The Ancient world is a complex one where social and cultural customs can seem otherworldly. Historians have argued on the emotional responses of ancient peoples to child rearing and loss. Mark Golden argues in his article, “Did The Ancients Care When Their Children Died?”, that there is little evidence supporting that Romans and other ancient parents failed to care for their children or to mourn their loss. A child’s death is used as an example of tragedy throughout ancient texts such as those written by Herodotus and Thucydides. Parents took great measure to insure their children’s survival. This is seen in the use of amulets, dog dung, skin and teeth of wolves and many others to ward off diseases and other misfortunes. In his article Golden references Lawrence Stone’s argument that “affection and love were not to be expected in pre-industrial populations because high mortality made emotional commitment, especially to children, too dangerous for individuals and …show more content…
insupportable for their societies.” To Stone this means that parents limited their contact with their children, such as putting their children in the hands of wet-nurses. This results to neglect. Golden does not seem to keen on this idea. He states that this is customary in ancient times to entrust children to wet-nurses, but that does not conclude parents did not care for their children. In fact, he continues on to say those children, especially those who are at risk are left in constant contact with their caregiver that attends to their every need. He quotes Campbell’s analysis that “Children from the day of their birth are the centre of attention and interest in the family. The needs of the infant take priority over all others.” Also wet-nursing is not a universal practice. Those who leave their children are more commonly young mothers who had to work and if their is any mistreatment or neglect it is at the hands of the wet-nurse. If they are not placed in the hands of wet-nurses they are sent to better homes where the children could have a better opportunity to place themselves in society. One can argues, as Golden does, that this is an example of serving the child’s interest above the parents. But why then are there practices such as exposure, also know as infanticide? Golden argues that exposure is common in the ancient world, but it is know to coexist with care and affection for children. He justifies this with a studies conducted in the 1970s and 80s that show mothers who aborted still loved and cared for her other children and some of those who didn’t have other children did want children later in the future. Furthermore Golden goes on to his second argument that not only did parents in the ancient world care for their child’s wellbeing they mourned their lose.
His first example is Xenocleia’s death for the grief of her eight-year-old son. Others have argued, like E. P. Thompson, that children are a necessity to mutual survival and that the more parents needed their children the more they mourn their loss. Golden has a problem with this theory. He doesn’t believe it to be that simple, referencing M. I. Finley’s, “Any Greek or Roman who reached the age of marriage could look forward to burying one or more children, often very small ones…in a world where such early deaths and burials were routine…intensity and duration of emotional responses were unlike modern times.” Children are seen to make little impact on society and therefore are rarely observed. In fact some are even buried within cities or even houses, therefore parents are not as devastated by their deaths. This is another problem for
Golden. Golden argues that one reason why parents may not have been so devastated by their deaths is due to cultural customs. This practice of burying a small child in the confines of a home or city is customary and accepted within the community therefore no need for extreme levels of anxiety. Another reason is that ancient cultures shared the responsibility of child-rearing amongst other adults and older children, to which they would share their lose and help one another come to terms with grief. Many times there are different funeral and burial customs for children. The ways that parents express their emotions can vary widely from culture to culture. Golden’s arguments seem valid. There is evidence that ancients did care for their children and mourned them when they passed. He takes the evidence presented from the opposing side and shows the flaws in the argument and its interpretation. For example the argument on child rearing by having wet-nurses care for infants. In that time the practice of wet-nursing is customary, even entrusting the care to slaves, which was highly protested by figures such as Plato and Plutarch. The Ancient World may seem altogether unlike ours at face value. But if one takes a deeper look, there are certain cultural and social behaviors that are present today, such as those concerning children. Parents care for their children and mourn their loss throughout centuries as can be seen through Mark Golden’s “Did The Ancients Care When Their Children Died?”.
As one of the most well known ancient Roman love poets, Ovid has demonstrated bountiful talents within his writing. When reading myths from his book titled Metamorphoses, you gain an enlightening insight of how he viewed mythology. To Ovid, love was the origin of everything. Therefore, it should not come as a surprise that most of his poems relate to the theme of love. However, not all poets are the same and every re-telling of a myth has its own unique perspective. In this paper I will compare and contrast the myth of Medea in Euripides Medea and Ovid’s Metamorphoses Book 7. I will then explain how Ovid’s approach to love and loss correlate to his general approach to myth as a whole. I will support my belief with evidence from Ovid’s Metamorphoses Book 14.
Death is the end to the natural cycle of life and is represented as dark, melancholic and even menacing. The underworld is depicted as a murky and sinister realm where the dead are trapped in a world of eternal darkness. Ancient drama, however, defies the conventional perceptions and representations of death. Despite the foreboding associated with it, characters in ancient drama embrace death in its frightening glory, rather than face the repercussions of their actions, especially when their honor and pride are at stake. Deceit is also an integral part of ancient drama and characters, particularly women, fall prey to it and unwittingly unleash chaos that more often that, negatively impacts the lives of the characters. This paper demonstrates how gender biases can be interpreted from the depiction of death and the characters’ justifications of it in two of Sophocles’ plays – Ajax and Women of Trachis and also demonstrates how female deception leads to the death of the principal character(s).
