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Greek values for women in greek mythology
Greek values for women in greek mythology
The gender role of women in greek society
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ATHENIAN WOMEN
It is ridiculous to assume that the Athenian women of Ancient Greece were respected and revered by men. These women were not held in high regard. Men controlled all aspects of their lives, beginning with their fathers and continuing with their husbands once they married. Most girls were married in their very early teens to men that were usually much older (Xenophon’s Oeconomicus), sometimes as much as twice the age of their wives. The age difference was considered a moot point since women at that time often did not survive the rigors of repeated childbirth and died young. It was also generally believed that marrying a very young girl enabled the husbands to train her and mold her into a proper Athenian wife.
Athenian women had almost no influence or power in Greek society and were not highly regarded until they could produce a male child (Socrates). The common belief at that time (in most Western societies) was that women were necessary to produce children. Women existed for the sake of procreation, to bear sons in order to continue the family name (Aristotle states that the man supplies the substance, the soul, i.e. the form for children, the woman provides only the nourishment), (Source: Generation of Animals). In Athenian society, extramarital affairs by husbands with women (and men) was the norm, and it indeed contributed to the image of a man’s prosperity if he had a mistress. Did the males in this society consider their wives praiseworthy? In my opinion the answer is no, since a wife who was the husband’s property and could be disciplined if she did not conform to the Athenian standards of wife. Athenian wives were judged in society by their frugality, ability to raise sons, and their devotion and faithfulness to their husbands, (e.g., Penelope and Odysseus). A married woman caught in adultery would have been forced to abandon her home and children for the disgrace it would bring the family name, (Hunt, pg. 70). Men in ancient Athens (as in just about every Western civilization) had altered views of women. They saw women as being weak and dependent (Xenophon Oeconomicus), and because of the socioeconomic structure of the time, they were.
Women in this society could, to some degree, assert power and influence in the home. The everyday life of the “ideal” Greek woman included child bearing and rearing, cleaning, both weaving cloth and making clothes, cooking and supervising slaves and other domestic tasks, (Xenophon, On Household Management).
Men spent there time doing things outside the home, such as visiting markets and going to the gymnasium; meanwhile, women were required to spend their time at home. Some families could afford to have female slaves, but those slaves did not do every single job, so the wives were required to tend to the household and infants, which made it not possible to leave their house. Women sought companionship in other women to talk about their daily tasks and gossip. Athenian women were clothed and secluded so that they would be concealed from the eyes of strange men. They wore simple clothing that was not eye catching. The chapter also talks about the death rates of women in their childbearing years and how the death rates increased during these times. Pomeroy uses a chart about what occurs during a women’s pregnancy that was fascinating and explains what happens during pregnancy, as well as rituals.
" While this view may have been extreme even for the Greeks, they were convinced of the physical and intellectual inferiority of women. Thus, they believed that it was better for all--the woman included--that a wife should stay in the home far removed from the complicated business of the "man's world."... ... middle of paper ... ...
Women had very few rights, they lived as prisoners, serving men 24 hours a day. Women were sheltered from society, restricted to their husbands and their husbands houses, crying out for help and justice but there is no one to there to hear their screams. In the play Antigone when the title character had to sneak out of the house to meet up with Ismene. Ancient Greek men ruled a lot like over protective fathers with teenage daughters. Men were also scared of women gaining confidence and begin thinking on their own or worse taking action or speaking out against men, like in the play Antigone where Antigone confronts Creon by burying Polyneices after Creon strictly stated that no one bury him. If someone were to bury him, the whole Polis would stone them to death. When Creon found out that someone buried Polyneices, he did not even consider that it could have been a women that did it.
Women in antiquity did not have an easy lot in life. They had few, if any, rights. Surviving early records of the civilizations of antiquity from ancient Greece, Egypt, China, and Rome suggest the diversity of women’s roles differed little from region to region. There were a few exceptions, mostly concerning women of nobility and the city-state of Sparta. Excluding the rare instances mentioned most antique women were generally limited on education, mobility, and almost all possibilities interfering with domestic or childbearing responsibilities. The limited social roles of women in antiquity suggest the perceived c...
In the home, Athenian women were treated like slaves with no rights. Married women were not people under the law of the Athenians any more than a slave, as they were shifted from one male’s authority to another throughout their lives, powerless to affect anything except through the intercession of another male (To Have Power or to Not Have Power: Athenian vs. Spartan Women). Also, when other males occupied their home; women we told to evacuate the male quarters. Women lived secluded in their own quarters, kept out of the lives of their husbands, working endlessly at the loom or some other repetitive chore. They competed for their husband’s affection against prostitutes, hetairai, and slaves of both genders, including those within their own household. By contrast, Spartan girls exercised publicly alongside boys(and often in the nude) (Fleck).Thus, Spartan women were rarely confined to the home. This is because of the abundance of a workforce and male children serving in the army from seven to
According to research, the role of women in classical Greece was extremely limited. Men and women were segregated all over in the Greek society, even in the home (Source 9). Women were secluded in their homes to the point of not being able to leave their own quarters except on special religious occasions or as necessity dictated (Source 10). All women were tightly controlled and confined to the home to insure that their husbands were provided legitimate male heirs. Beyond this, women had no true value (Source 6). Clearly, male domination in Greek society was like enslavement to women. A marriage contract dated 92 B.C. can be located in Women's Life in Greece & Rome by Mary R. Lefkowitz and Maureen B. Fant which defines unacceptable behavior within the union of marriage. The document requires that both husband and wife be chaste within the context of the household, but although nothing prevents ...
