AL-IRAQIA UNIVERSITY

COLLEGE OF ARTS

,,Antigone as an early feminist play’’

by sophocles

A RESEARCH PAPER
SUBMITTED TO THE COUNCIL OF THE COLLEGE
OF THE ARTS AL-IRAQIA UNIVERSITY
IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT
OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR
THE DEGREE OF BACHELOR OF ARTS IN ENGLISH
LITERATURE

BY
EZULDEEN SHEHAB AHMED

SUPERVISER BY
ASSIST , INSTR MAHA EYADEH AL-SUDAID

MAY 2019
TABLE OF CONTENTS
 Acknowledgements

This work would not have been possible without the assist of allah who
give me the power to complete this paper .
I am thankful to my mother who provided me with support during
my academic carer .
And i appreciative to my supervisor assist , instr maha eyadeh
al-sudaid for this help to complete this wonderful work.
 What Is Feminism?

''Feminism is the radical notion that women are people.'' You can get t-shirts
and bumper stickers with that quote printed on them, and it's a pretty accurate
definition of what feminism really is. Antigone by Sophocles existed before the
word ''feminism,'' but that doesn't mean it can't illustrate some of its main tenets.
Through the character of Antigone, Sophocles asserts some important feminist
ideas--ideas that would have been totally radical in 441 BC, when the play was
written. Kudos to Sophocles!
SOPHOCLES

is one of three ancient Greek tragedians whose plays have survived. His
first plays were written later than or contemporary with those of
Aeschylus, and earlier than or contemporary with those of Euripides.
Sophocles wrote over 120 plays[3] during the course of his life, but only
seven have survived in a complete form: Ajax, Antigone, Women of
Trachis, Oedipus Rex, Electra, Philoctetes and Oedipus at Colonus.[4]
For almost 50 years, Sophocles was the most celebrated playwright in the
dramatic competitions of the city-state of Athens that took place during
the religious festivals of the Lenaea and the Dionysia. He competed in 30
competitions, won 24, and was never judged lower than second place.
Aeschylus won 13 competitions, and was sometimes defeated by
Sophocles, while Euripides won four competitions.

LIFE :

Sophocles, the son of Sophilus, was a wealthy member of the rural deme
(small community) of Hippeios Colonus in Attica, which was to become
a setting for one of his plays, and he was probably born there.Sophocles
was born a few years before the Battle of Marathon in 490 BC: the exact
year is unclear, although 497/6 is the most likely.Sophocles was born into
a wealthy family (his father was an armour manufacturer) and was highly
educated. Sophocles' first artistic triumph was in 468 BC, when he took
first prize in the Dionysia theatre competition over the reigning master of
Athenian drama, Aeschylus. According to Plutarch, the victory came
under unusual circumstances. Instead of following the usual custom of
choosing judges by lot, the archon asked Cimon and the other strategoi
present to decide the victor of the contest. Plutarch further contends that
following this loss Aeschylus soon left for Sicily.[10] Although Plutarch
says that this was Sophocles' first production, it is now thought that his
first production was probably in 470 BC. Triptolemus was probably one
of the plays that Sophocles presented at this festival.
In 480 BC Sophocles was chosen to lead the paean (a choral chant to a
god), celebrating the Greek victory over the Persians at the Battle of
Salamis. Early in his career, the politician Cimon might have been one of
his patrons, although if he was, there was no ill will borne by Pericles,
Cimon's rival, when Cimon was ostracized in 461 BC. In 443/2 he served
as one of the Hellenotamiai, or treasurers of Athena, helping to manage
the finances of the city during the political ascendancy of Pericles.
According to the Vita Sophoclis, in 441 BC he was elected one of the ten
generals, executive officials at Athens, as a junior colleague of Pericles,
and he served in the Athenian campaign against Samos; he was supposed
to have been elected to this position as the result of his production of
Antigone.

