Antigone

This scene depicts Kreon’s (too late) change of heart and represents the final moral victory of Antigone’s point of view in the revelations of Teiresias that the gods are displeased with Kreon’s actions. Notably, Teiresias enters the scene taking a much more commanding tone than his fellow senior citizens, the Chorus. Though mortal, Teiresias is a seer, speaking with knowledge of the future and the will of the gods. Because his authority trumps Kreon’s, he demands Kreon’s obedience: “I will explain—and you will obey the seer!” (1,054).

Teiresias’s use of the word obey recalls Kreon’s own valuing of obedience, which he mentioned at length to Haimon. The words of Teiresias open Kreon’s vision, for the first time, to the full will of the gods. Teiresias’ statement that Kreon’s fate is on a razor’s edge emphasizes that even though he is a king, his will is nothing in comparison to that of the gods.

Kreon’s initial refusal to obey the seer Teiresias echoes Oedipus’ identical refusal in Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex. Teiresias also appeared to this king of Thebes and also went unheeded, an act that brought doom on Oedipus’ family and blight upon Thebes. Now, Teiresias’ return signals the closure of this curse with the coming deaths of Antigone and Haimon.

Notably, the sin of burying Antigone is never mentioned as an issue by Teiresias. It is, however, implicit in his statement that the gods wish the body of Polyneikes buried and that Antigone, punished for burying it, should also be set free. This is why the Chorus charges Kreon to both bury Polyneikes and free Antigone.

Teiresias’ angry prediction that Haimon will die foreshadows his eventual death as well as, again, asserting the incontrovertibility of fate. Though Kreon rushes away to try to right his mistakes, Haimon’s lot has already been cast, and both Haimon and Antigone will die.

The joyful song of the Chorus calls upon Bacchus both as a patron of Thebes and as an image of joy itself—Bacchic rites were rites of revelry and play. Like the ode to love that came at the end of the Scene 4, this joy seems somewhat out of place in such a tragic drama. However, it offers the audience some final glimmer of hope that everything may turn out all right with Antigone. The audience may expect, for instance, Bacchus or Zeus to enter the scene as a deus ex machina, a common plot device in Classical Greek theater, setting everything right in the final moments. This salvation, however, will not come, and any hope the audience feels here only serves to deepen the coming tragedy.