Plato's Socrates and Sophocle's Antigone - Similarities

‘’Antigone is a story about Antigone, a woman who suffers the dead of her parents and brothers. The story focuses on her seeking proper burial for one of her dead brothers who fought against his own city. Creon the king, honors one of the dead brothers for fighting for his city and declares death to any who dares give burial rites to the brother who opposed the city. “As for Polyneices, who perished so miserably, an order has gone

Haemon stated that his father had dishonored the gods by sending Antigone off to her death, but Creon responded by saying, “You, you soul of corruption, rotten through-/ woman’s accomplice!” (836-37) Creon refused to acknowledge his son’s point, therefore, not changing his mind on Antigone’s fate. In another scene, Creon showed his independence by refusing to listen to Tiresias’ prophecy. Knowing that Tiresias’ prophecies were never wrong, Creon still ignored him. Creon stated, “You and the whole breed of seers are mad for money!” (1171) He claimed that Tiresias was wrong, and he was doing the right thing. In this scene Creon showed his independence in a cruel manner by disrespecting Tiresias. Antigone and Creon both showed that they wanted to be independent. Antigone’s will to be independent ultimately caused her death, and Creon’s caused him to lose his son, niece, and wife.

This made Socrates very unpopular. “As a result of this investigation, gentleman of the jury, I acquired much unpopularity, of a kind that is hard to deal with and is a heavy burden; many slanders came from these people and a reputation for wisdom, for in each case the bystanders thought that I myself possessed the wisdom that I proved that my interlocutor did not have” (Cohen, et al., 2000).

Awaiting her death, Antigone remained in the tomb of stone. Knowing that her plan to bury her brother and remain loyal to the gods had failed, she no longer saw a point in living. She took her veil and hanged herself. When Haimon found Antigone lifeless, he cried “out That his father had stolen her away from him” (241). Haimon was right in saying that. Creon caused Haimon great despair. Enough for him to lunge at his own father. But when he missed Creon with the sword, he instead sunk it into his side and take his own life beside his true love. The death of Haimon brought his mother, Eurydice great heartache. It was too much for her to handle. Like the rest of Creon’s relatives, she killed herself as well. The demise of Creon’s loved ones is all to blame on his arrogants. “And now it has all gone from him! Who can say That a man is still alice when his life’s joy fails?” (238) Not only has Creon destroyed the lives of his family, but he also ruined his own. He is left with nothing. Not just his family, but with his control of Thebes. Many of his citizens began to express their opinions on Antigone and her bravery, and when they were ignored by their king, he lost some respect. If only Creon had listed to the warnings of others surrounding him. If those messages were acted on, Haimon, Antigone, and Eurydice would still be alive, and Creon would be a successful and

Until Creon follows the simple burial rites, numerous misfortunes, including the deaths of his loved ones, will occur as a result of his actions. One may think that Creon must challenge the Gods because Antigone challenges his laws; however, fear of the Gods and guilt motivate Antigone to defy Creon. Antigone’s defiance does not lead to the deaths of others because she defies an individual who did not follow the law, while Creon’s disobedience ends in violence.

Since she spoke of her plans in such a public manner, it caused Creon to display a public response, which was to bring her to a walled-up tomb where she would die an awful death. What happens in the end is quite tragic; Tiresias, who is a blind prophet and a priest of Apollo, put a curse on Creon that speaks of terrible things that will happen to him. Creon, shocked by this, immediately retrieves a guard to go up and bring Antigone back. Alas it was too late, for Antigone had hung herself. Haemon, who was to be married to Antigone hears of this and with such shock, kills himself. Eurydice, who is Creon’s wife, also hears of the news of her son Haemon and how he took his own life, decides to take her life as well. When Creon hears of all of this, by a messenger, he asks his servants to immediately take him away, he wants to be forgotten,

By living in Athen for 70 years Socrates has agreed to have faith in the cities virtues and in the force of decisions that are imposed upon him and as a citizen he respects them. Any person that disobeys these laws deliberately attempts to destroy these laws and the society that has created them: "However, that whoever of you remains when he sees how we conduct our trials and manage the city in other ways, has in fact come to an agreement with us to obey our instructions." (51e). If the decisions of the city are not respected as honourable, the structure of that civilization will fall to pieces. If a person is found violating the standards of his or her society and does not accept the consequences of his or her actions there can't be a system of law that construct order. "You must either persuade it or obey its orders, and endure in silence whatever it instructs you to endure, whether blows or bonds, and if it leads you into war or be wounded or killed you must obey."(51b)

