Creons Like Agamemnon's Pride

Agamemnon’s pride breeds so much contempt between him and Achilles that Achilles actually wishes to leave the Achaean army and his commander because he simply cannot bear to witness the constant exhibition of Agamemnon’s pride. Agamemnon’s pride is in fact so overbearing that it in fact shames the Achaean army as illustrated through Achilles’s threat of abandonment.

In the Greek tragedy Antigone, written by the legendary tragic poet Sophocles, the author describes the many character traits and attributes of Creon that parallel those of Agamemnon’s character in The Illiad. In the tragedy, Creon is the uncle of the protagonist Antigone and the ruler of Thebes. Like Agamemnon, Creon holds a position of great power and duty as the king of his people. Though Creon does not

Creon ignores the advice of his fellow political officials when issuing a royal edict regarding Eteocles’s burial. Eteocles, Antigone’s brother, is entitled by the gods to be granted a proper burial, however Creon’s pride drives him to outlaw the burial, thinking Eteocles is a traitor simply because he owns a legitimate claim to the throne of Thebes. Like Agamemnon, Creon constantly makes decisions and conducts himself while influenced by his own hubris. This ultimately leads to the detriment of Antigone’s relatioinship with the king. Antigone defies Creon’s newly issued burial edict and does what she thinks is right: granting her brother Eteocles an honorable burial. Creon, shamed by Antigone’s challenge of his authority, becomes enraged by the thought of someone disobeying his orders, especially Antigone. The common people of Thebes agree with Antigone in the sense that Eteocles should be given a proper burial, in dissent with Creon’s belief. Creon becomes cold and tyrannical with his power. Having broken the law in the eyes of her king, Antigone is imprisoned like a common