krjpvy/jLa is an "emergency decree announced by the

voice of a herald, the normal means adopted by a general... to announce his will to

the population in conditions resembling what we would call martial law" (B. M. W.

Knox, The Heroic Temper: Studies in Sophoclean Tragedy [Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1966],

95). It seems more likely that this sort of decree would be promulgated in the agora

(offstage to the right) and that Creon would enter from this direction at 162. 9 eicet: 76, 249, 777; (t)Kelvos: 71 (= Polyneices), 525 (= Polyneices and Eteocles),

I039 (= Polyneices), 1043 (= Polyneices); in terms of the following note compare also

168 (= Laius and Oedipus), 170 (= Eteocles and Polyneices), 468 (the more remote

obligations to the dead contrasted with the closer threat of death at Creon's hand), and

perhaps 514 (= Eteocles). 10 e'/cet is sometimes used as a euphemism for the underworld (LSJ, s.v. iieel, 2), and

This content downloaded from 192.231.40.103 on Thu, 2 Oct 2014 09:46:07 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Vincent J. Rosivach 19

While the inner world of the city is concrete and visible on the stage, we

never see the outer world of the dead. Instead, our knowledge of that

world is indirect, through the reports of others, and as a consequence the

outer world seems even more distant, less concrete, and so more mysterious.

Creon attempts to intervene in the outer world of the dead by pro

hibiting the burial of Polyneices. Although this prohibition was initially proclaimed offstage, Creon himself repeats the proclamation onstage (198

206). In this way the proclamation is dramatically associated with the

onstage world of the city and is seen as an attempt by Creon to project

his power, which is identified with the city, out into the world of the dead

beyond.11 The attempt fails repeatedly as Antigone twice buries Poly

neices' body12 and Creon himself finally completes the task.

As Creon dominates the action within the city, Antigone determines the

evolution of events which take place in the outer world of the dead, by

her burial of Polyneices and by her self-determined suicide, which leads in turn to the death of Haemon. As Creon functions in the light of the new

day proclaimed by the chorus (100-109), Antigone functions in darkness:

in the darkness of the night before the dawn of the parodos when, in the

prologue, she determines to bury Polyneices (42 ff.), in the strange dark

ness of the duststorm when she performs the burial (417 ff.),13 and in the

darkness of the tomb where she dies and causes Haemon's death.14 As

Creon is the man with no past, Antigone is a girl without a future. The

only future act which she contemplates is the burial of Polyneices, and

this act has been dictated by events in the past. Beyond the burial she

foresees nothing but death, and the sooner death comes the more grateful

she will be (460-464). Antigone does not even mention her own suicide,

eVelroj may be similarly used in reference to the dead (H. Ebeling, Griechisch-deutsches

Worterbuch zu Sophokles [Leipzig, 1869], s.v. ineivos, 1). 11 Another example of Creon's projecting the world of the city into the world of the

dead is his assumption that the first burial of Polyneices was the result of sedition within

the polis (289 ff.). 12 I assume here that both burials reported by the guard were performed by Antigone.

For our purposes, only the second burial is significant in terms of the evolution of the

play's action, and this burial at least, it is generally agreed, was performed by Antigone. 13 Since the first burial was discovered by the day's first watch (nparros . . ■ ̂pxpoaKoms,

253) it too must have been performed in the dark. The motif of lightlessness continues in

KovSels evapyys (263), Creon's tK&avdr (307) and fireire (325), and the guard's evSijAa kcu

acu/nj (405). 14 At 808 f. Antigone describes herself as vearov . . . <j>tyyos Xeilaoovoav aeXiov, recalling

the olktis aeXiov greeted by the chorus in the opening words of the parodos (100); cf. also

ovKfTL fiat ToSe Xa/iirdSos Upov o/a/icc de/jus opav (879 f-)> where the sun-eye recalls a/iepas

pX(<j>apov (104). The curse of the Labdacids is itself described by the chorus as a form of

darkness, like black sand stirred up from the sea's dark depths (586-592).

