This month’s book was Antigone by Sophocles. I have been thinking for a while that I should review some of the things I read (or was supposed to have read) in college and I remembered liking Antigone. It’s the continuing saga of Oedipus’ family. Oedipus is dead and one of his son’s has killed another in a battle. Antigone violates King Creon’s order and buries the body of her brother who has been deemed a traitor by the king. She is sentenced to die. In the great Greek fashion, Creon ends up killing his son (Antigone’s fiancé) along the way and his wife kills herself in grief. The central questions are about civic and family loyality. I think that even though most of us won’t have this kind of battle to fight we do have to find balance. There are choices between good and bad that we need to make like if we should lie, cheat, steal or kill. These choices are generally easy. The choices between good and good are more difficult. Choices like staying at work or ducking out early, going to a service project or spending time with kids or where to spend a vacation.
I think this is a book that people should have in their collection, if for nothing but to say, “Maybe my family’s not so screwed up.”
2 comments:
You might want to read The Seven Against Thebes for a different perspective on the same story. Antigone might not have been intended as the hero.
I don't think Antigone was really the hero. There really isn't a hero. I think that it is the classic balance story. Work/life, family/church, friends/studies. To some extent both Antigone and Creon are right and to some extent they are both wrong.
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