How extensive and deep are the mythological roots in the Greek Sophoclean tragedy Antigone? Research indicates that both within the drama and around it there are numerous mythological influences.
The use of mythological elements in Greek tragedy is very compatible with the Greeks’ sense of history surrounding a drama. Martin Heidegger in “The Ode on Man in Sophocles’ Antigone” comments on the Greek audience’s sense of history and a drama:
Polis means, rather, the place, the there, wherein and as which historical being-there is. The polis is the historical place, the there in which, out of which, and for which history happens. To this place and scene of history belong the gods, the temples, the priests, the festivals, the games, the poets, the thinkers, the ruler, the council of elders, the assembly of the people, the army and the fleet. All this does not first belong to the polis, does not become political by entering into a relation with a statesman and a general and the business of the state. No, it is political, vile. at the site of history. . . . (91).
C. M. Bowra in “Sophocles’ Use of Mythology” gives the rationale behind the Attic dramatists’ preference for myths in their plays:
Myth provided the framework of drama, which illustrated in a highly concrete and cogent way some important crisis or problem, and that is why Greek tragedy can be called symbolical. The old stories are indeed told again for their own sake, and there is no lack of dramatic tension and human interest, but they also exemplify some far-reaching problem, which is admirably presented in this individual shape (31).
Antigone, the drama, begins with the main woman character and protagonist, Antigone, inviting Ismen...
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...l Themes.” In Readings on Sophocles, edited by Don Nardo. San Diego, CA: Greenhaven Press, 1997.
Segal, Charles Paul. “Sophocles’ Praise of Man and the Conflicts of the Antigone.” In Sophocles: A Collection of Critical Essays, edited by Thomas Woodard. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1966.
Sophocles. Antigone. Translated by R. C. Jebb. The Internet Classic Archive. no pag.
http://classics.mit.edu/Sophocles/antigone.html
“Sophocles” In Literature of the Western World, edited by Brian Wilkie and James Hurt. NewYork: Macmillan Publishing Co., 1984.
Watling, E. F.. Introduction. In Sophocles: The Theban Plays, translated by E. F. Watling. New York: Penguin Books, 1974.
Woodard, Thomas. Sophocles: A Collection of Critical Essays, edited by Thomas Woodard. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1966.
Sophocles. Oedipus the King. Trans. Robert Fagles. The Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces. Ed. Maynard Mack et al. 6th ed. Vol. 1. New York: Norton, 1992.
Roche, Paul. The Oedipus Plays of Sophocles. The New English Library Limited, London. New York and Scarborough, Ontario. 1958.
Sophocles. Oedipus the King. Trans. Robert Bagg. The Norton Anthology of Western Literature. Ed Peter Simon. 9th ed. New York: Norton, 2014. 666-706
Each culture has a certain level of ethnocentrism which can have positive and negative consequences. Ethnocentrism provides a feeling of unwillingness to change one’s culture or specific institution by placing them in a box. They can only see things through their specific lens and when something differs from what they know, they believe that it is a violation of the ways things should be. They become ignorant of the cultures that they may be right in the middle of by comparing them to the culture that they are familiar with and grading it on a scale. This causes a level of unwillingness to change institutions within a society because they are the standard. This makes it exceedingly difficult to relate to other people and the world as a whole because when someone is always trying to look at something while envisioning it as something else; they will never fully see the beauty of what they are observing. They limit their own experience for the sake of comfort and security, for the safety found within the familiar. Ethnocentrism is the safety blanket for many people yet the enervation that prevents them from fully experiencing the world and all of its different
The problems of ethnocentrism tend to manifest themselves in the philosophy of history, when philosophers attempt to interpret empirical history in teleological terms. Ethnocentrism arises whenever the researcher attempts to universalize the Western subject-position. In sociological terms that have been widely popularized since Sumner, ethnocentrism involves one first identifying with an in-group, with whom one shares certain observable characteristics (culture, language, physical features, or customs, for example).[1] The belief in shared characteristics leads to an assertion of identity, and this belief in turn influences attitudes. Our attitude toward the in-group is one of favouritism, whereas our attitude toward the out-group is one of
Boston: Pearson, 2013. 1396-1506. Print. The. Sophocles. “Oedipus the King” Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing.
The term “ethnocentrism,” meaning the sense of taken-for-granted superiority in the context of cultural practices and attitudes, described the way Europeans looked at their “culture” as though they were superior to all others. Westerns even stated that non-Westerns had no culture and that they were inferior to the culture that was building in Europe.
Woodard, Thomas. Introduction. In Sophocles: A Collection of Critical Essays, edited by Thomas Woodard. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1966.
Ethnocentrism can be defined as an individual’s belief that the ethnic group or cultural they identify with is superior to all others. “The ethnocentric person judges other groups and other cultures by the standards of his or her own group” (Schaefer 34).
Ethnocentrism began to develop in America long before we were officially a nation. When Europeans first came to America and had their initial encounters with the Native Americans, the Europeans were so surprised about how different the Natives were. Their differences in language, dress, and skin color made them doubt that the Native Americans were even human. Stemming from this notion, the Europeans eventually began to consider the Natives as the “other” and felt that they were more civilized than the “others.” Amerigo Vespucci wrote that the Native Americans were “worse than heathen; because we did not see that they offered any sacrifice, nor did they have a house of prayer.” Consequently, these feelings...
Woodard, Thomas. Introduction. In Sophocles: A Collection of Critical Essays, edited by Thomas Woodard. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1966.
Sophocles. Four Plays by Sophocles. Trans. Thomas H. Banks. New York: Oxford University Press, 1966.
The ineffaceable impression which Sophocles makes on us today and his imperishable position in the literature of the world are both due to his character-drawing. If we ask which of the men and women ofGreek tragedy have an independent life in the imagination apart from the stage and from the actual plot in which they appear, we must answer, ‘those created by Sophocles, above all others’ (36).
What are the chief accusations against ethnocentrism? Ethnocentrism, its critics claim, imposes a Western conceptual schema on non-Western forms of life, whose concepts often fail to fit the non-Western realities they purport to describe. This problem, however, is not peculiar to ethnocentrism, but is analogous to the problem of conceivability in the philosophy of the mind and the problem of obstacle-concepts in the philosophy of science in general. As the latter appears to be slightly less controversial, I will address it first.
I took long time to think before making any type of decision. Taking time to think always help me to make a right decision. I am optimistic, so never believe in failure.