On “Yahoo! Answers” I came across an interesting question: Who is a modern day Antigone?
This thought-provoking question was posted by a student studying the classics. The character in question was featured in several Greek tragedies including plays by Sophocles and Euripides.
Antigone: Antigone is the inbred daughter of Odysseus and his mother Jocasta, and the sister to Polynices and Eteocles. When her brother Polynices is killed while engaged in the dishonorable pursuit of over-throwing the other brother Eteocles, the new king Creon denies Polynices the honor of a proper burial.
The conflict of the play emerges when Antigone expresses her wish to bury Polynices with a proper ceremony.
Odysseus is dead at this point, the great blind prophet has left the scene and the new guy, Creon, now sits on his throne. Creon denies Antigone’s request for a proper burial ceremony on the grounds that Polynices does not deserve the honor. Creon is exceedingly scrupulous and feels that his scruples and the scruples of the people won’t allow for such a burial. It would be bad politcs and bad form.
Antigone pleads and begs and threatens and is not given her way, so she kills herself. Her lover, the son of the king, also kills himself.
The facts of Polynices’s dishonor are debatable and his bloodline is indeed noble. Antigone feels she was wrongly denied. She feels also that her brother is wrongly denied. Antigone is denied justice because the new king insists on his scruples.
The lack of respect by the new king is the enactment of Antigone’s injustice but it is not necessarily the root of it. She and her brother were born into misfortune, quite literally, through no fault of their own. And so to be denied justice, denied mercy, and to have done nothing wrong to deserve the treatment she receives, for Antigone is too much to accept.
She rebels and kills herself. This, as the play imparts, is her fate. She can do nothing but rebel against an unjust king and make known the wounds she and her family have suffered.
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What figure from the 20th century or in today’s world can match this scenario? Who has been denied justice and forced to beg at the knees of the king for something that should be a common right? Whose plea has been rejected by the powers-that-be in his or her time of need?
Who is today’s Antigone?
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The response I posted on “Yahoo! Answers” was Pat Tillman’s mother. She is today’s Antigone.
Pat Tillman was a professional football player in the NFL who felt it was his duty to enlist in the US armed services. Tillman turned down a reported $3.6 million dollar contract offer from his team, the Arizona Cardinals, to enlist in the army.
He was killed in Iraq in 2004 by friendly fire.
The United States government has officially refused to admit that Pat Tillman was killed by friendly fire, despite the constant and unceasing attempts of Mrs. Tillman to evoke the admission. She tirelessly campaigned for years toward that end – for justice, for truth, for the proper respect for her son’s death.
It was not until 2007 that US military personnel released reports stating that Pat Tillman was “suspected” of being killed by friendly fire.
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What do you think is the best answer to the question: Who is today’s Antigone?
sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antigone
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pat_Tillman
