Oedipus as King of Thebes: Antigone by Sophocles

The effect of pride is the centers piece of man’s perpetual role in his own destruction. This is illustrated by various characters’ such as Creon in Antigone by Sophocles, Oedipus in Oedipus the King by Sophocles and the Trojans in the Aeneid by Virgil. In the Antigone we see the consequence of one’s pride and desire for power take hold, when Creon decides to punish Antigone for disobeying the law off the land and proving Polynices with a burial. The disregard for any form of sympathy would eventually come to hunt Creon, in a reversal of fortune that would see him loose not only his power but his family as well. A similar pattern is observed in the Aeneid by Virgil, where the Trojans filled with pride and neglecting the voice of reason, decide to carry the wooden horse into their city as a form of trophy. Consequently their attempt to feed their own hubris would be their doom, as the Greeks lying in wait within the horse ascend from it once in the city, delivering a brutal slaughter. The question then presents itself, are human beings all born with pride, doomed to fall victim to its deceitful nature as it presents itself in the choices of our daily lives, or is there a way to circumvent such emotions and its consequence?

Most often than not, pride is followed by the desire to preserve one’s own personal interest. This inability of man to put aside his personal glory at times plays a major role as the foundation of a prideful fall. However to understand the cause of this descent into selfishness and its consequence, one must consider what the prideful stands to gain. This idea of gain being the antithesis to prideful fall, is most illustrated by the Trojans in the Aeneid by Virgil. Left with the choice of either accepting the wood...

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