Hunter Guttensohn
The main attribute I found that Kreon admires most in a person is Loyalty to the city. The most obvious example of this is Kreon's refusal to bury one of the two deceased brothers of Antigone (753, 231-244). Eteokles was loyal to his city until death. As a result, his body received all the proper burial rituals that were accustomed to his culture. However, Polyneikes was not loyal to Thebes. Subsequently, his body was unburied and left to rot. Not only is this an example of Kreon abusing his power, but also an example of him defying the will of the gods. This is made evident when Tiresias tells Kreon "the gods will not accept our prayers or offerings of burnt meat" (774, 1126-1128). Even after Tiresias tells Kreon that the gods are not pleased with him he continues to enforce his law not to bury the body of …show more content…
This is ultimately a negative quality for a leader to have. If Kreon is unable to sacrifice some of his beliefs for the good of his people than he is not fit to lead anything. In my opinion, Kreon's unwillingness to compromise created a snowball effect of his families, as well as his own, destruction. For instance, Kreon refused to bury Polyneikes' body, which ultimately caused the suicide of Antigone, which lead to the suicide of Kreon's son, Haimon (779, 1368-1370). Even though the death of Haimon is a tragedy, possibly the biggest blow to Kreon was the death of his wife. Not only does she kill herself after finding out about the death of her son, she curses Kreon's name (787, 1456-1458). In my opinion, Kreon seemed to be the type of person to make decisions in the heat of the moment and refuse to think
The main attribute I found that Kreon admires most in a person is Loyalty to the city. The most obvious example of this is Kreon's refusal to bury one of the two deceased brothers of Antigone (753, 231-244). Eteokles was loyal to his city until death. As a result, his body received all the proper burial rituals that were accustomed to his culture. However, Polyneikes was not loyal to Thebes. Subsequently, his body was unburied and left to rot. Not only is this an example of Kreon abusing his power, but also an example of him defying the will of the gods. This is made evident when Tiresias tells Kreon "the gods will not accept our prayers or offerings of burnt meat" (774, 1126-1128). Even after Tiresias tells Kreon that the gods are not pleased with him he continues to enforce his law not to bury the body of …show more content…
This is ultimately a negative quality for a leader to have. If Kreon is unable to sacrifice some of his beliefs for the good of his people than he is not fit to lead anything. In my opinion, Kreon's unwillingness to compromise created a snowball effect of his families, as well as his own, destruction. For instance, Kreon refused to bury Polyneikes' body, which ultimately caused the suicide of Antigone, which lead to the suicide of Kreon's son, Haimon (779, 1368-1370). Even though the death of Haimon is a tragedy, possibly the biggest blow to Kreon was the death of his wife. Not only does she kill herself after finding out about the death of her son, she curses Kreon's name (787, 1456-1458). In my opinion, Kreon seemed to be the type of person to make decisions in the heat of the moment and refuse to think