On Sacred Genealogies: Antigone and Savitri

Abstract

Today civilization offers a plenitude of earthly goods, including shared “ethical” and “political” laws. In this fabricated world, people willingly (or unwillingly) tolerate evil and violence in one of its varied forms, and are thus unable to posit an unconditional ethical demand against it. Being subjected to different forms of power, people cannot find peaceful repose, a place to host and protect peace for other living individuals. This paper is inspired by Irigaray’s reading of the play Antigone. At the beginning, it offers a new cosmological and ethical interpretation of Antigone. Antigone’s famous words “My nature is to join in love, not hate” guides the analysis. In this, I follow Irigaray, who is thinking in line with cosmic laws. It is shown that Antigone’s act is an ultimate litany for the dead, but her faith is a radical faith for the living, an ethics for a life. In the second part, an innovative comparison is carried out between Antigone and Savitri from the Mahabharata. Princess Savitri from the Mahabharata represents all three genealogical orders as represented by Irigaray’s reading of Antigone: respect for sexual, cosmic, and generational genealogies. The highest ethical demands of both Antigone and Savitri are thus represented as a sign of absolute hospitality, a place people can be secure first in themselves for others – both the deceased and living – in ethical and in political contexts. I show that universally no duty can be higher than the deepest cosmic and ethical faith, and bodily sensitivity to others in pain. Antigone’s and Savitri’s ethical acts are thus interpreted as an ultimate sign for a peaceful community-to-come. The highest ethical demand of Antigone and Savitri is thus a sign of an absolute hospitality, a place people can secure first in themselves for others, in both ethical and political contexts.