Sophocles Antigone - Creons Mistakes :: Antigone essays

Creon's Mistakes in Antigone In the awe-inspiring play of Antigone, Sophocles introduces two remarkable characters, Antigone and Creon. A conflict between these two obstinate characters leads to fatal consequences for themselves and their kindred. The firm stances of Creon and Antigone stem from two great imperatives: his loyalty to the state and her dedication to her family, her religion but most of all her conscience. The identity of the tragic hero of this play is still heavily debated. This tragedy could have been prevented if it had not been for Creon's pitiful mistakes. Creon's character possesses an infinite number of glitches in his personality, but his excessive pride was the root of his problems. His pride leads him to make accusations, before he considers the wise advice of others. Creon's pride also fills him not just as a king superior to the Gods, but also a man superior to women. The issue of Antigone being condemned to die becomes more than just a person who disobeys Creon; instead, the punishment is given even more eagerly, because it is a woman who disobeys a man. Creon's intelligent son warns Creon the people of Thebes sympathize with Antigone, but Creon accuses Haemon of being a "woman's slave" (line 756). Even though he is suppose to be loyal to the state and her citizens, he defensively questions if "the town [is] to tell [him] how [he] ought to rule?"(Line 734)The Theban king is too prideful to obey even the wisest of prophets, blind Teresias, insisting that "the whole crew of seers are money-mad" (line 1055). C reon finally puts his pride aside and listens to the Chorus' wise advice. It is difficult even then, and he obeys only because he fears the punishment that he might receive. "To yield [for Creon] is terrible" (line 1095) meaning to swallow his pride and admit that he is wrong is a very difficult thing for him to do. When Creon loses his wife and son, Creon's pride disappears, and he admits that he made a terrible mistake by not listening to anyone's advice. Antigone, a resolute and heroic female protagonist, pits her individual free will against the intractable forces of fate and against the irrational and unjust laws of tyrannical man like Creon.

Free Will in Christianity Essay

Christianity is derived from a mixture of elements of Roman religious myths, Pagan myths and god-men stories, sun worship and Gnosticism. Christianity has no room for free will, but for psychological or other reasons, many Christians have believed in genuine individual free will. Everyone is regarded as having a free choice as to in what measure he or she will follow his or her conscience or arrogance, these two having been appointed for each individual. The more one follows one’s conscience, the more it brings one good results, and the more one follows one’s arrogance, the more it brings one bad results. In Christianity God is described as not only omniscient but also omnipotent which implies that not only has God always known what choices individuals will make tomorrow, but has actually determined those choices. That is, they believe, by virtue of his foreknowledge, he knows what will influence individual choices, and by virtue of his omnipotence, he controls those factors. God still gives individuals the power to ultimately choose or reject everything, regardless of any internal or external conditions relating to the choice. For example, when Jesus was nailed on the cross, the two criminals, one on each side, were about to die. Only one asked Jesus for forgiveness while the other, even at the end of his life with nothing else to lose, mocked Jesus. This was a free and personal choice between everlasting death and everlasting life. Since God is omniscient, God has foreknowledge, meaning he knows what everyone will do in the future and what any individual would do in any given situation. This foreknowledge enables God to have a plan for everyone’s life. For instance, if God wants a particular action to occur, he knows who would choose to do that action, and under what circumstances they would choose it; thus he is able to plan for it to happen. However, God’s knowing what choices we will make is simply knowledge it does not remove our free will, for we are still the ones making the choices. The Bible also says and teaches that there is no free will and that God’s plan overrides our free will, those that do good do the specific good that God predestined them to do, and Satan rules all others because God sends â€Å"powerful delusions† to them. As quoted in Ephesians 1:4-6 â€Å"Praise be to [God], who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. † Catholic Christianity’s emphasis on free will and grace is often contrasted with predestination in reformed protestant Christianity, especially after the Counter-Reformation. However, in understanding differing conceptions of free will it is just as important to understand the differing conceptions of the nature of God, focusing on the idea that God can be all-powerful and all knowing even while people continue to exercise free will, because God does not exist in time. It is further understood that in order for Man to have true free choice, he must not only have inner free will, but also an environment in which a choice between obedience and disobedience exists. God thus created the world such that both good and evil can operate freely. Comprehensively the Christian Bible denies free will and any element of choice in what good works we do. God has picked who will do what good deeds, and God punishes and rewards people on account of what God has chosen, in accordance with God’s plan and purpose. According to The Bible, God definitely does not like being quizzed on this matter of Free will; Paul is honest about God’s lack of justice. Paul states multiple times, in accordance with the rest of the scripture we see on this page, that free will and personal choices are not the important factor in salvation: Paul then goes further in Romans 9 and admits that God is arbitrary, and it’s simply tough that people were created for ‘common use’ as slaves of Satan, and that only some are created for ‘noble purposes’. Reference: Roberts, Jenny, 1997. â€Å"Bible Facts†. Grange Books, London.

