Sophocles’ Aiax: hybris, foolishness and good sense. A comparison with Antigone

Abstract

Disobedience to civic authority, shift of perspective within friendship —that is, who was or should be friend is then regarded as enemy—, and burial issue make the tragedy Aiax an appropriate candidate for a comparison with Antigone. Indeed, a comparison between the two tragedies has been already proposed, and parallels have been usually established between Antigone and Aiax, on the one hand; Creon and the Atridae, on the other. Along the lines of a previous study of mine on Sophocles’ Antigone, the present paper aims at comparing Aiax and Antigone with reference to a specific theme and terminology, i.e. those pertaining foolishness and wisdom. Antigone and Aiax are usually associated with each other in their foolish rebellion to those who are in authority (respectively Creon and the Atridae). As argued in the previous paper, while, however, that of Antigone is foolishness only in all appearance, the foolishness of Aiax is a real, factual one bordering on hybris, which makes him a counterpart of Creon rather than of Antigone. On the other hand, the Atridae differ from Creon —rather than being his counterpart— in that they avoid acting foolishly, and falling for a mistake of judgment, i.e. for a lack of good sense, while dealing with the burial issue. Indeed, the Atridae avoid Creon’s hybris by finally respecting the «unshakable and unwritten laws of Zeus» which makes them, in some way, a counterpart of Antigone. A closer lexical analysis of the occurrences of words pertaining foolishness and wisdom —such as ἄνοια, ἄφρων/ ἀφροσύνη - σωφροσύνη, φρονεῖν - μὴ φρονεῖν, μωρία, ἀβουλία, δυσβουλία etc.— has led to these results.