Pričujoči članek obravnava vpliv dramske klime, v kateri se prepletajo zunanje in notranje okoliščine dramskega dogajanja, na odločitve, sodbe in ravnanja dramskih likov. To ponazarjava s primeroma iz Antigone in Trahink. V vzdušju povojnih Teb Ismena omahuje med strahom pred kaznijo in strahom pred božanskim srdom zaradi nepokopa Polinejka. Prav tako lahko vpliv dramske klime opazimo v Kreontovi spremembi odločitve glede Ismenine obsodbe na smrt. Posebno pozornost v članku dobi tudi zahtevno vprašanje atribucije verzov v Antigoni 572, 574 in 576, (...) ki pomembno vpliva na razume­vanje psihologije junakov. Druga obravnavana junakinja, Dejanejra, strahoma pričakuje prerokovano odločitev Heraklove usode v Tra­hini, na robu civilizacije. S spoznanjem resnice o Ioli se Dejanejrina psihološka napetost zaostri do skrajnosti in po premisleku, ki zori v njej v zaodrski tišini med prvim in drugim dejanjem, se odloči za usodno dejanje. (shrink)

Sophocles' Antigone contains the first recorded instance of the word αὑτ ό νομος, the source for our word “autonomous”. I argue that reflection upon the human aspiration toward autonomy is central to that work. I begin by focusing on the difficulty readers of the play have determining whether Antigone's actions in the play should be considered autonomous and then suggest that recognizing this difficulty is crucial to a proper understanding of the play. The very aspects of Antigone's character that seem (...) to militate against understanding her actions within the play as autonomous—her rejection of life, her intimacy with death and the way she seems defined by her incestuous heritage— serve to illustrate the inherently problematic character of a moral ideal that we can provisionally call Antigone's autonomy. I show how the movement of the play can be understood in terms of Antigone's progress from what Kant would characterize as a heteronomous representation of her irremissible duty to bury her dead brother, to a self-conception defined by a recognition and embrace of her autonomy understood as, in Kant's words, “a respect for something entirely different from life”. Antigone's autonomy is exemplified by her choice to be dead, the choice to bear the burden of responsibility to her own. This choice, I argue, must be understood as the choice of herself as defined by her obligation to her own. Sophocles' Antigone suggests that the moral ideal Antigone represents is unliveable, but that this ideal is nonetheless essential to human moral aspiration. (shrink)