The main theme of Sophocles’ Antigone is
the limits of the polis (metropolis-state). Antigone’s
uncle Creon (whose call manner, generically,
“ruler”) decrees that the useless Eteocles rep-
resented Thebes, and that Polynices was the
enemy of Thebes; consequently, nobody may offer
Polynices burial rites. His decree, as Antigone
insists, cuts heedlessly across circle of relatives ties and
dishonors the laws of the gods of the below-
international. Here then is the warfare among the
circle of relatives as an imperative unit and the polis that, in
its excessive shape, recognizes only citizens and
laws that apply to citizens.
Antigone’s perspective shows that the
laws of the polis can pass best to date in ignor-
ing the ancient ties of family members. By presenting bur
