One of the key thematic threads running through the plays of the Oedipus Cycle is the debate over the primary importance of the laws of the gods over those of the state. For example, in both Oedipus Rex and Antigone, the eponymous characters are torn between serving the Theban body politic and heeding the moral imperatives inherent in the prophecies of Destiny. In these two plays, judgment falls on the side of the gods, whose laws must prevail over those of the "art of governing" created by man (The Oedipus Cycle, 204). For both Oedipus and Antigone, their tragic heroism, the way they demonstrate that they are “of superior rank” to their peers, comes from their ultimate sacrifice to honor the will of the gods and repair the state. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay However, within this dramatic framework, there are fundamental differences between father and daughter that show that Antigone is not so much the chosen figure of the "sacred monster" embodied by Oedipus, and rather a model of intelligence and reason at service of the common good. It is through her action, through her moral choices, that paradoxically she carries out the will of the gods and protects the common good, despite not being the simple passive observer of their prophecies. Furthermore, because her decisions dramatize the potentially conflicting relationship between the laws of the gods and those of the state, Antigone demonstrates how tragedy and turmoil arise as a result of this discord. Once again honoring his capacities for intelligence and reason, he offers the idea of ​​“consciousness” as a possible solution, as a way to incite change within the state and bring these two systems together. Although the “heroic journeys” that Oedipus and Antigone take lead them to similar ends and are both guided by a common truth, their particular origins are significantly different. In the Oedipus Rex, Oedipus denies the pre-eminence of Destiny at every step. For example, Tiresias is well known in Thebes as an agent of the gods, as a “clairvoyant lord of the lord Apollo” (15), a (blind) “seer” able to speak in his name. Despite this consensus opinion, reinforced by Chorago, Oedipus is certain that the prophecies uttered by Tiresias are false. He questions their validity by derogatorily calling Tiresias a “decrepit soothsayer,” a “fraud,” and a spitter of “mystical mummy” (21). He also questions the integrity of Tiresias' character and purpose, accusing him of “infamy” (20) and of conspiring with Creon in a plot against the king. Refusing to admit Tiresias' announcement that he is the "pollution" (19) causing the plague in Thebes, Oedipus insists on the sanctity of the State, represented by the defense of his position as king. He claims, for example, to be the rightful protector of the city-state, since his unique (puzzle-solving) skills initially saved the people from the Sphinx's curse. Only when all the details of his miserable past history are revealed, only after having conducted various investigations that disprove his fundamental doubts, does Oedipus become convinced of the supremacy and truth of the gods and the inevitability of his fate: “It was true! All the prophecies... I, Oedipus... damned in birth, in marriage, damned/damned in the blood shed with his own hands!" (64) Oedipus represents in this way a sort of "sacred monster" - a king virtuous who nevertheless committed a crime so vile as to break the natural order. He is a figure chosen by the gods, therefore, to carry out the divine/inhuman function of restoring this interrupted balance and, through his tragic end, of re-establishing the balance. . teaching thepreeminence of Fate, however, Antigone supports the will of the gods (and protects the common good) not because she is the object of a prophecy, nor as the forced result of an unequivocal affirmation.revelation. Instead, he actively seeks the will of the gods through his particular moral choices, through his intelligence and ability to reason. Unlike her father, Antigone embraces the primacy of the gods, manifested in her moral imperatives, over the codes of the state from the beginning of her dramatic episode. Although both works are set in the context of a disturbed or unstable city-state (Thebes), the plague at the beginning of Oedipus Rex is the result of a profound crime committed against nature: the murder of one's father and marriage. (sexual consummation) with one's mother – while in Antigone the inciting dilemma is that of cultural practice – the burial of the dead – and the way in which its implicit ethical questions dramatize the broader theoretical debate at the heart of the Oedipus Cycle . In this play, Antigone's brothers Polyneices and Eteocles were both killed in the aftermath of the war. However, because Polyneices committed two acts of treason, both breaking the terms of his exile and fighting against the Theban side, the newly ascended King Creon ordered that his proper