This content downloaded from 192.231.40.103 on Thu, 2 Oct 2014 09:46:07 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

20 Illinois Classical Studies, IV

but the actual suicide is itself secondary, for Antigone had already decided

upon her own death when she comes to bury Polyneices (cf. 555). Indeed,

in a very real sense she died at that moment, as she says, in order that she

might benefit the dead (559 f.), and her suicide is simply the consumma tion of this predetermined death.15

Antigone looks only to the past, and that past is her family which dic tates her present actions. As Creon's commitment to the city was concrete

and specific, to the polis of Thebes, Antigone's commitment to family is

also specific, to the royal clan of Labdacids. Antigone repeatedly identifies

herself and is identified by others as the child of this family, whose ill starred history is repeatedly recalled (2 ff., 49 ff., 858 ff.) like a genealogy of misfortunes, suggesting that Antigone too must come to grief (cf.

593 ff.,16 856, 893 ff.). These earlier Labdacids are now all dead, buried and unburied outside the city, and Antigone's own death will be but a

reunion, as she says, with 'my own' (tous ifxavT-rjs, 893; cf. 867 f.).

As Creon defines his friends and enemies in terms of the city, Antigone

defines hers in terms of her family: he who attacks the family attacks her

(31 f.), he who is the family's enemy is her enemy too (10, 93 f.). The

enemy now is Creon, who has refused to allow the burial of Polyneices

and so has intruded himself into the affairs of a family where he had no

right to enter (48, 1072). Ismene too is an enemy. She does not agree with

Creon, but she recognizes his power (58 ff), and so refuses to share in the

burial. By denying what Antigone considers the legitimate demands of

the family upon her (cf. 45 f.) Ismene alienates herself from the family and so becomes an enemy of Polyneices and Antigone (93 f.).

By acquiescing to Creon's proclamation Ismene concedes his right to

rule. This Antigone will never do. While Ismene speaks of vojxov and of

i/irj</>ov Tvpavvcov (59 f.), implying some legitimacy in Creon's decree,17

Antigone speaks only of r6v orpaTTjyov and his icqpvyfia (8). Generals are

not kings, and Thebes is not Creon's. For Antigone legitimacy is only in

the past, in the ancestral line of Labdacids, of which she, not Creon, is the

sole survivor (rijv ficcoiXeiSav fiow-qv Xonrfv, 941).18 Antigone and Creon

15 Even though Antigone has been sentenced by Creon, the chorus recognizes that her death is her own choice (821 f., and Jebb [above, note 3], ad loc.). We are thus reminded that in the world of the dead Antigone, not Creon, decides what will happen.

16 The notion of the dead influencing the present is clear in these lines when we

realize that the Aaf38aKi&av of 593 are the dead members of the clan, not Antigone and

Ismene; see H. Lloyd-Jones, CQ_ NS 7 (1957), 16 f. 17 Cf. also Ismene's /Sm noXiTwv (79), echoing her vo/iov f}la (59). Similarly the chorus

accepts Creon's legitimacy and the legitimacy of his decree; cf. flaoiAeus x<»Pas ('55)> paoiXeioimv . . . vofiois (382), etc.

18 Ismene is no longer counted among the flaoiXelSai, since she has accepted Creon's

rule, thereby failing the test of evycveia (cf. 37 f.).

This content downloaded from 192.231.40.103 on Thu, 2 Oct 2014 09:46:07 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Vincent J. Rosivach 21

have two very different views of the relationship between Thebes and

her rulers. Creon, at least in his public pronouncements, sees that relation

ship in what we might call "modern" terms: that rule depends on the

consent of the governed (cf. 666 f.)19 and should be directed to the good

of the city as a whole (cf. 178 ff.). Antigone speaks of Thebes in a much more "primitive" way, almost as if the city were an ancestral possession

(yas TTccTpias, 806; acrrv narpwov, 937) to be passed on from generation to

generation of Labdacids (cf. 941).20

In summary then, we find in our play a series of dichotomies which

underscore the basic dramatic conflict between Antigone and Creon:

