Antigone: Power, Conscience, and Death - Gender and the Structures of Power

1. Antigone:Power, Conscience, and Death - Gender and the Structures of Power Gender, Sexuality and Religion

2. Ancient Greek Theater • The chorus performed in the section labeled “orchestra” • The main stage was between the orchestra and the backdrop/backstage known as the “skene” • The “parados” were entryways for the actors and chorus • The audience sat in the rising seats of the “theatron”

3. Four Canonical Greek Playwrights • Aeschylus 525-452 BCE • Sophocles ca. 496 - 406 • Euripides 486 - 406 • Aristophanes ca 450-386 • All four of these men were prize-winning playwrights, lauded by their contemporaries • These are the only four playwrights whose work has survived from ancient Greece, which canonizes their literary status (we’ll return to this topic of the canon, the canonical, and canonization)

4. Four Canonical Greek Playwrights • Aeschylus 525-452 BCE • Sophocles ca. 496 - 406 • Euripides 486 - 406 • Aristophanes ca 450-386 • Given the formative role these four men had at the fount of European theater, they all feature strong, capable women characters

5. Antigone • Part of Oedipus trilogy by Sophocles • Deals with multiple forms and methods of death • Addresses cosmological questions, social questions, and political questions • Antigone, her sister Ismene, and her aunt Euridice, present a wide range of female agency, under the limitations imposed by male power

6. The Burial of the Brothers • Antigone explains the situation But hasn't Creon honored only one Of our two brothers with a tomb and dishonored the other? They say he has covered Eteocles with earth, as justice and law Require, so down below among the dead He will be honored. But the body of poor Polyneices, who died so wretchedly? They say a proclamation has been cried To all the citizens that no one may Hide it inside a grave, wail over it Or weep for it, it must be left unmourned, Unburied, a sweet-tasting treasure that birds Will spy and feed on with their greedy joy. (Norton anthology translation: see p. 659, lines 27-36)

7. Our Debt to the Dead • Antigone speaks: I will bury him. For me it's noble to do This thing, then die. With loving ties to him, I'll lie with him who is tied by love to me, I 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. (Norton anthology translation: see p. 660, lines 85-90)

8. The Unblinking Stink of Death • Physical attributes of death move the plot • The sentry speaks “…We brushed off all the dust that was on the corpse, we did a good job of uncovering the body, which was slimy; and then upwind, on top of a hill, we sat, to keep ourselves away from the stink, so that it wouldn't hit us. Each man helped by keeping another awake and warning him loudly if he seemed to shirk the task. This lasted till the time when the blazing circle of the sun had put itself at the midpoint of the sky and we were melting in the heat.” (Norton anthology translation: see p. 669, lines 453-462)

9. What is worth more than life? • Antigone freely confesses to Creon: I knew that I will die — how can I not? — Even without your proclamation. But if I die before my time, I count that as My profit. For does not someone who, like me, Lives on among so many evils, profit By dying? So for me to happen on This fate is in no way painful. But if I let the son of my own mother lie Dead and unburied, that would give me pain. (Norton anthology translation: see p. 670, lines 515-522)

10. Creon and Antigone • CREON Why do you grace with irreverent honor that other one? • ANTIGONE Eteocles' dead body won't testify to that. • CREON It will, if you honor him the same as the irreverent one. • ANTIGONE It was no slave—it was my brother who died! • CREON Attacking this land! —the other stood against him, in defense. • ANTIGONE And yet it's Hades who desires these laws. • CREON But the good should not get equal honor with theevil. • ANTIGONE Who knows if down there that is not considered holy? • CREON An enemy, even when he's dead, is not a friend. • ANTIGONE My nature's not to join in hate but to join in love. • CREON Then go down there and love those friends, if you must love them! (Norton anthology translation: see p. 671-672, lines 576-592)

11. TIRESIAS • Lived for seven years as a woman due to a curse from Hera • Important archetype of a prophet and shaman • Acknowledged by modern transgender folk as a mythic archetype • In plays by Aeschylus, Euripedes, and Sophocles • Painting of Tiresias appearing to Odysseus in the underworld, by Johann Heinrich Füssli (ca. 1780s)

12. Tiresias and Creon • There are cosmological ramifications to Creon’s decision not to bury Polynices Stubbornness will earn The charge of botching things! Give way to the dead. Don't keep stabbing at him who is destroyed. What prowess can there be in killing the dead yet again? (Norton anthology translation: see p. 685, lines 1136-1141)

13. Burying and Being Buried • Kreon’s words when he carries his son’s body back into the city: The burden of being mortal— The sad, exhausting burden! (Norton anthology translation: see p. 691, line 1406: “Oh the agony, the heartbreaking agony of our lives”)

14. Euridice’s Suicide • The pain of loss leading to despair: At the altar, with a sharp-edged, pointed blade She stabbed herself with sudden force and allowed Her eyes to close on darkness— after she wailed For the empty bed of dead Megareus And for this son, too; and last, she chanted hymns Of evil curses on you, killer of sons. Megareus was a second son of Kreon and Euridike, who was sacrificed earlier in the war, being sent to battle at too young of an age (Norton anthology translation: see p. 692, lines 1426-1432)

15. Religious Cosmologies and Social Organization • "Religion legitimates so effectively because it relates the precarious reality constructions of empirical societies with ultimate reality" - Peter Berger in The Sacred Canopy • Meaning for Creon: religion assures us that our form of social organization has divine sanction.

16. Religious Cosmologies and Social Organization • "Religion legitimates so effectively because it relates the precarious reality constructions of empirical societies with ultimate reality" - Peter Berger in The Sacred Canopy • Meaning for Antigone: religion assures us that our form of social protest has divine sanction.

17. Divine Law Competing Structures Antigone Creon Sentry Do they all have equal access to the gods? Even if they are unequal in social terms? How Creon sees it Gods King Creon Other Social Leaders Antigone Underlings (Sentry) Can Antigone go directly to the gods and bypass Creon’s authority?

18. Two Special, Related Forms of Death • Suicide • Martyrdom • Both of these forms of death are given special attention by religious traditions. Some religions encourage one, or the other, because cosmologically they are maintaining that some things (beliefs, principles, spiritual rather than material existence) are more significant than life. Some religions oppose suicide, and even martyrdom, because they feel that death is a decision made by a god rather than by a mortal. They may also maintain that violent death is never preferable to peaceful preparation.

19. Echoes of Antigone: The Lone Voice Against Tyranny • Socrates • Jesus • al-Hallaj • Sir Thomas More • Mary Dyer • John Brown • Henry David Thoreau • Martin Luther King

20. Echoes of Creon: Scorn for the Dead and Dying • Achilles • The Dismemberment of Osiris • Soldiers at the Crucifixion • War Trophies of Many Cultures • Guards at the execution of Saddam Hussein • George Bush, when Governor of Texas, mocking a plea for clemency from Karla Faye Tucker, a death row prisoner • NOTE: none of these people lacked a reasonable justification for the anger and spite they directed at the dead

21. The Canon and the Canonical • A “Canon” consists of what are considered to be the most significant and enduring works of art; a.k.a. “the classics” • The notion of a generally accepted “canon” has been much critiqued in recent decades. • Questions: • Who establishes/established the canon, and in whose interest is it maintained? By what authority is a canon decreed? • What and who is excluded from consideration in the canon? • Feminist scholars have been particularly suspicious of the formation of canons