But who in blithesome cheer Or man, or state, will justice long revere ? ANTISTROPHE III. This, the sum of wisdom, hear;- Nor ever dare, Lusting after worldly gear, With atheist foot to spurn; beware, Direful issue doth impend; Honour then with holy fear We are thus prepared for the denouement of this wonderful drama, wherein, after the trial, through the persuasive entreaties of Pallas Athene, "The Dread Brood of Night," their wrath appeased, are metamorphosed into the Eumenides, the beneficent deities. Forsaking the nether gloom, they consent to dwell in upper air, there to be worshipped with the Olympians. "Awful dispensers of the Right, In every human home confessed, By righteous visitations; aye revered, Thus was symbolized the process by which the instinctive thirst for revenge, the law of retribution in its rudimentary form, was transmuted into the great principle of eternal justice. Thus also is enforced the important principle that, in the sphere of morals, judgment must be passed, not upon the outward act, but upon the inward impulse which impelled the agent to its commission. This principle which, in the "Oresteia" of Eschylus, is vindicated through the agency of supernatural powers, in the "Edipus Coloneus" of Sophocles is wrought out through the gradual development, in the mind of Edipus, of his own moral convictions. Like his predecessor, Sophocles enforces the pagan conception of retribution, which, in his dramas, as in those of Eschylus, displays itself as a heritage of crime, descending from generation to generation, till at length, by submission to the heavenly mandates, on the part of one of the descendants, the divine justice is satisfied, and the working of the curse is stayed. While, however, with the elder dramatist, the predominant sentiment is that of stern indignation against the violator of the heaven-established order, the sympathies of Sophocles are with the sufferer, with whose tragic destiny he awakens, in the hearts of his audience, the profoundest pity and commiseration. Thus, by the murder of his father, and by marriage with his mother, Edipus unconsciously carries on the heritage of crime inherent in his family. On the first discovery of his twofold stain, overwhelmed with horror, and believing himself to be an object most hateful to the gods, he passionately craves an ignominious death. Blind, helpless, and curse-laden, he wanders forth, a wretched fugitive, attended only by Antigone. With the lapse of time, however, when his fierce anguish is in some measure assauged, he rises to the conviction that the terrible deeds which have overwhelmed him and his family in ruin, having been wrought in ignorance, cannot be imputed to him as crimes. At the same time he recognizes the pagan doctrine of expiation, in accordance with which punishment must follow the commission of crime, even when it falls upon the innocent descendant of the perpetrator; or when, as in his own case, the divine order has been unconsciously violated. Hence, while proclaiming his freedom from moral guilt, far from rebelling against the dreadful penalties which have followed his involuntary crimes, he bows submissively to the divine decree, and on learning that a blessing waits upon the possession of his tomb, which, after his death, will become a source of prosperity to Attica, the land which has afforded him a hallowed resting-place, he recognizes that, notwithstanding the wretchedness of his outward lot, he is, in spirit, no longer estranged from the supernal powers. He is thus prepared for the sacred peace which awaits him in the grove of the Erinyes, the dread goddesses, who, after pursuing their victim with life-long fury, at last, reconciled and appeased, receive him into their sanctuary. The solemn silence reigning there, broken only by the song of the nightingale, is in harmony with the profound mystery which envelopes his departure from this earthly sphere, whence, arrayed as for a solemn festival, and summoned by subterranean thunder, he disappears from mortal ken. Thus was anticipated by the great Hellenic dramatist one of the profoundest lessons of christianity, namely, that while the external consequences attending any violation of the divine order cannot be annulled, it is the inward disposition of the wrongdoer which determines the attitude towards him of supernal power.1 Nevertheless, the terrible curse pronounced by Edipus upon his unnatural sons, while revealing the poet's sense of the sacredness of the tie which they have violated, reveals also the wide chasm which separates the spirit of paganism from that of christianity. This divergence is stikingly exhibited in the "Antigone" of Sophocles, which, through the voice of the heroine, gives forcible expression to the perplexity awakened in classical antiquity by the calamities of the virtuous, consequent, not unfrequently, upon the observance of the moral law. This perplexity on the part of Antigone, which will appear from a brief epitome of the drama, together with her pathetic appeal for a clearer revelation as to the divine will, may be regarded as prophetic of christianity. In the earlier stages of psychical development, the only bonds of union recognized by men would be those of the family and of the clan. With the progress of civilization, the area within which moral obligations were binding 1 I am interested to find that my interpretation of the "Edipus Coloneus is in harmony with that of Prof. Butcher, with whose Essay on Sophocles" I have become acquainted since writing the above. 