antigone

When Ismene says to Antigone, in Sophocles’ Antigone, “Remember we are women. We’re not born to contend with men”, she is reflecting the “mainstream” view of women in early Greece, one that was shared by many and opposed by few. Women were treated as possessions, and thought to be greatly inferior than their male counterparts. Within such early Greek works as Pericles’ Funeral Oration, Oedipus the King, Antigone, and The Last Days of Socrates: …

…upon by many during that time, including Creon in Antigone, Pericles in his Funeral Oration and Socrates in The Last Days of Socrates: the Apology. Though very few would oppose it, Oedipus in Oedipus the King, Haemon in Antigone, Sappho in her poems, and obviously, Antigone seem to. They were a minority in a large group of people that did not acknowledge women with much respect or regard, let alone as an equal to men.