Loyalty Conflicts between Family and State in Homer’s Odyssey, and Soph

Loyalty Conflicts between Family and State in Homer’s Odyssey, and Sophocles’ Oedipus the King and Antigone Everyday we are faced with hundreds of decisions. Some of the decisions take very little time and are made without a second thought. Other decisions hold more at stake and can tear a person in two while trying to make the final decision. The basis of many of the hardest decisions is the conflict between family and state. The decision between pursuing a career and starting a family first is an example. Once a family is started, there are endless decisions about daycare, office meetings, and school activities to decide which will take priority. These decisions can become harder during a time of war. People are forced to choose between their personal lives including education, family and careers, and their duties as a citizen. Some of the earliest recorded literature presents this conflict between family and state. Homer’s novel, The Odyssey, deals with the issue at a time of war. Sophocles also addresses the conflict in two of his famous plays, Oedipus the King and Antigone. In the Greek language, this is a conflict between oikos1 and polis. 2 This essay will present the separation of loyalty between oikos and polis as is evident in early literature and in decisions of today. A modern example of the conflict between oikos and polis at a time of war can be seen in one National Guard soldier, Ryan. In February, 2003, Ryan was twenty-one years old and had just received a degree from a two-year college. He had met the woman he wanted to marry and had recently proposed to her. The couple had not set a date, but was looking at the spring of 2004. Everything was headed towards a bright f... ... New York: Penguin, 1979. Homer. The Odyssey. Trans. Robert Fagles. New York: Penguin, 1996. Sophocles. The Three Theban Plays Antigone, Oedipus the King, Oedipus at Colonus. Trans. Robert Fagles. New York: Penguin, 1984. Notes 1 Oikos is the Greek word meaning the family. 2 Polis is the Greek word meaning the government. 3 The Greek word for assembly is agora, which is the place of the meeting and the meeting itself. 4 Greek word for tradition, custom. 5 Greek word for multitudes. 6 Finley. 7 Greek word for king. 8 Greek word showing the might that the king has. 9 Finley, 91. 10 Homer, 228. 11 Finley, 120. 12 Auge. 13 Auge. 14 Sophocles, pg 63, lines 85 – 92. 15 Sophocles, pg 97, line 824. 16 Sophocles. pg 97, line 825. 17 Sophocles, pg 82, lines 503- 508. 18 Sophocles, pg 94, lines 756-761.