Prologos Flashcards
setting
outside the city at night time
Antigone’s address of Ismene
“My own flesh and blood”
Antigone references Oedipus
How many griefs our father Oedipus handed down!
Antigone is very inclusive of Ismene
“the two of us” the dual , an ending for when only two are concerned, she stops using this after Ismene’s refusal
Antigone introduces the way in which Polynices is being treated
Haven’t you heard? The doom reserved for enemies marches on the ones we love the most.
Why has Antigone brought Ismene outside of the gates
-that’s why I have brought you out here, past the gates, so you could hear in private (importance of place)
How have Etecoles and Polynices been treated
Eteocles, graced with all the rites, goes with glory down to the dead,
Polynices, forbidden to be buried or even mourned.
The outcome for those who disobey Creon’s orders
who disobeys will die (stoning to death inside the city walls)
Antigone takes Creon’s order personally
Creon lays it down for “you and me–yes, me, I tell you”
Antigone gives two options for Ismene
says Ismene can either show herself worth her breeding or a coward- for all her royal blood
Antigone’s request of Ismene
asks “will you lift up his body with these bare hands and lower it with me?” (Without Ismene she can only perform a symbolic ritual.
Ismene’s reaction to Antigone’s demand
shocked “what?” that Antigone would bury the body when a law forbids
So desperate, and Creon has expressly-
Antigone doesn’t believe there is any other alternative
he is mine and your brother
No one will ever convict me for a traitor
Creon has no right to keep me from my own (in death)
Ismene brings up Oedipus and their family
remember how our father died hated, reputation in ruins
His wife mutilating her life in a noose
Our two brothers dead in a single day, shedding “their own” blood (a familial crime) “poor suffering boys”
We are Left so alone
Ismene fears the death they will suffer, especially since they are descendants of Oedipus
we will die the worst death of all if we override the decree of the throne
We are women, we are not born to contend with men
