A month or so ago I decided to re-visit, re-read, and re-savor Sophocles’ powerful drama Antigone. Sophocles wrote his play 2,400 years ago and through his play Sophocles continues to speak to us today about ‘Loyalty-Commitment & Law-Love.’ His play is a crucible of loyalty, commitment, law, love, religious devotion and secular obligation.
The backstory is simple: Oedipus was fated to kill his father (which he did) and marry his mother, Iocasta (which he did). They had four children: Antigone, her sister, Ismene, and her two brothers, Etiocles and Polyneices. The two brothers killed one another during a battle for control of the city-state, Thebes. Etiocles was on the winning side. Iocasta’s brother, Creon, becomes king. Creon announces that loyal Etiocles will receive an honorable burial while the rebel Polyneices will be disgraced in death by being left outside of the city gates to be eaten by the birds and wild animals (this, act, by the by, goes against what the god Hades wishes and supports what the god Zeus wishes). Creon, in order to show that he is truly a king also announces that anyone, YES, ANYONE, who disobeys his order will be stoned to death. From the beginning Antigone has decided to disobey, Creon, her uncle’s decree.
Creon demonstrates loyalty to Zeus and to the State. Antigone demonstrates commitment to her brother, to Hades and to love above law. Antigone is caught in a dilemma: Does she honor her uncle, Creon, and support ‘the law’ (to complicate things a bit Antigone is engaged to marry Creon’s son, Haemon) – does she demonstrate loyalty? Or does she honor the ‘spiritual law’ (god’s law) and her commitment, rooted in love, to her dead brother, Polyneices? She chooses the imperative regarding commitment rooted in love and obedience to a ‘higher, spiritual, law.’
Antigone seeks out her sister Ismene and proposes that together they disobey Creon’s decree. Ismene responds, ‘What can your meaning be?’ Ismene’s main thought is that the burial is ‘forbidden in Thebes.’ Antigone is not put off; for her the commitment is clear: ‘I will do my part. . .to a brother. False to him I will never be found.’ Ismene chooses not to be involved in ‘the toil and the deed.’
After Antigone acts, Ismene seeks to reconcile with Antigone. In front of Creon Ismene declares herself willing to share in the guilt and suffer the same fate as her sister, Antigone. Antigone rejects her sister’s offer with harsh words: ‘A friend in words is not the friend that I love.’ For Antigone, it is too late for Ismene to be ‘committed’ – she had an opportunity to demonstrate commitment rooted in love by working with Antigone to honor their brother and honor a commitment to a higher, spiritual law and she chose not to do so.
Creon is also caught in a dilemma. There exists a tension between his role as king (loyalty) and his familial tie to Antigone and Polyneices (commitment rooted in love). He chooses to suppress his familial relationships. For Creon, the fate of his nephew (and of Antigone, it seems) means little when compared to the loyalty he must show to his people: The State trumps the Individual. He must punish the traitor(s).
These opposing directions – Antigone and Creon – create the framework for the play’s dramatic conflict. A conflict that for thousands of years we humans have had to face; a conflict rooted in Loyalty and Commitment. A conflict rooted in Law and Love.
Searcher-Seeker 
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