In Works and Days, Hesiod wrote, “I see there is not only one Strife-brood on earth, there are two,” (“Works and Days,” 37). Moreover, he distinguished between the two Eris-goddesses that have such distinct dispositions and vastly different effects on human beings. The first Eris, born of Black Night, promotes wicked things and is harmful to humans. However, the other Eris, placed on earth by Zeus, is beneficial to humans, and as Frederick Nietzsche explained, was salient to Greek society. The first Eris is portrayed as wicked and is bad for humans. It leads to feuding, wars, and struggles-to-the-death. It is characterized by hatred and destruction. This type of jealousy or envy brings about the downfall of whole nations. It can be cited …show more content…
It is still strife, jealousy, and envy, but it acts as more of an inspiration and motivation. It causes people to work harder to achieve things that they see other people achieving. Nietzsche wrote in Homer’s Contest of this kind of strife saying, “Neighbor competes with neighbor striving for prosperity…. Even potters harbor grudges against potters, carpenters against carpenters, beggars envy beggars and minstrels envy minstrels,” (“Homer’s Contest,” 176). In modern society, it can be as simple as scrolling through Instagram looking at fitness selfies and being inspired to work out harder in the gym, or spending an extra hour studying to get the best grade on a test. This Eris helps humans create more successful versions of themselves as they constantly strive to do better in comparison to others. It is analogous to the “inner drive” that successful people are often said to possess. As Nietzsche stated, this beneficial kind of strife, “…Goads men to action, not however, the action of a struggle-to-the-death but the action of the contest,” (“Homer’s Contest,” …show more content…
While humans today would typically associate a word like “envy” with the bad kind of strife that we typically think of, Nietzsche asserted that the Greeks thought about this concept differently than we do. He stated, “The Greek is envious and does not experience this characteristic as a blemish, but as the effect of a benevolent deity: what a gulf of ethical judgement between him and us!” (“Homer’s Contest,” 177). Thusly, the Greeks thought this strife was positive and important for them, which led to contests and competition permeating Greek society. Everyone in Greek society strived to be the best, whether it was being the best athlete in the Pan-Hellenic Games or being the best play-write or actor in a theatre competition. It can easily be argued that this pervasive competition was what lead the Greeks to be so successful. As Iain Thomson wrote in Deconstructing the Hero, “The ‘superman’ personifies Nietzsche’s idea that the creation of a future worth living requires the continual supersession of the past, while his ‘superhero’ symbolizes the component claim that in order to help create that future, we must supersede even the heroes of the past,” (“Deconstructing the Hero,” 177). This excerpt best describes the Greeks’ view towards competition and their over-arching desire to be the best there ever was in whatever they were
Based on the readings, I conclude that Hesiod has intended his audience to regard elpis as a curse rather than a blessing. First of all, when Zeus is over taken by his anger with Prometheus after Prometheus makes an ill hearted attempt to fool Zeus at Mykone in regards to which food to choose. After Zeus discovered this trickery, he and the other gods put ingredients together to create a woman called Pandora. Pandora is a ‘gift’ to Epimetheus. The poem writes “Prometheus had said to him, bidding him never take a gift of Olympian Zeus, but to send it back for fear it might prove to be something harmful to men,” (Hesiod, Works and Days, 85-90).
... for lust, but he would rather take the effects of it—being beaten and hurt—then cave in and support not love, but lust. Eros was made into a dilapidated, worn out god by the people who used him. He is “the archetypes that you create,” and thus shown to be an undesirable and unsightly god due to people’s demands for lust.
As a child, I was fascinated by Greek mythology and history, and I made it my business in elementary school to read as much as possible about the subject, including the outstanding stories and the pantheon of gods presented. I thought of them as fantastic, supernatural tales with fitful gods and brave heroes, and I never stopped to consider that the mythologies could be representative of the cultural views and habits of the Greeks, specifically regarding gender roles. One such representaton is Virgil's epic Aeneid, which contains depictions of women in positions of power, and also characterizes these women as irrational, emotional to the point of hysteria, and consequently, unfit rulers.
Sollod, R. N., Wilson, J. P., & Monte, C. F. (2009). Defending Against Envy: The Most Deadly of Sins. Beneath the Mask; an introduction to theories of personality (p. 233). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. (Original work published 2003).
