#labdacides

[transbutchblues]

antigone with a cane because inheriting the house curse also means inheriting the physical manifestation of the curse (ie. the disability of oedipus, laius and labdacus). she cannot avoid being her father’s daughter (and does she even want to avoid it ?)

[ubyr-babaj]

Is anyone interested in a queer reimagining of Nicholas Nickleby as gothic horror where Nicholas is half-Bashkir and Smike is half-Russian, or...

[theklaapologist]

I love you Polydorus, I love you Labdacus, I love you Laius, I love you Oedipus, I love you Eteocles and Polynices, I love you Antigone, I love you Ismene, I love you Labdacids 💖

[dionysus-complex]

also Antigone line 1175 (Αἵμων ὄλωλεν: αὐτόχειρ δ᾽ αἱμάσσεται - "Haimon has perished, bloodied by his own/a kindred hand") is so insane because ok, the messenger is announcing Haimon's death, but of course Haimon's name means "blood" and so the line can just as well be translated as "the bloodline has perished, bloodied by its own/a kindred hand"

which obviously is true because Antigone and Haimon have killed themselves and with them has died any possibility of offspring - a complete extirpation of the Labdacid line. but also Eteocles and Polynices have killed each other, each of them killing his brother by a kindred hand (αὐτόχειρ). but then of course their father Oedipus killed his father Laius with a kindred hand. and then when we think that a consistent element of Attic marriage iconography is the groom taking the bride by the hand, we might wonder if perhaps αὐτόχειρ even hints at Oedipus taking his own mother as his bride. and that's not to mention the attempted killing of Oedipus by his parents at his birth - the bloodline would have perished αὐτόχειρ, only that it didn't, and then it did again and again and again

[insilverrolled]

from Antigone

By Sophocles, Translated by Frank Nisetich

CHORUS: I see how of old the pains of the Labdacid house pile upon the pains of the dead, nor does one generation let the next one go, but some god topples it, too, and there is no deliverance. For just now over the last root in the house of Oedipus the light of salvation was spreading. The bloody knife of the gods below— folly of words and Fury in the mind— reaps it away in its turn.

[aboutanancientenquiry]

Two tyrants: Sophocles’ Oedipus and Herodotus’ Periander

“In a classic article, ‘From Oedipus to Periander: lameness, tyranny, incest in legend and history’, published more than three decades ago in Arethusa,1 Jean-Pierre Vernant focuses on what he calls the ‘strange parallelism in the destiny of the Labdacids of legendary Thebes and of the Cypselids of historical Corinth’.2 The basic similarities in the infancy stories of Oedipus and Cypselus are well-known. Both are nearly killed shortly after their birth on the orders of people who, according to a prophecy, are doomed if the baby grows to manhood; yet in each case the killers shrink from the murder out of pity for the child, thereby allowing the prophecy to be fulfilled.3 Oedipus and Cypselus’ son Periander are both involved in struggles within the family, in Periander’s case with his son, in Oedipus’ with his father; Vernant daringly assimilates the punishments that they both inflict as a result of these conflicts.4 Both Periander and Oedipus engage in devi-ant sexual behaviour.5 And both families are associated with lameness: Cypselos is the son of Labda, Oedipus the grandson of Labdacus, and both these names derive from the archaic letter lambda which had one ‘leg’ shorter than the other.6 Labda in Herodotus is specifically said to be lame, and Oedipus’ ‘swollen feet’ as a result of their piercing when he was a baby must be an old feature of his story, built as it is into his very name.7 Vernant uses these connections to argue that ‘in the Greek “imagination” the figure of the tyrant, as it is sketched out in the fifth and fourth centuries, adopts the features of the legendary hero, at once elect and cursed . . . Despising the rules which preside over the ordering of the social fabric . . . the tyrant . . . incarnates in his ambivalence the mythic figure of the lame man’.8

