Ancient Greek Values: The Case of Antigone

In Antigone, Sophocles (60) early establishes Antigone's dilemma: her brothers have been killed and Creon, king of Thebes, has refused one of those brothers (Polynices) decent burial, leading Antigone to decide that she will defy Creon and bury her brother. She runs the risk of being condemned to an early death because not even King Creon has the "right to keep me from my own (Sophocles, 61). For Antigone, who has endured the disgrace of her father's curse and dethronement, her mother's suicide, and her brothers' deaths, even death is better than further dishonor:' And even if I die in the act that death will be a glory (Sophocles, 63)." As a citizen of her own age, Antigone believes that a failure to bury her brother will result in his permanent exclusion from the afterlife; she is willing to sacrifice herself for this cause.

Martin Cropp (138 - 139) suggests that in acting as she does in defiance of King Creon's orders that her brother go unburied, Antigone is challenging the gods who have cursed her house. She is refusing to permit this death to go without action and is further asserting her