On Greatness and Dignity of the Victim: The Anthropological Lesson of Sophocles’s Antigone

Abstract

This article is devoted to the interpretation of certain anthropological aspects in Sophocles’s tragedy Antigone. Starting with the initial verses of the first song of the Theban elders’ chorus, the author examines the semantic fabric of the expression to deinón and the superlative to deinótaton, in which Sophocles condenses his teaching about man. The article also examines the antagonistic attitude of the main heroine, her rebellion against the royal decree forbidding the burial of Polynices, the enemy. Despite the prohibition, Antigone decides to bury her brother and, thus, to defend the sacral order from tyranny. The author takes the position that Antigone’s forbidden burial, the outpouring of sacrifice, and ultimately death itself, are a paradigm of tragic heroism and Sophocles’s understanding of anthropological greatness and non-violent force. In the second part of the article, the author addresses the fundamental opposition between enmity and brotherhood as an internal antagonism that triggers the dramatic action of Antigone. The decision in favor of brotherhood, against enmity, proves to be the first vocation of man and a seminal ethical-anthropological guidepost.