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Ancient greece and gender
Gender roles classic greece
Ancient greece and gender
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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 …show more content…
Homer describes Helen as the worlds most beautiful women at the time. She is the daughter of the Olympian god, Zeus and her mother is known to be Leda. When she was young Greek mythology states that Helen was rescued by her brothers when she was taken by Theseus. Helen`s sister, Clytemnestra was married to Agamemnon. Helen was the most desired woman by all men from all over Greek, she had many suitors come for her hand but Menelaus, the younger brother of her sister’s husband, Agamemnon was the lucky one. Helen choose Menelaus as her suitor and married him and became his Queen. As he was king of Sparta.
Homer portrays Helen as an unfortunate woman who was deprived of her own happiness due to the negligence from both influential men from her life. Homer presented how her feelings were ignored as she was an object to both men due to her beauty. Her husband wanted her to return to him, where as Paris wanted her for himself despite the consequences. Due to her having ties with her Sparta origins and being a new member of the Troy origin, we constantly see the battle she endures where she is treated like a prized reward from both sides. As both men from both sides fight for
Homer’s Iliad has been a European myth for many millennia , the long poetic narrative written in the 8th century B.C. recounts a fearsome war fought over a beautiful woman. The reliability of Homers Iliad as a true historical document has been challenged for hundreds of years and only through archaeological studies can the truth be deciphered. The Iliad was written five centuries after the war, where the stories had been passed down through the oral tradition, therefore the type of society reflected within the poems resemble much more the time of Homer . The fact and fiction of the Iliad has been uncovered through archaeology. Archaeologist found a site in which they thought to have been ‘Troy’ destroyed by the powerful country of Mycenae in the late Bronze Age. They found large amount of material culture from where they could reconstruct the society, this included pottery, engravings, murals and clay tablets. A reason for the Trojan War has always inspired great controversy. The Trojan War according to Homer was fought over the abduction of a beautiful women but this theory appears improbable. Other causes which could have sparked a war is Troy’s geographical positioning. This made it extremely opulent, where other countries of the Aegean would trade there goods and use its harbour. The Mycenaean’s being an extremely imperial, violent and militaristic country would have seen Troy as a great opportunity to gain territory and wealth, on this motive the war took place.
The Trojan War is one of the most known battle or war in history, if not the most known. It was a very, very long war, but there was one main source or reason of conflict that drove it to last so long, it seemed endless. Paris, a Trojan prince, was promised a wife as fair as the goddess of beauty by Aphrodite herself. The particular woman she promised was already married to a Greek King by the name of Menelaus. This started not only tension between the Greeks and Trojans but also anger because they were recently married.Helen should have returned to the Greeks for a few reasons that could have led to a shorter war, or even no war.First off, Greek King Menelaus is her rightfully wedded husband. The war would have been totally prevented if a couple of decisions were better made. Finally, she never really was in love with Paris. It was all manipulated by Aphrodite.
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 an evil to mortal men, with a nature to do evil (Theogony 600)." 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--...
Oh no, Helen’s been stolen! Prince Paris has kidnapped Helen, the wife of Menelaus, king of Sparta. Paris was assisted by Aphrodite, who promised him Helen, the most beautiful woman in the world, as a reward for siding with her during a competition against the goddesses Hera and Athena.
Women play an influential role in The Odyssey. Women appear throughout the story, as goddesses, wives, princesses, or servants. The women in “The Odyssey” dictate the direction of the epic. Homer the blind creator may have contrived the story with the aim to depict a story of a male heroism; but the story if looked at from a different angles shows the power women have over men. The Sirens and women that posses the power of seduction when ever they are encountered take the men off their course, and lead many to their death. The power women in the Epic pose can be seen from the goddess all to the wives. From The nymph Calypso who enslaves Odysseus for many years posses all the way back to Penelope who many argue is of equal importance to
This paper will conduct textual analysis of each classic piece. The argument is that the concept of war functions as the prime mover of Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War, Homer’s Iliad and Aristophanes’ Lysistrata. This study defines the concept of “prime mover” as the major plot of each literary work. With this, it will study the account of Thucydides as a participant and recorder of the Peloponnesian War. I will then compare the Peloponnesian narrative with the epic events of the Trojan War in Homer’s Iliad. Lastly, i will show the parallels of the developments in the Peloponnesian War with the Lysistrata and its author’s arguments of the female intervention in warfare with concern to the Iliad’s claim of man’s monopoly in war.
Helen of Troy (Sparta) was considered to be the most beautiful women in the world. When it was time for her to marry, many kings and princes from around the world came to seek her hand in marriage. One prince from Trojan, Paris, came to Sparta to claim Helen, in disguised to abduct her. This started the Trojan War, a war that lasted ten years.
