antigone article 13
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Guide to Sophocles)
ANTIGONE
A Student Edition with Commentary)
Grammatical Notes) & Vocabulary
/3
Southern ILLinois lJniversity Press, ,
c : : . c : R B O N D ~ N D EDWARDSVILLE
Feffer & Simons, Inc.
LoNDON AND AMSTERDAM
The Creon-Haemon Debate
INTRODUCTION
THIS SCENE IS indeed a debate. even anr:;;;iJa contest or struggle
for supremacy between rather and s o n . ~ . probably docs not
realize that this is a contest of wil ls unt i l its disastrous conclusion
an d surely does not wanl,itJo. But for Cr. , the whole p lay is just
such an ngon. H i s J \ ~ ~ ~ n : 1 downfall is so total and ~ iliable
because he values h imse lr an at lcrs on y In terms of power. He
understands nothing of t h e co mp l emen tar it y of relationship that
Hac. and An. might have achieved were it not for his own weak
strength.Th e gentle but firm Hac. might have provided an adrnira-
ble balance for the strong passion of his intense spouse. Th e whole-
ness of the androgynous An. and of the "gynccandrous" Hac. J
escapes his comprehension. Certainly, if anyone could reach the
uncomprehending king, it is his doc ile son. In fact , by disposition
and his unique r ~ t i , o n s q t . g as spouse of one antagoni st and son
of the other,2f hc'\ls ~ g ' ' \ j ' t s T \ h o p c of reconciliation between these
intransigent personalities. The railun: of his v.iljant attempt is thus
the turning point in the pl'!Y.
LThree t J ~ ~ e m c s of the play are central to an understanding of
the struggle 10 this scene. They arc cmptiness vcrsus isolation, piety,
and obedience. Th e first two primarily continue Cr . 's struggle with
the absent An., while the third reflects as well upon the cr nanci pa-
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Guide to Sophocles' ANTIGONE /
lion of the son from his father. An examination of these themes
will show how Soph. unmasks Cr. qua human being in this scene L
(Episode I already unmasked him qua king) and how the playwright A ~ s · .thus underlines the contrastin full hum anity of the absent heroine.
nreuTlTh e words krnos. " e mp t y ," a n d g1lomE. JU gmcnt, are In Ices \:.
ofHac.ts
changing altitude toward his father. Whereas Hae. 'sopening remarks contain the confident promise that he will follow
his father's good counsels ( ~ n a m a i 635). a short hundred lines later
he characterizes those judgments as empty aphorisms, kenas gnomiis
(735). Kenos was usually reserved for objects l ike houses or hands.
Thus. Ihe son's earlier fear' has become reality: Cr. is as hollow
3., a writing tablet that is opened up an d found to be devoid of
contents (709 and n.). When Cr. retorts that Hac. is t he empty
one, devoid of wisdom (754). the spectator recognizes hollow rhet
oric. But Hac. shrinks from the realization: " I f you Were not my
father." he pleads. "I would have said you were not wise" (755).
The fathe r then irrevocably breaks the family tie not so much
by c a l l i ~ g h im ."the woman 's c h . a t t ; ) , ; ' ( . l . ? : 5 . ~ ) h ~ by d i a b ~ l i c a l l ythreatening to kill "the h a t ; . ~ l thl13g" ( 7 ' 1 f o ) ~ t o r e hIS sons eyes.
Th e mild. conciliatory y o u t l i " F s l h ~ s forced to the realization that
there is no accommodation possible with a madman (765). His
last words. only slightly veIl ing his threat of suicide. are ironically
couched in his father' s vocabulary of physical s ight . as though he
still nurtured a residual hope of reaching the t yran t who had been
his father.
So the words kmos and gnoml reflect Hac.ts movement from
faith in his father and confidence that their differences can be
overcome to recognition of his father's vacuity. In the closing lines
of the play, even Cr. realizes th.is when he calls himself a "c ipher'(1
no more than nOlhing" ( '322 ), The tragedy, thus, docs not a n i f ~ nJ\?nihilate a great man b ut simply reveals a hollow rnan.?
-r Another word for "empty" resonates througHout the p lay. It
Is erimos, "bereft," "isolated," and it is An.1s word for the spiritual
1\ (:r.. isolation that is the ironic outgrowth of he r own loving act. Her
t:;\,,\,J\ decision to act on behalf of her philos, Polvnices, results. she later
\il\'l''J, realizes. in her being "bere ft o f loved ones" (almos pros phitan).·
\\)'>l However. in th is sc en e, Hac. applies this word to his father in
I l ' i \ . ~ one of his most effective rejoinders. When Cr. claims absolute power
. , O'f\e.. ;r h .3-s Q j f . > I ' ; ; Q l i " ' ~ C r w ~ s 'le.mf1ntss ll i 5 J ; - f f e ~ ( \ l
The Creon-Haemon Debate
over the polis. Hae, counters: "You would be a fine monarch ruling ()
over a desert" (i.e.• a n empt y l and , almls gls, 739). Hac . might \ . . . ~ Ohave called t he l an d kenandrcs, empty of men. as Theseus d id \)5
(Oedipus at ~ a l a n o : 917!, bu t his choice of An. 's word serves to A,J{,contrast her ISolatIon WIth his. Hers, stems from the fu II ness of her
love. Cr.'s from his emptiness.VO$o\...
