Similarities Between The Epic Of Gilgamesh And Antigone

In the play Antigone, Creon starts off as the loyal king of Thebes. He is loyal to the gods and loyal to the welfare of Thebes. However, over the course of the play, Creon degenerates into a tyrant. His degeneration is showing his character development. Creon’s pride about the human law also develops throughout the play, creating conflict with the divine law. When Antigone rebels against his law, he becomes stubborn, and makes myopic decisions and grows into his hamartia. Besides his hamartia, Creon’s position as the king makes him a power hungry man. His power madness degenerates him into becoming a ruthless and vindictive man, even to his family. However, over the course of the play, Creon begins to see that because of the laws of men, he was being blinded of what’s

How does a king rule with a narrow mind? In Sophocles’s ancient tragedy, Antigone, the young woman, Antigone, had buried her brother, which was declared illegal by King Creon. Once Creon discovers her deed, he immediately sentenced her to a slow death, trapped in a cave. Haemon, Creon’s son and Antigone’s fiancé, pleads his father to change his mind and consider the people’s thoughts in contrast to his own. Haemon serves as a foil for Creon’s development as a tragic hero by highlighting Creon’s narrow mindedness, harsh nature, and boastful pride.

The Epic of Gilgamesh is a Mesopotamian myth and the oldest known narrative there is, originally created on clay tablets written in cuneiform. The story focuses on two individuals. Gilgamesh, who is the tyrannical ruler of the kingdom of Uruk. Then his counterweight, Enkidu who resides in the forest and was raised by animals. It may seem that neither would have much in common, considering one is royalty and one is a wild man. However, these two characters balance each other despite their differences, which results in a beautiful friendship, but both will lose as well as gain in the end.

“Am I to rule this land at someone else’s whim or by myself?” (Lines 836-837) says Creon, angrily to his son Haemon, who is attempting to reason with him about the execution of his fiance, Antigone. This causes an uproar between the two and brings out Creon's selfish intentions. Throughout the story the conflict with the ideals and motivations between the two change the theme of the story from love and loyalty to hatred and betrayal. This not only contributes to Creon’s characteristics of a tragic hero, but also to the suicide of both, Antigone and Haemon.

Throughout the play, Creon shows many examples of how he is imperfect. One example would be how he believes that the state is primary to his family and relationships, “If this is your pleasure, Creon, treating our city’s enemy and our friend this way … the power is yours, I suppose, to enforce it with the laws, both for the dead and all of us, the living,” this quotation said by the leader of the chorus describes how the elder people of Thebes respect their family more than the state, but they held back on their opinions, knowing of what Creon, the leader, wanted to hear (235-240). Another example of how Creon shows the audience of how he is imperfect is when, Creon meets with Haemon. Creon argues with Haemon about how people should act towards the country which they reside in, “But whoever steps out of line, violates the laws or presumes to hand out orders to his superiors, he’ll win no praise from me. But that man the city places in authority, his orders must be obeyed, large and small, right and wrong,” Creon believes since he has the highest throne in his country, that he should be obeyed whether the circumstance (745-751). Lastly, Creon demonstrates to the audience that he is imperfect by wanting to protect his country too much. This is visible when Creon sentences Antigone to a slow death, because of burying her brother, who was outcasted as a traitor. Creon put the state over his family which will lead to the complete

In the patriarchal societies of Thebes and Umofia, honor, strength, pride, heroism, and success characterize leadership. Therefore, to become leaders, Okonkwo and Creon depend on the image seen by their societies to define their social status. Upon Creon’s first decree he expresses the importance of his peoples perceptions of himself, questioning his son Haemon about following through with his laws ‘’Do you want me to show myself weak before the people” (Antigone sc.3 line 26)? Creon must stay true to his threat in order to “earn the world’s obedience” even though his niece, Antigone will suffer (Antigone sc.3 line 31).

King Creon’s tragic flaw is hubris. He does not listen to advice given to him by the blind prophet Teiresias. When Teiresias tells Creon, “Give in to the dead man, then: do not fight with a corpse- what glory is it to kill a man who is dead? Think, I beg you: It is for your own good that I speak as I do. You should be able to yield for your own good” (Antigone 36-40). King Creon does not like the fact that the prophet believes he is wrong and should do what everyone else has so far advised him to do. He accuses Teiresias as giving him such a prophecy because of bribery from others and a hunger for gold. Hubris is also revealed from King Creon in Scene III. Creon’s son, Haemon, tells Creon that the people of Thebes believe they have never seen a girl die such a shameful death and that the people live in fear of Creon. Haemon tells Creon he also believes Antigone should have been allowed to bury Polyneices and should be set free. King Creon responds with, “You consider it right for a man of my years and experience to go to school to a boy?” (Antigone 95-96). This shows that Creon does not believe a man of such age, “wisdom”, and “experience” should listen to anyone or change because of anyone else’s

