Sophocles: Antigone

First off this reading surprised me and it turned out to be a lot better than I thought.  I am not a huge fan of plays, in fact I havent read one that I have liked until Antigone.  I thought the play started of a little slow but in the second half really picked up and caught my attention.

There are many conflicting beliefs in Antigone which leaves many ways to agree or disagree with what the characters believe.  I personally think that Antigone is right to give Polynices the proper burial, but i also think that Creon is right in being angry at Antigone for wanting a proper burial.  I understand that Polynices gathered outside help to help destroy Thebes, which made Creon and Polynices enemies, but did Polynices destroy Thebes? Nope didnt think so. Therefore Creon should have been angry at first, but then realize "Wait Thebes is still here and I am still king."

As far as the role of women goes I think ismene is much more knowledgeable of women's place in society than is Antigone.  Ismene knows that if she participates in the proper burial of polynices' body then she too herself will be killed.  Antigone is somewhat reckless in her method of handling this situation.  Another flaw that Antigone has is that she is hyopcritical, especially when saying that her family is the greatest blood and loyalty,but then turning her back on her sister by disowning her for not helping her bury Polynices in what she believes is the correct way.  Antigone believes she will die and honorable, glorious death, while Ismene believes that she will die an awful death like Polynices is expected to.

So here is where it gets sticky.  Antigone's loyalty is to the god's or the ancient law, while Creons loyalty is to the state and societal roles.  Antigone is loyal and continues to proceed with her beliefs, but it is not the same for Creon.  When Tiresias comes to speak of the death of Haemon even after a brief attempt to rescue him from killin himself, Creon realizes that he has been loyal to the wrong thing the whole time.  Creon instead of being so stubborn and stuck to the state laws and what his opinions are becomes peeled back and exposed by the death of his son and realizes that his heart has been facing the wrong direction this whole time.  Then to make things worse by the death of his lovely wife Creon becomes absolutely torn with himself, almost seeing himself as worthless.

This whole scene at the end of the story just shows the Creon even though he was the ruler was loyal to the wrong thing and the gods were extremely angry with creon for how he treated Antigone as well as everyone else.  In the end though, creon suffers for what I think he deserved, and I am happy that he finally realized how important the value of life is.

World Lit 1

After reading the Epic of Gilgamesh there have been many thoughts racing through my head.  When I read the first half of Gilgamesh I didn't think that there was any sexual relationship between Gilgamesh and Enkidu.  After reading the second half it was clear that there was something sexual going on between the two.  They always relied on eachother's efforts and had each others back.  Something else that came to mind was how amazing the journey was for Gilgamesh.  Once Enkidu died, Gilgamesh remained strong though he was very emotional.  He fought through the depths of the mountains and the harsh conditions because he was determined to reach what he thought was his destiny:eternal life.

I was impressed with how great the descriptions were of the characters and how well the epic was written considering it was written on stone and passed down for thousands of years.  Especially Humbaba who was portrayed as a ferocious beast who breathed fire, and with his powers he could blow Gilgamesh and Enkidu off their feet.  The heroics of Gilgamesh still amaze me after reading.  He conquered the world, and proved to everyone that he was the best and deserved to be praised by everyone in the City of Uruk for his efforts.

Another topic that struck me was the role of nature, and how much it affected the story.  First off, the transition of Enkidu from out in the wild to being civilized was pretty significant and it really caught my attention.  It was pretty interesting how he was civilized by being slayed by the Harlot and somewhat trapped in her sexuality.  Enlil was enraged when he became aware that Gilgamesh and Enkidu cut down all of the trees in the forest.  Nature is pure and divine so I believe he has a great reason to be frustrated.  Even though Humbaba was portrayed as a monster who everyone feared he did nothing wrong but protect the nature, so I think that the two killing Humbaba was like killing nature because he was the protector of nature

Overall it was a much more exciting read than I expected, and kudos to the preservation of this Epic and I hope it continues to live on and on.