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How Power Can Be Corrupted Through Hubris And Invokes The Limits Of Power Of A Ruler

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Sophocles shows how power can be corrupted through hubris and invokes the limits of power of a ruler. Also, Sophocles exposes how the presence of dominance can Antigone continues to argue with Creon over the justification of her harsh sentence. Within the heated debate, Antigone says to Creon that “Not a man here would say the opposite, were his tongue not locked in fear. Unfortunately, tyranny (blessed in so much else besides) can lay down the law down any way it wants” (Sophocles 212). Within the argument, Antigone is saying to Creon that he should let her go because if the people were to speak liberally, they would agree with her on letting her go since she was doing what she needed to do as family. Sophocles uses this didactic quote in order to teach us how a one-man state or autocratic ruler tends to become corrupt by showing how Creon 's pride made him unaware from the opinions of his people. Through his blindness, he was able to expand his power because any sort of restraint from the Thebans would have been seen as treason from his own perspective. Sophocles shows through this experience that absolute power—perpetuated by a person’s hubris—can only lead to a corrupt state where no one is able to put a restraint on power. It could be expanded that Sophocles is advocating for democracy because he lived in Athens at a time when democracy was at its infancy. All that Sophocles is invoking to the reader is that if the power of the king was to be limited
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