While one keenly observes the gods as essentially violent, vengeful beings and notes that aquiring power seems only to be a matter of physical domination, a closer look at the blood line of fathers leading to the rise of Zeus reveals Hesiod's emphasis on both wit and strategy as most necessary for a god to remain in power. Beginning with Ouranos, Hesiod seems to place the god in a position of assumed power based simply on his reproductive success with Gaia as a "firm foundation for the blessed gods" (Theogeny, 128). However, his power is quite short lived precisely due to his short sighted idea of forcing his children back inside Gaia before attemping to sleep with her once again. Similarly, when Cronos was told of his unborn son overthrowing him he foolishly ate his then born children giving Rheia both time and reason to conceal, from him, her final child Zeus (471) which eventually lead to his violent downfall (725).…
In Antigone, both brothers, Polyneices and Eteocles are different in many ways. Firstly, Polyneices is courageous and powerful. Polyneices is powerful because before he died he wanted to be the king of Thebes, when he was thriving and working hard to be the king he died. That tells us that he is strong, courageous, and powerful, also determined. Secondly, Eteocles is the opposite of his brother Eteocles. Eteocles is cruel and evil, and selfish.Firstly, because he killed his brother just so he could be the king instead of his brother Polyneices. These are some things that make them opposite of each other and that they differ.…
In Antigone, Sophocles illustrates two characters, Antigone and Kreon, whose morals clash throughout the play, leading to their inevitable fate. Although Kreon qualifies himself to become a leader of a city which grieves from the attacks of Polyneices, Antigone’s actions elicit more admirable qualities, because they stretch beyond the unthinkable and challenge the idea of authority. While Kreon tries to become a good leader, Antigone also becomes a leader in a sense, much like her father Oedipus, however one that believes the rules of the gods overpower the rules of the land in every situation.…
Very few things in life are entirely one-sided, with the clear and unbiased result being obvious. Life in general is much more complex, with multiple viewpoints and intricacies being required in order to have a grasp on the reality of a situation. In Sophocles’s Antigone this fact still holds true. Antigone and Kreon are locked in an argument over the burial of her brother, Polyneices, with Antigone going against the law set up by Kreon and burying her brother. Both have their views and reasons for the way they act. Despite this, Antigone deserves more sympathy for her actions. She bases her actions on honor and dignity, while Kreon appears to play the role of an overbearing and cruel leader.…
Euripides’ play starts by introducing us to one the two main characters: Pentheus, king of Thebes, whose characteristics can be immediately noticed, like his rationality and his will to enforce law and order in his city; thinking that this will help his people prosper and his kingdom…
Due to the fact that there has been and forever will be a debate concerning the level of importance of man, human identity is rendered impossible to completely understand. The direct result of this debate is that there is no conclusion reached as to who the human beings truly are and what their universal importance may be.…
The final moments before Antigone’s condemnation must have been excruciating for all of Thebes: as she was sentenced to death for upholding her familial and religious values, her uncle, Kreon, sat by, proud of his decision. Later he would regret his misdeeds deeply, but although he lost his son and wife, Antigone lost her life. She is the central character. She drives the action, has more relevancy, and is a superior example of the ideal Grecian at the time. Without Antigone, the story would fall flat. For this reason, the story’s title as Antigone should not be changed. Despite some claims that Kreon better fits the profile of a tragic hero, Antigone is the right name for the play because Antigone is more relevant, a better role model, and drives the action more consistently than Kreon.…
Kreon, on the other hand, is a king whose words can determine life or death of his citizens. When he is first introduced to the play he is surrounded by the chorus, “white-haired noblemen of Thebes.” Kreon inherited the throne only after the chaos of Oedipus’s life and the attack led on the city by his own nephew. After seeing the disorder that unfolded in Thebes it is understandable that Kreon decides the best course of action is to rule with a firm hand…
