Quotation:

“I do not dishonor them, but to do this / against the state-I have no strength for it” (Ant. 16).

Comment:

Antigone and Ismene, daughters of the infamous Oedipus, lament that King Creon has allowed only one of their brothers to be given a proper burial. The justification is that Eteocles “fell fighting for this city [Thebes]”and so deserved to be treated with honor, while Polynices “returned from exile with hopes of burning his native land and ancestral gods from top to bottom” and therefore should have none (20). Even though the Gods demand bodies to be tended to a certain way, the King (the state) is declaring that to be illegal. 

I have, for the majority of my life, had complicated views about religion. There are constant issues regarding the separation of church and state in our country, a law which is so often forgotten. People constantly quote the bible as justification for why a certain group of people should be treated poorly or not allowed to exist. I won’t lie; that truly frustrates me. However, in reading Antigone, I feel compelled to examine the other side of the argument of church vs. state, since it really is the crux of this play. 

When I use the term, ‘religion’, I recognize that I am mainly referring to Western religions (Christianity, Catholicism, etc.). In reality, ‘religion’ is a very broad term, and very unique to each individual. There are also plenty of religions that exist in the world, all with very specific rules and systems of belief. Even if people don’t agree with them, they are not inherently lesser because they see the world in a different way. Greek mythology may not be around anymore, nor are the methods of they practiced, but for a while the ancient Greeks believed that “those who did not receive proper funeral rites were doomed to wander by the river Styx, the entrance to the Underworld, for eternity; their souls could never be at rest” (67). That specific belief is not inherently about control or discrimination, rather it is a guide for people whose loved ones have passed away. And funeral rituals do exist for current cultures, such as Muslim and Jewish people.

For all the generalizations I make, not everything within religion is designed to attack others. Sometimes there are just ways you need to do things, and I can imagine it must be frustrating when barriers prevent you from doing them. This can be highlighted in the famous case of the Lees, a Hmong family in California. Their daughter, Lia, was having terrible seizures. Because their religious beliefs were at odds with Western Medicine, the Lees disagreed with medical doctors and did not comply with the medications they were meant to give her. Regardless, when it came to children, the state of California had “the right…to force the patient to comply with life-saving treatment, even if it is forbidden by the family’s religion” (Fadiman 311). Many other Hmong families were pushed to comply with various operations and treatment plans despite what their religion stated. And so, for them, the issue of church vs. state is very personal.

Being controlled by the state is not an issue unique to religious persons. There has been a long history of laws and policies enacted with the intention of controlling certain populations. The idea of being forced to do something you feel to be wrong is certainly frustrating and frightening. To be told your beliefs don’t matter, that you don’t matter, I’m sure is difficult. To clarify, none of this is to say that I support the use of religion to control others in the same way. But I can see why Antigone-and the Lees-would be so angry with the state for trying to say they couldn’t do what they believed to be essential to protect the ones they loved. Knowing all of this, I will try to be more open-minded about the idea of religion, rather than simply following the assumptions in my mind.

Question:

How do you reconcile what you believe with what the law states?

Additional Resource:

Fadiman, Anne. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down. New York, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1997.

Class discussion and impact:

I had the important experience today of having my QCQ challenged. I had brought up the notion of church vs. state, and Maeve had stepped in to say that the true issue of the play might be that of citizenship and the rights therein. It was only because of Polynices’s status as a traitor/noncitizen that he was denied traditional burial rites. I hadn’t considered this, and I feel my ideas have been expanded as a result. I still hold my thoughts about the defense of religion playing a greater role, but I will try to be more critical of the quotes I pull in the future and think about them in different ways.