Justice and Divine Law in Sophocles' Antigone

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Justice and Divine Law in Sophocles' Antigone Humans are consumed by the fear of dying and not knowing what lies after death. Although humans have the ability to conquer most of the obstacles we face, we are unable to avoid death. Our actions are, therefore, driven by our desire to please the gods by means of following their divine laws as a way to overcome death. However, because we live in working societies, there are laws and regulations present that we must also follow. Sometimes the question arises of whether one should follow divine law over human law and vice versa. This becomes one of the main conflicts in Sophocles' Antigone. The second choral ode in Antigone suggests that man's greatness lies in striving to overcome death, but it is also his downfall if he disregards justice and divine law and the fear of death present within the rest of the population. Thebes has been able to recover from the battle between Polyneices and Eteocles, leading to the coronation of Creon and become a functioning society. We see that the society attempts to perfect itself as much as possible in the mortal life because we only have one life before we enter the afterlife. Once our eternal lives takes effect, we no longer have control over what happens. During our life, we hope to influence gods to grant a good afterlife. Therefore, as humans, we attempt to control our actions during our mortal life in hopes for a great afterlife. However, there are opposing beliefs on how a city's existence should be dictated, and Thebes is faced with this dispute. The Chorus recites that "nothing walks stronger than man" since we are able to overcome most the obstacles we face (Sophocles 332). Humans have been able to build ships to sail across the formidable sea, domesticate animals and vegetation, and control "with craft the beasts of open air, walkers on hills" (349-350). We have

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