Greek criminal law in “Antigone”

Abstract

Starting from a synopsis of Sophocles' tragedy, a sequel to Oedipus Rex, the author sets out to examine Greek Criminal Law, particularly Athenian law, whose statutes were not absolutely grounded in religious principles but affirmed the concept of the State, with punishment founded on vengeance and intimidation. Drawing on the text of Antigone, he identifies penal notions prevailing in fourth-century BC Greece, such as the Period of Public Vengeance, the concentration of powers in a single person exercised by Creon, the absence of the Principle of Legal Reserve, the non-extinction of punishability by death, social outcry against an unjust decision, and the notions of parricide and incest present in Oedipus's trajectory. He concludes by recognizing, in the population's reaction against Antigone's condemnation, an early outline of the principle that Justice must prevail whenever it contradicts Positive Law.