Eternal Law In Antigone

Action, Belief and Rational Thought: An In-depth Examination of Antigone
In Sophocles’ work The Three Theban Plays, Antigone represents the pinnacle of ancient greek tragedies. In this story we witness the character of Antigone defend her integrity and her beliefs which ultimately leads to her demise. However, when examining the actions of Antigone what is most interesting is her unflinching faith in the word of the gods and her belief in their Eternal Law. But what is eternal law? According to St. Thomas Aquinas in his works Treatise on Law “Eternal law is known to all rational creatures at least to some extent through its effects, what's more, because of its primacy, eternal law is such that all other law (natural, divine, human, and even …show more content…
Secondly, laws may be unjust through being opposed to divine good; such are the laws of tyrants inducing to idolatry or anything else to contrary to divine law.” By examining the events in Antigone and focusing our attention on the law created by Creon, Antigone had to oppose Creon’s law in order to uphold truth, justice and virtue, she is the “eternal heroine of natural law.” Utilizing both theories presented by Aquinas in regards to eternal law and the conditions of a human law being just or unjust and applying it to the decree set forth by Creon we see that he does not have the common good as its end. It is in fact a burdensome law imposed by an authority who exceeded their power and was not in accordance with eternal law. Antigone is justified in breaking the law to bring justice and honor to her dead brother Polyneices and her family. So logically the decree placed by Creon should not be followed as it contradicts eternal law. When Creon asks her why she dared to break the law, she responds, “It wasn’t Zeus, not in the least, who made this proclamation-not to me. Nor did that Justice, dwelling with the gods beneath the earth, ordain such laws for men...a mere mortal, could override the gods” Antigone justifies her actions by declaring her allegiance to the gods over mortal man. She is not obligated to to follow the decree set in place by Creon, her devotion to upholding the will of …show more content…
Thomas Aquinas, natural law involves the belief of practical law. He argues that natural and practical reason are intertwined so much that they see to accomplish and understanding and appreciation of what society should value, what society should seek out and the proper means by which to fulfill these goals. In essence, Aquinas contended that “good is to be done and evil avoided.” An example of natural law would be the the returning of a borrowed item to its rightful owner. This under natural law is viewed as a morally sound and necessitated gesture, it is the “right” thing to do. Natural law thus places a great deal of emphasis on the concepts of morality and law such as to suggest that an immoral law is not a law at all. In regards to Antigone it is evident again that she is justified under natural law to break the laws that are imposed by Creon because they do not exemplify or hold true to what was mentioned previously. In short, the actions which natural law commands and the acts it forbids are intrinsically good and evil. Therefore it was good of Antigone to follow natural law and it was evil of Creon to forbid her from doing so. In the final acts of the play Creon is essentially cursed by the gods for his actions and as such his son dies and his own wife commits suicide upon news of her son's death. The gods punish Creon for his actions by manipulating the fates of his family. This is his reward for imposing an unlawful rule that resulted in the death