TRANSGENERATIONAL NEMESIC CHAOS IN THE ANTIGONE: SOPHOCLES' CLASSICAL FOREWARNING TO HEGEMONISTS

If the multiple dualities in the Antigone are considered in an intragenerational context, i.e. as concordant conflicts in Antigone's lifetime, then the plot of the drama might be perceived as stochastic and rather unpredictable as to its catastrophic outcome, i.e. the destruction of all protagonists, while their polis is entrapped in a seemingly unstable equilibrium. But if the dualities are viewed in a transgenerational context, i.e. as the final episode in a chain of dramatic and intertwined events that span many a generation of conflict between the royal house of the Labdacids and the divine or cosmic order, then the plot might be considered as deterministic and rather predictable as to its tragic outcome. From such perspective, the downfall of the dynasty might have been predestined by divine providence or cosmic teleology: In a transgenerational period, the polis might have been converging to a stable equilibrium all along, in line with the natural order of the universe, i.e. an equilibrium preconditioned on the extinction of the hubristically aberrant dynasty. In this context, the underlying forewarning of Sophocles to hegemonists comes to the fore in the Antigone: Even the most powerful and self-righteous perpetrators of hubris may in fact act as unaware pawns of divine will or cosmic teleology – pawns entrapped in a predestined and dynamically chaotic course of action that ultimately, in a transgenerational period, leads to the absolute prevalence of invincible Nemesis.