World outside the city World inside the city unseen by audience seen onstage

eKelvoi, eicet ifSe ttoXis

dominated by Antigone dominated by Creon darkness light

death life

family city looks to the past looks to the future

Thebes ruled by old royal line Thebes ruled by Creon

The separateness of these two worlds, however, is more apparent than

real. In the course of the play Creon may twice reject the bonds of family

as secondary to the stability of his own rule over Thebes (484 ff., 655 ff.), but in his first address to the chorus he himself invokes the previous rulers

ofThebes, viz. Laius, Oedipus and the slain brothers (165 ff.), and justifies his rule precisely on the grounds of his own closeness of kinship with those

who had gone before him (yevovs kut ayxiareia tujv oXojXotujv, 173 f.).

This ill-omened claim of kinship with the dead is hardly an act of familial

piety, as are Antigone's invocations of kinship, but only a political ploy

used by Creon to help in consolidating his power in Thebes. In effect,

Creon declares himself a Labdacid in order to share that family's right

to rule. In the prologue, however, Antigone (2 ff.) and Ismene (49 ff.)

had accounted for their own sorry state as the consequence of the ills of

their family, and Ismene had mentioned Oedipus, his wife, and the two

19 In his opening speech to the chorus of elders Creon speaks of the support which

the elders had provided for the previous rulers (165 ff.); and, although he does not

specifically say so, it is clear that his purpose in addressing the elders is to secure the

same support for himself. 20 When Creon speaks of Polyneices attacking yfjv -rrarpwav Kal Beovs tovs eyyevets

(199; cf. Antigone at 937 f.), he means irarpwav from Polyneices' point of view, not his

own (i.e., Polyneices' ancestral land, not Creon's). Creon's use of irarpwav here is

accurate, since Polyneices was a legitimate member of the Theban royal line.

This content downloaded from 192.231.40.103 on Thu, 2 Oct 2014 09:46:07 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

22 Illinois Classical Studies, IV

slain brothers (49 ff.). Creon's invocation of the Labdacids here recalls these earlier "geneaologies of misfortune" and suggests that if Creon will

share in the rights of the family he will also share in the family's curse

which has brought grief to all the Labdacids before him. The curse is worked through Haemon. Haemon pleads with his father

to release Antigone, arguing that to do so would benefit Creon (701 ff.).

The argument is a good one for Haemon to make: by identifying the

interests of Creon with those of Antigone Haemon avoids the necessity of

making a choice between the two (cf. 748 f.). Creon, however, will not

accept the argument, and by repeatedly charging that Haemon's loyalties

lie only with Antigone (740, 746, 748) he finally forces Haemon to choose between himself and the girl. Creon justifies his sentence of Antigone in

terms of his own rule over Thebes (730 ff.), but Haemon cannot accept

this Thebes ruled as it now is by his father (734-745). Forced to choose, Haemon rejects his father (763 f.) and leaves the city (765). His exit is to the left,21 to the world outside the city walls. This outer world is the world

of the dead and, as events will show, it will be the setting of Haemon's

death as well.

At the end of this scene between Haemon and Creon, Creon may still

seem to be dominant, but his encounter with Haemon has forced him to

make an important retreat. Creon at first justified his intended punishment

of Antigone as necessary for stability within the city (655 ff); but the

punishment has become itself a source of civil discord. Creon claimed the

universal support of the city for his decree forbidding Polyneices' burial

(655 f., cf. 508); but Haemon told how he himself had observed the people of the city secretly lamenting that Antigone is to be punished for the burial,

but fearing Creon too much to make their objections known (688 ff). Such is the strength of Haemon's eyewitness account that Creon can no

longer claim universal support. Creon's "modern" view of his kingship has been that it is based on the consent of the governed. Without that

consent now, Creon should yield and free Antigone; but he does not. In

stead he abandons his "modern" view and declares that the will of the

people is irrelevant (734), and that Thebes is his alone to command (736). Creon has now come to share the "primitive" view of Antigone, that

Thebes is the personal possession of her king (738). He has been forced by Haemon's report to admit that, in this sense, his rule is no different from

that of the Labdacids before him.

