Abstract
The paper engages with Antigone’s steadfast resistance to and ultimate rejection of the female, Ismene-like stereotype into which she refuses to be typecast by the socially prescribed and patriarchy-tailored norms of gender essentialism. Guided by the natural and eternal laws as defined by Thomas Aquinas, Sophocles’ heroine stands up against the society’s distortion and violation of the universal, unwritten laws (natural, eternal, archetypal laws). Relying on the Jungian insightful archetypal criticism, I approach Antigone as the archetypal Earth Mother in its dual nature (the loving, self-sacrificing mother as well as the destructive, vengeful mother) in order to better understand the heroine’s brave act and its aftermath. In this way, the paper demonstrates the uninhibitedly consistent female challenge and critical choice to stereotypical gender ideologies of the Sophoclean time, proving that the archetypal dimension is always already more powerful than any of the man-made laws. Keywords: stereotypical, archetype, Earth Mother, free will, human/divine
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