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Women's roles in ancient greece
Roles of women in ancient greece
Women's roles in ancient greece
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Hesiod and Aeschylus both tell the tale of Prometheus, the god that stole fire from Olympus and gave it to man. Each author takes a different position on the matter: Hesiod condemns Prometheus and man, while Aeschylus celebrates them, which is evident in several characteristics of the myth. First, the role of the female in the relationship between man and gods in each myth is different. Hesiod, for example describes woman as “an evil'; created by the gods to punish man for accepting fire. Woman was filled with desire for luxurious things and a “treacherous nature'; to enable her to torment mankind. They named her Pandora. Pandora was given a gift of a box filled with all the evils in the world and was told not to open it. What does she do? She opens it. And released all the evils into the world, hope alone remained in the box. Aeschylus, on the other hand, uses the figure of Io as a sweet, innocent woman who was tormented by the gods and whose ancestor will free Prometheus one day. He doesn’t even mention Pandora and the punishment of mankind. Io refused to sleep with Zeus and, in return she was exiled from home and was constantly hounded by the gadfly, the ghost of Argos. Argos pursued Io so that she constantly roams the Earth with no place to call home. A son descended from Io will free Prometheus from the rock he is eternally chained to. Woman is seen as the solution to the problem, whereas, in Hesiod, she is the cause of it. Secondly, The p...
Prometheus Bound is quite different from other tragedies in that it is peopled entirely by gods. The play focuses on the story of Prometheus, and we have versions of this myth in Hesiod's famous works. There is reason to think that the author of Prometheus Bound was not only acquainted with Hesiod's version but actually drew on Hesiod directly in this play. This essay therefore aims to establish in what ways the author of Prometheus Bound seems to have drawn from Hesiod's version of myth, in what ways he has diverged from it, and what reasons he might have had for making these changes and innovations. This might therefore highlight any particular emphasis or purpose of Prometheus Bound and what its author might have been trying to get across. Though there is not space in this essay to discuss the problems of attributing this play, it must be recognised that this ambiguity of authorship and dating makes it even more difficult than usual to look at views and purposes behind the play.
To most readers, the women of The Orestia are evil and vindictive, a disgrace to all chaste and righteous women. Aeschylus portrayed women as equals to men, which was not the opinion of most Greeks at the time. Although he showed some of his women characters as evil, he granted them power, and emasculated the men around them. Unlike Homer, the women of Aeschylus show both ranges of emotions, both the good and the bad. A woman portrayed as a villain may be thought of negatively, but the fact that a female is allowed to be the villain, to take action, and leave other men helpless to the choices that she makes, it is a great step. In the time of the Greeks, a woman was either victimized by the male world around her, or victimized other males to hold a place in the world. Aeschylus made his women characters unique for his time but relevant to ours, since all the bad and evil characteristics of women then are mostly recognized as strength and intellect. This theme is mostly clearly shown through Clymanestra.
In Hesiod’s version, Zeus created Pandora as a punishment to man and illustrated her as an evil, deceitful and supposed curse on mankind, “Evil conspirators. And he added another evil to offset the good...she was a real pain for human beings” (Hesiod, 149-164) On the contrary women in Ovid’s tale were treated as companions who worked together for the greater good, as depicted by the myth of Pyrrha and Deucalion, “Then, side by side, they went without delay to seek the waters of Cephisus’ stream.” (Ovid, 17) Deucalion and Pyrrha are portrayed to be righteous and true devotes of the Olympian gods and hence given the responsibility of repopulating earth. Ovid demonstrates that the humans in this myth portray the role of a god, where they repopulate Earth with righteous humans, thus creating order in the universe again. He portrays their role as a vital component in this occurrence as without their diligence and morals—this act would not have been possible. Thus, establishing the human-centered concept of his
The very creation of women was set as a punishment to man because Prometheus, son of Iapetos, tried to trick Zeus into eating bones and then, with the tube of a fennel, steals fire to give to mankind. Zeus then proclaimed, "To set against the fire I shall give them an affliction in which they will all delight as they embrace their own misfortune." Out of Zeus' anger came Pandora, the first woman. Zeus ordered Hephaestus to mold women from the earth and water, Athene to dress and adorn her, Temptation to give her necklaces of gold, and Hermes to implant a bitch's mind and a thief's temper. Hesiod describes women as a "precipitous trap, more than mankind can manage." Hesiod states, "even so as a bane for mortal men has high-thundering Zeus created women, conspirators in causing difficulty." And thus the first woman was named Pandora, Allgift,-"a calamity for men who live by bread." And so Pandora and all the evils of the world, except Hope, were released into the world by a punishing Zeus. Hesiod explains how formerly the tribes of men lived "remote from ills, without harsh toil and the grievous sickness that are deadly to men." From Pandora descended the female sex, "a great affliction to mortals as they dwell with their husbands- no fit partners for accursed Poverty, but only for Plenty." An analogy is then used to compare women to drones who, according to Hesiod, feed off hard-working bees all day. Hesiod immed...
