Answer to Question 1
The Iliad, a story of the Achaean (ancient Greek) hero Achilles, who, moved to anger by an affront to his honor, refuses to join the battle against Troy alongside his Achaean comrades. In a dramatic battle, he confronts and kills Hector, stripping him of his armor and dragging his nude corpse before the walls of Troy. The Iliad highlights Achilles' decision to take action that will bring glory to his warriors and to himself. The importance of heroic action in proving virtue, or excellence (the Greek word arete connotes both), is central to the Iliad and to the male-dominated culture of the Heroic Age. To the ancient Greeks, moral value lay in proper action, even if the consequence of that action was death. Indeed, death in battle was a sure path to honor.
Pericles, the leading proponent of Athenian democracy, was concerned more with politics than any ancient code of heroism. In his Funeral Speech, he ties the concepts of humanism and individualism to civic patriotism. Pericles reviews the principles of action by which Athens rose to power, describing Athens as the model and the teacher for all the other Greek communities. The greatness of Athens, according to Pericles, lies not merely in its military might and in the superiority of its political institutions, but in the quality of its citizens, their nobility of spirit, and their love of beauty and wisdom. Pericles' views, which were shared by most Athenians as primary articles of faith, reflect the spirit of civic pride that characterized Hellenic culture at its peak.
Plato's Crito is an account of Socrates's execution, and correspondingly serves as a good summary of Socratic philosophy. In the dialogue of the text, Socrates explains that to run away from his death sentence would be to subvert the laws by which he has lived. His escape would represent an implicit criticism of the democratic system and the city-state that he had defended throughout his life. For Socrates, the loyalty of the citizen to the polis, like that of the child to its parents, is a primary obligation. To violate the will of the community to which he belongs would constitute dishonor. Like Antigone, Socrates prefers death to dishonor. These words reaffirm the Hellenic view that immortality is achieved through human deeds, which outlast human lives.
Answer to Question 2
Antigone deals with many issues: it explores the conflict between the rights of the individual and the laws of the state; between dedication to family and loyalty to community; between personal and political obligations; between female willpower and male authority; and, finally, between human and divine law. It reflects Sophocles' effort to reconcile human passions, the will of the gods, and the sovereignty of the polis.
The tragic action in Antigone springs from the irreconcilability of Antigone's personal idealism and Creon's hard-headed political realism. Creon means well by the state; he is committed to the exercise of justice under the law. But, he ignores the ancient imperatives of divine law and familial duty. His blind devotion to the state and his unwillingness to compromise trap him into making a decision whose consequences are disastrous.
But Antigone is also a victim of self-righteous inflexibility. In an age that confined women to the domestic household and expected them to conform to male opinion, Antigone threatened the status quo. Her heroism derives from her unswerving dedication to the ideals of divine justice and to the duty of the individual to honor family, even if it challenges the laws of the state.
Sophocles perceived the difficulties involved in reconciling public good and private conscience. In Antigone, he offers a moving plea for sound judgment and rational action, for harmony between the individual and the community.
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