Antigone

In the play Antigone, by Sophocles, Antigone shows some heroic characteristics. Antigone is very strong in her beliefs of divine laws and is very loyal to the gods. When her brother dies, she makes it her life purpose to bury her brother. Creon, Antigone's uncle, is the ruler at the time and decrees that no one can mourn the death of Polynices and he cannot be buried. This was a terrible thing to command and Antigone just wanted to make things right for her brother so she did everything she could do to have him buried.

In the Odyssey, Odysseus went on a journey to obtain immortality. Antigone and Odysseus are similar in a lot of ways, they are both considered heroes in Greek culture because they were brave and they followed what they believed. They both fought for what they thought was right even though they faced hard things--even death. Many people were against them and didn't support them but they continued to do what they believed and both of them ended up dying because of it.

The main differences between Antigone and the Odyssey are Antigone is a play and the Odyssey is an epic and Odysseus went on a journey and had a lot of stops and trials along the way while didn't go on a journey; she just had a bunch of trials. And they both die but Antigone kills herself and Odysseus is killed. Also, Antigone takes place in Thebes and Odysseus is in the Agean sea most of the time.

Even though Antigone is considered a hero in Greek culture, I personally don't think she was that heroic. She did what she knew to be right but she didn't really do it for the right reasons. She did it more for selfish and prideful reasons rather than for the real good reasons that she should have. She tries to gain admiration and fame with the people and get praise from the gods. I still think she's heroic but she just is less of a hero then people think.