In 420 BC, he welcomed and set up an altar for the image of Asclepius at
his house, when the deity was introduced to Athens. For this, he was
given the posthumous epithet Dexion (receiver) by the Athenians. He was
also elected, in 413 BC, one of the commissioners (probouloi) who
responded to the catastrophic destruction of the Athenian expeditionary
force in Sicily during the Peloponnesian War.

Sophocles died at the age of ninety or ninety-one in the winter of 406/5

BC, having seen within his lifetime both the Greek triumph in the Persian
Wars and the bloodletting of the Peloponnesian War. As with many
famous men in classical antiquity, his death inspired a number of
apocryphal stories. The most famous is the suggestion that he died from
the strain of trying to recite a long sentence from his Antigone without
pausing to take a breath. Another account suggests he choked while
eating grapes at the Anthesteria festival in Athens. A third holds that he
died of happiness after winning his final victory at the City Dionysia. A
few months later, a comic poet, in a play titled The Muses, wrote this
eulogy: "Blessed is Sophocles, who had a long life, was a man both
happy and talented, and the writer of many good tragedies; and he ended
his life well without suffering any misfortune." According to some
accounts, however, his own sons tried to have him declared incompetent
 near the end of his life; he is said to have refuted their charge in court by
reading from his as yet unproduced Oedipus at Colonus. One of his sons,
Iophon, and a grandson, also called Sophocles, also became playwrights.

WORKES AND LEGACY :

Among Sophocles' earliest innovations was the addition of a third actor,

which further reduced the role of the chorus and created greater
opportunity for character development and conflict between characters.
Aeschylus, who dominated Athenian playwriting during Sophocles' early
career, followed suit and adopted the third character into his own work
towards the end of his life. Aristotle credits Sophocles with the
introduction of skenographia, or scenery-painting. It was not until after
the death of the old master Aeschylus in 456 BC that Sophocles became
the pre-eminent playwright in Athens.

Thereafter, Sophocles emerged victorious in dramatic competitions at 18

Dionysia and 6 Lenaia festivals. In addition to innovations in dramatic
structure, Sophocles' work is also known for its deeper development of
characters than earlier playwrights. His reputation was such that foreign
rulers invited him to attend their courts, although unlike Aeschylus who
died in Sicily, or Euripides who spent time in Macedon, Sophocles never
accepted any of these invitations. Aristotle used Sophocles' Oedipus Rex
in his Poetics (c. 335 BC) as an example of the highest achievement in
tragedy, which suggests the high esteem in which his work was held by
later Greeks.

Only two of the seven surviving plays can be dated securely: Philoctetes
(409 BC) and Oedipus at Colonus (401 BC, staged after Sophocles' death
by his grandson). Of the others, Electra shows stylistic similarities to
these two plays, which suggests that it was probably written in the latter
part of his career. Ajax, Antigone and The Trachiniae are generally
thought to be among his early works, again based on stylistic elements,
with Oedipus Rex coming in Sophocles' middle period. Most of
Sophocles' plays show an undercurrent of early fatalism and the
beginnings of Socratic logic as a mainstay for the long tradition of Greek
tragedy.

Theban plays :

The Theban plays consist of three plays: Oedipus Rex (also called
Oedipus Tyrannus or Oedipus the King), Oedipus at Colonus and
Antigone. All three plays concern the fate of Thebes during and after the
reign of King Oedipus. They have often been published under a single
cover. Sophocles, however, wrote the three plays for separate festival
competitions, many years apart. Not only are the Theban plays not a true
trilogy (three plays presented as a continuous narrative) but they are not
even an intentional series and contain some inconsistencies among them.
He also wrote other plays having to do with Thebes, such as the Epigoni,
of which only fragments have survived.

Subjects :

Each of the plays relates to the tale of the mythological Oedipus, who
killed his father and married his mother without knowledge that they were
his parents. His family is fated to be doomed for three generations.

