Antigone And The Theban Play

Antigone and the Theban play, a tragedy by Sophocles entailing the death of Haemon and Antigone, namesake of the play and the result of incest between Oedipus and Jocasta, In the classical form of telling a story, or in this case a play, there is often a moral or form of discussion that subverts a conflict, in this case being an attempted and failed persuasion to the king of Thebes, Creon, upon the burial of her brother Polyneicis to give him a last honor, though the king will not have it due to him fighting against him and so must be left to the carrion birds to feast upon. In short the reason for this literary review is to examine the persuasion of ethics to law, comparable to Aristotle’s political views.

Aristotle, a great elder and famous figure throughout the world even now as in antiquity and even more famous for his writings in Plato’s Republic and in relation to the current topic his political views. Aristotle established initially, in his first book primarily but is continued in other readings, that ethics as much as the rule of law and the establishment of a community or oikos go hand in hand in order to create a functioning society that follows a natural order. Though in his first book the natural order is questioned because of his questioning whether or not a slave is better off a slave or a free man, further asking whether slavery is good for the state in general or not. To connect to the story, ethics and law is a titular plot point to be observed as the discussions and debates, or perhaps persuasions between Antigone and Creon revolves around these two concepts and beliefs, for the majority of the play at that as other characters interact in this same manner. To be noted as well is Aristotle’s moral standing upon de...

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...wed to be citizens in their respective polis. As such the actions of Antigone resulted in her imprisonment and living burial as decreed by Creon for her actions against the state, though only a minor point in the play this is crucial to understanding the political ideals established in Hellenic Greece and expounded upon by sophist and philosophers like Aristotle, Plato and Socrates.

In conclusion, Antigone is a prime example of the philosophical ideals set forth by Aristotle as it shows three points the notions of slavery in Greece, at least in classical eras, the establishment of a just society that does all justice and the aforementioned connection between ethics and laws as well the progress of attempted by Antigone in her persuasions. So forth this literary review has served to be an attempt at understanding Hellenic ideals from established norms in that era.