The Central Character(s) of the Antigone and Their Relationship to the Chorus

Abstract

Dr Shelton's article, ‘Human Knowledge and Self-Deception’ (Ramus 13 [1984], 102-23), has two main theses which are related. The first, as she duly acknowledges, has already been put forward by a small number of other scholars; it is that Creon is the sole main character of the Antigone. The second is, I think, original, or at least has nowhere else been stated with such force; it is not merely that Antigone is a minor character (which is simply the converse of the first thesis) but that she is a dispensable one (‘Ultimately Antigone is not necessary for the story’). ‘The gods would punish Creon even if Antigone had never existed’; should they be remiss, other mortals could do the job (‘since everyone in the play seems to disagree with Creon, and Antigone is therefore not his only opponent, what exactly is her function in the play, and how does it differ from that of Haemon and Teiresias?’). I think that the emphasis of her article is seriously misleading; so I would like to deal with her theses as briefly as possible, without reopening the endlessly debated question of the exact rights and wrongs of the positions of Antigone and Creon.