CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION His essay centers upon one element of the antigone, the poetic imagery, in the belief that such a study can illumine the role of Sophocles'poetry in hi drama and add precision and fullness to our understanding of the meanings of his works. The images are only one of the poet's means of communication. But as such they are im- portant, and they provide a rewarding means of entry into the complex structure of interworking parts which such a play forms. The images not only give brilliance or emotional color to individual expressions; they also point up the progress of he action and develop meanings essential to the whole The major undertaking here is to illustrate the workings of dominant images or master tropes in the Antigone. Six groups of recurrent images, forming patterns or sequences, serve to arouse and establish connections of thought, emotion and judgment from part to part of the play. They afford de- veloping insights into the nature of the characters and at the same time evoke larger issues within which the significance of the characters'actions is to be viewed. Not only does the recurrence of these images give them heightened prominence in the play; their extending relationships also permit more direct analysis of their functional or structural contributions to the work as a whole than is possible with many of the play other images. There is a further external reason for centering upon the dominant images in this way. Because our knowl- edge of the nuances of classical Greek is limited there must always be some uncertainty as to the full connotations of any image in a work of Greek poetry. This barrier is less serious in connection with a number of more or less consistent mutually supporting images than it is for the more self-con tained expressions The final two chapters draw upon the evidence of dominant images to interpret the odes and the divergent mo This content downloaded from 128... 148 on Thu, 23 Mar 201709: 44: 03 UTC Allusesubjecttohttpaboutjstor.org/termsCHAPTER I · INTRODUCTION T HIS essay centers upon one element of the Antigone, the poetic imagery, in the belief that such a study can illumine the role of Sophocles' poetry in his drama and add precision and fullness to our understanding of the meanings of his works. The images are only one of the poet's means of communication. But as such they are im￾portant, and they provide a rewarding means of entry into the complex structure of interworking parts which such a play forms. The images not only give brilliance or emotional color to individual expressions; they also point up the progress of the action and develop meanings essential to the whole. The major undertaking here is to illustrate the workings of dominant images or master tropes in the Antigone. Six groups of recurrent images, forming patterns or sequences, serve to arouse and establish connections of thought, emotion, and judgment from part to part of the play. They afford de￾veloping insights into the nature of the characters and at the same time evoke larger issues within which the significance of the characters' actions is to be viewed. Not only does the recurrence of these images give them heightened prominence in the play; their extending relationships also permit more direct analysis of their functional or structural contributions to the work as a whole than is possible with many of the play's other images. There is a further external reason for centering upon the dominant images in this way. Because our knowl￾edge of the nuances of classical Greek is limited, there must always be some uncertainty as to the full connotations of any image in a work of Greek poetry. This barrier is less serious in connection with a number of more or less consistent, mutually supporting images than it is for the more self-con￾tained expressions. The final two chapters draw upon the evidence of the dominant images to interpret the odes and the divergent modes This content downloaded from 128.122.230.148 on Thu, 23 Mar 2017 09:44:03 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms