Theme Of Death In Antigone

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In Sophocles’ classic Greek tragedy Antigone, Antigone’s choice to bury her brother Polyneices, despite the law, is justified due to the cultural importance of burial in Ancient Greece. As explained in the Station 2 notes, the Greeks believed that if you did not get buried properly that your soul was damned for all eternity to wander the River Styx. This means that Creon was subjecting Polyneices to endless torment, a punishment by law that Antigone felt did not fit his crime. Death without burial is death with neither honor nor afterlife, and so Antigone makes her decision with the intention of preserving her brother’s soul: “I am not afraid of the danger; if it means death, / It will not be the worst of deaths - death without honor”(80-81).