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Women in ancient literature
Women's role in greek literature
Women's role in greek literature
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A literary hero is someone who faces danger through bravery or strength and often sacrifices themselves for a greater good. We have discussed many time periods during this semester, but there have also been many literary heroes, throughout those time periods. Achilleus, Lysistrata, and Ramayana are the main ones that stood out to me. They all had a different belief for why they were fighting, but they all stood up for their personal value. In these three different stories, Achilleus kills a monster, Hektor, for killing his best friend, Lysistrata gets the women to stop having sex with their husbands to stop the war, and Ramayana kills an evil villain, Ravana, to get his wife, Sita, back. Achilleus did not fail with his task. His anger got …show more content…
In Achilleus, they believed that they God’s were in control of everything. “Ah, me this is a man beloved, whom now my eyes watch being chased around the wall; my heart is mourning for Hektor… but now the brilliant Achilleus drives him in speed of his feet around the city of Priam. Come then, you immortals, take thought and take counsel, whether to rescue this man or whether to make him go down at the hands of Achilleus,” (Homer 231) represents how the God’s choose who they wanted to keep. In Lysistrata, the men control everything. All the women do is take care of the house while the men go out and fight and bring home the money. “It is this complacency that lends to trouble, so here I am, a supplier for the army, in need of public funds, and now I find the women have shut me out of treasuries! I am wasting my time. You slaves, bring on your crowbars! I will put a stop to this female foolery,” (Lysistrata 776) therefore, when Lysistrata started this “protest”, the men were not happy. Lastly, in the Ramayana, they follow a Dharma. The Dharma is the “guiding principle of a proper human conduct, for a man” in Hindu culture. “Forgo the consecration and withdraw into Dandaka wilderness, live there seven years and seven wearing matted hair and bark cloth garments,” Kaikeyi said. “So be it, I shall go to live in the forest, wearing matted hair and bark cloth garments, to safeguard the promise of the king,” Ramayana said, (The Ramayana
What is a hero? The book Mythology by Edith Hamilton has a lot of heroes and most of them have 2 things in common. The heroes are in their own ways superior whether it be strength, intelligence, and/or courage. The second thing they have in common is a quest that establishes their greatness and proving that they are good enough to be called heroes. The catch is that even though they may have the characteristics of a hero, not all of them are epic heroes.
Everyone has their own perception on what defines a hero; some may argue that they exhibit characteristics such as honesty or courage, while others may think that heroes have special power. Our society may have changed the values in which we associate heroes with, but one thing seems to have never changed: the main character of the book turns out as the hero. In my analyst, Holden Caulfield, the protagonist in The Catcher in the Rye, is put on trial as we see through our own eyes how Caulfield can not be considered a hero in modern society. In modern society, we would consider a hero as a role model, and someone who we would want to emulate.
nature, and women's legal rights. & nbsp; Albeit in Lysistrata the women were shown as revolutionaries rising up against the men, women in classical Greece were never like that. Aristophanes created the play as a comedy, showing how the world might be in the times of the Peloponnesian war if women tried to do something. It was the women's job to stay home and tend to the house, and never leave, unlike they did in the play. women were shown as revolutionaries rising up against the men, women in classical Greece was never like that. & nbsp; The activities of women in Classical Athens were confined to "bearing children, spinning and weaving, and managing the domestic arrangements. No wandering in the beautiful streets of them. " The suppression of women went so far as to divide the house into separate areas for males and females. While the women stayed home, the men were usually out fighting, and when they weren't. fighting, they were entertaining their friends and having sexual favors.
Hero is often a person who is admired or idealized for their outstanding courage and often bravery. In the story “Theseus” by Edith Hamilton, Theseus a young Athenian boy shows his heroic side by overcoming difficult tasks on his journey to save his people from the evil Minotaur. Theseus shows his bravery by entering the Labyrinth with only his hands and a ball of thread determined to kill the Minotaur and save his people. Theseus’ actions and heroic deeds shows that he's an epic hero with the fact that he tends to put others first before himself no matter the difficulty of the task.
What is a hero? Merriam Webster defines a hero as being a man admired for his achievements and noble qualities. What are those noble qualities? They are bravery, selflessness, and strength. Two heroes, Beowulf and Sir Gawain, exemplify these traits while the "hero" Arcita fails to do so.
...ation of the women. The victorious Greek army in the Women of Troy does not seem to have any moral compunction in using the women as slaves or their concubines. In this process, they not only insult the citizens of the city of Troy but dehumanize the womanhood itself.
