Should Sophocles’ Antigone really be called ‘Antigone’?

The eponymous title of Sophocles’ Antigone is rather misleading: not only does it suggest there to be one central plot but also one main character – something we should find rather disconcerting, even after our first encounter with the play. From the very start, there are several structural parallelisms which make it hard for the title to wholly merit itself – nominally the fact that while Antigone starts the play, Creon ends it, the fact that the two plots overlap each other and are both contingent on one another, they both have early successes^[1] – burying the body and capturing the perpetrator respectively – and are both tragic characters in and of themselves. It is precisely this figural and literal entanglement of Antigone and Creon that makes it so troublesome to discern who indeed is the main character. However, I believe we may resolve the issue of who is more worthy to be the main character (and thus the wielder of the title of the play) by splitting our conception of what we think constitutes the qualities of the main character into two: namely, for tragedy, this consists of (i) deciding who is the protagonist of the story, and (ii) who is the tragic hero; It is of course custom for the two to be one and the same, yet I propose for Antigone that this is not at all the case. I intend to display (i) by comparing and contrasting Antigone and Creon with one another against the Knoxian model of the Sophoclean hero^[2]; The principles by which I intend to do this are θῡμός, ἄτιμος and γέλως, μόνος and ἐρῆμος, and the death and destruction these ultimately bring. For assessing (ii) I will analyse which character aligns better to the Aristotelian model of the tragic hero according to his Poetics whose requirements are principally: spoudaios or nobility, an intellectual not moral hamartia, a fall from happiness to misery, and finally pity and fear to evoke catharsis^[3]. This essay aims to show that while Antigone turns out to be the Sophoclean hero and thus the ‘main character’, it is in fact Creon who is the tragic hero.

The Sophoclean characterisation:

The first way in which Knox characterises the Sophoclean hero is through their θῡμός – that is a rage of the soul. There are numerous occasions throughout the play where both Antigone and Creon display rage – for example, when Creon says, ‘Quiet, before your words fill me with rage’^[4] and Antigone when she retorts ‘You can make that your pretext!’^[5] at Ismene. Yet, both characters are at various stages through the play actively credited with having θῡμός: indeed, Creon refers to Antigone by comparing her to ‘horses with great spirit’^[6] (θυμουμένους) and Haemon pleads Creon to ‘allow a change from…[his] rage’^[7] (θυμῷ). Hence, so far, clearly both characters can literally be said to have θῡμός, however, it is when we delve into the conditions of what constitutes Sophoclean θῡμός that a distinction between the two characters can be made. Those who are true wielders of θῡμός not only ‘cannot use their minds’ but also ‘do not want to listen to reason’^[8]; This certainly rings true for Antigone: after all, the cause of her θῡμός is none other than a reaction to not being able to honour ‘the children’ of her ‘mother’s womb.’^[9] A deep concern for Antigone is honouring her philoi, her blood ties^[10] – indeed it is precisely the specific blood tie of her brother rather than any other blood tie that makes her betray the city’s decree and we see this abundantly clearly in lines 905-912^[11]+^[12]. Thus, we may say that Antigone’s basis for θῡμός is not a rational one – she does not use her mind to make the decision to honour her philoi, but rather her heart^[13] which Ismene specifically makes us aware of^[14]. It is also extremely clear that Antigone does not want to listen to reason – Ismene shows us this in the beginning when she states that Antigone ‘crave[s] the impossible’^[15] – yet she carries on anyway. Antigone aligns herself strongly with Sophoclean θῡμός.

Creon on the other hand does not fit so neatly. He of course does not want to listen to reason as shown by Haemon who compares him in a simile to an unyielding tree^[16] in a similar fashion to how Creon described Antigone earlier in the play as hard iron.^[17] Creon fulfils this criterion, yet he fails in the other one as he is always using his mind^[18]. The cause behind Creon’s θῡμός is that his authority is called into question and thus essentially his ordering of the polis is questioned. The ordering of the polis for Creon is an entirely rational process – we see this when he says that ‘anyone who directs the entire city’ must ‘cling to the best and wisest plans’ and if they let ‘fear’ get in the way then they are a ‘most cowardly traitor.’^[19] Hence, for Creon, anyone who rules must not let emotions – nominally fear – get in the way of rationally ordering the city with the ‘best and wisest plans’ and given that he is the ruler, this applies to him. Indeed, Creon is so focused on always being rational, that in complete and utter contrast to Antigone, who bases her philoi on blood ties, he determines his philoi based on the polis^[20]; He demonstrates this when he states that he would never ‘make a man who is hostile to…[his] country a friend’^[21] and it is for this very reason that Creon executes Antigone: he cannot let the city go into disarray by letting his emotions take control and pardoning Antigone^[22] even if she is a philos^[23]. Thus, we see that Creon always actively tries to block out his emotions to preserve a rational rule of the polis and hence cannot not use his mind even though he might be angry. Creon fails in this metric of being as Sophoclean as Antigone.

Next, we must consider the ἄτιμος and the γέλως^[24] the two characters face. Antigone and Creon on the surface experience similar levels of disrespect^[25] fuelled by their θῡμός all throughout the play: Antigone is disrespected by Creon who puts Polyneices to ‘unburied shame’^[26], by Ismene who rejects Antigone’s proposal of burying Polyneices, and even cries out to the chorus ‘ah, you mock me’^[27] (γελῶμαι) specifically highlighting her γέλως. Creon on the other hand is berated by the public who ‘were chafing at this edict and muttering’^[28] against him, and by both Haemon’s and Antigone’s wavering loyalty towards him^[29]. However, it is through the consequences of this disrespect that we can distinguish who is subject to more abuse; The Sophoclean hero, in response to his mockery, yearns for vengeance on the perpetrator in the form of suffering the same ordeals they have. Antigone very clearly does this when she declares that she ‘could wish for them no greater evils than they inflict unjustly’^[30] on her, yet we never get anything of the sort from Creon. Hence, we may assert that it is Antigone’s disrespect that has a much more profound emotional effect on her, and thus class her as more Sophoclean.

