ABSTRACT
Like other Sophoclean heroes, Antigone stands in an ambiguous relation to civilized values. Creon’s discriminatory cleansing ritual and his attempt to declare himself “pure” of the pollution of Antigone’s death become in effect a source of infection. Antigone, however, struggles to restore the primordial unity of that “one womb” in the face of the double-striking blow which has divided the two brothers in their civic status even as it unites them in the reciprocity of their death. Not eros per se is tragic in the Antigone but the interplay, even the identification, of love and death. The deepest level of Antigone’s tragic heroism and of her ambiguous relation to the positive values of life and civilization lies in her fearful acceptance of the elemental, divine powers, Eros and Hades, especially Hades. The nocturnal setting of Dionysus’ revels continues the darkness of Antigone’s night burial of Polyneices and the darkness of imprisonment in the previous ode.