Imagine that the person you love most in the world dies. How would you cope with the loss? Death and grieving is an agonizing and inevitable part of life. No one is immune from death’s insidious and frigid grip. Individuals vary in their emotional reactions to loss. There is no right or wrong way to grieve (Huffman, 2012, p.183), it is a melancholy ordeal, but a necessary one (Johnson, 2007). In the following: the five stages of grief, the symptoms of grief, coping with grief, and unusual customs of mourning with particular emphasis on mourning at its most extravagant, during the Victorian era, will all be discussed in this essay (Smith, 2014).
In Ancient Rome, life was vital in every aspect. Continuing to the afterlife was even more imperative to the Romans. The families were very superstitious and believed that passing on to the underworld was sacred and ideal. Life was not always as great as it was made out to be in Ancient Rome; many conditions and problems created quandary in people’s lives. The final days of family members were highly regarded as were the burial customs, illnesses, and treatments and results.
During the times of Ancient Greece and Rome which was around 400 B.C- A.D 200, most children under the age of seven according to the textbook were cared for by their mothers and extended family members.
Family roles in ancient Egypt and ancient Rome were a very important part of life.
If you love your child, the death of your child is more painful than the death of any of your loved ones, including one’s own parents. And because of this devastation, I do not wish this pain even to my enemies.
It is inferred that the parents should take care of their children and have their best interest at heart. This however, is not the case in Greek and Roman mythology. The killing of ones own children, or filicide, was not viewed as negative upon in their era. The contemporary times contrast with the ancient Greek and Roman’s because it was justified to use any means necessary to obtain a higher status. The Greeks and Romans valued keeping a high social reputation and having respect for those of great power. The motherly union between their children conflict with the reality that the father strives to retain or gain control. These circumstances cause a tense bond between the members of the family. The strained parent to child relationship in Greco-Roman myths is prevalent in the fact that the parents are fearful of being overtaken by their children, and endeavor to limit their upbringing.
This idea talks about the different cultures three in particular; Greeks, Callatians, and the Eskimos. These three cultures are completely different from each other, the Greeks are very family oriented and believe that loved ones after
In Antigone, death is a central theme that is consistently present throughout the entire play. In this particular passage, the chorus proclaims that man’s access to resources will allow him to continue to exist; however, as long as man exists, so will death – a fate that no amount of resources can help anyone escape. In this essay, I will explore the correlation and significance of this passage, and more specifically, the correlation and relation to death, with particular characters of the play. These particular characters each have a different relation and perspective of death, however, as the story progresses, I will discuss why their relation, perspective and the way that which they acknowledge death itself evolves and changes so drastically.
When we hear the word “orphan” we imagine a child whose parents have both died tragic deaths. Indeed, there were plenty of these pitiable creatures in Victorian society – the living and working conditions of the poor were so unsanitary and crowded that diseases such as typhus and tuberculosis often spread unchecked, sending many of their victims to the grave (Czarnik, “Living Conditions”). However, children were often considered “orphans” if they had one surviving parent, had been abandoned by their family, or were forced out into the world because of overcrowding at home (Cunningham, “Orphan Texts”). In 1861, it is estimated that 11% of children had lost a father by the age of 10, 11% a mother, and 1% had lost both parents (Czarnik).
Since the beginning of time, mankind began to expand on traditions of life out of which family and societal life surfaced. These traditions of life have been passed down over generations and centuries. Some of these kin and their interdependent ways of life have been upheld among particular people, and are known to contain key pieces of some civilizations.
The most common fate of orphaned children was to be "adopted" by another family. This allowed for the orphans to remain a part of a fami...
There are proponents of the debate that childhood is disappearing which will be discussed in this section which include Postman (1983), Elkind (1981) and Palmer (2006). In considering these points of view which are mostly American, one must firstly set in context what is meant by the disappearance or erosion of childhood. This key debate centres on Postman (1983) who wrote “The disappearance of childhood” which is a contentious book about how childhood as a social category which is separate from adulthood is eroding. He defines a point where childhood came into existence, which was treated as a special phase in the middle ages based on the work of Aries in his book “Centuries of childhood” (1962, cited in Postman 1983). According to Postman, a major influence on how childhood was perceived differently to adulthood was the invention of the printing press and literacy in the mid sixteenth century. That is to say children had to learn to read before the secrets of adulthood in particular sex and violence was available...
Imagine growing up without a father. Imagine a little girl who can’t run to him for protection when things go wrong, no one to comfort her when a boy breaks her heart, or to be there for every monumental occasion in her life. Experiencing the death of a parent will leave a hole in the child’s heart that can never be filled. I lost my father at the young of five, and every moment since then has impacted me deeply. A child has to grasp the few and precious recollections that they have experienced with the parent, and never forget them, because that’s all they will ever have. Families will never be as whole, nor will they forget the anguish that has been inflicted upon them. Therefore, the sudden death of a parent has lasting effects on those