Vernant shows little interest, however, in the instantiations of the myth in the literary works which, together with the pictorial record, provide our sources for ancient Greek mythology. He sometimes takes details crucial to his argument from texts centuries apart, without considering whether such an approach might be problematic; 9 and although sometimes a later source preserves evidence for an earlier version, the possibility must always be considered that the detail in question results merely from later elaboration.10 There are exceptions to this tendency – Vernant emphasises, for example, that Periander’s sleeping with his mother is preserved in a later source and so cannot be considered part of Herodotus’ tale.11 But when dealing with the Oedipus myth in particular he culls details from many places without showing interest in any particular version, not even the most famous one, by Herodotus’ contemporary Sophocles, who is mentioned only once in the entire paper, and that in passing.12

In this chapter I will be focusing not on some original or primary version of either myth, but on a more modest goal: on the presentation of the myth in Sophocles and Herodotus, and in particular on something that Vernant does not mention, the issuing of a solemn proclamation of excommunication by Oedipus and by Periander. This element of both stories shows remarkable similarities; equally there are crucial differences, and reflecting on these can help to bring out the authors’ distinct literary aims.13″

Finglass, P. J. (2018). Sophocles’ Oedipus and Herodotus’ Periander. In E. Bowie (Ed.), Herodotus. Narrator, Scientist, Historian (pp. 59–75). (Trends in Classics Supplements; Vol. 59). Walter de Gruyter GmbH. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110583557-004

Sourcewith the whole paper: https://research-information.bris.ac.uk/ws/portalfiles/portal/153078571/Oedipus_and_Periander.pdf

Patrick Finglass, MA, DPhil (Oxon.) 

Henry Overton Wills Professor of Greek, Department of Classics and Ancient History, University of Bristol

[moinsbienquekaworu]

I cannot resist the urge to overexplain this.

So Antigone (the title of the french play is pronounced an-tee-gon, not an-tee-gonee) is based on the myth of Antigone, daughter of Œdipus. Once Œdipus realises about the whole mom & dad thing and is exiled, Thebes needs a new king, but thankfully he's had two boys with his mom so there's no shortage. The brothers both want to be king, so they decide to switch after a year, and Eteocles starts, but once his year is up he doesn't want to stop ruling, so they fight it out and both die. The nearest male relative is Creon, Jocasta's brother, who accepts the crown, and whose first order is that Eteocles, as the precedent rightful ruler, be honoured in death, but his brother, Polynices, who attacked the city to get the throne, shouldn't even be buried or received the rites, which is a pretty big deal. Antigone, their sister, cannot accept this, and goes to bury Polynices, but gets caught before she can finish. Though Creon doesn't want to kill her and tries to offer to let her go if she promised not to touch the body again, she insists, and he has to punish her. She kills herself rather than be buried alive, and her fiancé, Haemon, Creon's son, kills himself too, which causes his mom and Creon's wife Eurydice to kill herself as well, leaving Creon as the last Labdacid.

Anouilh's version was written & first performed during the occupation of France by Nazi Germany, which means it's not exactly the same message as the original. Personally, what I got from it in middle school was the conflict between Antigone and Creon: she wants all or nothing, he is all half-mesures and compromises. Either she is happy or not, he believes you should take the crumbs while you can. Her morals are unbendable, her brother should be buried and no one else will do it ergo she has to do it, Creon is ready to compromise and doesn't actually care that much about Polynices, he just needs to be respected by his people. She's young, ready to seize the world, he's old, worn down and ready to stop. They're very interesting and I'm probably getting this wrong because I was 13 and I didn't filter it through the "we are occupied by the nazi" lenses (I was actually filtering it through "a guy I'm very close to is a fascist and Antigone reminds me of him" lenses, yes I know no I do not want to think or talk about it)

Now you may be thinking, but Ram, there's no Ismene here! Who were you talking about! Well that's because Ismene is the last of the siblings. Creon isn't the last Labdacid at the end of the play, I lied, there's also Ismene. She's Antigone's sister and she agrees that Polynices should get the rites as well, but she is afraid of the consequences, and tries to convinces her little sister not to do it. She's the coward, clearly, and as I write this post I am realising in the context of WW2 and the nazis saying I identify with her makes me sound reeaally bad lol

