Abstract

This essay provides an interpretation of Sophocles' "Antigone" as a political tragedy in which political categories ("stasis/polemos"; "philos/echthros"; "idion/koinon"; "tyranny/democracy") are in crisis and every main character proves ambiguous: Polyneices is a "philos" and an "echthros", Creon appears as a good ruler and he turns out to be a tyrant, Antigone fights for the continuance of the "genos" and against it. "Antigone" is a tragedy about "status": when Antigone follows the unwritten law about burial, she acts for the rank of her "genos". Creon's "hybris" consists of an artificial conception of "philia" and a sacral idea of his political power. This is another ambiv¬alence: the autocrat proves to be too 'modern' and at the same time too archaic.