Antigone
by Sophocles · first published 1835
22% recommend78% neutral
Publisher's description: Echoing through western culture for more than two millennia, Sophocles' play has been a touchstone of thinking about human conflict and human tragedy, the role of the divine in human life, and the degree to which men and women are the creators of their own destiny. This exciting new translation of the Antigone is both extremely faithful to the Greek and poetically striking and convincing.
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…(Aristotle and other Greek thinkers already were inching towards the idea that there are things that are right to protect in the polis despite what others may think or the laws may impose; for example, read Antigone by Sophocles). What is it in human nature that concretely and morally entails our having rights? the faculty of reason and its crucial role in human life, as long as we are free to act according to our…
on “Google Workers Urge C.E.O. To Pull Out of Pentagon A.I. Project” ↗…literature or maybe even watching a good film can help make you a better person, depending on how you define "better". Sometimes literature can bring up ethical or philosophical issues: consider how "Antigone" makes you think about the relationship between citizen and state, "Cat's Cradle" discusses the dangers of technology, or "Less Than Zero" sheds light on the alienation and social dysfunction of the wealthy…
on “It's not you, it's your books” ↗Ancient classics like Sophocles, Ajax, Philoctetes, Antigone, Oedipus or the writings of Cicero, etc. Everything that happens today already happened thousands of years ago the only difference was they lived in a much less censored time back then, so Sophocles could…
on “Ask HN: Best books for dealing with workplace politics and dishonesty?” ↗…Edit: Just wanted to add that Aeschylus, Euripedes, and Sophicles are great reads. You can read a whole play in one sitting. If I could recommend one from each it would be Agamemnon, The Bacchae, and Antigone. Each of those plays deeply affected me and they're fairly accessible.
on “Books I Loved Reading in 2024” ↗Treating our dead with respect is probably one of the oldest signs of human culture. People care a lot about the bodies of their deceased loved ones. See Antigone by Sophocles. You're welcome to your views, but most people have strong, deeply felt emotions and opinions on how dead bodies should be properly handled.
on “Oregon has legalized human composting” ↗…of money bulding an illegal marketplace online the "poster boy for privacy in the information age" while having characters like Assange and Snowden around is a shame IMHO. Since ancient Greece (e.g. Antigone by Sophocles) there is a strugle between Human law and God's law (e.g. Ethics, True, etc.). Snowden falls in that category IMHO. What Ross did was both illegal and unethical.
on “My Roommate, the Darknet Drug Lord” ↗…knowledge of some area or string of thought. I usually found a good deal of value, even when the author or work was not to my specific taste. My classical literature class had a cycle exclusively on Antigone. I was and am not as enamored by that play as was my instructor and the critic George Steiner who we were asked to read. But to loathe the requirement and not focus on deriving the best possible value…
on “Why Read the Classics? (1986)” ↗…company. There’s room to reinterpret the artist, but frankly interpreting this author as socially conscious has been done so many times it’s boring. It would be like putting on a feminist production of Antigone, or a pacifist recitation of the Iliad, or an anti-racist production of Othello - not only “already done” but probably what the author intended. The folks running the show have been avoiding actual “woke”…
on “Speaking Freely: Why I resigned from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation” ↗…source to explain the fate for some of his show's most popular characters. "Those who want to know why Omar had to die, why Stringer had to die," he said, "Strap on a helmet, get in the game and read Antigone. Read Medea. It had to happen." [1] http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/showtracker/2008/03/the-wire...
on “Why We're Teaching 'The Wire' at Harvard” ↗Hungary, Europe. Homer is standard in high school (Odyssey and Illiad) along with Sophocles (Antigone and Oedipus Rex). And there are more obviously too
on “The Odyssey – Alexander Pope translation (1725)” ↗…context of the Iliad, ancient Greece, is completely alien to the modern US, just as it is to modern China I was taught Greek mythology in grade school, read the Odyssey and Iliad in middle school English, Antigone and Oedipus Rex in high school, and the story of Orpheus and Eurydice was a recurring theme in some college courses but that's a bit specific. Our philosophy courses in highschool and college started…
on “I taught the Iliad to Chinese teenagers (2021)” ↗Counter-example: the play Antigone by Sophocles. (spoilers) The lead character commits suicide half way through and the second half of the play is what the other characters do. (more spoilers) It all ends in tears.
on “Story Structure 101: Super Basic Shit” ↗Antigone can be better characterized as following the 5 act structure that Shakespeare used: I. Introduction II. Growth III. Climax IV. Fall V. Catastrophe The best example of Shakespeare's structure is…
on “Story Structure 101: Super Basic Shit” ↗…example, lacked any kind of forensics so both sides basically had to tell a story that conformed to the same set of facts. Anyways, the natural law stuff and popular opinion also play a role of course. Antigone for example risks death to recover her dead brother’s body even though it’s been made illegal by the tyrant of Thebes. Clearly Sophocles is a pretty standup guy and Antigone is sympathetic, so it makes…
on “Telling Stories in Athenian Law [pdf] (2002)” ↗…Here’s an incomplete list of all books that I read as mandatory high school assignments, which I can recall from memory. * Die Vorstadtkrokodile * Faust I * Die verlorene Ehre der Katharina Blum * Antigone * Die Verwandlung * Bahnwärter Thiel * Der Sandmann * Die Räuber * Hamlet * Der Besuch der alten Dame * Im Westen nichts Neues * Unterm Rad * Woyzeck Im probably missing 5 books or something…
on “Kids Rarely Read Whole Books Anymore. Even in English Class” ↗