Internal Conflicts

One conflict is the course of action or non-action regarding the dead Argive enemy and their dead Theban allies. Another conflict is the obedience or disobedience regarding the law of non-burial of those who are defined as the enemy, be they the Argive invaders or their Theban collaborators. Still another is the punishment or non-punishment of those who violate the law. Yet another is the correction or non-correction of the 'sickness' of the city from obedience to Theban King Creon's inhumane, unfair, unjust laws.

What to do about the unburied Theban dead and what to do about Antigone are the conflicts in "Antigone" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. - 405 B.C.E.).

Specifically, Theban King Creon is supported by the chorus, the guards and Princess Ismene in the issuance of the non-burial edict regarding the disloyal Theban dead. Princess Antigone, Creon's niece and opponent, is supported in obedience to divine law and Theban traditions by Prince Haemon, Teiresias the blind prophet, and Thebans. But the line-up basically dissipates so that Creon is standing alone when he decides death is what needs to be done about Antigone.