The Tragedy of Cassandra of Troy Emily Fragos, using a woman named Chelsea as her narrator, illustrates to the reader the beauty of a woman named Cassandra. This woman is from an old Greek myth surrounding Apollo, who fell in love with Cassandra. Although he gave her the gift to predict future events as a way to show his affection for her, she refused his love. In turn, Apollo changed his gift to a curse and made it impossible for anyone to believe her prophecies of the future. When taken literally, the poem is telling the reader how to court Cassandra. What implies that the poem may be more than what it seems is the second half that suddenly shifts to a scene of animals being captured and slaughtered. The poem tells an intriguing story …show more content…
Fragos is implying that the reader must create Cassandra. In other words, the reader must visualize her as if she were completely perfect. These first couple of sentences imply that the narrator is infatuated by Cassandra. It is possible that this story is being told from the perspective of Apollo himself. What implies this is the second line, in which the writer states “For even gods crave perfection.” In the next sentence, the poem instructs the reader to love her like a man only to be refused like a man, referring to Apollo’s status as a demigod. In Greek culture, a demigod is a mortal who is the offspring of a mortal. The next line is asking the reader to surrender to her, beg her for kisses and pray she will acquiesce. The word acquiesce means to reluctantly accept something but without protest. So this moment in the poem is where Apollo would give Cassandra the gift of prophecy, a power she did not …show more content…
There is suddenly a scene of animals being slaughtered depicted for the reader. The poem specifically states, “In the courtyard, animals are captured/ by their hind legs, held up on haunches/ throats slashed.” This is referring to the ending of Cassandra’s story after Apollo changed his gift of prophecy into a curse. In the myth, Cassandra had a dream showing her visions of the Trojan horse that would be delivered to Troy’s gates near the end of a war. She tried to warn her father that their doom would be met if they brought in the horse, but as the curse stated, no one believed her. After bringing in the giant wooden horse, Trojan soldiers burst out and slaughtered Troy’s citizens. The line used in the poem uses animals as an analogy for the people of Troy who were treated as less than human and murdered in the middle of the city. The last line in the poem reads as, “She walks on burning/ stones. Swift, it is slaughtering season.” The female they are referring to is Cassandra as she is being killed at the end of the story. When the line implies that Cassandra is walking on burning stones, they mean that she was dragged back and forth by multiple soldiers before she was killed, along with her husband and children. The “slaughter” being referred to is possible alluding to this
In the poems, “EΡΩΣ” by Robert Bridges and “Eros” by Anne Stevenson both have similar yet distinct concepts of the God of love. “EΡΩΣ” describes the concept of love as being conflicted between humans view of Eros as the god of love and lust; where as Stevenson’s poem describes Eros as being bruised and beat up as a result of this constant misunderstanding by humanity. Thus, both poems are similar with their description of Eros’ constant struggles with human nature.
In the 1930s, who would have perpetrated violent acts against women in the name of sexual gratification yet still hold expectations that women take care of them? By making men in general the placeholder for “you” in the poem, it creates a much stronger and universal statement about the sexual inequality women face. She relates to women who have had “a god for [a] guest” yet it seems ironic because she is criticising the way these women have been treated (10). It could be argued, instead, that it is not that she sees men as gods, but that it is the way they see themselves. Zeus was a god who ruled Olympus and felt entitled to any woman he wanted, immortal or otherwise.
The Greek god of love, Eros, is seen in varying perspectives. To some, he is a powerful force that takes a leadership role in life. He is mighty and unwavering. To others, he is a servant of the people. One such concept of servitude is portrayed in the poem “Eros,” written by Anne Stevenson. Through the use of rhyme, alliteration, and other literary devices, Stevenson produces the reader with a clear image of a beaten god. Because of this, “Eros” can easily be approached with the formal critical strategy.
In Morris Bishop’s poem “Phaethon”, the speaker focuses on the topic of responsibility; using humorous language to relay the message to the reader. With literary allusion, the speaker draws parallels between the past and the present, the old and the new, mythology and reality. Throughout the poem the rhythm and rhyme are reflective of children’s nursery rhymes. This establishes the light and humorous tone best suited to a younger audience, instituting the speaker’s position as a father to a young child. In the poem “Phaethon”, the speaker is trying to dissuade his young son from taking on the responsibilities of an adult before he is ready by telling him the myth of Phaethon and Apollo- creating a humorous lecture through tone, imagery, allusion,
Waddington grabs hold of this notion and retrieves the trope of the “old blind woman in the tower” by giving her new life with the restructuring of the poem (Waddington 4-5). While Tennyson’s epic poem utilizes the strict confines of iambic pentameter and heroic verse known by Homer’s original Odyssey, Penelope’s updated narrative bleeds out through a variant, but equally structured schematic. Waddington’s six stanzas contain a slow moving enjambment of choppier and more laborious lines, creating a certain rocking of language emergent from the first lines: “You’ve come / at last from / all your journeying” (Waddington 1-3). This motion of the poem effuses the tediousness of Penelope’s long wait, as well the feeling of the line by line repetition of the legendary loom through which her story (and her husband’s) is woven.
