Anarchy, anarchy! Show me a greater evil!
This is why cities tumble and the great houses rain down,
This is what scatters armies!

The lines are spoken in Sophocles’ tragedy *Antigone* by Creon, the newly established ruler of Thebes, as he asserts the necessity of civic order after the city’s recent civil war. In the wake of the brothers Eteocles and Polyneices killing each other, Creon issues an edict forbidding burial of Polyneices as a traitor. In defending strict obedience to the state’s authority, Creon denounces “anarchy” (lawlessness/insubordination) as the worst social danger—one that topples cities, ruins households, and breaks armies—framing his political stance before Antigone’s defiance brings the conflict between state law and higher obligations into the open.

Creon’s outcry treats “anarchy” as the root cause of collective catastrophe: when authority is not obeyed, the structures that hold a community together—civic institutions, family stability, and military cohesion—collapse. The passage encapsulates a central tension of *Antigone*: the appeal of order and public security versus the moral peril of absolutism. Sophocles lets the argument sound persuasive, especially in a city traumatized by internal conflict, yet the drama also exposes how fear of disorder can justify rigid decrees and suppress conscience. The quote therefore functions both as a political maxim about social cohesion and as a warning about leaders who equate dissent with chaos.