Antigone Creon is a Failed Statesman

Abusing one’s power can also lead to a downfall as a leader, and for Creon it is another fault which leads to his spectacular failure as a statesman. Kings of that time were supposedly chosen by the gods to govern as the gods would on earth, and by this the Chorus suggests that Creon is challenging his power on earth and not following the law of the deities. In addition, when he is talking to his son about Antigone’s sentence, he becomes furious when Haemon tries to defend Antigone, saying that the people of Thebes consider Antigone’s acts honorable.

The third and last of Creon’s primary faults as a statesman is his quick and volatile temper. Furthermore, the Chorus comments on Creon’s abuse of power by stating, “There was the proud Edonian king, / Lycurgus, in rock-prison pent / For arrogantly challenging / God’s laws” (Ode 4. The absolute power that Creon has corrupts him to the point that he thinks that he can challenge Polynices’s fate by changing the way he is handled on earth. Creon knows that this act is against the unwritten code of the Gods but decides to go through with the decree anyway. Creon is not being fair and just to the people, and Teiresias warns him to be reasonable. For example, when the sentry tells Creon of the corpse being buried, his anger quickly builds, and the ruler threatens the sentry: “No, not your mere death shall pay the reckoning, / But, for a living lesson against such infamy, / You shall be racked and tortured till you tell / The whole truth of this outrage…” (Sc. Creon’s rage blocks the rest of the world from him and only lets him see his judgment on the current situations. Even with this warning, the king still does not change his opinion and misuses his power. For instance, Creon issues a decree that Polynices is to be left for the wild animals to eat, and not to be buried or mourned for because he was a traitor to his city.