burial be denied: Polyneices, I say, must have no burial. : no man shall touch him or say the least prayer for him... This is my command and you can see the wisdom of it. As long as I am King, no traitor will be honored. But anyone who proves... to be on the side of the state will have my respect. (197) Creon here states the sound logic of his decision, alluding to the clear “wisdom behind it,” and describing those who oppose or question his rules as “traitor(s)” who will not be tolerated ( or “honored”). Therefore, as highlighted by this quote, Creon justifies the power, strength and legitimacy of his "command" by associating it with the good of the State. He aligns his decree—and himself as King—with serving the interest of “public welfare” (197). Antigone, however, argues for another kind of mandate – one, in fact, that deals more carefully and deeply with the needs of the common good: the mandate of fundamental moral justice, as inherent in the decree of the gods. She disagrees with Creon's self-proclaimed "wise" command and considers it her duty, as a sister and as a human being, to give her beloved brother a true religious burial. He expresses his point of view with a kind of resolute tenacity that is slightly reminiscent of Oedipus' proud denial (according to the Choragos, “Like father, like daughter… both stubborn” [209]). With her sister, for example, Antigone adopts a tone of determination that borders on the insensitive. When Ismene refuses to join, and therefore support, Antigone's decision to bury Polyneices, Antigone says, "Go away, Ismene: / Soon I will hate you, and the dead too, / For your words are hateful" (193). Likewise, he criticizes his sister for having sided so vehemently in favor of the state. Ismene is convinced that she and Antigone are powerless against Creon's rule, and advocates submission: “We are only women/We cannot fight with men… we must submit to the law” (191-192). In response, Antigone not only reinforces the strength of her belief, but correlates the notion of moral good with the desire of the gods: “You (Ismene) can do what you want/For apparently the laws of the gods mean nothing/to you” (192). He reiterates this point when he defends his actions, his violation of the “burial” mandate, to Creon. Antigone argues that Creon's laws are weak because they are provisional, the product of human temporariness, a "now" (208) that pales in comparison to the meaning andto the legitimacy of "God's unrecorded immortal laws... operative forever, beyond man entirely" (208). Therefore, he disobeys Creon's decree because it does not invest him with any sense of valid, lasting authority: "It was not the announcement of God. That final Justice/That governs the world below produces no such laws" (208). Antigone, therefore, does not inevitably come to recognize the supremacy of the gods, after the full revelation or revelation of an individual destiny. Unlike Oedipus, his tragic heroism does not derive from his status as a passive subject of prophecy. Rather, his decision to respect the will of the gods, and his death (a suicide by hanging, which in itself demonstrates some kind of agency), are the result of a self-guided choice informed by a value system and an ability of reason and intelligence. This important distinction is also reflected in the precise ways in which Oedipus and Antigone's acceptance of the gods and tragic ends repairs the State, offering on the one hand a mere purification and on the other a real reversal to the inside the governing body. Identified as the contagion responsible for the plague in Thebes, and fully convinced of his (unintentional) guilt, King Oedipus immediately understands the necessary, healing goodness of his exile. Specifically, at the end of Oedipus Rex, he asks Creon: “Let me go… Let me cleanse my father's Thebes from the pollution / Of my life here” (77). In this way Oedipus represents the "scapegoat" of the ancient religious ritual. A good and well-intentioned king, he embodies the "best" of the community, a model of man, whose ultimate sacrifice would restore the destroyed order of the city-state. Thus, by virtue of his simple fulfillment of a prophecy, an act that was preordained and therefore completely outside his realms of choice, action, and self-determination, Oedipus purifies an afflicted Thebes. On the other hand, Antigone's disappearance repairs the State through a deeper corrective change, distancing itself further from the helpless “sacred monster” figure embodied by her father, and strengthening her “tragic heroic” figure as shaped by the powers of man . intelligence and reason. Compared to Oedipus' exile, Antigone's punishment and eventual death serve the common good by correcting the state, inciting a readjustment within the political establishment that is attributed not to the irresistible will of the gods (prophecy), but to the reasoned decisions of the citizen gods (which, if correct, will ultimately reflect the