Antigone Oedipus Leadership Style

Finally, Odysseus is also a selfish leader who is full of hubris. An example of

Values defined standards that people use to decide what is desirable and serve as guidelines on how to live life. Two of the many values that are praised in society include family and authority. Family is considered to be a group of people that share a common ancestor, bonding and uniting together. Authority is the power bestowed on a person or group of people who have the right to enforce rules, obedience, and make rules on behalf of society. In an ideal world, both of these values could thrive in harmony, but in the works of Sophocles, it is evident that the authority is more important than family. Both in Oedipus the King and Antigone it is evident that authority is considered more important than family by Sophocles as the values of a unified family are broken, there are laws created against doing good for family members, and the powerful ruler knows how to follow the laws of man vs. the laws of God.

This is due to the fact that the leaders know how to handle a situation better than followers because they have natural leadership skills. A greek man named Odysseus, in Homer’s Odyssey, demonstrates his leadership by showing the characteristics of cunning, bravery, and loyalty at certain times throughout his journey.

In the citizen’s eyes, Oedipus is seen as a good leader. He demonstrates great leadership through several events. When the Oedipus learned of the plague, he “sent away [his] brother-in-law, son of Menoeceus, Kreon, to Pythian Apollo’s shrine” to hear from Apollo on “what [he] might do or say to save our city.” He notified the people that he understands their pain and suffering for the “soul inside [him]

“He who wishes to be obeyed must know how to command-Niccolo Machiavelli”. In the novel “Things fall apart” by Chinua Achebe and the play “Antigone” by Sophocles, the leading men who rise to power try to fulfill their perceptions of leadership. In “Antigone” Creon the king becomes the ruler of Thebes after his two nephews killed each other at battle; he must try to civilize his nation and act in the image of a true leader. Okonkwo starts of respectable man who plans on being the hero of the clan by being the man his father was not and saving the clan from converts. The tragic heroes Creon and Okonkwo have self-images that initially portray the expected qualities of a leader, but by being steadfast and overly pompous, their insecurities draw them to ironic fates.

Creon fits Aristotle’s tragic hero traits as a significant person who is faced with difficult decisions. Creon is significant because he is king. This makes him both renowned and prosperous. Creon is not completely good nor completely bad; he is somewhere in-between, as humans are. The audience can relate to this and they admire his qualities of intelligence in political affairs. They can also relate to his ability to make hard decisions with apparent ease. These hard decisions are

The character that has taught me most about how to be an effective leader is Creon, king of Thebes, from the play Antigone. Unfortunately, it wasn’t because of his outstanding and effective leadership qualities that offered me insight, but rather it was the skills in which he lacked as a leader. Such as, compassion, understanding, communication, and humility, just to name a few. His character helped me identify and think more in-depth about the most important attributes an effective leader should own.

What makes a great leader? Cyrus seems to be the perfect leader – he pays attention to his citizens, leads his nation to military success, and imbues the Persian society with morals and equality. Yet, Cyrus also has his weaknesses, failing to make lasting friendships and secure a promising future for his Empire after he is gone. Therefore, I will argue that Xenophon uses the life of Cyrus to show how to be a perfect public official – and how being a charismatic public official does not mean you are a good ruler and leader.

Success comes to those that have accountability, dedication and determination; however, success is discarded by personal gain. Creon, Antigone, and Oedipus have different personalities and roles, but they also share similarities. Oedipus and Creon were two different types of rulers where the transition into power had effected them and had an infringement of prophecies. While Antigone was never in a leadership role all three show acts of pride she has some similarities with Creon and Oedipus in the fight within oneself. The pride allows civil laws to be created over the divine laws, which is seen by power corruption. Fate and chance intermingled with each other for those in power. There are also the roles they played against each other that had an impact on how the other acted. The statement blood this thicker than water relates to standing by one’s family; its tough for those in power to do so when they have to put what is best for the people of their city. Honor, risk and pride led to sacrifices and destroyed lives in a fatal attraction.

Croesus, king of Lydia, was one of the most legendary and revered generals of his time. However great of a leader he was, he was unhappy. After he was defeated at Sardis by Cyrus of the Persian empire, Cyrus bade that he be brought to him for advice. Croesus revealed to him that he thought he knew himself and that he was happiest in kingship and warfare, but that he realized that this is what not made him happiest, in fact he was happiest when Cyrus forbid him from battle and war. This shows that the life of leadership was not worth living for him, one of the greatest leaders of his time, for he was not happiest in that position.

By corruption few men thrive, and many come to mischief” (Sophocles 12). The sentinel responds to this with the accusation that Creon is too blinded to realize that it was not him, “Plague on it! ‘Tis hard, a man should be suspicious, And with a false suspicion!” (Sophocles 13). However, in the play he does make some good decisions, he is seen as an effective leader where he believes in order and laws and punishment for breaking those laws. He mostly believes in his laws having more authority than the God’s laws and talks about how anarchy is the true downforce of a nation.

​In his play, Oedipus the King, Sophocles demonstrates two characters to be an ideal ruler for Thebes. For many generations, many people hear about the tales & legends of famous, loyal, ruthless and merciless rulers. With regards to Oedipus, Sophocles presents the audience with Creon, a loyal and humble man and Oedipus a loyal yet merciless and impulsive ruler. Oedipus honorably becomes king of Thebes after freeing Thebes from the Sphinx’s wrath whereas Creon becomes king because he was the last surviving member of the royal family. Thus leading us to wonder who the superior king would be. Instantaneously, most people would choose the king who is loyal and humble. However, this is not always the case. Even though it is clear to the audience

In Ancient Greece, as the government turns to democracy, an important political debate arises between two crucial topics, authority and family. If a leader, for example, creates a law to restrict his or her people, but a member of the leader’s family breaks the law, he or she must decide where loyalties lie. Sophocles enters this debate in his play Antigone when Antigone, Creon’s son’s fiancée, breaks a heavily enforced but possibly immoral law. Although Sophocles emphasizes the importance of authority, Antigone illustrates that family is held in higher regard, exhibited through Creon’s tragic downfall.

Jack Welch once said, “Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others”. In other words, good leaders put the needs of their citizens as top priority over themselves. At the very beginning of Antigone, Creon placed a precept over the city which prohibited anyone to bury Polynices, the son of Oedipus who brought destruction to Thebes. In a way, his law seemed reasonable but on the other hand, it also commanded what the Greek gods had forbade. Since Creon was violating the law of the gods, Antigone buried her brother despite what the king said, causing her to have an opposing opinion from Creon. In response to Antigone’s behavior, Creon planned to kill her without thorough thought. Good leaders consider different opinions and devote themselves to the needs and protection of their citizens before themselves.

All is not well in Thebes. A mystery is in the process of being solved as the people of Thebes suffer. In Sophocles’ Greek tragedy, Oedipus Rex, Thebes is being punished by the gods for a crime committed far in the past. The city of Thebes is cursed with a plague until the murderer of Laius is discovered and banished from the land. As Creon and Oedipus work to save Thebes, their different qualities show who is a better fit to be king. Oedipus saved Thebes once from the sphinx; however, Oedipus’ qualities of being arrogant, intense, and stubborn cause him to foil with Creon's character traits of being selfless, calm, and forgiving. According to Merriam Webster, a leader is someone who leads or guides. Because Creon’s character traits