66 66 66 was gradually extended, and the idea of duty, at first confined to the clan, came at length to embrace the state. Accordingly, within these comparatively narrow limits, opportunities would occur for the subordination of selfish interests to the claims of kindred, and to the welfare of the community. Such disinterested conduct being essential to the well-being, sometimes indeed to the very existence of the state, would, in those early ages, be held in the highest honour. Light is thus thrown upon the two cardinal virtues glorified by Eschylus in the "Oresteia," by Sophocles in his "Electra" and his " Antigone," and by Euripides in many noble dramas, namely, loyalty, at whatever cost, to the claims of blood and of the state, the latter being regarded by the Hellenes as an object of intense affection and reverence. By them the subordination of individual rights to those of the state was regarded as a fundamental and irrevocable principle. In the Antigone" of Sophocles, these claims are represented as antagonistic, and the question is raised, which of the two is to be regarded as paramount. Polyneikes, the son of Edipus, having invested Thebes with an alien host, is opposed by Eteocles, and, in accordance with the curse of Edipus, the hostile brothers perish by each other's hand. While funeral honours are decreed to Eteocles, as the defender of the fatherland, an edict has been proclaimed by Creon, prohibiting, on pain of death, the burial of Polyneikes, as a traitor to the state. The justice of this edict is unquestioned except by Antigone, who, bidding defiance to the enactment of the king, performs for her brother the rites of sepulture, thereby making herself liable to the threatened penalty of death. In estimating the conduct of Antigone, it must be remembered that, in accordance with Hellenic belief, upon the due performance of those rites depended the welfare of the departed spirit in the nether world. At the conclusion of "The Seven Against Thebes," the statute ordaining that Polyneikes, "the ravager of his country, cursed of ancestral gods," "shall be cast forth, unburied, the prey of dogs," is proclaimed by the herald in the name, not of an arbitrary king, but in that of "Cadmeia's Senators, they who rule Cadmeia's land." Antigone, in reply, declares to Cadmeia's rulers that, if none will join in burying her brother, she will herself incur the risk, exclaiming, "dread tie the common womb from which we sprang." It would appear as if Eschylus, by the determination of the chorus, one half of whom follow, with Antigone, the corse of Polyneikes, and the other half, Ismene, with that of Eteocles, had intended thus to recognize the equal sacredness of the principles, represented respectively by the sisters, namely, allegiance to the holy tie of kindred-blood, and fealty to the state. In the drama of Sophocles, the claims of the state are represented by Creon, who enforces the duty of absolute obedience to human law as the only safeguard against anarchy. The doctrine of obedience to law, as the only legitimate sovereign, even when its action was unjust, was upheld by Plato and other writers. Antigone, on the other hand, regards the burial of her brother as a religious act, and accordingly, in justifying her conduct, she appeals to the unwritten statutes of heaven, which, as she says, are not of to-day or yesterday, but from all time, and whose authority cannot be cancelled by the enactments of any human ruler. This collision between the claims of blood-relationship, under the guardianship of the infernal deities, and of law, as representing the state, both objects in Hellas of the profoundest reverence, would be followed with intense interest by an Athenian audience. The claim of the state to unconditional obedience has been maintained by the chorus, by whom the act of Antigone, in burying her brother, is denounced as that of a rebel. "Thou hast rushed forward," they exclaim, "to the utmost verge of daring, and against that throne where Justice sits on high, thou hast fallen, my daughter, with a grievous fall."1 I quote Prof. Jebb's translation. |