Looking at Poem 16, Sappho’s focus on the beginnings of the Trojan war and ultimately the epic of the Iliad is not about the rage of Achilles, the quarrelling between Agamemnon and Achilles, or Hector’s victory over Patroclus and Achilles’ subsequent retaliation, but rather it is about love. Sappho’s poem is about the love of Helen, and the power of love and how it is more important than that of any army, navy, parents or children.
Beyond empowering them to rise above their station, the inordinate pride of Achilles and Lancelot in particular lends itself to bolstering the widely held perception that heroism within the heteropatriarchal canon naturally entitles heroes to women. The entire impetus for the Trojan War hinges upon the assumption that the most virile man deserves Helen the most, entirely independent of her wishes. Within the specific scope of the Iliad, Helen is multiple times used as a bargaining chip, notably when Paris and Menelaus duel individually for the outcome of the war, agreeing that “if redhaired Menelaus [wins], the Trojans surrender Helen and all her treasures” (138). This pact has the dual effect of placing Helen’s fate strictly in the hands of men—specifically, whichever man proves himself manliest in direct battle—and valuing her as on par with material objects and treasures. Helen’s lack of agency is not an isolated instance of misogyny informed by heroism: Briseis shares her plight.
The Iliad by Homer and the Women of Troy by Euripides are both Greek works of literature that look at the Trojan War from different perspectives. Book 6 of the Iliad illustrates that the ultimate glory is to fight for the city with no regard to the impact on the family. The Women of Troy focuses on the negatives that war causes, especially towards the soldier’s wives and children. Whereas the Iliad focuses on the battle itself and centers on the warriors, the Women of Troy focuses on the wrath the war brings upon the families left behind. The central theme in both the works is the Trojan War and they both offer perspectives of the duty of a person, the role of predetermined fate, and the role of women.
The Homeric Epic, The Iliad, is a narrative about a war between the Greeks and the Trojans, which lasted ten years. The war started after a dispute between the goddesses Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite. Each goddess turned to Paris, prince of Troy, to solve the dispute. In particular, Aphrodite promised Paris the most beautiful woman in the world, prompting him to choose her. The woman Paris was given was Helen, wife of Menelaus of Sparta. Having discovered that Paris took his wife away, he declared war with his allies on Troy in retaliation. Throughout The Iliad, the various aspects of the life of women are identifiable. Most women do not have a lot of power in their lives, reflecting on the ancient Greek traditions during the time when Homer
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.
... cause of the Trojan War. In reality, Helen is forced into a relationship without her true consent. Although the treatment of Lavinia in the Aeneid is strinkingly similar to that of Helen in the Illiad, this is conducted purposefully by Virgil. This means that Lavinia’s role in the Aeneid is more of a reflection of ancient Greek society than it is of ancient Roman society. In addition, when compared to Homer, Virgil also manages to include a little more variety in his portrayal of women. The Aeneid features Dido, who is a leader of men, while the Illiad’s only notable female character, excluding the goddesses, is Helen, who is a completely powerless individual. By comparing the treatment of women in Roman works to the treatment of women in Greek works, one can potentially conclude that Greek women were treated with even less respect than their Roman counterparts.
In Homer’s Iliad, predominant feminine presence inspires the events of the poem and the destinies of the men involved. This feminine presence is not a product of the actions and decisions of the women in the poem, but rather a conceptual, creative feminine force without which the poem and even human life would not exist. Homer personifies this presence in nature and maintains it through the voice of the Muse, his inspiration. There is a deeper essence of a feminine presence in the poem, however, which lies in the characteristics of life itself. It is the woman who gives birth to the heroes and therefore she is the first to bring her child to life and to put him on the road to death. This biological phenomenon might seem superficially irrelevant to the fears and concerns of the masculine heroes who are most concerned with death, destiny and honor, the principle themes of the Iliad. These are of great importance to these heroes because these aspects of life will determine whether or not the world will remember them. Furthermore, as fame is their only path to immortality, the desire for fame after death motivates them to live honorably. It is the feminine role in nature that introduces the men to the life of the hero which instills this longing to be remembered after death, and it is, therefore, the feminine role in nature that gives purpose to human life. Homer acknowledges this effect and uses poetic devices to maintain a powerful presence of femininity throughout the poem.
The poem “Iliad,” by Homer, is known for its violence between men during a war, but under that violence, is the different type of women who play a significant role in the poem (Homer 189). This poem’s narrative seems to show a male dominated world between the Greek commanders. This male dominated world cannot happen on its own, thus the different background roles of women are needed in order to make sense of all this rage. As the University of Michigan article How Do Women Make Their Way Into This Cycle states, “They are seen as the objects of both lust and domesticity, yet they are also used to excuse war, cause conflict, and display the power of men” (www.umich.edu). The focus in this poem steers towards the rage between the men, but this rage most of the time is inspired and initiated by a woman. The women of Iliad play a significant role in the poem such as war prizes, male hero partners, and women gods.