Antigone deserves more sympathy than Creon In Antigone, unlike the Oedipus Tyrannus, paradoxically, the hero who is left in agony at the end of the work is not the role of hero. Instead, King Creon, the new tyrannical ruler, is left all alone in his empty palace with his wife's corpse in his hands, having just witnessed his son's suicide. However, despite this pitiful fate for the character, his actions and behavior at the beginning of the play leave the final scene evoking more satisfaction than pity for his torment. The way in which the martyr Antigone lashed out against the king and city of Thebes was not entirely honorable or devoid of ulterior motives of fulfilling pious concerns, but it is difficult to lose sight of the fact that this passionate and pious young woman was condemned to living prison. At the crux of the play, the causal factor of all subsequent events is the way the new king Creon treats the dead traitor Polyneices, Antigone's brother. The decree not to bury the corpse must be considered from the point of view of a fifth-century Athenian, watching this play. Antigone was written during a time of great strife for the city of Athens and they were in the midst of conflict with the Spartans. At a time like this, concern for the city is at the forefront of citizens' minds. Creon's decree not to bury him at this stage is therefore right. Essentially not burying a body, any body, is an offense to the gods, and the person's spirit will not be able to descend into the underworld and cross the River Styx and Archeron. However, the Greeks believed that for some the sentence was deserved. The sentence of non-burial is appropriate in this case, since the Greeks believed that "the condemned of sa...... middle of paper... of his heart. He remained sole survivor of his own carnage, but remains the undeniable fact that without his actions, all the deaths would have been avoided and he has no one to blame but himself Works Cited: Murray, Robert D. Jr. "Sophocles Moral Themes" edited by Don Nardo, San Diego. CA: Greenhaven Press, 1997.Segal, Charles Paul. "Sophocles' Praise of Man and the Conflicts of Antigone." critical essays, edited by Thomas Woodard Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1966.