city (or Desert)/ 5.

heroism or reliance.

"(Antigone) …I certainly would not have undertaken this audacity, defying the will of the city, either for children, or if I had seen the body of my husband rotting. And so, in deference to what principles do I reason this way? If I had lost a husband, I could have found another, and had another child from him, if a child had died; but now that my mother and my father lie beneath the earth, I will never be able to have another brother… Have I perhaps violated divine justice?... And to whom shall I ask for help, if through my piety I have earned the name of impious? Well, if this seems right to the gods, after going through pain I will admit my own mistake."[1]

“It is certain that at least one of the two protagonists (Antigone and Creon) to the very end, knows neither fear nor piety, and it is Antigone. It is for this reason, among others, that she is the true hero.”[2]

However when admitting to have "undertaken this audacity, defying the will of the city," Antigone does not choose the solitary position of the hero, and defers to the gods – who are nevertheless neither partners nor fellow citizens – the judgment that she is truly looking for, in a reconciliation: she is judging the reliability, which can only be human and upon which the city is founded.

It is only here, in this very brief breath of unkept words, that Antigone opens herself to a possible partner, that is, a living one.

Marina Bilotta Membretti/ Cernusco sul Naviglio – August 30, 2026

TutorSalus.net - Freudian journalism

[1] ‘Sofocle. Antigone’, Biblioteca Universale Rizzoli RCS Libri SpA (2000), p. 125

[2] ‘Jacques Lacan. Il seminario. Libro VII. L’etica della psicoanalisi 1959 – 1960’. Testo stabilito da Jacques-Alain Miller. Traduzione di Maria Delia Contri. Edizione italiana a cura di Antonio Di Ciaccia/ p. 301