The death of Antigone shows the rudeness of the patria and the importance if balance fin one’s life. Antigone, portrayed by a man because women did not have roles in Ancient Greece, lies on the ground clad in white hung by black pant. The white signifies her pure intention in wanting to honor the gods by burying her brother and also represents her alluding to the tomb Creon sentences her stay forever is her marriage bed and that she will marry death. The black pants around her neck working as Antigone’s noose show that even though she honors her brother and the gods by burying him she still disobeys the law which in order to have complete pureness a person must honor both so Antigone needed to stop and submit to Creon after he caught her

To start off, Antigone is very loyal to her city, but faces a moral dilemma when she has to decide what is the right thing to do for her brother who died. The rule of the Gods would be to bury her brother but the king´s rule is that he should be left lying there unburied. Antigone goes against the King's rule and does a funeral service

Antigone was an agent of her own beliefs and she never hesitated to fulfill her obligation. “When at last it stopped,/There was the girl, screaming like an angry bird,/When it finds its nest left empty and little ones gone.” (Sophocles 137). Sophocles used a maternal image to describe how Antigone conducted the ritual of burial. Antigone was compared to a mother bird as she found out her babies were gone. This intense and explosive anger characterized the mental state of Antigone when she was burying her brother. Unlike a male who would seek for revenge, Antigone, as a female character, screamed and cursed to defend her beliefs and to protest her respect to the death. Though Antigone’s physical strength was small, her moral strength, in regard to how the living should respect the dead, was powerful. This moral strength, accompanied by her action, demonstrated Sohpocles’ perspective that women can make life happens despite they lack the physical strength of men.

The path to destruction isn’t an instant path; it’s usually based on several things such as choices, relationships and even fate. In regard to relationships, the person can be at odds with one individual, groups or societies. Oedipus the king and Antigone both have 2 central characters that happen to be at odds with societies but for different reasons. I will analyze why Oedipus and Creon were at odds with their societies, how the conflict affected them and others and whether they received just punishment.

Antigone buries him despite Creon’s preventions and sees her as “going against the gods.” The lock her in a cave where she suicides by ripping her clothes and hanging herself. Creon, the chorus, and Haemon, Antigone’s fiancé, were discussing on releasing her but found her dead. This caused Haemon and his mother to kill themselves. Antigone presents her argument by stating “if I had suffered my mother’s son to lie in death an unburied corpse, that would have grieved me: for this I am not grieved.

CREON. Another? Have you lost your senses? Is this an open threat?” (3.118-121)The gods must have robbed him of his common sense, because Haimon was trying to tell his father that he would commit suicide if he killed Antigone. Creon would not listen. He put his family on the backburner and forever burdened one of his dead nephews and Antigone, all because of his pride and his greed for power. That pride and hotheadedness turned into a big problem, as he would have preferred to, “End his life and die than live with the agony of his mistakes” (Exodos134-138). In Creon case his fate was caused again and again crossing the line between laws set by the gods and the laws set by man.

In 399 B.C.E. Athens, Socrates, one of the greatest axial philosophers, was charged with impiety and corruption of the youth by Meletus, Lycon, and Anytus. Socrates was convicted of these accusations and executed. Socrates was one of many great thinkers in Athens, which was experiencing a Golden age as the most progressive and learned democracy in Greece. Strangely, Athens executed Socrates for his speech, which contrasted with Athenian democratic values. Moreover, Socrates was seen as annoying to authorities of the time, but never considered threatening enough to receive punishment to Athens before this. In order for Socrates to be executed, Athens needed to have undergone a deep shift that changed perceptions of Socrates from a gadfly to a danger to society. As a result of a crippling defeat by Sparta in the Peloponnesian Wars, Athens was paranoid of threats to its democracy, Athenian citizens were looking for a scapegoat for their recent troubles, and Socrates made enemies out of powerful politicians and thinkers due to his irritating Socratic method and uncustomary beliefs, therefore, he was easy to blame and execute.

Socrates faces a lot of opposition from the public because of the nature of his teachings as he attempts to demonstrate the value of knowledge and justice. In his apologia, having been charged with “corrupting the young” (Aen. 24b), Socrates questions Meletus mercilessly, forcing him into contradicting himself and leaving him speechless with “nothing to say” (Apo. 24d). Much of Socrates’ teachings revolve around making others aware of their own ignorance, as he does with the politician, “[trying] to show him that he supposed he was wise, but was not” (Apo. 21c). Plato’s Symposium recounts the speech of Alcibiades in which Alcibiades describes “what an extraordinary effect [Socrates’] words always had” (Sym. 215d). According to Alcibiades, Socrates “makes it seems that his life isn’t worth living” (Sym. 216a). These kinds of lessons