I wili begin with Haernon's exit.
He came In to plead with
H. D. F. KJTTO ON THE ROLE OF THE GODS IN ANTIGONE
"h
[H. D. F. Kitto (1897-1982) was a professor of Greek at
the University of Bristol. England. and a well-known
classical scholar. Among his publications are Form and
Meaning in Drama (1956), The Greeks (1957), and
Greek Tragedy: A Literary Study (1966). In this extract,
Kitto declar,:s tbat tbe role of the gods is crucial to the
understanding of Antigone. both In the conflict between
Antigone and Creon and between Creon and Haemon.]
Mr. F. L. Lucas bas recently declared his opinIon that the final
scenes of the Antigone are weak: the piay flags when Antigone
is removed. Mr. Lucas is by no means the first critic to say this.
The criticism proves one thing conclusively, that the critic has
not understood what the play is about. On the 'one level 1\'\r.
Lucas has understood the play well enough, that on which the
heroic and passionate Antigone defies the tyrant at the cost of
her life. On this level the gods do indeed come Into the pic-
ture. since Antigone is convinced that she is doing the gods'
wiil. But this Is only part of the picture. and if one sees only a
part. under the Impression that one is seeing the whole, it is
not surprising if one finds the picture iii-designed, Mr, Lucas
and those who agree with hIm think that the Antigone, like
other Greek plays, Is concerned with exciting or at least inter-
esting people and actions-as of course It is-and when the
most exciting one disappears from the action he begin;;.tp
yawn. What the critic is really yawning about is the gOdS: he
does not realize that they are there. and have been from the
beginning. They enter into the structure of this play more than
some of us realize.
45
) and thus led straight to the suicide of the Queen and the total
Creon for Antigone's life, and has been so brutally repulsed
tbat he has gone out making obscure threats towards his
father. At this point the chorus performs an ode, a typical
choral ode, filling a pause in the action with appropriate com- \thONSJ
rnent. Thinking of the unfllial conduct of Haemon theycsrng ~
about the power of Love, Eros, which can pervert the minds
even of the upright. They go on to observe that Eros Is a power
that ranges through the whole universe-man, animals, gods:
Aphrodite sits enthroned beside the Great Powers, and wieids
absolute sway. Whereupon Antigone is led in, and the action
continues.
But if this is the way in which we understand the ode-'Here
the Congregation wiil sing a Hymn-e-we have scarcely begun
to understand Sophocles, It is true that these reflections on the
power of Love are suggested to the chorus by what Haemon
has said to his father: it is also true that time after time in thiS
play the chorus says things which are true, but are said about
the wrong person-as when in the second ode they speak of
the wicked lawbreaker. and in the thlrd ode about evil seeming
good to the one whom the god is minded to destroy: in each
case they are thinking of Creon's adversary, but in each case it
is Creon himself whom the words fit. The two stanzas on Lover;•• J
are not religious poetry written as an interlude by a pious
dramatist; they are an important Rart of the real drama'0:reon (' ,fOn
has already defied one part of divine law In refusing bunal to a ~
fellow human being: now he defies another of the majestic
powers of the Universe in brutally disregarding Haernons love
for Antigone.)At this point Sophocles remarks to us: 'Eros,
Aphrodite, are gods. They are not to be played with: they are
pretty strong. Just wait and seeJ'-for this is the way in which
the ode would be taken by an audience which had not had the
advantage of reading books about Greek Tragedy, and was not
misled by ideas derived from more romantic kincs of tragic
drama.
Accordingly, when this audience heard, later in the play,
how the desperate Haemon turned from his lover's dead body
upon his father and tried to klli him, and then killed himself,
extinction of Creon's house, it would not say. as we do. 'This is
1J 1.11
T' (\?
all vel)' exciting, no doubt. but. really, ! am much more inter-
ested in Antigone than in Creon: It would say 'What an awful
illustration of the folly of a man who presumes to anger a god!
-,-H. D. F. Kitto, Sophocles: Dramatist &. Philosopher (London:
Oxford University Press. 19581. pp. 35-37