Creon In Sophocles Antigone

In Sophocles’s telling of the Greek poem Antigone the introduction of King Creon creates a rift in the relationship between sisters Antigone and Ismene, and serves as a source of conflict for Antigone. The latter effect is caused by his edict preventing Thebans from properly burying the traitorous son of Oedipus, Polyneices, which challenges the sisters’ relationships with their recently deceased brothers, who perished on opposing sides on the battlefield by their own hand. And yet, as the newly installed king of Thebes, Creon begins his reign with noble intent, revealing admirable characteristics of his in his very first monologue. Most blaring of which is his honor, a characteristic he makes known in his addressal of the chorus of Theban Elders after his crowning: “No man can be fully known, in soul and spirit and mind, until he has been seen versed in rule and lawgiving.”(pg.96) Creon seems to express a desire to rule in honor of his family’s legacy, out of a service to the fallen Eteocles and Oedipus, and not out of greed or his own ambition. Moreover, Creon’s honor finds further description in his critical assessment of Polyneices: “I-….