Even if he believes he is right and his son should obey him, he doesn’t show an ounce of sympathy for Haemon, who loves Antigone. Creon details his thoughts on the importance of the rule of law over other loyalties, and his belief that to allow any anarchy or, seemingly, freedom would threaten the state. Creon’s method of executing Antigone is interesting. By entombing a living person, Antigone, and denying burial to a dead person, Polynices, Creon’s laws seem to go against common sense, tradition, and nature itself. Creon does not keep a cool head, as a wise leader should, or look for a way to compromise. He is as stubborn as Antigone, as if this were a street fight, he feels he could never back down.

To have “power” means that one has authority, and having authority gives you the right to control or command, but for many, receiving a surplus of power and authority strips them of their morals and corrupts them. Sophocles uses Creon in Antigone as an example of the side effects of gaining power. Due to an abundance of power, Creon’s character goes through a metamorphosis in which he becomes a corrupted person. Creon becomes unrecognizable after becoming King and his character transitions to personify all the evil that comes along with gaining a large amount of power. Sophocles uses Creon’s character to convey that power causes one to believe that they are above everyone and everything else, including the laws of the gods, and leads them to

A stubborn man may rule the land, but what's in the hearts of his people will shift what's in his beloved’s hands. King Creon’s ego will be overturned when his family’s lives begin to diminish all for his own selfishness when justifying laws. As seen in Antigone by Sophocles, King Creon is a tragic figure that through his own stubbornness and pride, he promotes the suffering of not only his son, Haemon, but as well as Antigone herself, which shapes Creon’s character development and will function as a platform for the play’s tragedy to unveil . A tragedy is more than deaths and suffering, it's at the moment where one realizes that everything they've done has further doomed themselves.

Pride acts as another major theme; it is what got Creon in this situation in the first place. Creon has too much pride to admit to anyone that maybe he was wrong. Even when he has Antigone he has too much pride to let her go. Creon's own son questions him and he replies, "Am I to stand here and be lectured to by a kid? A man of my experience"(1063)!Creon shows that here he is too proud to change his decision for his own son even if he made the wrong choice. The king's friend the Leader tries to convince Creon to change his mind by telling him "My king, ever since he began I've been debuting in my mind, could this possibly be the work of the gods"(1050). The Leader was trying to tell

In The Epic of Gilgamesh, Gilgamesh begins as an inconsiderate ruler who does not respect his people or the community. It becomes clear from early on in the novel that Gilgamesh has caused an upset in society, and for the population to function smoothly he has to

The Epic Of Gilgamesh and Star Wars, more specifically Star Wars Episode IV: The Force Awakens, have two very similar but slightly varying story plots. Each hero was accompanied by their sidekick; Gilgamesh with Enkidu and Luke Skywalker with Obi Wan Kenobi by his side. A battle of good versus evil edges on throughout the plot as well. It can be seen throughout the Epic Of Gilgamesh when Gilgamesh battles against his own pride as well as in Star Wars because of ongoing war between the Empire and the rebels who ally with the Jedi. In addition, obstacles have to be overcome in order to complete the ultimate goal.

There are comparisons between The Epic of Gilgamesh and Antigone. Gilgamesh and Creon were both ruthless leaders, but they both used their powers very differently. Creon was cruel, and he was very concerned of upholding the law as King of Thebes. “Nevertheless, I say to you at the very outset that I have nothing but contempt for the kind of Governor who is afraid, for whatever reason, to follow the course that he knows is best for the state; and as for the man who sets private friendship above the public welfare.” Sophocles, line 149-53) Gilgamesh was careless, and not concerned about anything. Although Gilgamesh is a man of action, he goes on an adventure and risks his life, battling Humbaba with Enkidu by his side. At the end of the stories they learned a valuable lesson, Gilgamesh not to be unfair, or arrogant but be wise and fair with you servants. Creon stayed true to his decision in punishing Antigone, but at the end he is distraught for the death of his son Haemon and his wife Eurydice.

The portrayal of Gods in Homer’s “The Iliad” and the ancient Sumerian poem “The Epic of Gilgamesh” has many parallels and divergences in regard to their interactions and relations with human beings. Although there is a difference of nearly 1000 years between the release of both of the epic poems, a firm analogy can be established between these works. The Gods in “The Epic of Gilgamesh” are portrayed as more inconclusive and detached from humans while the Gods of “The Iliad” are shown as decisive and intimate with human affairs.