I'm pretty certain our teacher wanted us to side with either Antigone, rightful and certain, or Creon, less moral but still wise. Except I didn't feel like I should - and now we're not going to think about WW2 because I didn't back then, but - in my head, they both were stronger than I ever would be. Antigone, obviously, is strong - maybe a little too strong, too certain, not flexible enough: burying her brother is right and moral and so it must be so, and only death will stop her. Creon looks to be in the wrong, but I could see his side in my head: he stepped up to be king, but clearly it's not an easy job, and he's already lived long enough to test the all or nothing thing and see that it didn't work out for him. To me, they were both ready to take decisions I couldn't - even, in a weird way, Creon standing alone at the end (because Ismene really barely counts), in that he still stands, afterwards. Everyone is dead, but he'll keep going. I couldn't claim to be either of those, because I knew I wouldn't have Antigone's moral fortitude or Creon's endurance. I wasn't am not and probably never will be more than an NPC (which is fine, we need those too, and I can be the star of smaller things)

So to my brain back then, it was obvious who I was more like. There was this girl, older but more scared, a coward through and through. A girl who knew she couldn't and who cared about being there and making it out. Who had morals but wouldn't put them above herself. One of the last two standing, but not actively, just because that was the easiest. A girl who couldn't bring herself to make hard decisions.

Okay that's really not a flattering portrait, but I always hated kids who acted like they would have made the better choice in a situation. You wouldn't have, Rodéric, you're 14 and sheltered. I like the honesty of it, in a way, of knowing that yeah I probably wouldn't pick the best or even the right choices, but that's fine, because we can't all be main characters or heroes. Sometimes people are people and they're scared and cowardly and that's okay. Now obviously in a WW2 context that has different implications but in our world, right now, especially when I was 13? Different.

Anyway yeah Ismene girl through and through (but also I couldn't pick between Antigone and Creon)

In 8th grade our teacher had us read Anouilh's Antigone and then asked us which character we thought we were more like, clearly expecting us to side with either Antigone or Creon, and instead 13yo me picked Ismene, and that tells you all you need to know about me as a person

[iphisesque]

just read the seven against thebes to try and figure out the dynamics of the twins' deaths and there is absolutely no mention of any specific wound, which is only fuelling my polynices jesus-coded fever dream of giving him a spear stab wound in the ribs

[finelythreadedsky]

i have to believe that euripides' decision to elide polydorus (only son of cadmus, father of labdacus and grandfather of laius) from the bacchae, making cadmus' line and the royal house of thebes extinct with the death of pentheus and the exile of cadmus, was to spite sophocles and his history of writing successful and popular plays about the labdacids

[milka-oh-milka]

je n'ai pas fermé les yeux seulement, dans mon cœur cette porte entre ouverte l'éclatement des yeux le sang dans mes paupières l'aveuglement et presque

alors, presque les larmes...? presque les larmes, presque les larmes... je devrais pleurer

on vient de m'annoncer m'annoncer calmement "vous vous êtes fait violer"

devrais je me taire ? mais bon, je le savais je suis pas trop choquée

tu devrais pleurer toutes les larmes de ton corps tu devrais pleurer tes yeux hors de leur poche tu devrais hurler contre le sable humide tu devrais te rappeler les nuits des labdacides

la plage pleine de fossile, qui comprend ton chagrin les roches ont vu passer des victimes de cette mort les roches très ancienne qui comme tes souvenirs

incrustées de fossiles de cadavres de pierre de souvenirs perdus étouffés dans l'argile sculpté dans tes paupières l'argile dont tu es faite, coule très lentement révélant les souvenirs pointant hors de la terre pointant hors de ton œil le sang, l’eau, coule de la plaie, que le souvenir creuse

saisis donc la pierre plantée ? pas vraiment non plutôt,  ressortant de la chair, après plusieurs années  de tes cheveux

extrait le souvenir rince les bouts de terre séchée,

le souvenir du viol une nuit d'avril

le viol de tes ancêtres, le viol de ton aînée, cette tragédie longue, et lente, cette tragédie saignante