The women were the only ones able to bear children. Also, if they were forced to stay in the house, men could have greater control over their wives, and not have to worry about them having affairs. The second important trait was virginity before marriage. Its importance to the Greek culture lies in the fear of a woman’s power. The men of the society felt it best that a woman remained a virgin until she was married; however this same attribute was not required of a man.
Greek women, as depicted as in their history and literature, endure many hardships and struggle to establish a meaningful status in their society. In the Odyssey, Penelope’s only role in the epic is to support Odysseus and remain loyal to him. She is at home and struggles to keep her family intact while Odysseus is away trying to return to his native land. The cultural role of women is depicted as being supportive of man and nothing more. Yet what women in ancient Greece did long ago was by far more impressive than what men did.
Species that now populate the Earth come from other species that existed in the past, through a process of descent with modification. Biological evolution is the historical process of transformation from one species in other descendant species, including the extinction of most of the species that have ever existed. One of the most romantic ideas in the evolution of life is that any two living organisms, different as they are, they share a common ancestor sometime in the past. We and any current chimpanzee share an ancestor of 5 million years. We also have a common ancestor with any bacteria that exist today, although time this predecessor to soar in this case more than 3000 million years. However, the idea of evolution by itself is an open concept, is a mechanical description of change does not say anything about the engine or the creative force behind the transformation. Thus, in principle, evolution can be driven by immanent laws of matter, or a divine creator or by blind forces,
For the most part, women in today's society hold a position equal to that of a man;
In the Greek society women were treated very differently than they are today. Women in ancient Greece were not allowed to own property, participate in politics, and they were under control of the man in their lives. The goddess Aphrodite did not adhere to these social norms and thus the reason the earthly women must comply with the societal structure that was set before them. Aphrodite did not have a father figure according to Hesiod, and therefore did not have a man in her life to tell her what to do. She was a serial adulteress and has many children with many men other than her husband. She was not the only goddess from the ancient Greek myths to cause doubt in the minds of men. Gaia and the Titan Rhea rise up against their husbands in order to protect their children. Pandora, another woman in the Greek myths, shows that all evil comes from woman. Aphrodite, Gaia, Rhea, and Pandora cause the ancient Greek men to be suspicious of women because of her mischievous and wild behavior.
Evolution is a on going process and the evolution is made up of many different processes. It allows species to become what they are, how they act, and what they will become. It also allows species to be able to survive. It produces new and different species through ancestral populations of organisms and moves them to new population. Both natural selection and genetic drift decrease genetic variation. If they were the only mechanisms of evolution, populations would eventually become homogeneous and further evolution would be impossible. There are, however, mechanisms that replace variation depleted by selection and drift (Colby).
“The film adaptation of The Great Gatsby directed by Baz Luhrmann in 2013 is almost as ingenious as the novel written by F. Scott Fitzgerald in 1925. It is easily understood, and keeps the audience attentive up until the very end. The sceneries, in most cases are very close to the description given in the novel and are very pleasing to the eye. Even the actors are well cast in most instances. The costuming fits the description of the 1920s perfectly, the computer generated imagery technology enhances the themes of the film and the music is appeals to the audiences’ auditory senses among other things which are to be explained below. Another aspect that makes a great contribution to the film’s greatness is the narration.
...n page two, the authors explain the impact of culture on business and its success. With this regard, the authors of the book assert the importance of cultural training in boosting the success of business in the international context. Because of globalization, most organizations realize the importance of cross-cultural communication and its training as a managerial strategy. This study puts more emphasis on the importance of cross-cultural training as an important factor in fostering organizational productivity. The book is important in this research in the sense that it bring out the understanding of cross-cultural communication and its factor of improving communication among organizational staff of different cultural backgrounds. The book is also important for future research in cross-cultural communication intelligence and its impact on organizational performance.
Though education is said to be so instrumental in human development but also in the revamping of world economies, it is very unfortunate that education systems worldwide, are being held to ransom all because of poverty at both government and household levels. Poverty means the shortage of common things such as food clothing, shelter and safe drinking water, all of which determine our quality of life.it also include lack of access to opportunities like education and employment which aid the escape of poverty. Problems in our society are interconnected in one way or the other, just like poverty and malnutrition affect a student’s capability to learn. malnutrition is a situation lack of proper nutrition, caused by not having enough to eat, not