Theme Of Law In Antigone

Ancient Greek Society In the play Antigone written by Sophocles the main theme apparent in the play was law. The theme of law leads into the extensive subject of the Ancient Greek society mainly to do with the law and city-states. The city-states held an important role in the Greek society; they held their own government and the citizens thought of themselves as from their city-states not from Greece. The law of the Greeks dictated most everything they did. Ancient Greek city-states or poleis had many different ways of living, although they all spoke Greek and considered themselves Greek. The Greek poleis first formed after what is known as The Greek Dark Ages. The Greek Dark Ages were a time when old major settlements of

No laws or punishments were set by a governing force as the Dark Ages ended because no government force was apparent at the time. The act of committing a homicide was the base of the first written law by the Greeks because of the endless blood feuds from the family's committing revenge for the homicide. The first Greek lawmaker Draco wrote the law and the law stated if the act of murder was committed then the penalty was exile. This is one of the few laws used after Solon became the next law writer and wrote laws for the four main groups of laws the Greeks had. The four main groups of laws the Greeks had were the Tort, Family, Public, and

The Greeks did not have a professional judicial system with professional jurors or lawyers, they had what we now call amateurs. Usually the cases consisted of a prosecutor, a defendant, and the jurors. The prosecutors and the defendants were known as litigants. While the litigants argued over if the unlawful act was committed the jurors voted guilty or not depending on the arguments. These cases would usually take a day at most before the jurors would decide punishment. These "court officials" were paid little to nothing. As you can see the Greek society needed many functioning factors to complete the poleis and law. The Greek society’s complex unofficial judicial system would not work without the specific and extensive laws written by Draco and Solon. The laws also could not have been written if it were not for the forming of the poleis after the dark ages. All of these factors are tied together and all stemmed from the theme of law from the play