The poem is about the early stages in the narrator’s pregnancy. The doctor gives her news that the baby may be unhealthy. In a state of panic, we see the narrator turning to the methods of her homeland and native people to carry her through this tough time, and ensure her child’s safe delivery into the world. Da’ writes, “In the hospital, I ask for books./Posters from old rodeos. /A photo of a Mimbres pot /from southern New Mexico /black and white line figures—/a woman dusting corn pollen over a baby’s head/during a naming ceremony. /Medieval women/ingested apples/with the skins incised with hymns and verses/as a portent against death in childbirth” (Da’). We not only see her turning to these old rituals of her cultural, but wanting the items of her cultural to surround her and protect her. It proves her point of how sacred a land and cultural is, and how even though she has been exiled from it, she will continue to count it as a part of her
In romantic words, the poet expresses how much she does think of love. She state it clear that she will not trade love for peace in times of anguish.
Yet, despite the fact that no two women in this epic are alike, each—through her vices or virtues—helps to delineate the role of the ideal woman. Below, we will show the importance of Circe, Calypso, Nausicaa, Clytaemestra, and Penelope in terms of the movement of the narrative and in defining social roles for the Ancient Greeks. Before we delve into the traits of individual characters, it is important to understand certain assumptions about women that prevailed in the Homeric Age. By modern standards, the Ancient Greeks would be considered a rabidly misogynistic culture. Indeed, the notoriously sour Boetian playwright Hesiod-- who wrote about fifty years before Homer-- proclaimed "Zeus who thunders on high made women to be evil to mortal men, with a nature to do evil (Theogony 600).
The novel “Black Ships Before Troy,” by Rosemary Sutcliff is a retelling of the Iliad by Homer, a poem about an epic war. It all started with a god named Thetis, who did not invite Eris to her wedding. Because of this, she dropped a golden apple with the words “To the fairest.” Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite fought for the apple, until Paris chose Aphrodite, with the promise of a fair wife. Paris had heard about Helen, who was supposed to be the most beautiful maiden in the world.
Though the way it relates to people in the 19th century and the way it relates to the modern world greatly differs, the symbolism in the poem and shift in tone throughout it shows a great appeal to human nature, and how desperate one can be to change it. The symbolism in the poem paints a ghastly picture of a man’s life, falling apart as he does his best, and worst, to keep it safe from himself. In lines 1 through 8 (stanza one), he gives a brief description of an incident in his life where things have gone wrong. “When the tiger approaches can the fast-fleeting hind/Repose trust in his footsteps of air?/No! Abandoned, he sinks into a trance of despair,” He uses these lines to show the lack of control he has over his actions, how his will to change his circumstances has weakened.
Apollo. In return, she was supposed to love him, but at the last minute she
However, after all this time of trying to bring their loved one from the dream world to that of the living, the speaker wakes up and begins to move towards a different stage of the grief process. This waking up is also an allusion to the Greek Titan, Asteria, who was goddess of the nocturnal oracles and shooting stars. By using it to represent a star, this asterisk also symbolizes the time between sleeping and waking. At the unconscious level, the speakers longing for their beloved manifests in their dreams further reflecting the palindrome archetype throughout the poem as the two sides of "Myth" symbolize the readers dream-state and
of the difficulty in acceptance. In the first few stanzas the poet creates the impression that she
Homer, Iliad is the narration of the Trojan war. The Trojan war was one of the most important and significant wars of Greek mythology, Homer described how the war was triggered by the abduction of the most beautiful women known as Helen. This paper will argue how the traditional view of this poem is accurate because it indeed was Helens beauty and her selfishness that sparked the Trojan war. Although Helen was not happy about the outcomes of her mistakes. This paper will present how Helen faced many forms of self judgment, how she created many relationships with significant characters, such as Paris, Priam and Aphrodite. Homers portrayal of this significant women was remarkable as we were able to feel her pain and anguish, the readers were
The goddess of wisdom, Athena, and the goddess of sexual desire, Aphrodite, both play a significant role in this poem. These women have the ability to control mortals and even other gods. They are considered to be one of the powerful forces in this poem because of their control over the mortal relationships would systematically change the course of conflict and actions of the mortals. In the beginning of book I, Homer uses Athena to try and calm Achilles down from a quarrel with Agamemnon. During this situation the goddess is about to change a situation when she, Athena, states to