Of\""JTh e second theme. that of pietro is the subject of much o f the
debate between father an d son. an d keeps recurring throughout
t he p lay.s Th e theme is present from An.'s first mention of he r
ac t of holy criminality in the Prologue (74) unt il the last sentence
of the play (1350). The issues are sharpened and defined especially
in t hi s episode and in A n.' s la st speech. Earlier. Cr. Was obsessed
with equating religion with his acts as king. In this episode. his
desire for the mantle of piety surfaces again. How can he "reverence
the lawless" (730) and still reverence his Own kingly powers (744),
he asks. Hae, tries to correct his father's error: "I t is no t reverence
to t r.ample on divine prerogat ives" (745). The king's tyrannicalrespon:c reveals his legalistic and scrupulous conception of piety: 6
he decides to reduce the death penalty for An. to a living death,
providing her with enough food to rel ieve him of legal responsibility
for her death (771-76). while still leaving her to the care of Hades.
"the only god she reveres" (777). In An.ts final speech, her own
painful grappling with her relation to the gods (see Intro., Chap.
6) leaves the audience to judge the winner in the contest for piety.
Th e thIrd theme. that of obedience an d submission to authority
reveals Hae.'s growth from his opening remarks to his final choice-
of A ~ . · s principle instead of blind obedience to the king. In his
open,lng statement, his.submissiveness is almost but not quite ob-
sequious (see 635-38 n.). In Bilingual Selections, I consider Hae.'s
sensitive but mature conduct in this scene as he progresses from t/tUt.qualified obedience to a necessary rejedion of his father's immoraC
stance,7 But here I wish to examine obedience from the king's pointof View.
In an elaborate double personification of obedience and anarchy
(672-76). Cr. lectures his son on the necessi ty for obedience as
an antidote to anarchy. Th e two personified forces form a "frame
a n t i t ~ e s i s " B around the passage in which the king contends that
obedience to command (perth*arch'-a) preserves society whereas 'a!¢'-
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Guide Co Sophocles' ANTIGONE /
lessnCS5 (all-arclll'a) destroys its Fabr-ic. There are two examgles of
l awle ssnes s tha t he -rails to perce ive: his own, s ince he exempts
, himself from t he rul e of law (see 667), and the s ta te 's , s ince its
L(1!-,,"50 council of elders is afraid even to mention th e anarchic of the chief
\A r;.o.\e- executive (see 211-14). It is quite apparent therefore why he could
~ i J ) ' " not understand An.'s argument that obedience to an unwritten
law might demand the appearance of lawlessness (450-70). Theking reduces the polit ical process to two contradictory f o r c e s ~good one identified with hi s own will a nd the evil one identified
wIth those who would defy h im. (The striking parallel between
this and the "Watergate mentality" needs no commcnt.)
The imagery that Cr. uses in this episode is appropriately
military and hierarchical. His son will succeed when posted behind
his father-leader (640). Order is seen as military order (cf. tassein,
63 , prostassein, 670-71, epitassein 664, akosma 660; also 677 and 730
and the notes on these l ines) . jf all men and objects are not in
proper order, kosmos, there is chaos. Everyone has his proper rank
in Cr.'s h ierarchy. First there is cr.. identical, sometimes, even
superior to Zeus (657); then mature men who must never be
schooled by young men (726-27); then young men; finally women,
slaves, and animals all seemingly on a par. Much of Cr. 's indigna-
lion stem s from disruption of this order: his son becoming a
"woman's chattel,' a woman daring to discourse on the meaning
of law; or acting in defiance o f h er uncle-king, women ranging
at large outside the women's quarters (578-80), a son not realizing
that a woman's body is of no more value than a field bought for
cultivation (569).
We have examined three of the issues in the debate between
father and son. As Hae. angrily runs off stage, his departure signals
\\d.\{1\() 'l \ his decis ion to stand with An. against his rigid f at her. In their
next choral ode on Eros' invincible power. the elders probably mean
to stand with th e king against the apparently mindless passion
of the youth. Cr.'s mil itary and hierarchical arguments do, after
all, derive from a persistent strain in Greek thought. But the poet's
deeper meaning shines t h r o u g h : ~ i s not the bewitching, playful
spiri t of lyric poetry bu t is endowed by Soph. with a new majesty
in this ode. Eros is pictured as a moral force that sits enthroned
as a pee r a longside the eternal laws (797-99). Eros enables Hae.
The Creon-Haanon Debate
to share the heinous fate of his innocent fiancee.- Thus, although
the elders have not repudiated the king their words in rh od. . Iceunwltllngly do. q..::r-