One lesson conveyed by the play Antigone is the importance of religious morality, even over state authority. Antigone's actions directly disobey King Creon's orders, but his political authority does not protect him from the gods' punishment; his defiance of the gods results in the death of his children and wife. Tiresias, the blind prophet, had warned Creon how the gods would respond to his actions, but Creon decided to remedy his past mistakes too late. Had Creon obeyed the gods and listened to Tiresias's warning immediately, rather than harshly punishing Polynecies and Antigone on the basis of his political power, he could have avoided the tragic ending of the play. However, it takes the urging of the chorus to convince him to rescue Antigone from he cave he trapped her in, and when he arrives to release her she has already died. His son Haemon stabs himself after failing to stab Creon, and his wife Eurydice also kills herself and curses him with her last breath.
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