1 Sophocles' Antigone Introduction, translation, and notes by ...

Ajax refuses to compromise. He says to Tecmessa, "You are a fool if you think
you can change my character at this point" (594-95). This is the glory of a Sophoclean
hero - the strength to create an identity in conflict with the way the world works. Man's
adherence to his own desire becomes both his glory and tragedy. The Sophoclean hero is
Achilles reborn in a world out of joint.
Can Ajax live in such a world? He tries to kill the leaders, and Athena drives him
mad. When he regains his sanity, he decides on suicide. He speaks of all changing with
time: "Long and uncountable time brings all that is hidden to light and hides what is
hidden, and there is nothing one cannot expect..." (646-48). But there is one thing that
will not change with time: Ajax. As Thomas Rosenmeyer says, "The hero does not count,
he lives, and when life becomes a sordid business of ticking off days, he sacrifices life"
(Masks of Tragedy 168).
Burial is denied Ajax until Odysseus intervenes. Compromise carries the day in
this ultimate ironic act: Ajax's bitterest enemy has negotiated his burial. But Ajax's death
has gained him the glory of remaining uncompromised. He remains Ajax.
Electra, in her play, also resembles Antigone in prizing her relation to her dead
relative more than her relation to the living. Electra speaks to Chrysothemis as Antigone
did to Ismene, in an attempt to enlist her help. She wants her to perform a bold deed to
restore family honor and is rebuffed as Antigone was, as a woman who does not know her
place. Chrysothemis echoes conventional prejudice when she says, "Do you not see that
you are a woman, not a man, and weaker than your enemies?" (997-98) Murdering a
mother is different from burying a brother. The latter may be a crime against the state, but
the former in most cases is a crime against both written and unwritten laws. Orestes' act is
brutal, and Electra screams, "Strike, strike again" as her mother is killed (1415). Yet
Sophocles' dramatic devices make the audience accept what Electra and Orestes do. The
chorus condone the vengeance of the children by noting that justice is on their side (1437-
41). Sophocles also avoids some of the alienating effects of the crime of matricide by
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