While in Theogony it only describes the beauty, Athena gave her. I think Hesiod does this because in Theogony, he later explains how evil women is to men. In the description of the woman he wanted to show how different women would look from man, in Theogony he is telling the background stories so he must tell his reader how this woman looks like and emphasis more on her beauty and how that would capture a man. While, in Works and Days his speaking to his brother and he probably knows how that woman looks like and so he emphasizing more on how she was created evil, how the gods and goddess design her to be evil. In this poem, Hesiod tells us her name Pandora while in the other poem he does not. I think this is like this because in Theogony women is the embodiment of evil. She is more of a symbol, Theogony is meant to tell us how things came about and what things are. While in Works and Days the woman was design as someone who will ruin mankind not exactly classifying all women as being the evil but instead being descent of the one who ruin mankind. She was the tool made to unleash all the evils in the world. I think Hesiod did this because his explaining to his brother Prometheus reckless actions leads to the
Within Genesis, Works & Days, and Theogony the divine-human relationship is depicted where humans are initially blessed by the gods and live an effortless life until humans challenged them, thus leading to the existence of evil. Unlike Genesis, however, the origin of evil in Theogony is ambiguous because there is no clear indication of who is considered to be “in the right” between Prometheus and Zeus. While it can be argued that Prometheus should be held responsible for bringing evil due to his holier-than-thou attitude towards Zeus, it is important to consider that Zeus holds responsibility for condemning evil to Prometheus and humankind. In addition, Hesiod raises
Euripides’ plays Hippolytus, The Bacchae and Iphigenia at Aulis all revolve around the journey of key characters that fail to show respect to various deities within the Greek Pantheon. This disrespect, in all three plays, is met out with retaliation from the gods themselves, thus effecting those that disrespected them as well as their families. To convey these tales Euripides implements many themes, one such theme being divine retaliation. Euripides’ use of the theme of divine retaliation provides a stark illustration of the Greek Pantheon striving to prove their superiority relentlessly and gives insight into their merciless use of mortals as pawns to achieve this.
Many Greek gods were seen as both benefactors and tormentors, typically it depends on which god or goddess you are researching about. The seemingly contradictory behavior of the gods, acting as both benefactors and tormentors of man, can readily be explained when viewed in light of the prime directive for man, to worship the gods and not “overstep,” and the ensuing “Deus ex Mahina” which served to coerce man to fulfill his destiny as evidenced by the myths: “Pandora,” “Arachne, and “Odysseus.” Humankind and it’s range of vision over the gods beauty and power portrayed them to be benefactors but unseemingly it depicted their affliction towards humans.
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 rivalry between Achilles and Hector demonstrates foremost, examples of these concepts. However, it is necessary to take into account the driving forces behind the heroes before judging their actions. The warrior ethic, and the influences that society and religion had on it, direct these two heroes to their confrontation. Faced with the inevitability of their deaths, both come to the conclusion that they must define themselves through battle, choosing eternal kleos over a long, yet insignificant life. ¨There you are mistaken: a man who is good for anything ought not to calculate the chance of living or dying; he ought only to consider whether in doing anything he...
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...
These three goddesses represent three different types of women in Greek society. Sarah Pomeroy, author of Goddesses, Whores, Wives, and Slaves, believed that “the goddesses are archetypal images of human females, as envisioned by males” (8). Pomeroy understands the significance of the differences between Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite, and what those differences meant for the women of Greece who were required to follow three important rules. The first rule was for the women to live a life of domesticity and motherhood. This was very important to the men in the society.
The gods in power, like Zeus, exhibit bias, dishonor, betrayal, deception, and many other humanly characteristics. One memorable scene is when Zeus and Poseidon are in conflict with each other over the Achaens versus the Trojans. Zeus controls the battle by “lifting the famous runner Achilles’ glory higher,” (Homer 13: 404). Zeus plays both sides in this scene, acting like a double agent which is dishonorable. Zeus’s bias is prevalent throughout the poem; specifically, he is “bent on wiping out the Argives, down to the last man,” (Homer 12: 81-82). Just like mortals such as Agamemnon and Achilles view each other with suspicion and intolerance, the gods experience identical emotions of wariness, anger, and irritation. This human-like behavior is not restricted to Zeus. Later in the text, Hera lies to Aphrodite to use her powers to manipulate her own husband Zeus. If one looks at Hera as a heavenly entity, her reaction may not make sense, but when it is viewed as a manifestation of human emotion, it become almost reasonable. Her scheming response to Zeus’s meddling with the war is spurred by her support for the Trojans. Hera’s manipulation and Aphrodite’s ego don’t stand alone as examples of this divine humanity. These instances suggest that the deities are being presented in this unique way to help explain behavior of the humans in The
From the begging of time, where humans where non-existent, the nature of gods was very chaotic due to there always being a power struggle between the gods. Through myths, many people were able to take into accounts of how the gods interacted with humans for better or for worse. It was known to many Greek citizens that gods were these almighty powerful beings who were praised and had to be treated with respect and dignity. Many people also feared the gods because there were known to disguise themselves as humans, and lay curses to those who did not obey the beliefs that the gods expected. Due to the power struggles between the gods many humans were caught in the crossfire because each god cared about power and rule. Aeschylus’ tragedy “Prometheus
The Greeks are people that will fight and give up everything at war. They value true honor and they lived by the Heroic Code which states “To fight for honor and glory and to be remembered and to prove you deserve everything society has given you.” Other ways to live by is by individualism which is breaking away from societal norms to succeed, or The Mediocre, which are people that don’t do anything for society. We can see people that have these characteristics in the Tampa Bay area and we can relate to these ways of living. We see people that want and fight for honor, others that don’t follow rules and succeed and people that just simply only care about themselves.