Wednesday, January 31, 2007

What's in a name?

Antigone comes from the Greek roots anti for "against" and gon for "birth," but what does this mean? Should pro-choice supporters be referred to as Antigones? Actually, that strikes me as an interesting idea because Antigone was obviously pro-choice, no, not in the modern sense but in the Athenian sense. Antigone deliberately chose to disobey Creon's laws in order to bury her brother. She felt that she had the right (or the obligation) to choose to obey the divine law of her gods, the gods of the underworld. She could have done as she was told and saved herself the agony. However, Antigone was unwilling to be told what to do, what to say, or how to think. As Woodruff says, Antigone chose to "give up everything to put right something she believe(d) was wrong" and illustrated "that leadership must be tempered by advice from those who are led." So, could it be that Antigone means "one who exercises the right to choose?" Well, it is one way of looking at it, but there are also a number of others. Woodruff, for example explains it as "she was plainly born for trouble." This makes sense because Antigone was hardly going to be a well-adjusted member of society with a dad that was also her half-brother, a fiance that was her cousin, and seemingly more than just a sisterly love for her brother. What part of that doesn't spell trouble?

1 comment:

Chickadee said...

Nice. Deffinetly will be reading your blog alot.