Creon's reversal continues. The punishment for the violation of his

21 Haemon leaves by the exit to the left, since he will eventually go to Antigone's tomb, which is offstage in that direction (see above, note 8).

This content downloaded from 192.231.40.103 on Thu, 2 Oct 2014 09:46:07 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Vincent J. Rosivach 23

decree was originally to have been stoning within the city (cf. 36). Now,

almost as if to reassert his public posture as protector of the city as a whole,

Creon changes the punishment and sentences Antigone to immurement

outside the city, in order that the city might escape the pollution of her

death (773 ff.). This sudden attention to piety may not be all that Creon

claims it is. Stoning is a public act involving the whole community,22 but

a public which does not support Creon's policy would be unwilling to

carry out the sentence. Creon avoids the potential embarrassment or worse

by changing the punishment to one which can be carried out by his own

servants and soldiers, and does not depend on the community as a whole.

He thus saves face, but loses far more. Though he does not realize it, by

this change Creon in effect surrenders his control over Antigone. The

locale of her death will not be the world of the city dominated by Creon,

but the outer world of the dead, and her death will be at the time and in

the manner chosen by Antigone, not by Creon.

As the play progresses it becomes evident that reality is to be found in

Antigone's unseen world of darkness and death, and that Creon's city of

light and life is, despite the apparent reality associated with the visible

stage, nothing but an illusion which Creon's own actions ultimately de

stroy. This had been Haemon's message when he spoke of the civil discord

stirred up by Creon's punishment of Antigone. Teiresias too is a messenger

from the city,23 but his entrance and opening words suggest that, though

within the city, he is part of Antigone's world, not Creon's (or, put differ

ently, that the outer world already extends into the city through Teire

sias): his blindness, which is emphasized (988-990), suggests darkness within the city, and in contrast to the city and to Creon, both oriented to

the future, Teiresias refers to the past and speaks of help which he has

already given to Creon in preserving the city (993-995, cf. 1058), thus

giving us the first hint of any past which Creon may have had before the

play began.24 Teiresias now tells Creon of the illness the city suffers

22 See E. Fraenkel, Aeschylus: Agamemnon (Oxford, 1950), ad 1616. 2^ Teiresias enters from his traXaiov 6&kov opviOooKonov (999); cf. Oaxovs. . . iv'

otcovooKoiTci (Eur. Bacch. 347)> olaivLOfiar' opv!Bo>v iiaduiv BaKOLGLv eV Upoiatv (Eur. Phoen.

839 f.). The similarity of language suggests that both Sophocles and Euripides are

referring to a specific well-known Theban site, which may well be the same as the

oluivooKoiretov Teipealov naXovpcvov located by Pausanias (9.16.1) in or near the agora

within the city of Thebes. 24 The occasion and nature of Teiresias' past assistance is not here specified, but

e'f eftov yap njvS' exeis ouaa? rnXiv (1058) suggests some recent event: perhaps Teiresias'

advice that Creon offer his son's death to save the city besieged by the Argives (cf. Eur.

Phoen. 947-952; Megareus' death is referred to later in our play, 1303); a recent event is

also suggested by 994, if we retain the present tense of the verb as in the manuscripts (see

This content downloaded from 192.231.40.103 on Thu, 2 Oct 2014 09:46:07 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

24 Illinois Classical Studies, IV

because of him, polluted by the shreds of Polyneices' corpse which scavenger bird and beast have carried to the city and its altars (1015 ff.). Polyneices was unable to penetrate into the city while he lived, but his corpse, left

unburied at Creon's command, now enters the city to befoul it after his

death. In forbidding Polyneices' burial Creon had attempted to extend

his control outside the city into the world of the dead; but his attempt

failed, and now Polyneices and Antigone, both outside in the world of the

dead, will exact Haemon's death as Creon's punishment for his mistreat

ment of them (1066 ff.). Creon's mistreatments of Polyneices and Antigone

were political acts which denied the ties of family; but now Creon will be

punished through these very family ties he had earlier denied.

