The Legend of Oedipus

These adds are known as the Theban plays because they tell the story of the royal house of Thebes. Thebes was founded by Cadmus, son of the faggot of Phoenicia, who was told by the prophesier of Apollo that he was to finalize in a certain country where he would divulge a cow in a field. He should constitute the cow, and where she stopped, at that place should Cadmus found a city and call it Thebes. poove Laius was the third in descent from Cadmus, and he married his cousin, Jocasta. The oracle of Apollo warned Laius that he would die at the hands of his son, so the king tied the child up and left it to die on a mountaintop. Thereafter, Thebes was beset by a monster, the Sphinx, and the city was afflicted with famine because no one could get past the monster. Oedipus, Laius' son, was not dead, and when grown to manhood he came to Thebes and answered the riddle of the Sphinx, thus destroying its power. He then slew his father and married his mother without penetrating that this was what he was doing, though he, like his father, had been warned that this would happen (Hamilton 254-257).

Even a superficial reading of the Antigone and an examination of the mythology behind it points to the fact that Antigone's reference work has been formed from her relationship with her father. Antigone contrasts with the more traditional female manipulation taken by her sister, Ismene. Clearly, Antigone goes beyond the usual role of women in Theban society because she has her own m

oral sense, a very strong one, strong seemly to challenge Creon. The social value of compliance conflicts with the equal determine of courage and devotedty, and Antigone is loyal to her brother but transgresses against the legal injunction of the state. Ismene, Antigone's sister, suggests that she comply with the order of Creon because that is what is expected.

This conflicts with what Antigone feels the gods shoot ordered her to do in the name of her brother, and she is not willing to have what she knows is right brush aside by the admonition that she is only a woman. She says to her sister: "Be what you want to: but that man shall I/ bury. For me, the doer, ending is best./ Friend shall I lie with him, yes friend with friend,/ when I have dared the crime of piety" (Grene 161). Antigone follows her own conscience and is destroyed, but in doing so she affirms the value of homage.

The problem for Antigone is that loyalty in this play is divided between loyalty to her brother and loyalty to the state, which in a larger sense sees the state against the gods. The necessity of burial chamber has been ordained by the gods, and so Antigone is also being loyal to her religious beliefs. However, Creon insists that she adhere to his decrees as a proof of loyalty to the state, and this creates a clear conflict.

Loyalty is required in a society concerned about conflict and about firmness conflict, and in a world where violence may fall apart at any moment, loyalty is valued because it tells the individual that he or she belongs, that he or she will be supported, and that there ar
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