I confess to having to read these in translation, but does not Antigone take
her stand on her own conscience and in conflict with the chorus who
represent the citizens?  I realize that the people of the city side with her
according to Haimon, but she makes a great point of saying she will do
what she feels is right and is the gods' will regardless of what others think,
and she says she chooses love over hate.  It is also true that she has a
public reason to bury her brother as well as her love for him, but as a
woman she is not a citizen.  Yet the gods vindicate her in the end.


Date sent:              Sun, 29 Sep 2002 20:47:19 -0700
Send reply to:          "T. S. Eliot Discussion forum." <[log in to unmask]>
From:                   Peter Montgomery <[log in to unmask]>
Subject:                Re: My pickiness: a reply to Peter
To:                     [log in to unmask]

From: Carrol Cox [mailto:[log in to unmask]]

In Aeschylus, as in Sophocles for that matter, "motive" refers to public
reason for an action, not the private state of one's soul. The oracle at
Delphi was the center of aristocratic power in Greece, and its injunction to
"Know yourself" should be translated into modern thought as "Know your
place" or, more explicitly yet, "Honor your betters or get your head
smashed in," which Athenian peasants and artisans, to the immortal
disgust of Plato, stubbornly refused to do, thereby creating what, so far, is
as close as the world has ever come to actual democracy (rule of the
_demos_).
=============================================== I pretty
much agree with this. I see little or no similarity in the Greek plays to what
we might call personal conscience. It is the pattern of opursuit that is
similar, not the reasons. CF The Hound of Heaven by Francis what's his
name.

Indeed the Athenian body politic was highly homogenous
or interconnected with virtually what one might call
a public consciousnes, which one must adhere to to be
a good citizen. The person who tried to be a private
individual was designate3d as an idiotae.

Some recent commentators on Qedipus at Colonus see more of
a privare experience and resolution of guilt. That no doubt
would have suited Eliot for The Elderstates... oops, sorry
Jennifer, The Elder Statesman.

Cheers,
Peter