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'-----.Student Edition with Commentary, iIrammatical Notes, & Vocabulary IA,. Guide to Sophocles)

JOAN V. O'BRIEN

Southern Illinois University PressCARBONDALE AND EDWARDSVILLE

FejJer & Simons; Inc.LoNDON AND AMSTERDAM

7Creon's Lament

Q

( 1284 - 1353 ]

INTRODUCTION

IN TH E FINAL portion of th e play (for which Commentary andGrammatical Notes are provided below), the focus is ent irely on~ i n g Creon..! 'nd his responsibility for the corpse t hat h e carries(i.e. his son's) and for the corpse that soon confronts him (i.e.,his wife's). .

Significantly, Cr. returns without An.'s body, and no one mentions her either in this final kommos or in the earl ier scene whenthe messenger reports th e deaths of Hae. and An. The poe t andhis characters enter into a remarkable conspiracy of silence aboutAn. during the last two episodes. The spectator has to in fer thatthe person who dies with Hae. is An. Only feminine modifiersof a suppressed antecedent identify the second victim as An. (1221ff.). And the audience is left to surmise t ha t her body suffers thesame indignity as her bro ther 's . Such is the supreme irony in aplay whose whole action grows out of An. 's refusal to leave herbrother's body unburied. She lies at play's end in a climate oftotal neglect. I

What led t he poe t to a llow thi s strange neglect? What madchim focus all eyes on Cr.'s disintegration instead of alternatingthe focus as he did in the first three quarters of the play? I suggestthat the poet's ironic imagination" induced him 'to take the gam-

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Guide to Sophocles' ANTIGONE Ifavors that sense. Yet, this is admittedly aga inst the n. . . onnal Iireading of the line. Soph. avails himself of the ambigu't rtIt(J . . I Y of Igua ge An. IS freely taking herself away-these gJJard. 'h 'Ill. \. . aVe nopower over her-and yet there IS a transcendent power th AS. I h . b at d.....She knows that In one very rea sense s e IS eing led aw Y; . . I I 1 ~ e . . .ay S I is led away by that power she alludes to in he r last line (t;;,'nurbj""tOJsebisiisa, "revering reverence," 943) The final movement to I < : ~recovery seems to have come from those very gods whose aid ." "could not feel (923-24).

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ing corpse" greatly illuminates the tragic grandeur of the dead,unburied heroine.

. 's Lamenl - ...0VIllf arns him that he has s inned, Cr. responds with , ')

......... Ihe ICer dWI charges of bribery that he used earlier (294 ~ \O"S.. ~ , groun e55 d d h d' , c..Iht . .rne b tious guard. He caul not en ure t e guar s ~ 1.1 a p i l U ~ ' I ~ d i ~ : ~ to his edict ; still less can he face the priest's So..... of dl,? I both cases, with arms flailing, he reduces a. . . , o d < r n n a ~ l O n . nonent into a greedy assai lant . Delphi is no less~ 1 . m e a J 1 l n g h o P ~ r d i n a r y citizen. And as if to dramatize that point, \.. is

pl lhan t e . I h b . 1 if Z ' I. .,u'....... h icst that he wil prevent t e una even I eus I\V , e prt .II< ",om k lift the remains to the Olym Ian throne ( 1 0 3 9 - 4 3 ) ' ~ ."' llid ICC to If h .. d h ., e . S ~, cycle is complete. umamty IS measure , as t e l . ~ 11u:1'le, dicates by one's relationships with the animal world e.-'1'f()dtonJ"anm , ,..,d wilh divinity, but especially with one's fellowmen, Cr.'s tablet i.. d