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Blake Clinton Y.

Dy

LITELEC A54

Antigone, the Temple, State and the Greek Phalanx

The well known tragedy titled Antigone that was composed by Sophocles portrays

the struggles of a brave maiden against a tyrannical regent who despite all the opposition

and obstacles in her path achieves her goal of giving proper burial to her dead siblings

even at the cost of her own dear life. Its villain is left to a horrible fate that befalls him

and his kingdom at the hands of Theseus and the seven enemies of Thebes much later on

while she herself is granted peace in the Elysian Fields. In modern times this would be

considered a classical story of martyrdom where righteous rebellion is rewarded and an

uncaring society is smitten however if taken in the context of the Greek City State this is

in fact a story enforcing the rules of conformity and obedience to the societys norms.

While Antigone does meet a far kinder in comparison to Creon both will or do

end up dead by the end of the story for disobeying the twin pillars that are the State and

Religion, which during the time went hand in hand in governing the people of the city

states whom despite exhibiting the early characteristics of democratic government were

heavily intolerant of deviance even going so far as to develop the ostrakon, a process

which allowed the citizens of any city to exile whomever they wished by popular vote.

However as barbaric or hypocritical as this may seem it was merely but a survival tactic

as the method of warfare then and life itself was based around the Phalanx, a unit of
armed soldiers bearing a spear, shield and short sword advancing and fighting in a tightly

closed block formation. The entire concept rested on each and everyman fighting as one

for the greater survival of the unit and not for personal aggrandizement as such each

citys fate depended on the number of Phalanxes it could field and their level of unity

amongst themselves. This play is in effect an abject lesson to the results and

consequences of being individualistic and though the results were over exaggerated it was

probably more than enough as the phalanxes of Greece have proved their worth in the

Battle of Thermopylae and were adapted by Macedonia in later years while city states

themselves grew to be extremely close knit communities though it is quite ironic that this

would lead to their down fall since their xenophobia prevented them from unifying into

one nation.

All in all Antigone could be a considered a fair insight into the world of ancient

Greece and though it betrays little of the life of the Greeks at large being a fanciful tale

and all it gives an insiders look into the mindsets and culture of the Greeks by the way

each character acts in respect to their environment.

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