Greek Burial In Sophocles Antigone

One important facet of Greek life belongs under customs and traditions, and the Greeks believed that a burial was a huge part of a persons life. If a person was not buried, then it was thought to be insulting to that person and their family. To back up that statement, the Metropolitan Museum of Art mentioned that, “Ancient literary sources emphasize the necessity of a proper burial and refer to the omission of burial rites as an insult to human dignity.” They are talking about how important burials were, to the Greek culture. One example in the play Antigone was when Polynices and Eteocles went into war and both of them died. Their uncle Creon decided to give Eteocles a warriors burial whereas Polynices, he left to rot. He stated that Polynices …show more content…
Females were only used to be sacrificed and that was because the gods respected female sacrifices over male. Another reason is that men were always thought to be the best rulers rather than females. Another reason that men were considered a higher class was that women did not impact major decisions in Greek culture. Some examples of that from Mr.Jenvey class we learned was that females did not get to vote on decisions the senate made. This reflected on the earlier parts of america about how women were not allowed to vote. Another example we learned in class was that during marriage rights, women were not allowed to divorce the man only the man could divorce the women. Also the play Antigone talks about social rank. In the play Antigone also shows how rights for women were not the same. In the play Antigone is speaking to her sister Ismene and Ismene tells Antigone that, “We are only women, We cannot fight with men Antigone!” This shows that Ismene believes that men were superior to women and that is what many other women believed as well. The Greeks believed that men were higher in the social ranks than women and even though that does not reflect on our culture now, we used to believe that men should be higher ranked than women and that women should not be allowed to vote, but we have changed our ways on how we view social ranks and our society believes everyone should be …show more content…
Lower class Greeks were extremely fond of the idea of currency because it helps them trade for items they need to live for a low price instead of maybe having to give away a goat of food which could be one of their last ones. On the other hand, high class Greeks did not like the idea at all because it did not separate them from the lower class, which would lead to everyone being equal. Currency was a major part of Greek culture because it allowed the people to trade currency for items. This is also reflected now because we thrive on currency to help us live and get many items to help us. From the play Antigone, Creon did not like the idea of currency because it could help the lower classman grow in wealth, where as Creon, who was rich, did not like the idea because they did not believe that someone at a low level should be allowed to trade with him. Creon’s words indicate that he felt angered that many of the lower class people could rise into higher ranks and for the higher class that would threaten their rule and that could turn many people equal in rank. They also used a type of silver coin which is what they use as their currency. One of the currency that the Greeks used was called the Drachma. One of these coins would be worth a handful of arrows which was could be used for the Greeks soldiers in the army. This also shows the