In the Antigone, Sophocles recreates the story between Oedipus' daughter, Antigone, and Creon, the king of Thebes. Antigone insists on burying his brother, Polyneices, who is a betrayer of the country, while Creon forbids this action. Antigone argues that offering a proper burial to his brother is the obedience of the order of Zeus. However, Creon states that the enemy of the country should not be eligible for a burial and at the end, Antigone and Creon's wife and son die. The text provided shows the claim of Creon that he shall make a difference between enemy and friend of the citizen. Creon's principle of not respecting the enemy is plausible but not morally correct. It is plausible because as a ruler of the city, Creon needs to tell the difference between enemy and friend in order to provide security, but it is not moral because under a religious society, his action offends the "higher law " made by the gods.
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As a ruler of the city, the premier task is to provide security of the citizens and Creon's action suggests that he does all this for his citizens. Creon argues that as a supreme ruler, knowing who is our friend and who is the enemy is necessary. And if someone threatens the city, one shall not be forgiven. All he does is for the good of the city and the citizens. I think that what Creon believes to do is reasonable at this point. He asks for the respect of the law, respect of his throne from his citizens and Antigone. His rule is for the stability and the security for his citizens. He thinks that his rule will be accepted by anyone including gods because he accomplishes his responsibility as a king. It is hard to blame a king on trying to provide security for the citizen. .
However, using this principle as an absolute guideline when solving the problem with Antigone is not moral in this situation and society. First I need to explain what is a moral action in ancient Greek society that I believe.
