laws which can be changed by human action. Laws can be divine, such as the law of guest friendship enforced by Zeus, or legislated by humans. Even human laws can be traditional or customary or they can be new decrees set forth by individual rulers.

For Antigone, the divine law which commands women to perform funeral rites for family members is the most important law relevant to her case and she is obliged to obey it. In order to obey this divine law, she must break a recent human law put forth by Creon. In other words, she has no choice about breaking a law. The only issue is which law she chooses to break, the law of Creon or the law of Zeus. She decides that of the two, the eternal laws of the gods are more important than the ephemeral decrees of a human ruler.

Creon has decreed that anyone who buries Polynices will be subject to death. He wants his rebellious nephew's rotting, bird-eaten corpse to serve as a reminder to the people of what happens to those who oppose the king.

Antigone, Polynices's sister, defies Creon by staging a proper burial for Polynices, sprinkling dirt over the exposed corpse. She justifies this as the will of the gods. Divine and moral law is higher than the laws of the state, she asserts.

The key point the play is making is that Antigone has done the right thing in disobeying an immoral law. The laws humans make should not oppose divine laws. In ancient Greek culture, dishonoring a person by not affording them a proper burial was a serious sin.

Antigone is often used as a symbol of political resistance against a corrupt state. She had the courage to stand by her beliefs, even if the price was her life.

Even Creon is brought about to see the folly of what he has done in condemning Antigone for obeying her conscience after Tiresias tells him the Furies will take vengeance if he does not lift the death penalty on his niece. He does so, but unfortunately, he is too late, as she has hanged herself.

Antigone, the title character of Sophocles’s tragedy, defies her uncle Creon because she believes the gods wanted her to do what she did: honor her brother. The young woman had gone against her uncle by performing funerary rites for her dead brother Polynices and sprinkling dust on his corpse. In this way, she symbolically buries him, which King Creon has expressly forbidden. He had decreed that the punishment would be death. After her actions are discovered, the king has his nephew’s body moved, but Antigone finds him and repeats her actions. This time, she is apprehended and brought to Creon.

Refusing to apologize for her action, instead, she insists she has done the right thing. She would have risked any punishment, including death, to fulfill her obligation. But she owes it to the gods to honor all members of her family equally. The political divisions in Thebes do not enter into such a decision. She tells Creon that he is not a god like Zeus and so did not have the right to forbid the burial (lines 499–500).

It wasn’t Zeus, not in the least,

who made this proclamation—not to me.

When Creon counters that she is dishonoring Eteocles, her other dead brother, whom he believes was the rightful ruler, she maintains that. Polynices deserves the same treatment as Eteocles. She would be dishonoring herself and her family if she did not honor both with the proper rites.