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SophoclesAntigone
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Scene 1 and 1st Ode
Scene 1 and 1st Ode Summary
Prior to the action, Eteokles and Polyneikes, sons of Oedipus, the former king of Thebes, feuded over who would rule. Initially agreeing to split time on the throne, Eteokles refused to pass the throne to Polyneikes. This led Polyneikes to attack Thebes with an army of allies from Argos. In the battle that ensued, the two brothers killed each other. This mutual fratricide fulfilled a curse set on them by Oedipus. The day after these deaths, Ismene and Antigone, daughters of Oedipus, stand outside the main gate of the house of Kreon, the brother of Oedipus’ former wife, Jocasta, and the current king of Thebes. It is just before dawn.
In her first lines, Antigone tells Ismene that while Kreon had Eteokles buried, he left Polyneikes to rot in the open air, forbidding any from burying him on pain of death. Antigone charges Ismene to show her nobility by aiding Antigone in burying their brother. Ismene refuses, arguing that enough death has befallen their family without their execution. Furthermore, Ismene knows this act would be a rebellion against their social status: “we’re born as women, we’re not brought into being / to war with men” (lines 76-77).
Antigone, initially shaming Ismene, accepts her refusal and decides to bury Polyneikes alone, saying “for me it’s noble to do / this thing, then die” (87-88). She sees Ismene’s siding with civil law in this matter as an “excuse” to save her own life. Antigone exits, and Ismene returns inside.
The Chorus, a group of 15 elderly Theban men who serve as counselors to Kreon, sing their first ode. Their song tells the story of Polyneikes’ attack, depicting him as a “bloodthirsty” and “murderous” eagle that loomed over the rooftops. They attribute his loss in battle to Zeus’ siding with Thebes and promise to celebrate the Theban victory with offerings to the gods. Kreon enters.
Scene 1 and First Ode Analysis
This scene initiates the dramatic action of the play and sets up its main problem: Antigone’s will to bury her brother despite Kreon’s forbiddance of it. As an enemy of the polis, Kreon sees Polyneikes as unworthy of burial. However, such burial is required for his soul to reach the peace of the underworld. Forbidding it condemns him to eternal suffering. Antigone, appreciating that it is the duty of family members to bury each other, sees his burial as necessary and in accord with divine will—an opinion she will uphold throughout the text, and one eventually confirmed by the seer Teiresias.
In the conflict between divine and mortal law, this scene initiates a prominent theme of the play: To do what is right and to do what is lawful are not necessarily the same. Antigone understands this principle, and therefore “will commit a holy crime, for I / Must please those down below for a longer time / Than those up here, since there I’ll lie forever” (91-92). In her oxymoron “holy crime,” Antigone defines the conflict between divine and human law.
Antigone reveals her rebelliousness in the first lines by calling her sister outside of Kreon’s house to discuss her issue in private. Such an act of women leaving the house without male consent was forbidden in ancient Greece. In shaming her sister’s refusal, Antigone shows her strong principles. Ismene, on the other hand, is shown in a standard female role of subservience. She stands as a foil to Antigone, opposite in principles but identical in social standing. The place of Antigone and Ismene outside of the city walls symbolizes both Antigone’s lawlessness and her eventual exclusion from Kreon’s familial mercy, particularly well symbolized through Ismene’s return to Kreon’s house at the close of the scene and Antigone’s exit elsewhere.
This scene is important in foreshadowing Antigone’s eventual death, with Antigone herself acknowledging its possibility. Placing this mention in the very first scene of the play demonstrates Sophocles’ intense focus on the theme of fate: The final moments are set in motion before the play even begins. This foreshadowing is an example of dramatic irony. Though Antigone expects her death, she does not know it is coming for sure. The original audience, however, familiar with the myth of Oedipus and his daughter, would have known of Antigone’s inevitable end.
The identity of the Chorus as elderly men of Thebes and counselors to Kreon shows them as loyal to the king over Antigone. In their song, they furthermore put forward an argument that Zeus sided with Thebes in the battle against Polyneikes, and therefore the actions of Kreon are divinely justified. This would be a problematic assumption to the Athenian audience of the play, as they would know it was a sin to leave a citizen of one’s own city unburied after a battle.
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