Editing Antigone (Sophocles play) (section)

===The problem of the second burial===
An important issue still debated regarding Sophocles' ''Antigone'' is the problem of the second burial. When she poured dust over her brother's body, Antigone completed the burial rituals and thus fulfilled her duty to him. Having been properly buried, Polynices' soul could proceed to the underworld whether or not the dust was removed from his body. However, Antigone went back after his body was uncovered and performed the ritual again, an act that seems to be completely unmotivated by anything other than a plot necessity so that she could be caught in the act of disobedience, leaving no doubt of her guilt. More than one commentator has suggested that it was the gods, not Antigone, who performed the first burial, citing both the guard's description of the scene and the chorus's observation.<ref name=Ferguson>{{cite book | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=LSsGAgAAQBAJ&pg=PT173 | last = Ferguson | first = John | title = A Companion to Greek Tragedy | page = 173 | publisher = University of Texas Press | year = 2013 | isbn = 978-0292759701}}</ref> It's possible, however, that Antigone not only wants her brother to have burial rites, but that she wants his body to stay buried. The guard states that after they found that someone covered Polynices' body with dirt, the birds and animals left the body alone (lines 257–258). But when the guards removed the dirt, then the birds and animals returned, and Tiresias emphasizes that birds and dogs have defiled the city's altars and hearths with the rotting flesh from Polynices' body; as a result of which the gods will no longer accept the peoples' sacrifices and prayers (lines 1015–1020). It's possible, therefore, that after the guards remove the dirt protecting the body, Antigone buries him again to prevent the offense to the gods.<ref>Kitto, H. D. F. ''Form and Meaning in Drama: A Study of Six Greek Plays and of Hamlet''. London: Methuen, 1956. pp. 138–178.</ref> Even though Antigone has already performed the burial rite for Polynices, Creon, on the advice of Tiresias (lines 1023–1030), makes a complete and permanent burial for his body.

[[Richard C. Jebb]] suggests that the only reason for Antigone's return to the burial site is that the first time she forgot the Choaí ([[libation]]s), and "perhaps the rite was considered completed only if the Choaí were poured while the dust still covered the corpse."<ref>{{cite book | title = Sophocles: The Plays and Fragments, with critical notes, commentary, and translation in English prose. Part III: The Antigone | first = Sir Richard C. | last = Jebb | location = Cambridge | publisher = Cambridge University Press | year = 1900 | chapter = Verse 429 | chapter-url = https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0023%3Atext%3Dcomm%3Acommline%3D429}}</ref>

[[Gilbert Norwood]] explains Antigone's performance of the second burial in terms of her stubbornness. His argument says that had Antigone not been so obsessed with the idea of keeping her brother covered, none of the deaths of the play would have happened. This argument states that if nothing had happened, nothing would have happened, and does not take much of a stand in explaining why Antigone returned for the second burial when the first would have fulfilled her religious obligation, regardless of how stubborn she was. This leaves that she acted only in passionate defiance of Creon and respect to her brother's earthly vessel.<ref name=Rose>{{cite journal | last = Rose | first = J. L. | title = The Problem of the Second Burial in Sophocles' Antigone | journal = The Classical Journal | volume = 47 | number = 6 | date = March 1952 | pages = 220–221 | jstor = 3293220}}</ref>

Tycho von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff justifies the need for the second burial by comparing Sophocles' ''Antigone'' to a theoretical version where Antigone is apprehended during the first burial. In this situation, news of the illegal burial and Antigone's arrest would arrive at the same time and there would be no period of time in which Antigone's defiance and victory could be appreciated.

J. L. Rose maintains that the problem of the second burial is solved by close examination of Antigone as a tragic character. Being a tragic character, she is completely obsessed by one idea, and for her this is giving her brother his due respect in death and demonstrating her love for him and for what is right. When she sees her brother's body uncovered, therefore, she is overcome by emotion and acts impulsively to cover him again, with no regards to the necessity of the action or its consequences for her safety.<ref name=Rose />

[[Bonnie Honig]] uses the problem of the second burial as the basis for her claim that Ismene performs the first burial, and that her pseudo-confession before Creon is actually an honest admission of guilt.<ref>{{cite journal | last = Honig | first = Bonnie | title = Ismene's Forced Choice: Sacrifice and Sorority in Sophocles' ''Antigone'' | journal = Arethusa | volume = 44 | year = 2011 | pages = 29–68 | publisher = The Johns Hopkins University Press | doi = 10.1353/are.2011.a413524 | s2cid = 145787063 | url = http://politicalscience.nd.edu/assets/47009/44.1.honig.pdf }}</ref>