Antigone and Leadership

This piece will discuss leadership, morality and gender as it relates to power. These issues are set in the ancient Greek city of Thebes in the play Antigone, a tragedy written by Sophocles.

First it is necessary to set the stage. Antigone was the daughter of Oedipus and Jocasta. Briefly, Oedipus unknowingly killed his father, and married his mother, siring a daughter named Antigone. When Oedipus, on discovering that Jocasta, the mother of his children, is also his own mother, puts his eyes out and steps down as King of Thebes, Antigone accompanies him into exile. Oedipus gives the kingdom to his two sons, Eteocles and Polynices, who agree to alternate the throne every year. Eteocles, at the end of his first year of rule, refused to step down. Polynices then raeised an army of Theben enemies and led them against the city. The invading army led by Polynices is defeated, but he and Eteocles are both killed by each other's hand. King Creon, Jocasta's brother, ascends to the throne of Thebes, and decrees that Polyneices "who came back from exile, and sought to consume utterly with fire the city of his fathers," is not to be buried: "touching this man, it has been proclaimed to our people that none shall grace him with sepulture or lament, but leave him unburied, a corpse for birds and dogs to eat, a ghastly sight of shame."

The story of Antigone is an early statement of the conflict between social order and personal ethics that may supersede human law. Antigone is distraught that her brother Polyneices will suffer an eternal fate, decides she must disobey Creon’s mandate. Arguing that a law of man which violates religious law is no law at all, she performs a ceremonial burial, sprinkling dust over the body. She is apprehended by the guards and taken before Creon who decrees that she is to be buried alive in a cave. Martin Luther King speaks of similar values in his Letter from a Birmingham Jail, “one who breaks an unjust law must do so openly, lovingly, and with a willingness to accept the penalty. I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for law.”

Antigone highlights power dynamics between men and women as well as the oppressor and the oppressed. The notion that men rule and women are ruled is confirmed by Antigone's younger sister Ismene who asserts that women must follow men and are powerless in that relationship, “and now we in turn-we two left all alone think how we shall perish, more miserably than all the rest, if, in defiance of the law, we brave a king's decree or his powers. Nay, we must remember, first, that we were born women, as who should not strive with men; next, that we are ruled of the stronger, so that we must obey in these things, and in things yet sorer. Further, for a woman would dare to defy a man is unthinkable.”

Creon is shocked that a woman such as Antigone would dare to disobey his decree, out of anger; he decrees "When I am alive no woman shall rule." Creon keeps Antigone and Ismene in a powerless state and will "not be free to roam,"
The story emphasizes male and female epistemologies. The battle between Creon and Antigone seems to be a stark realization of these competing ways of knowing. The problem of power in collaborative environments is subject to concerns of sexism, ideologies and social systems. This milieu can be assessed vis-à-vis critical theory in a manner similar to Herbert Marcuse who believes that people are not free because they function within systems. Creon’s dominator language is rooted in the way that linguistic assumptions feed beliefs and assumptions in the power structure. Just to bring it home from a contemporary informational perspective, Linda Shephard shared the following in an online discussion:

Since 1993, there has been some progress and we need much, much more. For example, in 2003 women accounted for only 13% of science professors at M.I.T., up from 8% in 1993. Only 4 women among 32 Harvard faculty members were offered tenure in 2004. Nationally, women account for nearly half the bachelor’s degrees in chemistry and math but only about 10 % of the faculty. Physics continues to be the most male-dominated field among the sciences. Men hold 90 percent of physics faculty positions, and earned 82 percent of the doctoral degrees in 2003. Women scientists in the UK are more successful at achieving a post on their first application for a, yet 44% of them feel disadvantaged in terms of promotion. Only 14% of men believe women are disadvantaged in terms of promotion. Overall, the number of young people entering science has decreased in this country, men included (2006).

In these times, the dominance of men is considered a social norm, Creon states, “Therefore we must support the cause of order, and in no wise suffer a woman to worst us. Better to fall from power, if we must, by a man's hand; then we should not be called weaker than a woman.” In contemporary times, ‘gender-holism’ is a solution to male hierarchical and hegemonic practices as opposed to Creon’s assertion, “henceforth they must be women, and not range at large; for verily even the bold seek to fly, when they see Death now closing on their life.” As an expression of agency verses agent, Americans see themselves as agents, that is as individuals distinct from others. Whereas, the Chinese are often involved in a Confucian perspective where the whole or the agency is more important than while some other societies see themselves as not very different from other selves.

There may be a distinct difference in the placement of agency for Creon and Antigone. For Creon, the throne of the city state expresses agency, for Antigone, agency rests within a moral order and family loyalty above the state. Her brother sought to sustain an agreement requested by their father Oedipus, to rotate the throne between the brothers.

Creon’s expression of power is often based upon coercion. The guard pleads for his life upon reporting to Creon of Polyneices burial. The achievement of the possibilities of a collaborative environment requires transformative leadership that has the capacity to move a collective through the ideological states effectively. This leadership emerges from and forms community based upon receptivity to the needs of the collective. Early developments often require a protective and tribal sense of agency to ensure its continued existence. This infant stage of organizational development is fragile and close attention is necessary in order to ensure its survival.
Antigone rises above social norms, power differentials between sexes and pressures from those around her to do what she believes to be the right thing. Her courage in the face of death places her stories among the great stories of human ethics and morality.

Shephard, L. (2006). Lifting the veil--open discussion. In W. M. a. the (Ed.).