In Oedipus Rex, Oedipus is the protagonist. Oedipus' infanticide is

planned by his parents, Laius and Jocasta, to avert him from fulfilling a
prophecy; in truth, the servant entrusted with the infanticide passes the
infant on through a series of intermediaries to a childless couple, who
adopt him not knowing his history. Oedipus eventually learns of the
Delphic Oracle's prophecy of him, that he would kill his father and marry
his mother; Oedipus attempts to flee his fate without harming those he
knows as his parents (at this point, he does not know that he is adopted).
Oedipus meets a man at a crossroads accompanied by servants; Oedipus
and the man fight, and Oedipus kills the man (who was his father, Laius,
although neither knew at the time). He becomes the ruler of Thebes after
solving the riddle of the Sphinx and in the process, marries the widowed
queen, his mother Jocasta. Thus the stage is set for horror. When the truth
comes out, following from another true but confusing prophecy from
Delphi, Jocasta commits suicide, Oedipus blinds himself and leaves
Thebes. At the end of the play, order is restored. This restoration is seen
when Creon, brother of Jocasta, becomes king, and also when Oedipus,
before going off to exile, asks Creon to take care of his children.
Oedipus's children will always bear the weight of shame and humiliation
because of their father's actions.

In Oedipus at Colonus, the banished Oedipus and his daughter Antigone

arrive at the town of Colonus where they encounter Theseus, King of
Athens. Oedipus dies and strife begins between his sons Polyneices and
Eteocles.

In Antigone, the protagonist is Oedipus' daughter, Antigone. She is faced

with the choice of allowing her brother Polyneices' body to remain
unburied, outside the city walls, exposed to the ravages of wild animals,
or to bury him and face death. The king of the land, Creon, has forbidden
the burial of Polyneices for he was a traitor to the city. Antigone decides
to bury his body and face the consequences of her actions. Creon
sentences her to death. Eventually, Creon is convinced to free Antigone
from her punishment, but his decision comes too late and Antigone
commits suicide. Her suicide triggers the suicide of two others close to
King Creon: his son, Haemon, who was to wed Antigone, and his wife,
Eurydice, who commits suicide after losing her only surviving son.

Composition and inconsistencies :

Oedipus at Colonus by Jean-Antoine-Théodore Giroust (1788), Dallas

Museum of Art
The plays were written across thirty-six years of Sophocles' career and
were not composed in chronological order, but instead were written in the
order Antigone, Oedipus Rex, and Oedipus at Colonus. Nor were they
composed as a trilogy – a group of plays to be performed together, but are
the remaining parts of three different groups of plays. As a result, there
are some inconsistencies: notably, Creon is the undisputed king at the end
of Oedipus Rex and, in consultation with Apollo, single-handedly makes
the decision to expel Oedipus from Thebes. Creon is also instructed to
look after Oedipus' daughters Antigone and Ismene at the end of Oedipus
Rex. By contrast, in the other plays there is some struggle with Oedipus'
sons Eteocles and Polynices in regard to the succession. In Oedipus at
Colonus, Sophocles attempts to work these inconsistencies into a
coherent whole: Ismene explains that, in light of their tainted family
lineage, her brothers were at first willing to cede the throne to Creon.
Nevertheless, they eventually decided to take charge of the monarchy,
with each brother disputing the other's right to succeed. In addition to
being in a clearly more powerful position in Oedipus at Colonus, Eteocles
and Polynices are also culpable: they consent (l. 429, Theodoridis, tr.) to
their father's going to exile, which is one of his bitterest charges against
them.

Other plays :

In addition to the three Theban plays, there are four surviving plays by
Sophocles: Ajax, Women of Trachis, Electra, and Philoctetes, the last of
which won first prize in 409 BC in which it competed.