Lysistrata, on the contrary shows women acting bravely and even aggressively against men who seem resolved on ruining the city- state by prolonging a pointless and excessively expending reserves stored in the Acropolis. The men being away at war would come home when they could, sexually relieve them selves and then leave again to precede a meaningless war. The women challenge the masculine role model to preserve traditional way of life in the community. When the women become challenged themselves they take on the masculine characteristics and defeat the men physically, mentally but primarily strategically. Proving that neither side benefits from it, just that one side loses more than the other. It gives the impression that the women are heroes and the men are ignorant, which contradicts what Euripides said but is chiefly written to entertain.
A man who spent 20 years trying to get home. A father who took his own life for his family. A woman who risked her life to free strangers. True heroes give anything they can for the sake of other, something as small as a helping hand, or something as big as losing their own life. Heroes aren't bullies, they won't push you down just for their entertainment, they will pull you up back onto your feet. There are many types of heroes we all consider, Odysseus and Harriet Tubman are obvious while Rumpelstiltskin isn't as clear to see. Most of the time, heroes are not the stereotypical ones found in stories; real traits that define a hero are love towards one another, selflessness for others, and a strong devotion for what they believe in.
A hero can be defined by, Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary, as a character that exhibits courage and sacrifice for the greater good. Antigone can distinctly be identified as the hero in the story because
According to google.com a hero is someone who “is admired or idealized for courage, outstanding achievments, or noble equalities.” (google.com). For example, superman , superman is an all time american classic modern hero who is admired for his courage and for saving earth multiple times from super villains. Another example of a hero is Beowulf. Beowulf was created around 1000 AD and was known far and wide throughout the lands for his selflessness,bravery, and courage .
There were many heroes in the literature that has been read. Many have been courageous and showed their character through tough times. Through these tough times they were forced to make important decisions and this is where you get the real idea of who is deserved to be called a hero. The most influential though of all these was Huckleberry Finn. Through the innocence of childhood he is able to break through the societal pressures that are brought on him and do right.
... convey deeper themes of life and death, the struggles between power and class structure and also the societal differences between men and women. Aristophanes uses humor to hook his audience into his play, and then undermines the surface humor with much bigger thematic issues. If this play had simply been about women withholding sex for other reasons such as wanting more money for shopping or other frivolous ideas it would not then be considered a satiric comedy. Satire requires more than physical humor. An issue must be raised such as the life and death theme that is seen in the war in Lysistrata, and a solution must then be made. Aristophanes created the women in the beginning to be bickering, unintelligent, and self-centered people. But in the end it was their idea and compromise that ended the war.
In Greek classics, it is common knowledge that in that era women and men were considered unequal. Men were superior, and in most cases women were not even fit for citizenship. It is in this atmosphere and time period that Aristophanes wrote Lysistrata. The play itself is supposed to be a comedy, although the actions of the women do not seem amusing. Instead, the women’s actions, especially the main character Lysistrata, seem incredibly brave. Lysistrata rounds up her “troop” of all the women in Athens and a Spartan woman. They take charge of the acropolis and refuse to settle for anything less than a peace treaty to end the war. The only problem with this is, in ending the war, they will be bringing back the men from their duty and end up in the same social caste system as they were from the beginning. Aristophanes seems to make the point that – the only power women hold is their sexuality (Rex Par. 7). The Athenian women can withdraw from their husbands for however long they like, they still end up givi...
In literature, there are two types of heroes, epic and tragic. An epic hero reflects their society’s values, immortalized in the eyes of their people, and shows courage in the face of adverse situations. Achilles is an epic hero because he embodied the honor that was so highly regarded in Greek society, chose to die early in battle and be remembered gloriously rather than living a long anonymous life in his homeland of Pthia, and avenged Patroclus’s death.
First, Lysistrata is clearly identifiable as a leader for Athenian women. In the beginning of the play, Lysistrata secretly organizes a meeting between all the women of Greece to discuss a strategy to end the Peloponnesian War "if the women will meet here - the Spartans, the Boeotians, and we Athenians - then all together we will save Greece" (Page 468, 40-42). During the meeting, which Lysistrata leads, Lysistrata suggests to the women of Greece to withhold sex from their husbands. The women are hesitant and some refuse "I won't do it! Let the war go on" states Myrrhine, an Athenian woman (Page 470, 132). However, with Lysistrata' encouragement, the women swear an oath to withhold sex from their husbands until a treaty of peace is signed. Also, throughout the play, Lysistrata continuously directs, instructs and coaches the women of Athens on how to behave. Furthermore, the men call upon Lysistrata to make the treaty between Sparta and Athens "Only Lysistrata can arrange things for us; shall we summon her?" (Page 494, 1...