Theme Of Patriarchy In The Odyssey

Belonging to the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, this red-figure Nolan neck–amphora with triple handles, dating from 470–460 B.C, features the scene of Eos, the goddess of dawn, in pursuit of the young Trojan prince Tithonos, as he goes to school in the early morning and take him to Mount Olympos to be her lover.

“The story of the chase and ultimate abduction of the boy is preserved in the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite (218–23).” According to the hymn, Eos, the goddess of the Dawn, is falling in love with Tithonus, a mortal man. The problem came when Eos realized while she will live forever, Tithonus is destined to age and die. Therefore, she begged Zeus to grant her lover immortal life. But she fails to ask in addition that Tithonus

remain eternally youthful. Tithonus, indeed, is granted immortality but not eternal youth. The story continues that as Tithonus ages, his body becomes increasingly brittle, his mind debilitated, and his speech becomes mere babbling, which eventually driving Eos to distraction and loss of sexual attraction. In despair, she transforms him into a grasshopper so that she wouldn’t have to deal with his constant chirping or his fragile body. This myth also explains why grasshoppers chirp ceaselessly, like demented old men. We can see an underlying theme of this myth is the ironic nature of time (what happens when time stands still and when time moves forward). In facts, Eos, "the young dawn" (as she is known in the Odyssey and Iliad), represents youthful, while Tithonos becomes symbolic of the unavoidable final stages as every life progresses.
Characterized by an elongated ovoid body on a thick disk foot, this vase has a distinctive shape comprising of an offset widening neck and triple handles rising from the shoulder and curving below the height of the mouth to join the neck. This type of vessel is called a Nolan amphora, after Nola, Italy, the site where the first examples of this shape were discovered and where this vase was also found. The amphora was a multipurpose container of the ancient world, which were used as storage and transport vessels for wine, olives, or oil. Figures are drawn between the handles on the front and back.