An Analysis of Justice in Sophocles’ Antigone and Euripides’ Medea

By Noémie Brisson

The ancient Greek playwrights Euripides and Sophocles’ tragedies critique and explore the societal issues of their time. In Euripides’ Medea (431 BC), the eponymous character seeks revenge on her husband after he betrays her and leaves her and their children for another woman. In this portrait, Medea is painted as a skillful and powerful woman who rebels against society’s expectations of her. Sophocles builds his plays around real-world issues in ways similar to Euripides: in his Antigone (441 BC), the main character also rebels against sexism and societal expectations by refusing to adhere to King Creon’s orders not to bury her deceased brother. Although both Antigone and Medea rebel against the men who think them powerless, they are not similar. Through a close reading of Antigone and Medea’s methods of seeking fairness, and of their inner struggles, I will argue that Antigone and Medea have dierent ideals of justice. While Medea irrationally seeks to violently punish the ones who have caused harm, Antigone reasonably wishes to undo the bad that has been done.

Antigone and Medea are perceived dierently by the audience and the chorus of their respective plays due to their dierent motives and methods. The chorus of Medea can be considered as representative of the audience. At first, the chorus of Corinthian women approves of Medea’s thirst for revenge; they, too, have suered from the patriarchy, and envy her because she has the courage to rebel against it. They relate to her, as they say “I have often engaged in arguments, / And become more subtle, and perhaps more heated, / Than is suitable for women” (1082-1085). The male audience members are also forced to sympathize with her. Medea’s presence on the stage is so strong, and the unfairness of her situation is so vividly portrayed that it would be hard not to. When Jason tells his story and justifies his actions to Medea, the chorus cuts in and says “Jason, you have set your case forth very plausibly. / But to my mind—though you may be surprised at this— / You are acting wrongly in thus abandoning your wife” (Euripides 576-578). The chorus clearly favors Medea. However, the chorus does not agree with everything Medea says; when she shares her plans of killing her children and Jason’s bride to cause him the most emotional harm, the chorus clearly opposes her by saying “Since you have told us everything, and since I want / To be your friend, and also to uphold the laws / Of human life—I tell you, you must not do this!” (Euripides 808-810) They say that they want to be her friend, which implies that the chorus does not see her intentions as completely bad; that she wishes to take revenge is good, but her methods are problematic.

In Antigone, it is King Creon’s son Haemon also known as Antigone’s cousin and fiancée who gives the audience insight on what the people of Thebes think of Antigone and her crime. He confronts his father, angry that he would condemn the one he is set to marry to death, and attempts to make him see reason. He tells him of the people’s opinion because he knows no one will dare speak against the King in his presence; he says, “[...] I have heard them / Muttering and whispering in the dark about this girl. / They say no woman has ever, so unreasonably, / Died so shameful a death for a generous act” (Sophocles 552-555). The people of Thebes do not agree with the King’s ruling, and in fact seem to admire Antigone’s bravery. It seems that in Antigone, the only people who disagree with her actions are King Creon and his chorus of old men, who are too terrified to oppose him. Antigone’s ideals of justice align with that of most Theban people; she wishes to bury her brother not only because she loved him, but also because it is primordial to the gods that every corpse be buried and mourned. While the Theban people agree with Antigone because they, too, fear the gods’ wrath, and share the same customs and beliefs, the Corinthian women disagree with Medea because they believe she is taking her revenge too far, and that her ideals of justice are too extreme.

While Antigone is in control of her situation and easily accomplishes what she desires, Medea struggles against others’ expectations of her, and against herself. At the beginning of both Antigone and Medea, the main characters are in control of their own stories. Antigone seems confident that everything is going the way she wants it to, even after she has been caught; in fact, she is the one who first suggests that King Creon kill her when she says “I knew I must die, even without your decree” (Sophocles 364). She goes as far as telling him outright, only a few lines later, “Then I beg you: kill me” (394). It is likely that Antigone is looking for a way to bring honor back to her family, whose history preceding the play is one of the most horrifying in the history of Greek myths and plays. Perhaps by dying for committing such a generous crime, she would be dying an honorable death, and restore her family’s reputation. This is confirmed when Ismene, Antigone’s sister, announces that she wishes to be killed alongside Antigone; Antigone responds “You shall not lessen my death by sharing it” (439). Since Ismene refuses to help Antigone bury Polyneices, Antigone believes that Ismene will make her death less honorable and lessen the eect Antigone wishes to accomplish if she lets her die alongside her. Antigone’s ideals of justice reflect her desire to die honorably, which could be considered rather conservative within the context of Greek tragedy. On the other hand, Medea’s intent to gain back honor for women is progressive for the time.

However, while Antigone remains in control of her story throughout the whole play, Medea discovers she does not have as much control over her own situation as she previously thought. During her famous monologue, the illusion of control crumbles. Medea’s plan has worked: Jason’s new bride has died, and now all that is left is for her to kill her children. When the time comes, however, she hesitates. She says “Why should I hurt them, to make / Their father suer, when I shall suer twice as much / Myself?” (Euripides 1046-1048). In this passage, Medea realizes that the act of murdering her children will hurt her, too—not just Jason. She almost realizes that she is being irrational, and that her methods of seeking revenge are unnecessarily violent. However, she quickly dismisses the thought and says “Are my enemies / To laugh at me? Am I to let them o scot free? / I must steel myself to it” (Euripides 1049-1051). Throughout her monologue, Medea is debating which is most important: her children’s well being, or revenge. That she would think murdering her own children would bring more fairness to her situation than to stop her revenge at this point in the play is very telling about her state of mind. Medea is irrational, and her ideals of justice are completely skewed. In comparison, Antigone is confident, knows that she is doing what most people perceive to be the right thing, and that she will gain the honor she desires.

By analyzing other characters’ reactions to Antigone and Medea’s methods of attaining fairness, we can see that while Antigone seems more reasonable and is seen as heroic, Medea’s sense of justice is tainted by her rage, and she refuses to hear reason. Therefore, beyond being rebellious women, they are not similar, because what they stand for is dierent. Antigone uses justice as a way of gaining honor back for herself and her family, while Medea uses justice as a way to avenge all women, regardless of the women’s disapproval.