The Woman in Stone and the Woman in a Tower:
The Stories of Niobe and Danaë to Foreshadow Antigone’s Fate Sophocles’s Antigone follows Antigone, a girl born to the royal but doomed house of Cadmus. She is brought before her uncle Creon for breaking his law and burying her traitorous brother Polynices. As she waits for her sentence, stories of mortals and gods alike are told, including those of Niobe and Danaë. These stories of Niobe and Danaë are incorporated to foreshadow Antigone’s fate of being left to die in a rocky vault. Sophocles introduces the goddess Niobe, a queen who was punished by the gods. In the play, Antigone refers to Niobe as “Tantalus's daughter” and the “stranger queen from the east” (Sophocles 916). Niobe had twelve …show more content…
For this hubris, Niobe was punished severely by the gods. For the first part of her punishment, Leto’s two children, Apollo and Artemis, killed all of Niobe’s children while she watched. The gods then turned her into a rock on the side of Mount Sipylus, where she died a “rocky death” (924). She stayed on the mountain, forever encased in stone, “wasting away” (922) as “binding ivy slowly walled her round” (919). The similarities between Niobe and Antigone prefigure their similar fates. Antigone shows a great resemblance to Niobe, both in circumstance and in character. With regard to status, both women are royalty; Antigone is a princess by birth and Niobe is a queen. They are both exceedingly prideful, and it is their hubris that leads to their downfall. Niobe was punished by the gods for the hubris she displayed by bragging about her …show more content…
Danaë, like Antigone, is of royal birth, being the daughter of King Acrisius. The two also share the similar fate of being locked away with Danaë being locked in a tower by her father and Antigone being locked away in a stone vault by Creon. The chorus even informs Antigone of these similarities proclaiming, “Danaë, Danaë—even she endured a fate like yours” (1035-1036). The similar actions against them are also supposed to prevent the two from getting married and having children. Danaë is “buried within her tomb, her bridal chamber” which is meant to keep her from having children (1039). Antigone similarly mourns her “tomb, [her] bridal-bed” which precludes her marriage to Haemon, the son of Creon. (978). The mentions of the “bridal beds/chambers” are included to accentuate the similar circumstance of Danaë and Antigone. While the fates are the clearer parallel between Danaë and Antigone, the story of Danaë serves to foreshadow what will happen even after Antigone is locked in the tomb. Locking Danaë in a vault was meant to keep her from having children, but it did not stymie Zeus from entering the vault and impregnating her. This arrival of Zeus parallels the arrival of Haemon, Antigone’s finacé, at her tomb after her
The Stories of Niobe and Danaë to Foreshadow Antigone’s Fate Sophocles’s Antigone follows Antigone, a girl born to the royal but doomed house of Cadmus. She is brought before her uncle Creon for breaking his law and burying her traitorous brother Polynices. As she waits for her sentence, stories of mortals and gods alike are told, including those of Niobe and Danaë. These stories of Niobe and Danaë are incorporated to foreshadow Antigone’s fate of being left to die in a rocky vault. Sophocles introduces the goddess Niobe, a queen who was punished by the gods. In the play, Antigone refers to Niobe as “Tantalus's daughter” and the “stranger queen from the east” (Sophocles 916). Niobe had twelve …show more content…
For this hubris, Niobe was punished severely by the gods. For the first part of her punishment, Leto’s two children, Apollo and Artemis, killed all of Niobe’s children while she watched. The gods then turned her into a rock on the side of Mount Sipylus, where she died a “rocky death” (924). She stayed on the mountain, forever encased in stone, “wasting away” (922) as “binding ivy slowly walled her round” (919). The similarities between Niobe and Antigone prefigure their similar fates. Antigone shows a great resemblance to Niobe, both in circumstance and in character. With regard to status, both women are royalty; Antigone is a princess by birth and Niobe is a queen. They are both exceedingly prideful, and it is their hubris that leads to their downfall. Niobe was punished by the gods for the hubris she displayed by bragging about her …show more content…
Danaë, like Antigone, is of royal birth, being the daughter of King Acrisius. The two also share the similar fate of being locked away with Danaë being locked in a tower by her father and Antigone being locked away in a stone vault by Creon. The chorus even informs Antigone of these similarities proclaiming, “Danaë, Danaë—even she endured a fate like yours” (1035-1036). The similar actions against them are also supposed to prevent the two from getting married and having children. Danaë is “buried within her tomb, her bridal chamber” which is meant to keep her from having children (1039). Antigone similarly mourns her “tomb, [her] bridal-bed” which precludes her marriage to Haemon, the son of Creon. (978). The mentions of the “bridal beds/chambers” are included to accentuate the similar circumstance of Danaë and Antigone. While the fates are the clearer parallel between Danaë and Antigone, the story of Danaë serves to foreshadow what will happen even after Antigone is locked in the tomb. Locking Danaë in a vault was meant to keep her from having children, but it did not stymie Zeus from entering the vault and impregnating her. This arrival of Zeus parallels the arrival of Haemon, Antigone’s finacé, at her tomb after her