The compound effect of ἄτιμος and θῡμός results in the hero being totally isolated – they become μόνος and for Antigone and Creon both in life and death. In life, Antigone is instructed by Creon to be ‘deserted’^[31] (ἔρημον) and herself says that she is now ‘deserted by friends’^[32] (ἔρημος πρὸς φίλων) whilst Creon, despite not being physically deserted (until the end), is mentally as he ‘thinks that he alone is wise’^[33] (μόνος) and would ‘make a fine monarch in a desert’^[34] (ἐρήμης…μόνος) which encapsulates the mental isolation he experiences from everyone else. And, in death, Antigone is alone as she says to Ismene ‘do not share my death’^[35], and inversely Creon is the only one left alive at the end. Moreover, the hero is so deserted that he feels abandoned by the gods. Antigone fulfils this criterion when she questions ‘Why should I look to the gods anymore?’,^[36] yet Creon never does.^[37]

All these qualities culminate in the hero’s wish for death – they are outcasted, disrespected and so loyal to their principles that there is no other choice for them. Antigone, in order to never ‘lack honour’^[38] knows that she must die – ‘die I must, I knew that well’^[39] – yet she still counts it as a ‘gain’^[40] and even says to Ismene ‘Your choice was to live, mine was to die.’^[41] Creon, to never ‘allow a traitor to stand in honour before the just’^[42] is ready to ‘fall from power’^[43], yet very importantly he never dies^[44] and hence fails to fulfil again another role of the Sophoclean hero. It is evident that ultimately Antigone is the ‘main character’ and the Sophoclean hero.

The Tragic Character:

The first requirement of the tragic hero is that they must be spoudaios as opposed to phaulos; It is obvious that both heroes fulfil this – Antigone as the daughter of the king Oedipus, and of course Creon who now possesses ‘all the power and the throne’^[45] Hence, we may move onto the next requirement of an intellectual not moral hamartia.

If anything is to be taken from the earlier argument about the basis of Antigone’s θῡμός, it is that she proceeds on emotional rather than intellectual or rational grounds^[46]: indeed, she herself gives a summation of this in the line, ‘It is not in my nature to join in hate, but in love.’^[47] Her nature is such that emotions form the basis of her morality, and this is what precisely results in her being condemned to death; It is the fact that she knows ‘no brother could ever bloom’ for her ‘again’^[48] and thus must take care of him – her moral devotion to her philoi causes her downfall.

As for Creon, for the same reasons as his θῡμός, he proceeds on an entirely rational basis. This is most evidently displayed in his interaction with Haemon who constantly uses rational terms to relate to Creon’s situation: Haemon says that ‘gods implant reason in men’ (φρένας) and that if ‘any man thinks that he alone is wise…[he] is always found empty.’^[49] (φρονεῖν) The clear message is of course that Creon is making a mistake in his thought process – indeed Haemon specifically targets this by constantly using variations of words for ‘mind’ and highlights this further when he refers to him as ‘insane’^[50] (οὐκ εὖ φρονεῖν). Furthermore, he directly says that he sees Creon ‘making a mistake’^[51] (ἐξαμαρτάνονθ᾽) solely due to his mindset – a variatio of the exact word that Aristotle uses for a fatal flaw (ἁμαρτία). At the very end, Creon even attributes his sufferings to his ‘reasonings’^[52] (βουλευμάτων). Therefore, Creon fulfils a criterion Antigone herself does not – an intellectual hamartia^[53].

To turn to the next requirement – that of a fall from happiness to misery – we may conclude that Antigone also falls short of Creon. Ismene explicitly says at the beginning of the play from lines 50-61 that they are already miserable and will be even ‘more miserable’^[54] if they defy the law. Hence, Antigone is implicitly not in a state of happiness to begin with^[55]. Conversely, Creon, as mentioned earlier, is at the height of his power^[56] having come to the throne and therefore is in a much better position to have a peripeteia – which he of course does due to his inability to yield intellectually.

Only pity and fear remain. Antigone produces much pity as she connects to us on a deeply human level^[57] – sacrificing herself all for the sake of honouring her brother – and most poignantly, is proved to be morally correct at the end of the play – a bitter sentiment indeed. Additionally, fear can be derived from her experience as well, as we all could easily be faced with the choice of whether to value philia above the polis or not.

Creon, most absent from our sympathies for much of the play, is suddenly struck down and so is his entire world around him – something which is clearly lamentable. His fear is no different a matter – for most of the play we view him as an abstract autocrat^[58]– yet his fault is quite simple: thinking he is wiser than others and being obstinate – something we can obviously all do. Therefore, both seem to evoke pity and fear in the audience^[59].

Through the aggregation of Sophoclean qualities, it appears that Antigone is clearly the main character Sophocles envisioned, yet simultaneously she fails to be the main tragic character – this responsibility falls on Creon after consideration of Aristotelian tragic attributes. The question of which one we might place more emphasis on is difficult – yet as tragedies often hold the title of their tragic character, and in potential Shakespearean fashion^[60] I am inclined to suggest that rather than Antigone as the titleholder, we should delegate this position to Creon.