Antigone, 384-581

Greek Learning Greek
1

Griffith’s commentary arrived and proved to be essential to help me through these lines. What a wealth of information it contains!
A few questions remain.

473-479:
ἀλλ᾽ ἴσθι τοι τὰ σκλήρ᾽ ἄγαν φρονήματα
πίπτειν μάλιστα, καὶ τὸν ἐγκρατέστατον
σίδηρον ὀπτὸν ἐκ πυρὸς περισκελῆ
θραυσθέντα καὶ ῥαγέντα πλεῖστ᾽ ἂν εἰσίδοις:
σμικρῷ χαλινῷ δ᾽ οἶδα τοὺς θυμουμένους
ἵππους καταρτυθέντας: οὐ γὰρ ἐκπέλει
φρονεῖν μέγ᾽ ὅστις δοῦλός ἐστι τῶν πέλας.

I’m not sure how to read that last line: οὐ γὰρ ἐκπέλει
φρονεῖν μέγ᾽ ὅστις δοῦλός ἐστι τῶν πέλας.
‘For it is not allowed to think big thoughts for him who is the slave of the people around him (τῶν πέλας).’
Surely Kreon is speaking indirectly about Antigone here, criticising her for having ‘big thoughts’. But why should she be the slave of those around her? Is he referring to her being a woman? He seems to be quite obsessed with that, so that would fit in well. Or is it an oblique reminder that he is king and she subordinated to him?

546-547:
Ἀντιγόνη
μή μοι θάνῃς σὺ κοινὰ μηδ᾽ ἃ μὴ 'θιγες
ποιοῦ σεαυτῆς. ἀρκέσω θνῄσκουσ᾽ ἐγώ.

Is there a difference in meaning here between the hortatory subjunctive θάνῃς and the imperative ποιοῦ ?

569:
Κρέων
ἀρώσιμοι γὰρ χἀτέρων εἰσὶν γύαι.

Charming.



572-576:
The discussion about who actually is meant to deliver these lines is interesting. Are the Greek tragedies transmitted to us with no stage directions at all?


As an aside: in his conversations with Eckermann Goethe remarks about Antigone: Alles Edle ist an sich stiller Natur und scheint zu schlafen, bis es durch Widerspruch geweckt und herausgefordert wird. Nicely put maybe, but I wouldn’t call Antigone ‘eine stille Natur’. She seems a headstrong woman to me, passionate about what she cares for, but not above biting sarcasm and even cruelty to her own sister.
However, I read that according to one interpretation she is only pretending when harshly rejecting Ismene (lines 537-562) so as to mislead Creon and save her sister’s life. That doesn’t sound very convincing to me though.

2

Is there a difference in meaning here between the hortatory subjunctive θάνῃς and the imperative ποιοῦ ?

Take a look at this.

As an aside: in his conversations with Eckermann Goethe remarks about Antigone: Alles Edle ist an sich stiller Natur und scheint zu schlafen, bis es durch Widerspruch geweckt und herausgefordert wird.

This seems to me to be heavily indebted to Winckelmann’s History of Art in Antiquity; I wish I knew more about Goethe, though. Also, though I’m not sure I’d still find in it the same appeal today, a book I also remember reading with great interest many years ago was George Steiner’s Antigones.

3

473-479:
ἀλλ᾽ ἴσθι τοι τὰ σκλήρ᾽ ἄγαν φρονήματα
πίπτειν μάλιστα, καὶ τὸν ἐγκρατέστατον
σίδηρον ὀπτὸν ἐκ πυρὸς περισκελῆ
θραυσθέντα καὶ ῥαγέντα πλεῖστ᾽ ἂν εἰσίδοις:
σμικρῷ χαλινῷ δ᾽ οἶδα τοὺς θυμουμένους
ἵππους καταρτυθέντας: οὐ γὰρ ἐκπέλει
φρονεῖν μέγ᾽ ὅστις δοῦλός ἐστι τῶν πέλας.
I’m not sure how to read that last line: οὐ γὰρ ἐκπέλει
φρονεῖν μέγ᾽ ὅστις δοῦλός ἐστι τῶν πέλας.
‘For it is not allowed to think big thoughts for him who is the slave of the people around him (τῶν πέλας).’
Surely Kreon is speaking indirectly about Antigone here, criticising her for having ‘big thoughts’. But why should she be the slave of those around her? Is he referring to her being a woman? He seems to be quite obsessed with that, so that would fit in well. Or is it an oblique reminder that he is king and she subordinated to him?

I think the sense is more that even high-spirited and self-willed horses can easily be brought under control, because they know they have a master. Antigone, by contrast, μεγα φρονεῖ. She refuses to recognize Creon’s authority (cf. 484f.), refuses to knuckle under, and killing her is the only way to deal with her hubris. That’ll show her who’s boss.

546-547:
Ἀντιγόνη
μή μοι θάνῃς σὺ κοινὰ μηδ᾽ ἃ μὴ 'θιγες
ποιοῦ σεαυτῆς. ἀρκέσω θνῄσκουσ᾽ ἐγώ.

Is there a difference in meaning here between the hortatory subjunctive θάνῃς and the imperative ποιοῦ ?

There are two things in play here: (1) the regular aor./pres. aspectual distinction: don’t you share my death (a one-off event, aor.) and don’t go making your own what you had no part in (an ongoing process, pres.); (2) aor. subj. functions as imperative when negatived. anphph links to the relevant Smyth section for (2).

572-576:
The discussion about who actually is meant to deliver these lines is interesting. Are the Greek tragedies transmitted to us with no stage directions at all?

The medieval manuscripts give speaker identifications (but no stage directions), but they have no authority, so we’re free to assign the lines however we see fit (based on observable tragic practice, of course). Ancient manuscripts may give occasional speaker ids, but they don’t have authority either. The earliest manuscripts may have indicated where there was a change of speaker. Note that the text itself supplied the necessary character names, e.g. 1 (Ισμηνης), 11 (Aντιγονη).

The medieval tradition gives 572 to Ismene. Every time I read it I change my mind, decisively. When oh when will I learn to read Sophocles? Call me a romantic, but today I say Antigone, an isolated outburst precipitated by the injustice to her beloved. 574 and 576 I believe belong to the chorus.

However, I read that according to one interpretation she is only pretending when harshly rejecting Ismene (lines 537-562) so as to mislead Creon and save her sister’s life. That doesn’t sound very convincing to me though.

Nor to me. The lines are to be taken at face value. Antigone won’t have anyone sharing her glory.

The play’s theme of resistance to dictatorship may strike US readers as rather topical. Jean Anouilh’s Antigone was put on in Paris during the Nazi occupation of the city. Vive la résistance!

4

Thanks!

For what it’s worth: Griffith thinks the line should be assigned to Ismene. His reasoning for this is that

  1. A third speaker’s single-line interrruption of a two-person stichomythia would be highly unusual
  2. It is more chararcteristic of the warm-hearted Ismene (as he calls her) to express concern. Antigone is only occupied with death & glory and neven utters a word about Haimon.


If ony he would tweet in iambic trimeters!