Professors from the School of Philosophy and Letters publish throughout the summer in the series "Líderes en la ficción" (Leaders in Fiction), published by the newspaper Expansión. Each week, they bring us the virtues of different literary characters.

The Greek city of Thebes has just lived a terrible battle in which Eteocles and Polynices, the two sons of Oedipus, the previous king, died. As his successors it had been agreed that Eteocles and Polynices would alternate in the government, but at the end of the established term Eteocles decides to remain in power. In response, Polynices marches on Thebes with a foreign army and in the battle they both die. Creon, uncle of them, constituted in maximum authority of the city, decides to bury with honors to Eteocles and to punish Polynices condemning it not to be buried. The two sisters of the deceased, Ismene and Antigone, lament the fate of Polynices' corpse, but only Antigone dares to disobey the prohibition and give the funeral honor that the Greek religion demanded. Once discovered, she is condemned to death, the punishment decreed by her uncle for those who disobey him.

In this tragedy many complex conflicts arise that are still current. Why does Creon decide to deprive Polynices of burial against the common moral and religious conscience of the Greeks, who see a sacred duty in funeral rites? He does not do it on a whim, but because Polynices attacked Thebes with a foreign army, acted as a traitor who wanted to gain power through violence. Creon is manager the preservation of the community, and for this it is essential to punish the one who endangers it; Polynices' act was very serious, and not recognizing this seriousness and acting accordingly would have revealed a weak and irresponsible Creon. But Creon sample be a ruler with a clear sense of his responsibilities and acts in conscience according to what he considers just and reasonable.

And why does Antigone decide to go against the law enacted by Creon, knowing that she was putting her own life at risk? She appeals to the eternal unwritten laws, the religious traditions that command the pious burial of the dead, which she considers to be superior and prevail over civil laws. Moreover, she is the sister of the punished, so she has a greater responsibility. Like Creon, Antigone is driven by a clear sense of duty and responsibility and acts in conscience according to what she considers the higher and more sacred justice. The motivations and actions of both seem quite reasonable and defensible, and neither is driven by arbitrary or selfish motives. Creon of course knows the motives that move Antigone. Why does he decide to condemn her to death? Such a direct challenge to authority and to the law, the foundation of the community, cannot go unpunished if the common life of the city is to be defended, the value he is entrusted with guarding: again in this decision he sample be a ruler attentive to his responsibilities.

It would be a mistake to see in this conflict between Creon and Antigone a conflict simply between authority and the freedom or individual autonomy of the subjects who can make decisions on their own if they do not agree with what the authority commands. Whether it is a country, a business or any institution, it seems essential the figure of authority that orders and guide, and that the others second; it is essential that the one who commands acts with responsibility and justice for the group to function, and at the same time it is essential that the others recognize and abide by that authority to avoid the disintegration of the group and that each one acts on his or her own. But Antigone never appeals in her decision merely to her individual freedom or to her right to make decisions on her own. What she always appeals to is the laws received by the ethical and religious tradition, shared and accepted by all, and to her family ties: two instances that are real, not subject to individual will and from which enforceable actions emanate.

Creonte lacked neither a sense of responsibility nor a sense of justice in his decision, but the development the story shows the wrongness of his attitude and its disastrous consequences. So, what did he lack? Possibly he lacked prudence, the virtue that allows us to be attentive to the concrete reality, to adapt ourselves to it and to decide in each concrete case the best possible action, with the awareness that human decisions are fallible and we must be willing to learn and correct ourselves. Several people, besides Antigone herself, interceded on her behalf, making Creon see that she was not acting out of rebellion or caprice, but out of attention to very real elements that she could not ignore and that, at her level, were part of the same community for which Creon should watch over. But on these occasions Creon sample obstinate, excessively proud and sure of his own reasons, reluctant to listen to others, blind to reality in its concreteness and breadth and to the elements that he should have taken into consideration for a more reasonable and fair decision. In the end, he finally gave in and rectified, but when it was too late.

Without prudence there can be no truly just decisions, because we would start from excessively general and abstract principles that could result in great injustice. We must pay careful attention to the reality in which our decisions are made, and this is what the virtue of prudence is all about. Among the many facets that prudence implies, there are two that are especially relevant for managers and whose lack we have found in Creonte: the constant willingness to learn and correct ourselves, for which it is essential to know how to listen to others in order to see reality better and broaden our perspective; and to be aware that there is a decision to make and the convenience of making it at the right time, neither too early nor too late: the hasty, the indecisive or the reluctant to recognize mistakes and rectify are examples of lack of prudence and can do great harm in companies.