les femmes les femmes bien habillées, et leurs boucles aux oreilles se sont elles fait violer, elles aussi ? en ces nuits douces, d'avril

te rappelles tu ce jour d'avril, justement ce jour ou sous un arbre, face au sang dans ton lit tu as crié si fort que ta langue s'est ouverte

de ta langue a coulé tout le sang retenu

ce très lent sortilège qui hante cette chambre, ce lit contre la fenêtre bleu, blanc bleu, gris, rouge foncé noir, mais le sang dans mes yeux m'a voilé cette scène

d'elle je ne me rappelle que l'avant et la suite les vomissements et fissures qui m'ont empli le ventre il m'embrasse et me sert me dit souriant,

je t'aime

et je sors en courant vomir toute mes peurs, pleurer et me lever

je passe une seconde coincée entre la chambre et l'escalier face au miroir

jaune blanc beige orange et rouge le long de mes lèvres, le orange les cheveux mal coupés, les cernes sous mes yeux

le vomi dans ma bouche je me regarde dans mes propres yeux vides mais qu'est ce qui se passe ?! mais qu'est ce qui se passe ?! ! enfin,

je dormais, je crois, je dormais, je crois, je dormais, je pense, je courais, je crois, je parlais, je crois, je l'avais, ses mains, je sa main, la mienne, nos doigts son dos, le miens ?! son dos ?! Non !!! Non, je crois, je je crois, je je crois, je pense pas, je - vomissures!!!!! nausée, surtout, la peur elle me fera courir, contre l'escalier bleu oublier les raisons, et protéger mon cœur protéger mon esprit, enfermer tout au fond

au fond de mon cerveau, ces mémoires de souffrance ce corps figé et vide, les doigts qui en ressortent la langue qui le parcoure et les doigts qui y entrent ce corps figé et vide, qui obéis sans peine, car il ne fonctionne plus, 

il s'est tué tout seul

ses doigts longs dans les tiens, ses doigts longs dans ta bouche ces deux très jeunes personnes

qui se volent et se tuent il me viole et me tue

tu ne te rappelles pas, mais ton corps lui le sait

se rappelle du début, de la fin de ce crime le milieu compte peut être, c'est la nausée qui m'ébranle je me coupe les cheveux

et remonte dans la chambre je meurs contre ce lit, je ne me relève pas j'ai laissé dans cette chambre enfoui contre le lit

tout le sang de mes règles

[phantomfilmique]

[PARTIE I: LAÏOS, LE MAUDIT] . (I.1) Laïos (ou Laïus) est le fils de Labdacos, qui descend d'une lignée prestigieuse que l'on nomme les “Labdacides” dont les origines remontent à Cadmos, fondateur de Thèbes, débutant sa tragique lignée avec Harmonie. Parmi cette funeste descendance, n'en citons que quelques noms tels que Ino, Agavé ou encore la pauvre Sémélé, dont Zeus en fut l'amant et la tua en prenant sa Divine apparition devant ses yeux la condamnant à brûler vive, laissant par chance leur enfant Dionysos épargné par les flammes, né dans les souffrances des brûlures de sa mère au grand désarroi de Héra, femme légitime et jalouse de Zeus, Déesse protectrice du mariage, instigatrice de cette félonnerie. . Mais pour l'heure, revenons à Laïos, arrière-arrière petit-fils de Cadmos. Il n'a que un an lorsque son père, Labdacos, meurt. Thèbes ayant été dérobé par la tyrannie de deux hommes, l'enfant est exilé pour sa sécurité. C'est à Élide, auprès du Roi Pélops, que le garçon est conduit. Les années passent et Laïos est à présent un jeune homme de 19 ans. Le Roi Pélops confie l'éducation de son jeune fils préféré encore enfant à Laïos, dont il devient le tuteur. . C'est le début d'une bien terrible histoire… . #mythologies #grèce #mythologiesgrecques #laios #thebes #labdacides #œdipe #antingone #sophocle #anouilh #créon #elide #bookstagram #booksofintagram #legende #mythes #tragédie #oracle #dieuxgrecs #laios #ismene #polynice #eteocle #pelops #chrysippe #destin #malediction #delphes #merope #polybos (à Élide) https://www.instagram.com/p/CLKNMJ2FmNq/?utm_medium=tumblr

