Marcela Alejandra Ristorto

In order to investigate the political implications of these transformations, the project proposes a comparative reading of Pericles' “Funeral Oration”, as transmitted by Thucydides (History of the Peloponnesian War II.35–46), and Sophocles' Antigone. This comparison makes it possible to explore how civic regulations concerning funerals and mourning redefined the spheres of action available to men and women, while also highlighting the tensions between the demands of the polis and familial and religious obligations.

From this perspective, Sophocles' tragedy provides an ideal framework for examining both the possibilities and the limits of female agency, as well as the tensions inherent in the exercise of male agency within the civic order. Such an approach moves beyond long-established interpretations that portray Antigone as an isolated figure exclusively devoted to fulfilling her obligations toward her family and the chthonic gods, without concern for the affairs of the polis. Instead, the project argues that Antigone is simultaneously a heroic and political figure whose actions cannot be explained solely in terms of religious and familial commitments. Rather, she acts with full awareness of the concerns of both aristocratic households and the polis itself.

The analysis of male agency will focus in particular on the figure of Creon. Contrary to interpretations that regard him either as an essentially anti-democratic ruler or, conversely, as a model democratic leader, I argue that his character embodies the Athenian elite which, by adapting to the demands of the democratic polis of the fifth century BCE, succeeded in preserving its position of power. This adaptation involved a strategic appropriation of democratic values, through which the elite legitimized its authority within the new political order. In this sense, Creon may be understood as a metonymy for democracy itself, insofar as his actions encapsulate both the strengths of the democratic regime and its inherent contradictions and excesses. From this perspective, the character provides an opportunity to explore the limits of male agency when the exercise of political power comes into conflict with other normative spheres, such as family ties, religious obligations, and funerary practices.