Ajax focuses on the proud hero of the Trojan War, Telamonian Ajax, who
is driven to treachery and eventually suicide. Ajax becomes gravely upset
when Achilles’ armor is presented to Odysseus instead of himself.
Despite their enmity toward him, Odysseus persuades the kings Menelaus
and Agamemnon to grant Ajax a proper burial.

The Women of Trachis (named for the Trachinian women who make up
the chorus) dramatizes Deianeira's accidentally killing Heracles after he
had completed his famous twelve labors. Tricked into thinking it is a love
charm, Deianeira applies poison to an article of Heracles' clothing; this
poisoned robe causes Heracles to die an excruciating death. Upon
learning the truth, Deianeira commits suicide.

Electra corresponds roughly to the plot of Aeschylus' Libation Bearers. It

details how Electra and Orestes avenge their father Agamemnon's murder
by Clytemnestra and Aegisthus.

Philoctetes retells the story of Philoctetes, an archer who had been

abandoned on Lemnos by the rest of the Greek fleet while on the way to
Troy. After learning that they cannot win the Trojan War without
Philoctetes' bow, the Greeks send Odysseus and Neoptolemus to retrieve
him; due to the Greeks' earlier treachery, however, Philoctetes refuses to
rejoin the army. It is only Heracles' deus ex machina appearance that
persuades Philoctetes to go to Troy.

Fragmentary plays :

Although the list of over 120 titles of plays associated with Sophocles are
known and presented below, little is known of the precise dating of most
of them. Philoctetes is known to have been written in 409 BC, and
Oedipus at Colonus is known to have only been performed in 401 BC,
posthumously, at the initiation of Sophocles' grandson. The convention
on writing plays for the Greek festivals was to submit them in tetralogies
of three tragedies along with one satyr play. Along with the unknown
dating of the vast majority of over 120 play titles, it is also largely
unknown how the plays were grouped. It is, however, known that the
three plays referred to in the modern era as the "Theban plays" were
never performed together in Sophocles' own lifetime, and are therefore
not a trilogy (which they are sometimes erroneously seen as).

Fragments of Ichneutae (Tracking Satyrs) were discovered in Egypt in

1907. These amount to about half of the play, making it the best
preserved satyr play after Euripides' Cyclops, which survives in its
entirety. Fragments of the Epigoni were discovered in April 2005 by
classicists at Oxford University with the help of infrared technology
previously used for satellite imaging. The tragedy tells the story of the
second siege of Thebes. A number of other Sophoclean works have
survived only in fragments, including:

Aias Lokros (Ajax the Locrian)

Aias Mastigophoros (Ajax the Whip-Bearer)
Aigeus (Aegeus)
Akhilleôs Erastai ([male] Lovers of Achilles)
Amycos
Andromache
Andromeda
Antenoridai (Sons of Antenor)
Athamas (two versions produced)
Hybris
Hydrophoroi (Water-Bearers)
Lemniai (Lemnian Women)
Manteis (The Prophets) or Polyidus
Meleagros
Minôs
Momus
Nausicaa, or Plyntriai
Niobe
Oenomaus
Palamedes
Pandora, or Sphyrokopoi (Hammer-Strikers)
Pelias
Peleus
Pha
Rhizotomoi (The Root-Cutters)
Salmoneus
Syndeipnoi (The Diners, or, The Banqueters)
Tantalus
Telephus
Tereus

Sophocles' view of his own work :

There is a passage of Plutarch's tract De Profectibus in Virtute 7 in which

Sophocles discusses his own growth as a writer. A likely source of this
material for Plutarch was the Epidemiae of Ion of Chios, a book that
recorded many conversations of Sophocles. This book is a likely
candidate to have contained Sophocles' discourse on his own
development because Ion was a friend of Sophocles, and the book is
known to have been used by Plutarch. Though some interpretations of
Plutarch's words suggest that Sophocles says that he imitated Aeschylus,
the translation does not fit grammatically, nor does the interpretation that
Sophocles said that he was making fun of Aeschylus' works. C. M. Bowra
argues for the following translation of the line: "After practising to the
full the bigness of Aeschylus, then the painful ingenuity of my own
invention, now in the third stage I am changing to the kind of diction
which is most expressive of character and best."