[sauvesparlekong]

KARAOKÉ 🧚🏽‍♂️ PANDORE « De braises abruptes et sans lendemain, Je dévidais bobine, suivais mon mou chemin, Il faisait nuit, il faisait noir, Plus m’approchais, plus me sentais lointain, Il faisait jour, il faisait soir, Mais j’étais pas certain. Au Temple Fumoir – Karaoké Pandore, Théâtre magique, seulement pour les fous Ce furent des somnolences, grisant, comme des paratonnerres, d’encore, Et des intempérances comme des coups de boutoir. Tous revenaient la voir, et puis s’empoisonner et de fées vertes et de blés noirs, Labdacides et contristés, boitant, boitant, boitant encore dans cette mélopée, Ce carousel de louves sans portes dérobées Où les sirènes et les serveurs chantaient au débotté : « Des traces d’amour Sur d’anciennes maîtresses, ma sœur Des races d’étreintes Sur d’ici-bas prêtresses, mon cœur Viennent les orages comme les rumeurs » Et je ne sais plus si j’ai inventé ce refrain, En quatre temps, ou en cinq actes. Son bas à elle, Keishi le remontait, Moi beau Baal je lui balbutiais… Gestes barrières vains, tragi-comiques, Loin des baisers colombins et des fables en hic. Une gorgone, Keishi, au magnétisme noir, Dont la douleur vous pétrifiait d’égards. Pisse-lyre, je lui bissai Que tous les hommes voulaient l’avoir: « La rencontre des yeux, Des je t’aime parjures Qui n’auront pas lieu, Des cocktails drogue dure Puis la poudre aux yeux Qui rien d’bon n’augure Éteignent nos cieux » Poème inspiré de l’artwork de @chaussetteb 🙏 Chaussette B is a pseudonym of a Hong Kong-based visual artist. She worked professionally in the fashion industry in Paris and Hong Kong for 15 years before she picked up the camera for the first time in 2016. Nude and Portrait photography became a portal into which she took her first steps as an artist. Her - what she has termed - paintography process is the combination of a large score of photographs, captured mainly in her own studio with nearby objects, textures, parts of her own body, and orchestrated digitally. Chaussette B. will be exhibited at UNEXPECTED BEAUTY - Art exhibition at La Galerie from April 28 to May 2! Keshi, Variation en miroir, Hong Kong 2020 #sauvespourlebac #sauvesparlekong #sauvepourlebac (à Gros-Caillou, Paris, France) https://www.instagram.com/p/CcpYgFiLJDP/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[6pieds]

Entre une Sphinge dévoreuse de héros, un garçon valeureux, parricide malgré lui, un inceste consommé et fertile, et la guerre fratricide que se livrent les Labdacides, l’antique cité grecque de Thèbes est le théâtre d’une tragédie et de drames dont une jeune fille semble vouloir sa part. La vie d’Antigone est-elle prédestinée à une telle fatalité  ?

Alors que le sang des Labdacides, de la lignée du grand-père d’Œdipe, Labdacos, n’a de cesse de se répandre, Antigone, envers et contre tous, décide de ce qui est sa loi. Histoire de l’émancipation d’une femme, Fille d’Œdipe cherche à interroger sur le sens du sacrifice. Éduquée à tenir son rang et sa place, Antigone se rebelle. Elle refuse la loi du tyran Créon et s’accroche jusqu’aux portes du tombeau à son orgueil. Dans quelle mesure ce chemin n’est-il pas justement celui qui était attendu par tous ? La place qui lui était socialement assignée (le pratico-inerte œdipien) ne porte t-elle pas en elle les germes du destin tragique d’Antigone ? Devenir sainte ou martyre, voilà ce que son père lui a laissé comme héritage. Comment se défaire d’un tel poids  ? Récit féministe sur la liberté individuelle et le rejet de toute ingérence patriarcale, Antigone nous pose deux questions essentielles  : la sororité, solidarité entre les femmes, est-elle une réponse globale possible à la domination masculine ? Et la Justice des Hommes existe-t-elle vraiment ?