Though both traditional and Sophoclean tragic heroes are similar, the Sophoclean heroes are distinguished by their rigid loyalty, which leads to a disastrous fate. Creon shows his rigidity in his ways when he refuses downright to back away from what he set as the law of his kingdom. In fact, he is so set in his ways that Creon refuses to even think of the repercussions of his decisions. His rigidity eventually results in both his wife Eurydice, and his son Haemon’s suicide, with his wife cursing him for having caused such tragedies to be brought upon his people. Though both the tragic and Sophoclean heroic personalities are similar, they also have their differences. For example, in the play of Antigone, it is simple to see how both the characters Antigone and Creon’s traits result in a direct conflict, often driving the plot. Creon’s hubris goes in direct conflict with Antigone’s courage, eventually leading both characters to a disastrous ending, but the play gives the reader the ability to distinguish between Antigone, a character who simply met a tragic end, and Creon, a man who was the truly tragic hero of…
In her conclusion Glynn puts forward the idea that the motif of a Herakles and Triton locked in battle is connected to the “Athenian amphibious success”, in regards to the battle for possession of Salamis. This in turn, she argues, is connected to “Peisistratean Athens”, and the tyrannical family that held the city at the time. Suggesting that Peisistratos skillfully manipulated this and other myths so that they were more suited to his own purposes. Creating, in a sense a different iconology that better reflected this time in…
Prometheus is a wise young man. He knows more than most people who live in his world. He might even know more than the scholars. But he is not allowed to step outside of the box and think. His thoughts are being kept confined and when he finally breaks out of the box he is practically forced to leave. Leaving was the best decision for him. Leaving his world allowed him to make his own choices and he could rebel from the rules he was forced to live by his entire life. Prometheus would have found loved “Self-Reliance” and “Civil Disobedience” if he found them while looking through the manuscripts. He would have been able to relate well to both essays.…
Stafford opens by explaining how since ancient Greece to modern times how the fight a between heroes and monsters was and still is popular in literature and media. She talks about the development of Herakles’ twelve labors and how the specific number twelve was not established until around 460 B.C. using the collection of twelve labors on the temple of Zeus at Olympia as the earliest depiction. She also talks about how Herakles was already know for overcoming series of challenges in literature before 460 B.C like in Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, in Hesiod’s Theogony where Herakles has five labors, and in Peisandros’ Heraklia. Stafford briefly mentions the challenges that Herakles faces in these works. These challenges mainly included fighting monsters, such as Kerberos, the Nemean lion, and the Leranian hydra, or other seemingly impossible tasks like fetching Kerberos from Hades.…
Heracles and Perseus are two famous Greek heroes who are both sons of Zeus. Heracles is famous for completing twelve labors, which appeared to be impossible. The twelve labors include killing the Nemean Lion, killing the Lernean Hydra, capturing the Cerynian Hind, capturing the Erymanthian Boar, cleaning the Augean Stables, killing the Stymphalian Birds, capturing the Cretan Bull, capturing the Horses of Diomedes, taking the Girdle of the Amazon Queen Hippolyta, capturing the Cattle of Geryon, taking the Golden Apples of the Hesperides and capturing Cerberus. On the other hand, Perseus is famous for slaying Medusa, the three monstrous Gorgon sisters. He is also famous for saving Andromeda from the sea monster, Cetus.…
A great deal of what we do know about Thucydides is learnt through his own work The History of the Peloponnesian Wars; although relatively young during the initial events he describes, when the major war began he was well into manhood and can therefore be trusted as giving a roughly accurate account. Thucydides therefore has credibility – an aspect of Xenophon’s works that is, like many others, widely debated. In Plato’s Defense of Socrates, we are told that “Xenophon tell[s] the truth,”5 and Beck speaks of “Xenophon 's credibility as a careful historian and biographer.”6 However, this is then undermined – Beck highlights the fact that Xenophon’s inconsistency is very possible; “his fictional treatment of Cyrus ' education makes us aware that he could express his own ideas through a historical personage.”7 In this way, then, he cannot be considered as a truly reliable source and the role of “continuator” overrides any notions that he could be considered as…
Authors created three basic strategies to interpret the reception of Sappho, which were duplication, narrativization and condensation. These three strategies were used to create the stories that we know now of Sappho. Duplication was what most ancient scholars used to try and translate all of the information they were given. What they did was duplicated Sappho into two individuals, each one was internally the same, but had completely different attributes. One was a poet, who had connections with female friends and family; the other was a prostitute, in which obviously had many male companions. The problem with this is that they could not decide…