This paper is about how the character Zeus in the novel "Prometheus Bound" by Aeschlyus is being represented as an authority figure. This paper will also show how outside circumstances placed Prometheus on the opposition to authority. The word authority can mean different things, but in the context of the paper; it is being used to mean "the power or right to direct or control someone or something." However, we will see how Zeus responds to the challenges that he faces in his role as an authority leader. First, we will see how Zeus is being represented in the text as the main authority figure.
The Greco-Roman society was a very patriarchal society. This is reflected throughout the myths in classical mythology. By looking at the classic mythology we will see that the roles women portrayed are very different than women’s roles in today’s society. Although there are a few similarities to women’s roles in today’s society, their roles are more like those women in the past. We can see this by looking at the attributes of Greco-Roman female gods and looking at the roles women play in the myths. By comparing the roles of women in the myths with women’s roles today we will see that the roles have many differences and few similarities.
Additionally, the author utilizes two distinct imagery in forms of allusions. The first allusion refers to Prometheus, which foreshadows Allie’s rebellion against Mack’s words. In the story, Mack explains that Prometheus is a titan god “who stole god’s fire and gave it to man” which parallel Allie’s acquirement of the ability to fly and gleefully showing it to her daughter (Miller 2, 4). Prometheus becomes Allie’s counterpart because her desire to revive the euphoric feeling of flying entails her to share the joy to her daughter, resembling Prometheus determination to “better the lives of his creation” (Miller 4; “Prometheus”). The next allusion refers to Icarus, who disobeyed his father’s words to not soar too close to the sun. Allie’s counterpart
In the bible, Eve was the first woman on the face of the earth. In Greek mythology, Pandora was the first woman on earth. Both are curious, and end up doing something the wrong way. I chose Eve and Pandora because they seemed very interesting to me, and they both give good lessons about temptation.
Mortal females cause struggles among men and are portrayed as wicked in Greek Mythology. In the story of How the World and Mankind Were Created, the Father of Men and of the Gods, Zeus, swears to get revenge upon mankind because of the poor sacrifices made to the altars. Therefore, he “[makes] a great evil for men, a sweet and lovely thing to look upon… they [call] her Pandora… the first woman… who are an evil to men, with a nature to do evil… is the source of all misfortu...
This myth is about a young lad named Phaethon that visits the sun palace looking for proof if his father is the sun god. This myth begins when Phaethon arrives at the sun palace and he is met by a radiant palace with a God who has a very bright crown. So then, Phaethon asks the sun god if he is his father. Therefore the sun god answers and says that Phaethon is his son and that he could choose anything in the palace for proof. For example, Phaethon chooses the chariot so he could ride high in the sky and everyone would see him on the sun god’s chariot. However the sun god did not like that idea and told Phaethon about the dangers of riding the chariot, the sun god told Phaethon that there were sky beasts that would try to kill him and that
Zeus - Zeus is the ruler of the universe. At one point in the story Zeus was
I enjoyed reading The Birth of Tragedy by Friedrich Nietzsche. In this reading Nietzsche focuses on the aspect of fundamental duality. The focus of this is Apollo and Dionysus, and they represent two separate art-worlds of dreams and intoxication. According to Nietzsche, Apollo is the ruler over the illusion of the inner world and fantasy. Apollonian art had a certain restraint and gave observers a freedom from their erratic emotions. This art provided relief and comfort and was the basis of analytic distinctions. Apollonian art represented a man’s character. However, Dionysian art breaks down a man’s character. This art represented primordial unity through ecstasy. Dionysian art is in both dreams and ecstasies, and the focus of this art is
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus, raises many ethical issues that are relevant to today’s society. In the novel, Victor Frankenstein is portrayed as God as he is able to create a new species by reanimating dead tissue. Today, scientists aren’t able to perform such experiments as fictional as bringing back the dead, but they are able to perform other serious experiments like cloning organisms for example. Cloning and growing organs, a sub-branch of cloning, are scientific achievements done out of acts of utilitarianism: to help patients gain happiness by “intended pleasure and the absence of pain” (Cahn, 2011, p.93) through replaced organs and replicating organisms for other purposes.
Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein is also known by its alternative name; The Modern Prometheus. Victor Frankenstein’s punishment for bestowing fire (life) upon the lifeless is torment and life long suffering. In the end, more lives were lost due to his impure manufacture of life (Lutrell 17). Prometheus is known for stealing a flame from the gods and giving it to mankind. Frankenstein is seen as a modern image of the ancient myth. Prometheus, the Greek God, and Victor Frankenstein, the creator of the monster, have contrasting qualities and behaviors that allowed them to go against their gods, to create life, then to be punished by the hands of their creations.
The Greek god “Theseus” had one interesting life full of weird facts. He was worshiped my many as a “mythical” king. The topics we will discuss first is the early life of Theseus, next how Theseus was important to many worshipers and then how mythical God Theseus became heir to the thrown of Athens. Theseus had a long and dangerous ahead of him.