FILLE D'OEDIPE par Marie Gloris Bardiaux-Vaïente & Gabriel Delmas Collection Blanche - 64 pages - Format 23x31 cm - Noir et blanc ISBN 978-2-35212-139-8

Paru le 16 mai 2018

[prince-of-calydon]

Thebaid Heroverse Prologue

Here’s a little bit of an intro to the Thebaid heroverse! It kinda goes over Oedipus’ fate and how the brothers started fighting.

TW!!!!: mentions of incest, graphic description of eye injury, blood, self-harm. (general labdacid dynasty grossness, yknow how it is.)

please let me know if i have to tag anything else!

note: (Archon is Creon’s hero alias, and King used to be Oedipus’--not sure if that came across well in the writing.)

All who lived in Thebes knew of the house of Laius--teeth, claws, tricks, and all. 

The man who drove the vicious Sphinx from the city sank low as the wheel of Fortune turned. He swore vows with hands stained by a father, and named superhuman children with lips stained by a mother. One by one, the pieces that the prophet handed him slid into place, and a horrifying image seared itself into his mind. He longed to use his gods-given gift on himself, to cause the memory of discovery to vanish, and to return to ignorant bliss--but the gods, kind as mortals would have liked them to be, would not allow it.

His eldest, Antigone, discovered him, and by her screams was soon discovered by the rest of her siblings. Their father lay upon the floor, his bloody sockets gored and empty, the vitreous gel thickening the scarlet puddles on the tile. Ashamed and irreversibly shaken, the remaining members of his family turned their backs on him, and he spent his days in solitary darkness. 

In the absence of their father, his sons fought for the position he had once held under an alias, and those he led could not choose between the leonine Eteocles or the aquiline Polynices. 

Archon, as the people knew their uncle, and right-hand-man of the King (as he had once been called), was the one to produce a solution: one year for one brother, the next for the other, and so on. To prevent strife, the brother not in power would leave the city, unable to seek violence against his rival. Claw to talon, bestial hand to bestial hand, the brothers shook and agreed. They drew lots, and Eteocles assumed the role of the King. Polynices packed a bag, spread his wings, and took off. 

Antigone, her sister Ismene, and her mother Jocasta stood upon the balcony, watching him flee in vain from the house’s curse.

[remicapone]

Heureux sont ceux qui, du malheur N'ont pas connu, leur vie durant, le goût!

Comme quand la houle du grand large, Remue les fonds les noirs limons, Soulevée par les vents de Thrace, Elle roule à l'assaut du rivage.

Heureux sont ceux qui, du malheur N'ont pas connu, leur vie durant, le goût!

Sur la maison des Labdacides Je vois dès l'origine s'abattre le malheur, Un mal qui sans relâche aucune Frappe les morts et les vivants.

Heureux sont ceux qui, du malheur N'ont pas connu, leur vie durant, le goût!

Celui chez qui se glisse Le leurre de ses désirs déments Ne sort de l'ignorance que lorsque sous ses pieds Brûle déjà le feu.

Heureux sont ceux qui, du malheur N'ont pas connu, leur vie durant, le goût!

