Gabriel Aceto World Civilization I Weekly paper 09/22/2013

According to the reading, what are the religious views of the Athenians?

Based on the play Antigone by Sophocles the religious views of the Athenians were that of a polytheistic society. Through the play, many references were made to various gods, mainly those common to Greek culture. Some of these gods included Hades, who was most commonly referred to during the play, Zeus, and Apollo. Antigones brother Polyneices was declared a traitor by the current King of Thebes, Creon, because of a civil war in which he and his brother fought to the death for throne. Creon put Polyneices to public shame by not allowing his body to be sanctified by holy rites, which will prevent his burial and force his corpse to be left in the battlefield. This was a very harsh punishment at the time because of the religious views of the Athenians. They felt that if a body was not properly buried, the soul could not proceed to the underworld. Antigone ends up defying the laws of Creon and buries her brother anyways. Creon confronts her about his and asks And you made free to overstep my law? to which she replies, Because it was not Zeus who ordered it, Nor Justice, Gave such a law to men, your ordinance of so much binding force, as that a mortal man could overbear the unchangeable unwritten code of Heaven (Antigone 17). She defends her right to bury her brother by telling the King that the laws of the Gods are above that of his. This shows that even within government, religion was a large factor. She also stated in the story, when confronting her sister about the burial of her brother, Far longer is there need I satisfy those nether Powers, than powers on earth: for there for ever I must lie (Antigone 3). Here she is telling her sister that it is more important to please the Gods than man because the Athenians believed mortal life is temporary, but spirit life is eternal. Works Cited Sophocles. Antigone. Dover Thrift ed. New York: Dover Publications, 1993. Print.