It remains only to play out the inevitable. Creon leaves the stage, his

world of the city, and goes into the world outside, the world of death

(1114). Here obligations to the dead must override concern for those who

still may live: Polyneices must be buried first.25 In this world of dead

Labdacids, Polyneices, the last dead Labdacid, must have his due from

Creon, the man who has chosen to be his kin (cf. 173 f.).

Creon now goes to Antigone's tomb (1204 ff.). As we have seen, Creon

surrendered his control over Antigone when he sentenced her to immure

ment outside the city. The outer world is Antigone's to dominate, and

since Antigone now controls all, Creon must fail. Antigone must be dead

by her own choice and hand (1221 f.) precisely because Creon would now

rescue her (cf. 1111 f.). Haemon still lives, but in the tomb, the innermost

recess of this world of death: now he truly belongs to Antigone. Creon

enters the tomb (1226 f.) and beseeches Haemon to come out (1230); but

it is too late. Creon had earlier forced Haemon to choose between himself

and Antigone. Now that choice has been made, and Haemon will not

leave Antigone. In a silence which seems deathlike in contrast to the cries

of Creon (cf. 1226 f.), Haemon draws his sword and rushes at the intruder

(1232 f.). For Creon is no longer his father, but the enemy26 whom Hae

A. C. Pearson, CQ_22 [1928], 187). H. D. Brackett, CJ 12 (1916-1917), 526, also sees in

the av of 996 (<f>povei /JejScus av vvv e'm gvpov rt fas) another possible reference to the death

of Megareus. 25 It is clear from the sequence of commands at 1108-1112 thatCreon recognizes the

necessity of burying Polyneices first. Creon has no reason to believe that Antigone will

commit suicide (or may have already done so), and so her release would not appear to

require the same haste as the burial of Polyneices, the remains of whose body already

pollute the city (cf. 1015 ff.); see also J. S. Margon, CP 65 (1970), 105-107; Brackett

(preceding note), 531-534. 26 Thus Haemon "spits" at his father (1232), as earlier Creon had told him to "spit"

at Antigone and treat her as an enemy (653); in both cases irrvoas is probably meta

This content downloaded from 192.231.40.103 on Thu, 2 Oct 2014 09:46:07 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Vincent J. Rosivach 25

mon would kill. The blow misses and Haemon turns the sword upon him

self (1234-1236). His rejection of Creon27 and his union with Antigone are now complete. As Haemon falls he embraces Antigone (1236 f.),28

corpse upon corpse as bridegroom and wife, their wedding chamber a

tomb (1240 f.). When Creon left to bury Polyneices the chorus sang an ode (1115 ff.)

whose theme of deliverance for the city of Thebes, deliverance represented

by the image of light, recalls the similar theme of the parodos. But while

the parodos was confidently set in the light of a dawn which had already

appeared (itfxivdrjs, 103) to replace the past night of danger, the present

ode is set in sickness and pollution (cf. 1140-1143), from which the chorus

prays to be rescued by a still future appearance of Bacchus (Trpo<f>dvr)0',

1149). The nature of the rescuing light is also different in the two odes.

In the parodos, the chorus sang of a new day which, by its nature as day,

totally replaces the darkness of night. Bacchus, on the other hand, is a

nocturnal god, and his light is a light which shines in the night but does not fully dispel its darkness.29 By the way in which they invoke Bacchus

as a bringer of light, the chorus reminds us that Thebes itself has now

become a city of darkness, not the city of light promised by the parodos.

The city of darkness is also the city of death. In rapid succession Creon

enters bringing Haemon's body from the tomb (1257; cf. 1258 with 1266),

Eurydice's corpse is revealed within the palace (1293), and we learn of

the earlier death of Creon's other son, Megareus (1303). The purpose of

this accumulation of deaths is not simply to overwhelm the already

humbled Creon in a sea of grief. Rather, each of these deaths has its place

in the patterns we have been examining. Haemon died outside the city,

and the entrance of his corpse is a visible sign of the penetration of that

world of death into the heart of the polis. Eurydice, on the other hand,

died within the city, and the appearance of her body on the stage serves

phorical, "expressing contempt and disgust" (see most recently P. Mazon, RP, 36 serie,

25 [195O. 14) 27 Haemon's suicide (like Eurydice's) is an act intended to punish Creon, and not

simply a gesture of hopelessness or insanity (see M. Delcourt, "Le suicide par vengeance dans la Grece ancienne," Revue de I'histoire des religions 119 [1939], 161-163).