[iphisesque]

do you have any hot takes about antigone characters?

oh honey i am a gold mine of antigone hot takes. it's 10am and i am barely awake so this might not be my best work but i will go through the characters one by one and share a hot take about them

antigone: when it comes to gender she occupies a fascinating liminal space, which i feel like she partly shares with electra; she's a woman who rebels like a man by performing burial rites like a woman, is sentenced like a man for it and kills herself like a woman, specifically like a maiden (hanging is a maidenly form of suicide). her rebellion does not subvert gender roles in the modalities, as burial rites and hanging were both women's prerogative, but it subverts them in its overtness: she doesn't shy away from femininity, she embraces it and stands proud with it in a way that is typically masculine, and as such she's the embodiment of androgyny in the play, which is why i feel she would get along well with tiresias (though not in the romantic way liliana cavani portrays).

ismene: genuinely one of the most overlooked characters in the tragic world. i think she actually feels the same way as antigone does towards her brothers and specifically polynices: ismene is a victim in her own right, both the sisters are, and i feel like she only cares about following the laws in the context of surviving. ismene knows she's not a tragic heroine who faces death head on, knows she is content with burying her feelings and surviving, and it is only when her sister is taken away from her that she begs to die alongside her: she's denied the luxury of becoming a tragic heroine without having a perceived fault to expiate, of course, and that is her tragedy, being condemned to surviving and remembering. in that sense she actually reminds me a lot of helen, i would say!

polynices: he has read the seven against thebes, to steal an expression from @finelythreadedsky; he knows how it's going to end, and though he tries to imagine a world where they both live, he knows they're both going to die (one cannot survive without the other, as they're twins linked by fate). in the antigone, i think that aside from being a symbol of crisis between the laws of man and those of the gods, he and antigone have a relationship that could be tied to labdacid propensity for incest; even more so when you think of antigone's line "had i lost a husband, i could have remarried, [...] but i can't have another brother", where it is made clear to us that love is not a prerogative of the husband, but of the brother.

eteocles: dipshit (affectionate). does what he has to do to protect his city and in that sense he's similar to creon, but to be honest this all wouldn't have happened if he'd given up the throne at the established time and not been so hubristic. antigone says "i would have buried the body all the same if it had been eteocles you had disrespected" and while that is definitely in line with her motivations, she herself knows that creon and the city's little poster boy eteocles would never have been disrespected in death like polynices was. i feel like in general anouilh's antigone really hits the nail on the head when it comes to the twins: they're both hot-headed fools one of which sometimes treats antigone with kindness, and it was only by chance that either of them ended up on the side they each died on.

creon: eteocles but actually competent at what he does: he's a king and a lawmaker, and rightfully so he rules and makes laws. those laws are morally wrong, as they go against the gods' will (godliness=morality), but they're just fine as far as absolute monarchy's laws go: he creates a hero and an enemy of the state out of two hubristic youngsters who killed each other, and treats their corpses and memories accordingly. creon makes human, ephemeral, invented laws with no moral basis, and as such he's a creator, co-writes antigone with his niece: the martyr needs something to die in rebellion against, and the tyrant needs something to bring him down or strengthen him.

haemon: my beloved malewife. all jokes aside i feel like haemon is often a very underused character: of course the play is titled antigone, and it makes sense he'd mostly take up space as antigone's beloved, but some parts of his character are far more interesting than he lets on. his dialogue with creon is exemplary: in it, he goes from trying to appeal to creon as the love-struck prince who just wants his love back, to revealing his contempt of his father and all he stands for. haemon abhors his father's tyranny, and he knows the people do so too, specifically mentioning that he knows dissent is building up among the populace: is haemon a friend of the people? does haemon, the crown prince, roam around the city, sneakily listening to his citizens and learning that way what the people want? does he do so alongside antigone, who also mentions knowing the people's hatred of creon? is this only allowed to happen because they're both younger siblings, guarded by their caregivers less strictly than their older siblings? just thinking about haemon opens up so many fascinating questions about who he was as a person and what sort of ruler he would have been if he'd lived and i love him more than is normal thank you for coming to my ted talk.

eurydice: she's barely a character but i do think she was the one who started weaving antigone's and polynices's shroud before she killed herself. afterwards, as the only woman left, the job went to ismene, who wove polynices's shroud as beautiful as she could make it as an apology for not burying him the first time, and a single shroud for both antigone and haemon to share, together in death as they couldn't be in life.

conclusion: many thoughts head full i love all of these characters and could spend hours dissecting them