As the course Athens to New York begins, four questions are drilled into our heads as the foundations of the course. These questions might as well be Greek to us, for many college freshmen have never been asked these questions before, not to mention required to take a course that is focused mainly...

Who Is the Tragic Hero, Antigone or Creon? This analysis is to determine the character that fits the tragic hero profile; it was completely based according to the Aristotelian idea of tragic hero and it is understood that hero is: "...neither purely evil or purely wicked; the hero must bor...

Antigone The main theme for Antigone is that people sometimes have to learn the hard way from their mistakes. This theme is expressed in the final four lines of the play. They read, There is no happiness where there is no wisdom; No wisdom but in submission to the gods. Big wor...

Tragedy involves the downfall of an important figure, the protagonist, who usually becomes isolated or detached from his or her environment or social standing (Tragic pg). Moreover, the downfall includes others as well, such as his or her family or a society as a whole (Tragic pg). Unlike comedy, w...

The distinction between right and wrong is rarely as simple as it seems; there are often differing values of what constitutes right and wrong among individuals, and therefore it becomes a matter of finding who is more right than the other is. In the play "Antigone" by Sophocles, Creon and Antigone...

Fate vs Free Will - A Close Look at Sophocles' King Oedipus (Oedipus Rex) In the play King Oedipus, Sophocles suggests that while we have free will, this translates into little control over one's lives, as fate cannot be escaped. At the end of the play, Oedipus has been totally destroyed &nd...

In both Sophocles' Oedipus the King and Homer's The Odyssey, the main characters transgress beyond accepted social norms and commit crimes. Odysseus blinds a man, acts recklessly in providing for the safety of his crew, and is unfaithful (repeatedly) to his wife. Oedipus is unkind to a b...

Sophocles' play "Antigone" illustrates the conflict between obeying human and divine law. The play opens after Oedipus' two sons Eteocles and Polyneices have killed each other in a civil war for the throne of Thebes. Oedipus' brother in law Creon then assumes the throne. He ...

In his play, Antigone, Sophocles makes a great interpretation of tragic drama. His genius created a striking conflict between two characters Antigone and Creon that is developed through out the story from the very beginning until the last pages. Both of the characters have their unbreakable ideas an...

From the role of the cunning seductress, to the obedient housewife, to the raging feminist, women were a focal point of Ancient Greek society. Although they were denied citizenship and held no political voice, the roles they played in their culture were undeniably important. They functioned as the g...

An oracle prophesied to Laius, the king of Thebes, that his child by Queen Jocasta would kill him and marry her (Storr, trans 1912). People of that time deeply believed in oracles and so when Oedipus was born, the king bound his feet and was left to die in a mountain. But a shepherd found the ...

"ANTIGONE" ANALYZED The play "Antigone" by Sophocles can be admired an analyzed by many different critics. This interesting ancient Greek play can be studied from many different angles. Some critics look into Antigone's incest motives, Creon's behaviorism, Ismene as a victim, multiple purposes of...

Sophocles uses a mixture of both visual and emotional imagery to create the morally questioning, Greek tragedy 'Oedipus Tyrannus'. He presents the audience with an intense drama, which addresses the reality and importance of the gods that the Greeks fervently believed in. The play also forces th...

An "imitation of an action that is serious, complete, and has sufficient size, in a language that is made sweet...exciting pity and fear, bringing about a catharsis of such emotions," is now Aristotle defined tragedy (trans. Gudeman). Basic Greek tragedies, like Sophocles' Antigone, h...

In the limited experience of my young life I have not come across too many circumstances where I have been under what I would call a true leader. In order to be able to state what I think a true leader to be, the first problem for me is what truly constitutes a leader. A leader can be classified a...