Ancient Roman Myths
Nick Korompilas
Dr. Delgadillo
HUM200
Part 1: Document Analysis
A tale of rape and suicide, this founding myth tells about Roman’s honor based society. The main characters, Lucretia and Sexus, each play iconic roles of both innocence and guilt, providing two completely contrasting perspectives of the story. Lucretia was a highly honorable woman who believed strongly in protecting her sexuality. Regrettably she made this very apparent, and as such a beautiful untouched woman, she became irresistible to Sexus. As the story goes, Sexus raped her a week or so after meeting her in her own home. This event caused her to feel tremendous guilt and eventually suicide because she believed her body was soiled. Brutus (unsure of his role in the story) had then shunned all Roman kings due to Sexus’s actions, which in turn gave the other Roman kings a bad reputation. According to my interpretation, this story is meant to tell the lesson of being and remaining as an honorable citizen, no matter the circumstance because one unethical action can cause serious damage elsewhere.
Part 2: German vs. Roman Society The Germans acted as a very honorable and collectivistic society, whereas the Romans founded their society more in terms of individualism and regulation. The marriage policy of the Germans is looked upon in extremely high regard, that of which a Roman reader would probably be quite intrigued. The Germans cared deeply for their loves ones and typically stuck with their partners until the end of life. It was very typical of a German to only have one partner per lifetime, whereas the Roman’s had tendencies of prostitution and adultery. Of the many German policies, their ideas about marriage were of the most respectable and looked up upon policies. The Germans functioned strongly based from equality and the Romans functioned mostly based from status. It could be said that the Germans are very ‘real’ people—in that they do not necessarily function based on ranking or
Dr. Delgadillo
HUM200
Part 1: Document Analysis
A tale of rape and suicide, this founding myth tells about Roman’s honor based society. The main characters, Lucretia and Sexus, each play iconic roles of both innocence and guilt, providing two completely contrasting perspectives of the story. Lucretia was a highly honorable woman who believed strongly in protecting her sexuality. Regrettably she made this very apparent, and as such a beautiful untouched woman, she became irresistible to Sexus. As the story goes, Sexus raped her a week or so after meeting her in her own home. This event caused her to feel tremendous guilt and eventually suicide because she believed her body was soiled. Brutus (unsure of his role in the story) had then shunned all Roman kings due to Sexus’s actions, which in turn gave the other Roman kings a bad reputation. According to my interpretation, this story is meant to tell the lesson of being and remaining as an honorable citizen, no matter the circumstance because one unethical action can cause serious damage elsewhere.
Part 2: German vs. Roman Society The Germans acted as a very honorable and collectivistic society, whereas the Romans founded their society more in terms of individualism and regulation. The marriage policy of the Germans is looked upon in extremely high regard, that of which a Roman reader would probably be quite intrigued. The Germans cared deeply for their loves ones and typically stuck with their partners until the end of life. It was very typical of a German to only have one partner per lifetime, whereas the Roman’s had tendencies of prostitution and adultery. Of the many German policies, their ideas about marriage were of the most respectable and looked up upon policies. The Germans functioned strongly based from equality and the Romans functioned mostly based from status. It could be said that the Germans are very ‘real’ people—in that they do not necessarily function based on ranking or