Ismene begs King Creon to spare her sister Antigone in the Forum of Paestum.
Antigone is a tragedy by Sophocles written before or in 442 BC. Family ties, social mores, and the king's law all clash. Antigone wants to bury her brother Eteocles, while King Creaon has decreed that his corpse be left to the vultures. Antigone disobeys him and gives her bother an honorable burial.
Doing the right thing sometimes means disobeying the king and those who fear him. And it does not always end well. He orders her to be buried alive. She instead opts for suicide with her beloved, the King's son Haemon.
It takes uncommon courage to stick to humanity's higher values.
And it takes unutterable blindness to insult humanity - as Creaon learned, he who dishonors the son of his brother-in-law pays with his own.
ReplyDeleteWow, was hoping this was going to be about Italian starter dishes. A new Italian restaurant opened in downtown Abiko opposite the factory sushi conveyor belt tuna-extermomat Our Family was feeding at just the other day, so maybe Our Man has parmesan on the brain. Anyway, is there a shallower meaning to your story that halfwits the other side of the Pacific might glean? IE who ya dissing this time lady?
ReplyDeleteYes, I did have someone in mind as it is a play about selfishness and lacking higher ideals. But it does not matter.
ReplyDeleteI was actually more interested in displaying the photo of Ismene.
Interestingly, Ismene might have a book in those outstretched palms; the photo has the look of theatre and Ismene the defender is clearly the heroine. There's an arc of shadow similar to the arc of light in Reading by Lamplight by James McNeill Whistler. She might be any girl in any attic, on any floorboard, words in supplicant hands.
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