How to Find the Lyra Constellation

The nighttime skies of the northern hemisphere summer and southern hemisphere winter feature a tiny constellation called Lyra, the Harp. Located next to Cygnus the Swan, Lyra has a long history and harbors a few fascinating surprises for stargazers. Finding Lyra To locate Lyra, look for Cygnus. Its right next door. Lyra looks like a small lopsided box or a parallelogram in the sky. Its also not far from the constellation Hercules, a hero honored by the Greeks in their pantheon of myths and legends. The Myth of Lyra The name Lyra comes from the Greek myth of Orpheus, a musician. Lyra represents his lyre, made by the god Hermes. Orpheus lyre produced such beautiful music that it brought inanimate objects to life and charmed the legendary sirens. Orpheus married Eurydice, but she was killed by a snakebite, and Orpheus had to follow her to the underworld to get her back. Hades, the god of the underworld, said he could have her back as long as he didnt look at her as they left his realm. Unfortunately, Orpheus couldnt help but look, and Eurydice was lost forever. Orpheus spent the rest of his life in grief, playing his lyre. After he died, his lyre was placed in the sky as a tribute to his music and the loss of his wife. The constellation Lyra, one of the 48 constellations of antiquity, represents that lyre. The Stars of Lyra The IAU official constellation outline of Lyra. This also shows the location of two deep-sky objects observers can search out. IAU/Sky Telescope.   Constellation Lyra has only five main stars in its main figure, but the full constellation with all its boundaries contains many more. The brightest star is called Vega, or alphaLyrae. Its one of the three stars in the Summer Triangle, along with Deneb (in Cygnus) and Altair (in Aquila). Vega, the fifth-brightest star in the nighttime sky, is an A-type star that appears to have a ring of dust around it. At 450 million years old, Vega is considered a young star. It was once our North Pole star about 14,000 years ago and will be again about the year 13,727. The Summer Triangle and the constellations that lend their stars to it. Carolyn Collins Petersen Other interesting stars in Lyra include ÃŽ µ Lyrae, which is a double-double star, meaning that each of its two stars is a double star, as well. ÃŽ ² Lyrae (the second-brightest star in the constellation) is a binary star with two members that orbit so closely that occasionally material from one star spills over to other. That causes the stars to brighten as they do their orbital dance together.  Deep-sky Objects in Lyra Lyra has a few interesting deep-sky objects. The first is called M57, or the Ring Nebula. Its a planetary nebula, the remains of a sun-like star that died and expelled its material out to space to form what looks like a ring. Actually, the cloud of star-atmosphere material is more like a sphere, but from our point of view on Earth, it looks more like a ring. This object is easiest to spot with good binoculars or a telescope.   The Ring Nebula as seen by Hubble Space Telescope, with a white dwarf at the heart of the Ring Nebula. This is a Hubble Space Telescope image. Through binoculars or a small telescope, the ring looks like a small greyish-green oval. NASA/ESA/STScI. The other object in Lyra is the globular star cluster M56. It, too, can be seen with binoculars or telescope. For observers with a good telescope, Lyra also contains a galaxy called NGC 6745. Its more than 200 million light-years away, and scientists think it collided with another galaxy in the distant past.   Scientific Findings in Lyra The constellation Lyra is home to stars with planets that orbit them. Theres a Jupiter-mass planet circling an orange star called HD 177830.  Other stars nearby also have planets, including one called TrES-1b. It was discovered crossing the field of view between Earth and its parent star (called a transit discovery), and theres some thought the star might be somewhat like Earth. Astronomers will have to do more follow-up observations to determine what kind of planet it really is. Such planetary discoveries are part of the Kepler Telescopes mission to find stars with exoplanets. It stared at this region of the sky for years, searching for worlds among the stars of the constellations Lyra, Cygnus, and Draco.