will of the gods). Specifically, in Antigone, Creon moves away from his original position of privileging the sanctity of the State (and therefore the authority of himself) and moves towards the recognition of the supremacy of the gods. As previously mentioned, King Creon is an ardent defender of the laws of the state, sentencing Antigone to confinement within a cave as punishment for her refusal to obey such mandates. Throughout the work, he asserts his defense of the state against challenges from within. For example, his son Haimon, Antigone's husband, questions his father's decision and criticizes the king's general narrow-mindedness, unequivocal nature, and lack of humility/flexibility. He says to his father: “Yet there are other men/who also know how to reason: and their opinions could be useful,/you are not able to know everything/what people say or do, or what they feel:/… everyone they will only tell you what you want to hear” (218). Haimon would like his father to be more “changeable” (219), to be “moved” and to “learn from those who can teach” (219). However, Creon is firm in his choice, insisting that “the State is King” (221) and that all his will automatically protects the public interest.Paradoxically, however, Creon sometimes weakens the community in the name of his individualism. For example, he asks his son, with some incredulity and contempt, whether the City could ever really “propose to teach him to govern?” (220) Thus, he claims to celebrate the "public interest" while at the same time, and contradictorily, defending his sole authority as king. Despite his firm point of view, the resolute and presumptuous Creon eventually changes his mind. He ultimately believes Tiresias, whose prophecies of “calamity” (231) and doom he, like Oedipus, initially denies (indeed, he calls Tiresias a “faltering soothsayer” (232), which recalls Oedipus's earlier dismissive remark regarding the “ decrepit fortune teller” [21]). He retracts his sentence about Antigone, admitting that Tiresias' words have “disturbed” him (235) and stating that, in fact, “the laws of the gods are powerful, and a man must serve them” (236). However, he soon realizes that his reversal has come too late, as, upon opening the door to Antigone's cave, he finds that she has been hanged (by her own hand) and her son Haimon is also dead, having killed himself in response to his suicide. With the death, also, of his wife Eurydice, Creon cannot help but consider this chain of murders and family tragedies (which also recalls the downward trajectory of Oedipus' family line) as proof, finally, of the pre-eminence of Destiny over mandates / state control. At the end of Antigone, just like the enlightened but sad and miserable character of Oedipus at the beginning of his exile, Creon is ruefully aware of his own folly as king. He says to the Chorago: “Take me away…I seek comfort; my comfort lies here dead./All that my hands have touched has become/nothing/Fate has reduced all my pride to a thought of dust” (245). Therefore, both the technical recall of Antigone's phrase, and the sobering awareness and change in attitude experienced by Creon, highlight how Antigone's death induces a stronger and more powerful restorative effect within Thebes. Being the product of her human choice, a matter of her own determination, Antigone's death, rather than simply fulfilling a “prophecy of purification,” actively corrects a flaw within the State. This decision certainly further separates Antigone from the passive, even unfortunate, figure of the “sacred monster” who symbolizes Oedipus' tragic heroism. Furthermore, however, by highlighting and then correcting a flaw within the governing body, Antigone's “change” highlights the conflicting tension between the laws of the gods and those of the state. It illustrates the negative consequences that emerge from this conflictual relationship and suggests the idea of ​​citizens' "conscience" as a possible way to bridge or reconcile these two systems of laws. The very fact that Creon "turns", that he moves from one end of the spectrum of personal opinions to the other, testifies to the serious disparity and disconnect that exists between the moral imperatives of the gods and the political codes of the State. Throughout the Oedipus cycle, tragedy arises from primary characters seeking to fight against one set of laws, embrace the other, and challenge nonbelievers (anarchists) within both camps. Ultimately, is one "side" better, more correct than the other? According to the first Ode of the Chorus of Antigone, the laws of the gods - and therefore the good of the whole - must be respected above all else. However, this Ode does not reject, but rather exalts, man's capabilities. According to the Chorus: O clear intelligence, strength beyond measure! O destiny of man, which works both good and evil! When the laws are obeyed, how proud is his city! When the laws are broken, what then of his city? (204)Here.