”¦ Y te llevaste en andas al ángel de los perdedores. El nómos de Antí­gona en su discurso final a partir del vocabulario legal en Antí­gona de Sófocles

Abstract

We approach in Antigone the word nómos used by the female protagonist in vv. 908 and 914 of her final speech. With this term she describes the reason for her action: she would never have made a burial for a dead son or a dead husband, so sensible people would justify only the burial of her brother because it would be able for her to have a husband and a son but not a brother, since her parents were dead. Despite their use -Etxabe (2009: 61) has observed- such words have not been articulated with a legal argument. However, to a study for such purposes seems to be objected that the legal vocabulary implies generality, which seems to contradict the particularity and exceptionality that characterizes what Antigone qualifies as nómos. We review what the burial of the brother means for Antigone and then we approach the issue from the most recent studies on Greek law. In a historical context in which an arrangement of the legal system takes place, which implies a change of attitude towards the unwritten laws frequently associated with Antigone, the term nómos of this passage requires an interdisciplinary approach that integrates the philological work, the Greek law investigations, and family and gender relations studies in the V b.C. Athens.