Current Events

• What was happening when Antigone was created? Sophocles was appointed as one of the ten generals to lead a military expedition against Samos. The Peloponnesian War started in 441BC. As the Athenians began to lose the war to the Spartans, some people, including men like Socrates and Plato, thought they should abandon the democracy and go back to an oligarchy. When they were desperate and were on the verge of loosing the war, the Athenians tried oligarchy, but it didn't help, and in 404 BC they lost the war. When Philip of Macedon came south from Macedon he attacked Athens, the Athenian army could not defend their city, and Athens fell under the control of Macedon. Athens was under the control of a monarchy. First the king was Philip, then his son Alexander. Hundred and fifty years later, the Roman army arrived and conquered Greece. Then Athens fell under the control of the Roman Republic. Athenians were part of an empire - under the Roman emperors, and then, from the 1400s AD on, under the Ottoman Empire.

• Was its creation influenced by any specific historical events? - From the research I have found, I think that some parts of Antigone are influenced by historical events. The first thing i believe was influenced was the monarchy that was led by Phillip of Macedon, in Antigone the play is about how Creon seizes power and becomes dictator. The play also has a massive war at the beginning which starts of the whole play, In 441BC there was the Peloponnesian war which led to Athens becoming a weak city with a weak democracy, in Antigone it shows a weak democracy which falls slowly apart as we see in Creon's life, so maybe Creon's falling of his family symbolizes the falling of the democracy. In the play we see Antigone being mistreated because she is a women, and in 441BC women were seen as the lower sex.