4 CREONTHELABDACID: POLITICALCONFRONTATIONANDTHE DOOMED OIKOS INSOPHOCLES’ ANTIGONE Vayos Liapis 1. Introduction Antigone tends to evoke extreme, one-sided responses from readers and spectators.Themajorityseemtoidentifywiththeheroine,adefenceless girlwhohasthecouragetopitchherselfagainsttyrannyandpaywithher lifeforherbravery,andwhoisvindicatedintheend.Thisisbyandlarge thestereotypethathasalsodominatedliteraryre-workingsofthe Antigone, evenadaptationsbymodernistauthorssuchasCocteauandBrecht. 1 For pithiness and immediacy, Allan Bloom’s sympathetic formulation of the orthodoxviewcanhardlyberivalled: whentheword[i.e. choice ]stillhadsomeshapeandconsistency,adifficult choice meant to accept difficult consequences in the form of suffering, disapprovalofothers,ostracism,punishmentandguilt.Withoutthis,choice wasbelievedtohavenosignificance.Acceptingtheconsequencesforaffirming whatreallycountsiswhatgivesAntigonehernobility;unwillingnesstodo soiswhatmakeshersisterIsmenelessadmirable. 2 Reactingtosuchclichédreadings,aminorityofcritics–including,notably, Jean Bollack and Christiane Sourvinou-Inwood – have tended to treat Antigoneasadangerouslymarginalcharacter,avictimandacontinuator ofherfamily’s(self-)destructiveintroversion,whichmoreoverrepresents aclearandpresentthreattothecohesionofthe polis. 3 Indeed,aswillbe seen later (esp. pp. 93–5), Antigone perpetuates a powerful hereditary tendencytowardsruin,whichisexplicitlyidentifiedasamajortraitofthe entireLabdacid genos ;sheisthusalivingexampleoftheprevalentarchaic notion of ancestral guilt. Even this non-conventional reading, however, forallitssubtlety,failstoaccountfortheundeniablefactthatAntigoneis, eventually,vindicated,andthatCreonismadetoseetheerrorofhisways. Ratherthansidingwithoneoftheopposingfactionsorreachingfora compromisesolution,Isuggestthatadifferentapproachisrequired,one 81 74882_Tragedy_Archaic_Thought:Layout 1 21/1/13 15:44 Page 81