ABSTRACT
Antigone is placed in an agonizing dilemma. T h e state, in the person o f her
uncle Creon, has announced that she may not bury her brother, killed attack
ing the city. But Antigone’s religion and its “ unwritten laws” tell her that she
must bury her brother, or forfeit all chance of being welcomed by the spirits o f
her family when she dies. As readers o f Sophocles’ tragedy, we usually find
Creon’s rigidity alarming. He has defined public policy in a way that favors
the interests o f most people in the city. In the process, however, he has im
posed a tragic burden on one person. T he great Athenian statesman Pericles
boasted that fifth-century democratic Athens did things better, refusing on
principle to put people in such dreadful predicaments.1 Athens, he said, pur
sues the good o f the city, but not by requiring its citizens to violate the “ un
written laws” o f their religions.
