Andrea Irwin
ENG 115
Research Paper
December 8, 2015
What Are the Implications of Not Burying Polyneices in Antigone?
In Sophocles’ play Antigone, the main characters, Antigone and King Creon, are in
constant battle between law and justice. Religiously-convicted Antigone takes a direct stand
against the tyrannical ruling of King Creon, who has ordered that her brother Polyneices’ body
be left in the very place where he fell to his death, for the birds and dogs to pick at. Creon’s order
comes from Polyneices bringing war to Thebes and fighting against his home country, a
treasonous act in the eyes of the king. Antigone feels much differently on the matter. She
believes that it is out of Creon’s authority to grant or deny a burial to any man, that it is the right
and power of the higher gods, and by not burying Polyneices, Creon is directly violating their
rule, something she could not bring herself to stand by and allow. It’s easy to understand why
both Antigone and Creon held to their convictions, however, what are the implications of
denying a deceased man a proper burial?
For the ancient Greeks, death, burial, and the afterlife were to be taken quite seriously.
Not only were the traditions surrounding death their entrance into the afterlife, but they were also
a rite of passage that remembered and honored the deceased. The funeral and burial processes
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were of such importance to the Greeks that those who were unable to marry or produce any
children went as far as to “adopt” heirs, placing them in charge of organizing funeral and
interment arrangements [ CITATION Jud \l 1033 ]. According to Homer’s The Iliad, being
denied these rites was a direct insult on the deceased’s dignity and could have a severe impact on
the afterlife[CITATION Hom62 \l 1033 ].
To understand the importance of burial in ancient Greek tradition, it’s important to
understand the journey they believed the spirit went on to the Underworld during the process of,
and after, death. The journey began as a person lay dying, when Thanatos, the God of Death,
would reach down and cut off a lock of hair which he would offer to Kora, daughter of Hades,
ruler of the Underworld, and if accepted, would seal their fate[ CITATION HBL84 \l 1033 ].
Once deceased, Hermes, the messenger of the gods, would lead the spirit to the River Styx where
