Hubris.

Hubris Essay

In the play Antigone written by Sophocles, hubris plays a significant role. Creon, the king of Thebes, displays hubris multiple times. Hubris is defined as having excessive pride and arrogance. In this play, the daughter of Oedipus Rex, Antigone, is going to be punished for burying her brother properly because it was forbidden by Creon’s law. Creon arrogantly refuses to listen to others and selfishly only wants to protect his power until he loses everything.
Creon decrees a new law that anyone who goes against Thebes cannot receive proper burial; instead they must be left out for vultures to feed on. “I don’t consider your pronouncement so important that they can just overrule the unwritten rules of the law” When Antigone says this to Creon, she is speaking about the divine laws of the gods that he is defying with his new law. Creon made this law after Eteocoles and Polynices, the shared rulers of Thebes, murdered each other for the throne. Creon decides that Eteocoles will have a hero’s funeral and that Polynices will not be buried at all. However, Hades, the underworld god, is supposed to receive bodies after they have been properly buried. So with Polynices being left on Earth, Creon is putting his own authority before the laws of the gods and keeping their property.
Creon specifically feels that he must guard his power from both women and young people. When Antigone is brought to him after having given her brother, Polynices, a religious burial, he refuses to even think about what she is arguing. She is not afraid of the consequences he is threatening her with. However, he still feels that he needs to protect and declare his authority. He says, “If I let her get away with it, she would be the man, not I!” During their argument Creon seemed to believe that Antigone was the only person to feel that he was wrong for creating this law forbidding showing reverence to people of his choice. Creon’s blindness continues and he refuses to understand...