Parmenides believed in a being that was one, that is and that it is impossible for it to not be; and that it is irrational to think of what cannot be because such a thing does not exist. For Paramenides it would be unthinkable to even try to conceive what nothingness is, because you cannot rationalize the concept of nothing because it is simply unknowable. Parmenides also believed that the being has always existed and can never be anything else because it would seem irrational for something to be born out of nothing because nothing does not exist nor would it seem rational for something absolute to become something else. For example an apple logically cannot become an orange, it simply cannot happen.

Parmenides came up with a crucial idea that nearly solidifies his concept of what constitutes being the following is an excerpt from one of his fragments, “But it is motionless in the limits of mighty bonds, without beginning, without cease, since becoming and destruction have been driven very far away, and true conviction has rejected them. And remaining the same in the same place, it rests by itself and constrains it round about, because it is decreed by divine law that being shall not be without boundary.” (Fragment 8) Following this pattern of thinking it seems only logical to say that the being whatever its nature is is stationary because it always ends up in the same place where it started which implies that it never really moves in the first place for do so would defy logic. To use an example by Zeno: There is an athlete running towards a finish line, will the runner ever make it to the finish line? No! Because in order for the runner to make it half way he must first cross the halfway point of the half and the halfway point of that half and so on. Since there are infinite halves to be crossed the runner will never finish the race because he will never make it past the starting point which implies that motion does not exist because space is infinitely divisible. If motion did exist then the athlete could clearly finish the race. Perhaps it is human’s skewed view of reality which makes them think that motion exists and that the runner can easily cross the finish line but they are not taking into account the possibility that they themselves are being stubborn with their refusal to even fathom the possibility that their view of reality is an illusion. If reality is an illusion this opens up a whole world of thinking. If one takes the questioning further one will come to the conclusion that if reality is an illusion than perhaps time itself is an illusion as well, because if space is infinitely divisible then time is not needed because space is eternal in existence.

            The ideas of Parmenides and Zeno are greatly significant because their ideas have led later Philosophers to try to answer the question ‘If humans have a false view of reality, then what are the possibilities of what reality truly is?’ This in turn has given birth to the branch of philosophy known as metaphysics. The ideas of Zeno and Parmenides have caused many to question what it is to be, and what it is to known. Without their fragments it is quite possible that metaphysics might never have existed. Philosophy owes a great debt to Parmenides and Zeno.

            In Oedipus the King, Oedipus is told by the oracle Pytho that he will kill his father and will lie with his mother. Terrified by this prophecy Oedipus fled his homeland of Corinth to prevent the possibility of murdering his father and lying with his mother. But this didn’t stop the fulfillment of the prophecy because while wandering in the desert Oedipus happened upon a man driving a chariot and killed him for his insolence. He then later becomes king of Thebes and marries the missing king’s wife. This man later turns out to be Oedipus’ father and the woman who he marries turns out to be his mother. One must raise the question as Sophociles does through Oedipus “what is the nature of the Gods? Are they just?” The story leaves you to believe that either the Gods are not just or at least are not just all the time, perhaps they suffer from human flaws and emotions which cloud their judgment. If the Gods are not just then you can begin to question their purpose in human’s lives, perhaps the Gods are there simply to meddle and wreak havoc upon us as they see fit because we are here for their own amusement.

            In the tale of Antigone, Creon is faced with the problem of setting an example for what happens to traitors and decides that the body of Polyneices will not be buried because he fought against Thebes, but the body of Eteocles, who fought for Thebes, will be buried. Antigone, the sister of the late Polyneices and Eteocles feels that Creon’s decreed is too harsh since by not allowing Polyneices’ body to be buried he is condemning him to wander the outskirts of Hades forever, furthermore Antigone feels that she is doing what the Gods want her to do because divine law requires for all dead to receive a proper burial. Antigone buries her brother and is condemned to die. Creon feels that he has doing the right thing by he sentencing Antigone to die until tragedy begins to fall the city of Thebes. Perhaps Creon angered the Gods by not allowing Polyneices to be buried and that is the reason that he is punished. Perhaps he does not understand his relationship to the Gods and because of this he is punished. If the Gods are just then what Creon did is clearly not just and that means that the Gods smite down those who do not act in a manner which appeases them because to act in any other manner is to live an immoral life.

            In both Oedipus and Antigone the characters wrestle with their relationship with the Gods. Oedipus, a good moral man is presented with a horrible fate for no known reason. Anitgone, a fiery young girl who is trying to follow the mandated divine law is put to death for following it. These events show that the Gods are not always moral beings because Oedipus is cursed for being moral; Antigone too meets an ill fate for try to follow divine law. Creon tries to supersede divine law and in the end losing everything shows that the Gods punish those who try to supersede them, this shows that the God’s do not like having their toes stepped on.

            Taking from these two stories it appears that what it means to be human is live in the ambiguity that lies between light and darkness while striving for clarity in hope that one may find their purpose in life and ultimately human’s relationships with the Gods. It is in this ambiguity that you begin to discover what it truly means to be human because is neither ultimately good nor evil but both. Human beings are very complex and confusing creatures and it the ambiguity that makes them unique.

While Antigone may have felt that she was doing the right thing by burying her brother, Polynices, at the same time she did not take into consideration her duties to the city of Thebes. Following the death of his father Oedipus, Polynices and his brother Eteocles agreed to share the throne of Thebes, but Eteocles changed his mind and he being the eldest son exercised his right and took over full power to throne. This led to a great battle between the brothers in which they both were killed. Creon being the next in line was named the next king of Thebes. As his first act as king, Creon declared that the body of Polynices was not to be buried but instead was to remain uncovered for the birds and dogs to peck apart, Creon’s reasoning for this was to set an example that all traitors will share the same fate as Polynices.

Antigone does not feel that it is right that Eteocles’s body is buried but Polynices’s remains uncovered so she decides to take it upon herself to bury her brother’s body because she feels that she cannot face her brother in the afterlife if she allows Polynices body to remain unburied. Antigone’s motivation for bury Polynices is that it is one of the unwritten laws of the gods that all bodies must be buried and that Creon does not have the right to make laws that conflict with the laws of the gods.

Upon finding out that the body had been buried Creon orders for it to be uncovered and for the guards to find out who has buried the body. Antigone, not to be outdone goes back and attempts to rebury the body and is caught. When Creon asks her if she is the one who buried her brother’s body she blatantly admits it and says that Creon’s law cannot not supersede divine law and that she will gladly die before her time if she has to to help enforce the divine laws. For her rashness Antigone is sentenced to be buried alive and does so die for her rashness and need for defiance.

It was declared by the oracle at the temple of Delphi that “there was no man wiser than Socrates,” Socrates set out to disprove this for he thought that surely he could not be the wisest man because he did not know anything. It was upon understanding this that Socrates set out to question the elitists of Athens. Socrates would begin asking someone a simply question such as “what is piety?,” and upon being given an answer Socrates would present an opposing view or would try to take the stated view further by helping the person come to a conclusion about the subject at hand and would then show them how they had contradicted themselves and would then repeat the original question and would repeat the whole process which later came to be known as the “Socratic Method,” over until the person would grow tired and would tell Socrates that they would continue their discussion another day. Socrates would then draw the conclusion that the person did not know anything and that was not wise because he believed that he knew things when he in fact did not.

Socrates did not limit himself to the sophists such as Gorgias of Leontini and Prodicus of Ceos; he also questioned the poets, musicians, virtually anyone who would strike up a conversation. He came to the same conclusion that “they all knew nothing but believed that they did.” For example, he would ask a poet to tell him about the poem that he had just written and would be given a reply which Socrates would then apply the “Socratic Method” to and would come to the same conclusion as he did with the sophists, that the poet too was not wise because he believed that knew things when he in fact did not. It was through these inquires that Socrates came to the conclusion that he had be chosen by the god Apollo to teach the people of Athens that they did not know anything so that they may begin to learn for the first time. Socrates believed that before you could learn anything you must first come to realize that you do not know anything, it is only then that you may begin to ‘ build from the ground up’ so-to-speak.

Socrates became quite unpopular with Athens elite and was eventually formally charged with corrupting the youth of Athens and creating new gods as well as not paying proper tribute to the recognized gods of Athens. Socrates defended himself in court against these charges in such a manner that pretty much guaranteed a guilty verdict. Socrates did not let anyone testify on his behalf nor did he dull down his antics for the court. Upon the guilty verdict being handed down, the accuser asked for the penalty of death. Socrates was then given a chance to propose lesser penalty to which Socrates stated that he should be fed and housed in the Prytaneum. Some might think that Socrates was just being pompous in the way that he defended himself because he knew that he was going to be found guilty. But that is not why Socrates defended himself in the manner that he did. He defended himself in the way that he did because he believed that if he defended himself in any other way that he would be diluting the message that he was trying to convey and would be unjust in doing so. This just may be Socrates’s fatal flaw. Perhaps if Socrates did not see everything in such ‘black and white’ terms then maybe he would have defended himself in a different manner. Maybe he would have let his friends testify on his behalf or possibly approached the jury without such sarcasm and mockery, but because of the way he viewed the world Socrates was not able to do so and ultimately died for what he believed in.

Antigone did not care what happened to her or to the city of Thebes because of her actions all she cared about was burying her brother Polynices and proving to Creon that she would do whatever she wanted to do regardless of what the law said. Clearly, she was not a good citizen since she only cared about herself and her own actions. Socrates believed that he was sent by the god Apollo to help the people of Athens realize that they did not know anything and that they should not pretend that they do. It is debatable as to whether Socrates was a good citizen or not. I believe that he was a good citizen because he saw that the government was wrong and he tried to change it in a peaceful manner. For example, when Socrates was awaiting his execution he was given countless opportunities to escape from prison and flee to one of the nearby cities but Socrates realized that it would unjust for to him to escape because he was given a chance by the court to propose a lesser punishment and chose not too. Because of his willingness to adhere to the laws of Athens ‘even if it meant death,’ I believe that this shows that Socrates was in fact a good citizen.