Here Sophocles says that he has completed a stage of Aeschylus' work,

meaning that he went through a phase of imitating Aeschylus' style but is
finished with that. Sophocles' opinion of Aeschylus was mixed. He
certainly respected him enough to imitate his work early on in his career,
but he had reservations about Aeschylus' style, and thus did not keep his
imitation up. Sophocles' first stage, in which he imitated Aeschylus, is
marked by "Aeschylean pomp in the language". Sophocles' second stage
was entirely his own. He introduced new ways of evoking feeling out of
an audience, as in his Ajax, when Ajax is mocked by Athene, then the
stage is emptied so that he may commit suicide alone. Sophocles
mentions a third stage, distinct from the other two, in his discussion of his
development. The third stage pays more heed to diction. His characters
spoke in a way that was more natural to them and more expressive of
their individual character feelings.
Antigone :

a heroine, icon, and role model has survived the test of time for over two
thousand years, and with valid reason. Her actions depicted in the play Antigone
by Sophocles are those of courage and fearlessness. She also conveys a sense of
deep conviction in the pursuit of truth as she stared deep into the eyes of
injustice by her oppressor. Valiance is a quality that Antigone has in abundance;
she exhibits this with virtually every word she speaks as if she is possessed by
the Gods on a righteous journey to lay her brother’s body to rest in an act of
defiance against the newly appointed king of Thebes, Creon.

It is no surprise that today Antigone is regarded as a role model for women and
more specifically feminists. To truly appreciate the character we must take a
closer look into the context of her environment. Patriarchy was alive and strong
in ancient Greece and men dominated the political and social spectrum. Their
methods of justification stemmed from classical mythology. This assisted them
in establishing their authority over women. One example of Greek mythology
that represents their ideologies is Pandora, a mortal woman who unleashed all
evils by opening the forbidden box as depicted by Hesiod an ancient Greek poet
whom modern scholars refer to as a major source of Greek mythology. Hesiod’s
writings supported the notion that women were inferior to men and these
writings were the basis of man’s control over women (Batista 1).

With such a myopic view from men towards women we can already see that the
odds have been stacked against Antigone many-fold, which makes the case for
her being a leading example for feminists around the world even more valid. Of
course with every hero there is indeed a villain. In this case we encounter Creon,
the King of Thebes. Creon’s perspective on women reflects the society in which
Sophocles grew up. Ancient Athens was regarded as a male dominated culture,
a culture where men associated themselves with other men and women were
viewed as having no place in the business of men. Creon viewed women as
having a less important role in Greek society which included their family life as
well as their lives in the city. Creon’s view point that a woman’s role in society
is limited justifies itself when Creon utters the words “from now on they’ll act
like women. Tie them up, no more running loose” (Sophocles 668). This quote
reflects his opinion that women should be restrained at all times and failure to
do so would ensue in chaos and also what he considers disobedience to men and
the city of Thebes. You could say a sense of insecurity flows through Creon’s
psyche when it comes to the idea of a woman conveying strength and
determination. His words reflect an underlying paranoia over his dominance and
can be seen when he is discussing who could have possibly buried the body of
Polynices; “Certain citizens who could hardly stand the spirit of my regime,
grumbling against me in the dark, heads together” (Sophocles 661). One of the
first signs of weakness in Creon is shown here and this echoes his subconscious
feelings as he is fueled by his ego and irrationality.

Sophocles paints Creon as a sexist ruler with a low opinion towards women
and this leads to Creon’s downfall. This conclusively concedes that holding
inequitable traits can result in one’s collapse. The combination of ignorance and
insecurity can be a destructive cocktail of characteristics. Justifying your own
self-worth by bringing down another through prejudices has the potential to
alienate yourself to those that you truly hold dearest. Creon’s thoughts and
actions were the catalyst for his son, Haemon, to commit suicide and towards
the end of Antigone he himself realizes the error of his ways by saying “the
guilt is all mine, can never be fixed on another man, no escape for me. I killed
you, god help me, I admit it all!” (Sophocles 687). Reality eventually catches up
to Creon’s twisted mindset and goes to show that a lack of introspection can
send you spiraling down to a dark abyss of regret and sorrow.

Creon sets the stage throughout Antigone for our heroine to commit her acts
of civil disobedience. The first feminist quality that Antigone shows to the
audience occurs when she chooses to challenge Creon's authority. The challenge
represents an act of rebellion towards Creon’s laws and during Antigone’s first
interaction with Creon in the play she exhibits a very bold and firm tone in
regards to her opinion. “I’ve been accused of a folly by a fool” (Sophocles 665).
This specific line points towards Antigone’s feminist attitude by implying that
Creon is a fool. This is an indication that Antigone has no respect for Creon’s
status as a king or, to a further extent, as a man. By portraying the strength of a
man in the face of oppression, Sophocles plants the seed of admiration in the
reader’s mind as Antigone’s reputation of being a strong and fearless woman
begins to grow when she regards herself as equal to men and superior to Creon.

In the beginning of Antigone we are shown the contrasting personalities

between Antigone and Ismene, her sister. Ismene’s reluctance to participate in
the burial of their brother shows her obedient and submissive nature towards
authority and men. Ismene tells Antigone “Remember we are women, we’re not
born to contend with men” (Sophocles 655). Ismene would be regarded as a
fitting model of what a woman should be in ancient Greece and the differences
between her personality and Antigone’s highlights the type of character
Antigone portrays.

Many people would define the term feminist as a person who supports and
fights for women’s rights, but my belief is that Antigone goes beyond this
definition. She is not so much an advocate for feminism or women’s rights;
instead she is an example of the ideology that many feminists hold. Her actions
were not committed for the sole purpose of fighting for equality between
genders. Her actions were committed in the name of love, truth and justice.
These are the reasons that make Antigone such an admirable character and role
model for women and men alike.

There are many ways we can view Antigone and what motivated her to do
the things she did. Through Emmanuel Kant’s categorical imperative we can see
if her actions were morally justified. Emmanuel Kant states that it is irrational to
perform an action if that action’s maxim contradicts itself once made into a
universal law of nature. For example, the maxim of lying to get what you want
will result in contradiction once applied as a universal law that all agents should
lie in order to get what they want (Kant's Moral Philosophy, par. 37). The way
we can apply this to Antigone’s moral compass is to view the opportunities she
receives to plead any form of innocence towards Creon. When asked if she was
aware that she had disobeyed the law, Antigone responds “Well aware. How
could I avoid it?”(Sophocles 665). Her avoidance of lying to save her life is an
example of Antigone’s rationality in not contradicting herself. However, if we
move to the part where Antigone commits suicide we can see that this
contradicts Kant’s maxim that committing suicide failed the conception test.
Kant believed that refraining from suicide is a perfect duty towards oneself
(Kant's Moral Philosophy, par. 35-36). In other words, the act of committing
suicide goes against self-preservation which in turn goes against the duty we
have towards the body in regards to life.

There are some qualities that Antigone has that you can consider moral and
in accordance with Kant’s categorical imperative but for the most part Antigone
is not driven by morals. Instead she is fueled by anger. This is a woman who has
seen her life crumble before her very eyes, a life of suffering has swallowed her
soul and the final straw was the refusal to bury her beloved brother’s body.
Every human has a limit and Antigone’s limit was reached. Laws, rules, and
social doctrines no longer mattered to her if it meant that she would spend the
rest of her life in regret. She was not limited by gender. She never once
considered herself to be inferior. She remained strong in the face of death. She
was a true heroine.