Antigone-Higher Law vs. Laws of City States
Laws of the City-State vs. Higher Law as Seen in Sophocles' "Antigone" In Ancient Greece, after 800 bc., new ideas came to the forefront concerning the governing of society. These ideas led to a more organized leadership and a government whose decisions were primarily based on majority rule. This system took the form of city-states, large self-governing towns. These city-states were founded on principals of "freedom, optimism, secularism, rationalism,…[and] the glorification of body and mind". Accompanying these principals was an obligation of fierce loyalty to the city-state and a willingness to shed blood for its betterment. These ideals, while ambitious and noble, often ran in stark contrast with those previously laid down by Greek gods, whose routes went back to the chaotic Dark Age of Greece(1150-800 bc.). Problems of this sort were probably commonly debated in city-states during the time Sophocles wrote "Antigone". In the play "Antigone", Antigone is faced with an extreme example of this conflict. Her Brother, considered a traitor by the king, has died, and she must decide whether to give him a proper burial or yield to the king's wishes and allow his body to be desecrated. She chooses to bury him, citing
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Creon Antigone, Ancient Greece, Antigone Antigone, Teiresias Sophocles, Achilles Odysseus, Age Greece1150-800, creon antigone, Laws City-State, proper burial,
Approximate Word count = 985
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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