Sophocles Detailed Analysis

When powerful leaders abuse their influence, they often refuse to concede that they are wrong. They believe that they always make the right and justifiable decision, since someone chose them to take responsibility over a group of people, so they must have the best judgment out of everyone. The same idea applies to King Creon in Sophocles’s play Antigone, who orders his men to wall up the daughter of Oedipus, Antigone, in a tomb, after he had found out that she was responsible for her brother Polynices’s burial. When Tiresias, a blind seer, appears in the palace after Creon’s decision, he persuades Creon that he must save Antigone from her punishment. This scene represents the epiphany of Creon, who suddenly realizes his misbehavior. In the passage on page 115, Tiresias reveals the truth to Creon, with the use of the formal elements metaphors, repetend and imagery. These formal elements convey a very critical tone towards Creon, and ultimately suggest Creon’s failing as a king.

Tiresias primarily uses metaphors in his speech to show his criticism towards Creon. Tiresias explains to Creon what will happen if he does not revoke his sentence, and he clarifies that he will lose “a corpse for corpses given i

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After this he elucidates that many men and women will suffer as a result of his foul deed, and that he will live forever in shame, with support from nobody. This justifies Tiresias attack on the king, but simultaneously pronounces Antigone’s sentence as unfounded.

One could also explain Tiresias’s revelation of the truth with his respect for the gods. This shows the striking force that the punishment will have, and again Tiresias does not see Creon as the victim, but recognizes that the king perfected these pains by himself (l. He continues with describing the gods’ avengers, who are going to bring the punishment upon Creon. Tiresias sides with the gods on this issue, since it appears as if he attempts to awe Creon by giving a detailed illustration of the revenge, and by clarifying to him that he has no chance of escaping this attack. Of course this could be due to the seer’s age, which might mean that he is senile, as well as slow. This seemingly unfair attack by the avengers however is justified, because Creon evoked the revenge.

Tiresias uses yet another vehicle to criticize Creon, the formal element imagery. He mentions that Creon kept “a dead body here in the bright air, unburied, unsung, unhallowed by the rites” (l. Therefore, according to Tiresias, the gods must take two of Creon’s relatives, to be commensurate to Antigone’s death.

Approximate Word count = 1049
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

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