La performance trágica y la perversión de los rituales en Antígona de Sófocles

Marcela Ristorto; Clara Racca

doi:10.62774/RcbXIV1019

Authors

Marcela Ristorto Universidad Nacional de Rosario
Clara Racca Escuela de Letras UNR

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.62774/RcbXIV1019

Keywords:

tragedy, ritual practices, gender

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to reflect on the function of tragic performance for its original audience, focusing on the two messenger-speeches located in the exodus of Antigone. In the first, the messenger narrates the deaths of Antigone and Haemon, presented as a reversal of the marriage ritual. The second narrates the suicide of Eurydice upon learning of her son’s death, cursing and accusing her husband. The aim will be to explore what impact the account of these three suicides may have had on the Athenian audience, as they foreground the conflict that permeates the tragedy between the interests of the oikos and those of the polis.

Furthermore, we believe that for both the primary audience and modern viewers, the presentation of Antigone and Eurydice allow us to reflect on the role of women. On the one hand, we can consider Antigone as a «bad woman» who acts against the values of the polis or as a woman who challenges political power for transcendental values. On the other hand, we see Eurydice as the exemplary woman who, however, with her actions, puts the descendants of the ruling house at risk. Both, with their actions, bring destruction to both the family and the city.

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