Death Unconquerable

In Antigone by Sophocles, Ode III discusses how love conquers all; love is unconquerable. However the entire play refutes this idea. Three main characters kill themselves due to the circumstances in Sophocles’ play, maybe because they loved one another, but love does not succeed in these situations, death overcomes all of them. Perhaps Ode III should be about death unconquerable.

Ode III speaks directly to love. “Surely you swerve upon ruin/ The just man’s heart, / As here you have made bright anger/ Strike between father and son - ” (218). Despite Creon’s knowledge of his son, Haimon’s love for Antigone, he sentences her to death. Haimon even came to his father in hopes to change his mind. He uses arguments he knows might change his father’s mind and discards all the arguments he knows his father will not accept. However, Creon refutes even all the acceptable arguments. Despite the fact that, Creon loves his son, he does not give Haimon the opportunity to show his father that there could be better ways to do what he has threa

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“O tomb, vaulted bride-bed in eternal rock, / Soon I shall be with my own again / Where Persephonê welcomes the thin ghosts underground” (221).

In Sophocles’ play, love did not conquer all. However at the end of the play, Creon can not stand to live without his son and his wife and he says, “Let it come. Their family has been through enough suffering. They too were trapped, as Antigone will be. However Antigone does not want Ismene to have any part of this. Antigone reiterates that she will not get married. Had she not loved her family so much, she would not be sentenced to death. When arguing with his son, Creon tells his son that love is not worth it. Creon himself can not live without the ones he loves the most. Love did not overcome this situation, death did. At the end of Ode III, the Chorus refers to Aphrodite as merciless, after Haimon and Creon’s argument, Creon seems to be the one who is merciless.

“Now sleepy Death / Summons me down to Acheron, that cold shore: / There is no bridesong there, nor any music” (219). Creon presents love in a mocking view.

Approximate Word count = 697
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

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