Sophocles: Antigone by Douglas Cairns

Author:Douglas Cairns [Cairns, Douglas]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
ISBN: 9781472512147
Publisher: Bloomsbury UK
Published: 2016-06-21T04:00:00+00:00

Antigone at Rome

The strongest evidence for the reception of Sophocles’ version of the Antigone story is the version of Accius (born c. 170, died c. 80 BC).25 Only six short fragments of his Antigone survive, but they are enough to suggest a relatively faithful adaptation.26 Seneca’s Phoenician Women is undated, but appears to have been left unfinished:27 it is only 664 lines long and has no choral parts. In the first of its two discrete sections, Antigone is, as in Oedipus at Colonus, in exile with her father. In the second, as in Euripides’ Phoenician Women, she and her mother attempt to avert the fratricide.28 There is nothing that suggests direct adaptation of Sophocles’ Antigone; but Seneca may have intended to complete the unfinished work with a final act dramatizing the confrontation between Antigone and Creon over the burial of Polynices.29 The play would thus have ended as, in its surviving form, it begins, with the demonstration of Antigone’s pietas (loyalty to kin): pietas and its breakdown in the House of Labdacus are the central themes.30

Familial duty is also Antigone’s defining characteristic in Statius’ Thebaid (published c. AD 92), an account of the destruction of the House of Labdacus from Oedipus’ curse to Theseus’ burial of the Argive dead. Phoenician Women and other Euripidean tragedies (especially Suppliant Women) take their place among its many poetic models and influences.31 The question of Statius’ use of Sophocles is more controversial, but an awareness of Antigone cannot really be denied.32 This is confirmed above all by the presentation of the burial of Polynices in Book 12 as a contest between Polynices’ wife, Argia, and Antigone for the latter’s Sophoclean role. As Argia cradles the body in her arms, she asks (12. 330–1), ‘Did you move none of your kinfolk to tears? Where is your mother? Where is Antigone, whose reputation is famous?’ (332–3). This question refers not to Antigone’s place in the plot of Statius’ Thebaid so far, but to the literary tradition, especially Sophocles’ Antigone.33 No sooner has Argia posed her question than Antigone appears (349), bent on the same task, and indignant at encountering a rival: ‘Whose body are you searching for,’ she asks (365–6); ‘And who do you think you are to do so on my night?’34 Argia and Antigone then join forces: they drag Polynices’ body to a burning pyre which proves to be that of Eteocles (409–28); even in death, the brothers cannot be reconciled, and the flames arising from their corpses part in never-ending hostility (429–46). The two women are then apprehended by Creon’s guards, and the issue of the ownership of the Sophoclean Antigone’s role arises once more.35 Like Antigone in Sophocles’ play (Ant. 443), they ‘openly confess that they flouted Creon’s orders’ (452–4); like Sophocles’ heroine they exhibit a brave but irrational desire for death (456–7); and, rather like Antigone and Ismene in their second confrontation (Ant. 526–60), they each claim responsibility. As with Antigone and Ismene in Sophocles’ play, mutual respect (460) quickly turns to hostility (462).

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