28 On these verses see also C. Bonner, "The Death of Haemon (Ant. 1236-1237)." Classical Studies Presented to Edward Capps (Princeton, 1936), 24-28; Bonner reads irapBevov in place of rrap8evw at 1237, as more appropriate with -npoovTvootTai in the sense of

"embraces"; see further G. Miiller, Sophokles: Antigone (Heidelberg, 1967), ad loc. 29 Cf. OTtpoi/j. .. Xiyvvs (1126 f., referring to the smoky torches carried by the god's

devotees in their night revels; cf. Jebb [above, note 3], ad loc.); imp m/tiovrwv x°P°-y

aarpoiv, 1m\Loiv t^deyfitxTOiv Iitlgkottz (1146—1148); oe .. . irdwvxoi xoptvovoi (1151 f-)*

This content downloaded from 192.231.40.103 on Thu, 2 Oct 2014 09:46:07 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

26 Illinois Classical Studies, IV

as a visible counterpart to that of Haemon's (cf. 1298-1300). In this sense

at least the world within and the world without are both seen to be the

same: both are settings for death. While Haemon and Eurydice are of the

present—both die in the course of the play—Megareus is of the past.

Indeed, Creon's acquiescence to Megareus' death is the only thing we ever

learn of Creon's past. Through most of the play that past had been com

pletely shut out of Creon's new world; but now, as the illusion of that new

world crumbles, the past penetrates into the present through Eurydice's

suicide in grief for the deaths of both Haemon and Megareus (cf. 1303 ff.,

I3I2f.). Amid this destruction of family the city which Creon would rule is now

forgotten.30 Creon who once seemed to control all is now seen to control

nothing. Events flow under their own impetus to the final destruction of

his house, and Creon is powerless to stop them. In claiming his throne on

the grounds of his Labdacid connections, Creon also took upon himself

that family's curse, and now this man who made himself a Labdacid must

see his family perish, as all the Labdacids had perished before him. Creon

who would rule /car' ayxioreia rtov oXcoXotiov (174), has now become, like

them, an oAtoAor' avSp' (1288).31 The new day which the chorus had proclaimed fairest of all (100-104)

was an illusion. The new Thebes of light and life, the dominance of Creon,

the primacy of the polis were all illusions too, but the illusions are gone. The old Thebes which we saw in the prologue could not be shut outside

and forgotten, and now it has returned, present and real upon the stage. In this Thebes of family, darkness and death, Creon prays for the one day which will truly be fairest, the day which will be his last (1328-1333).32

Fairfield. University

30 From Eurydice's entrance on stage (i 180), to hear of Haemon's death, until the end of the play Thebes is mentioned only once, and then in a quite unimportant way, when the messenger suggests that Eurydice may have gone into the palace to keep her grief private, and not to broadcast it to the city (1247-1249).

31 Creon's death is metaphorical (he is an epA/ivxos veKpos for whom life is no longer worth living; cf. 1166 f.); but the word dAtuAor' does link him with Eteocles (174, J95), Polyneices (174, 1029), the whole of Antigone's family (894), and the dead Haemon (1240), all of whom were previously described by the intransitive perfect of the verb oAAu/xt. Creon's description of himself as an vcxpos also links him with the punish ment which he sought to impose on Antigone (cf. 774).

32 I have taken some liberty in my paraphrase of 1328-1333 in order to point out more clearly the similarity between this passage and 100-104 {<f>atnjTcu .. . koMiot' ... afiepav, 1329 f. C-O KttXXiOTQv .. . (<f>dv8r)S .. . a/upas, 100-104).

This content downloaded from 192.231.40.103 on Thu, 2 Oct 2014 09:46:07 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions