Justice between Mercy and Revenge in Sophocles’ Antigone and Plato’s Crito

Abstract

Plato’s Crito and Sophocles’ Antigone challenge the concept of justice as “benefitting friends and harming enemies”: justice stems from anger and harms the soul. The Antigone first illustrates how violence results from people’s actions when they see themselves as the agents of justice; second, it points to a possible reassessment of justice as benefitting all, regardless of what others do to you. In the Crito, Socrates shows how this new notion of justice, which is very similar to mercy, is consistent with the life of a good human being.