Antigone and the Passive-Aggressive Gods

Our discussion on Antigone strayed into the domain of wondering where the gods stood on the whole issue, as they would be the deciding force in ancient Greece. Thanks to the seer, we can clearly see that the Gods stand on the side of Antigone, but do not feel it is important enough to show up and say so themselves. The fact that the gods do not appear is a departure from nearly all other Theban plays who referenced the gods often and had them make appearances at least intermittently.

The reasoning behind the gods' shyness in Antigone easily could have been derrived from one of Sophocles' themes, such as the rampant individualism in the play or the conflict of human law with natural law, which does not always coincide with the laws of the gods.

Antigone's self-righteous individualism would have been lessened by the presence of the gods delivering punishments or morals as opposed to allowing Antigone's actions to go on for the effect. Likewise, their absence makes her individualism all the more powerful in that there is some disagreement as to whether the gods would have approved.

On Natural Law, Antigone claims to follow natural law, while Creon claims that his law of the state is the overarching authority. However, this conflict also would have simmerred had the gods been involved to clear it up.

Hence, this play runs on a certain degree of ambiguity. That is why we were able to have a trial in class and use the book for citation, because there is no clear cut moral code that has been broken or upheld. That is what makes this play unique also.