The Forensic Question of the Play

• Author: Roger S. Fisher
• Pages: 43-62

-(

THREE

The

Forensic

Question

of

the

Play

THE

ANTICONE

BEGINS

with

a

problem

that

was

familiar

(and

immedi



ately

relevant)

to

the

Athenian

audience

watching

the

play,

the

problem

of

an

unburied

body.

The

denial

of

a

proper

burial

for

Polyneices

im



mediately

attracts

our

attention

because

it

is

a

timeless

story

that

reson



ates

with

audiences

both

ancient

and

modern.

1

The

historical

parallels

to

the

crisis

of

the

unburied

body

in

the

Antigone

have

been

much

noted.

In

ancient

Greece,

burial

was

handled

by

relatives

(primarily

the

women)

and

not

by

professional

funeral

services.

In

cases

where

a

person

died

away

from

family

and

friends,

while

travelling,

for

example,

it

was

ex



pected

that

a

stranger

encountering

the

corpse

would

at

least

perform

the

minimal

steps

necessary

for

a

proper

burial

according

to

ritual.

How

often

that

would

happen

remains

open

to

conjecture

(although

travel

was

inherently

dangerous,

given

the

possibility

of

succumbing

to

predators,

robbers,

or

disease).

But

Greek

literature

could,

and

often

did,

contem



plate

the

unthinkable.

What

happens

when

a

body

remains

unburied?

The

problem

of

an

unburied

body

was

the

basis

for

literary

plots

ranging

from

Homer

s

Iliad

to

several

Athenian

tragedies.

The

Iliad

culminates

with

the

desecration

and

abandonment

of

a

dead

body

when

Achilles,

the

protagonist,

kills

his

rival

Hector

and,

while

in

a

berserk

state

of

mind,

ties

the

body

to

the

back

of

his

chariot

and

drags

it

three

times

around

the

walls

of

Troy,

as

a

spectacle

to

the

horrified

crowds

watching

[43]

Antigone

v.

Creon

from

the

battlements.

His

own

comrades

are

horrified

too

and

recognize

that

Achilles

has

gone

beyond

the

bounds

of

civilized

behaviour.

An

un



buried

body

presents

a

crisis

only

because

there

is

some

intervening

force

preventing

a

proper

burial.

In

Homer

’

s

Iliad,

that

intervening

force

is

a

physical

one,

in

the

form

of

the

Greek

hero

Achilles,

who

leaves

Hector

’

s

body

unburied

and

abused

and

whom

no

one,

Greek

or

Trojan,

can

de



feat

by

force

of

arms.

Hector

’

s

body

is

only

buried

when

Achilles

relents

and

allows

it

to

be

returned

to

his

family.

In

the

Antigone,

the

interven



ing

force

preventing

a

proper

burial

is

Creon

’

s

decree,

which

establishes

a

powerful

but

invisible

boundary

of

words

around

the

body

of

Polyneices

that

threatens

transgressors

with

the

violence

of

the

law.

In

the

Antigone,

the

body

of

Polyneices

is

eventually

buried

by

Creon

himself,

in

direct

violation

of

his

decree

(and

vow)

that

Polyneices

would

never

be

hon



oured

in

such

a

way.

The

events

depicted

in

the

Iliad

and

due.

Antigone

are

based

on

myth,

but

within

the

recent

memory

of

Sophocles

’

s

audience,

there

were

instances

where

dead

bodies

had

in

fact

been

abused

and

dese



crated

in

times

of

war.

On

the

topic

of

unburied

bodies,

the

Athenian

audience

watching

Antigone

had

less

to

be

proud

of

(and

there

is

no

reason

to

suppose

that

Sophocles

was

unaware

of

the

discomforting

fact

that

his

own

city-state

was

quite

willing

to

punish

the

occasional

trai



tor

by

refusing

to

allow

the

body

to

be

buried

on

Athenian

soil).

While

Creon

’

s

solution

may

have

been

extreme,

there

were

examples

in

the

re



cent

past

where

the

bodies

of

Athenian

traitors

were

denied

burial

on

Athenian

soil.

And

if

the

Antigone

is

thought

to

carry

a

lesson

for

future

would-be

Creons

that

such

a

punishment

for

traitors

is

neither

wise

nor

practical,

it

was

a

message

that

must

not

have

been

heard,

because

in

the

decades

following

the

first

performance

of

Antigone,

there

were

at

least

two

other

incidents

where

the

bodies

of

traitors

were

denied

burial

on

Athenian

soil.

1

Modern

readers

of

the

Antigone

are

probably

less

familiar

with

Homer

’

s

Iliad

than

Sophocles

’

s

audience

would

have

been,

but

they

will

have

heard

of

stories

such

as

the

desecration

and

abuse

of

the

bodies

of

deceased

American

servicemen

in

Mogadishu

in

1993

(a

story

depicted

cinematographically

in

the

film

Black

Hawk

Down)

and

in

Baghdad

dur



ing

the

recent

war

in

Iraq,

not

to

mention

the

decision

by

the

Canadian

[44]