In this essay I will be discussing the article entitled “Making Roman-Ness and the Aeneid” by Katherine Toll. Toll argues; in her article, that the fundamental background of the Aeneid was the amalgamation of the colossal number of Italians that were enfranchised into Roman citizenship. Toll attempts to prove her argument by emphasizing that Vigil’s motive to write the Aeneid, was to offer a story of unity when it came to the culture and camaraderie of the native Romans and the new Italian citizens, who had until then seen each other as separate communities.…
Euripides constructs Medea to be a powerful voice in a world of silent women. All women of the time were treated the same way, and they weren’t valued. Medea was a King’s daughter, sorceress and Apollo’s granddaughter, so just those factors made her different. Medea was not herself when she was with Jason, she changed when she became Jason’s wife living as a foreigner in a ‘civilised’ land far from her native home. As “an exile,” Medea has been self-contained and submissive, she has “won a warm welcome from her new fellow citizens” and has been “complete support” to her husband. Despite this, Jason shows “criminal behavior” and leaves Medea for a “princess’ bed” in order to further his own social position. As Medea reminds Jason, he “owes his life” to her; she has helped him gain the Golden Fleece, even killing her own brother to ensure their escape and then tricking Pelias’ daughters into killing their father the King. Medea’s sense of betrayal is then amplified when Jason tries to convince Medea that he did it for…
In Plato’s Euthyphro, Socrates questions Euthyphro, a religious expert, who he runs into outside of a courthouse in Athens. Socrates was being indicted on the charges of corrupting the youth, and Euthyphro was prosecuting his own father for murder. Socrates was bewildered as to why Euthyphro would indict his own blood of a crime. In an attempt to explain to Socrates why it was the right thing to do, Euthyphro proclaims that he is acting piously by taking his father to court. Euthyphro adds that his relatives are mad at him because “it is impious for a son to prosecute his father for murder. But their ideas of the divine attitude to piety and impiety are wrong” (4e). Because of this, Socrates enquires about what Euthyphro believes piety truly is, to which he provides his four definitions that Socrates ultimately disagrees with.…
This paper presents The Aeneid Vergil, a book translated by Sarah Ruden. It will mainly focus on the books 4 and 6, in which the principal character Aeneas experiences important events: love and its arrival to the promise land. This analysis will consist in identifying how fate has impacted Aeneas’s life since the beginning of his journey. Also, it will discuss on whether fate goes along with one’s happiness or contradicts it.…
The “barbarian” princess and witch Medea met the Argonaut hero Jason while he was in Colchis on his quest for the Golden Fleece. She fell in love with Jason and used her magical knowledge to aid him in the seemingly impossible tasks set by her father King Aeetes as the price for obtaining the Golden Fleece. She fled Colchis with Jason back to his home at Iolcus in Thessaly, but they were soon forced to flee once more to Corinth, where they lived in relative peace for some ten years, during which time they bore two sons. Jason, however, looking to better his political position, deserted Medea in favour of an advantageous marriage with Creusa (known as Glauce in Greek), the daughter of King Creon of Corinth.…
Medea sits in her room all day sobbing loudly for the world to hear. She screams and cries as to capture everyone’s attention. As abnormal as it seems, the readers of Euripides’ Medea witnesses this scene at the beginning of the book. The Nurse and Chorus continually speak about the hardships Medea is going through, and tend to feel sorry for her. Euripides emphasizes the point that Medea is going through extreme pain internally with the thought and actions of her killing her own children. [Some may say that Medea is not sympathized with because she is full of so much grief, and her being a witch, is expected to do unexpected things.] However, readers can see that Euripides does sympathize with her because of the repetition of the Nurse and Chorus’s pity, as well as Medea’s own feelings. Throughout Euripides’s Medea, the Nurse and Chorus foreshadow Medea’s evil actions followed by their attempt at trying to stop and…
Medea and Antigone are two stories of passion drove women. Together the women of these stories break the law of man and go against the laws of gods both characters are controlled by their emotion. Medea and Antigone are both strong, sometimes- manipulative, Medea more than Antigone. The themes of both stories; in my mind, are women, passion, and spiritual beliefs. They also are drove by the actions of men in their lives. Both are very morally different and their actions are on completely different reasons.…
In the writing called Euthyphro by Plato, Socrates is being charged with corrupting the youth and not believing in all of the Gods. He is being accused of this by a man named Meletus who feels as though he is guilty of not believing in the Gods of the states. Not only does he not believe in the Gods but he is accused of making up new ones. The crimes that he is being charged with go hand in hand with each other but he maintains his innocence because he feels he isn’t guilty. While on the other hand Euthyphro is prosecuting his father and indicting him for murder. Morally Euthyphro feels as though it’s the right thing to do and his family doesn’t agree only because it’s his father. In this essay I will summarize the dialogue and its message relating to piety/holiness.…
In Euripides’ play The Bacchae, Cadmus is brutally punished for Pentheus’ denial of Dionysus’ divinity. Yet, in this ancient Greek tragedy, Cadmus himself never rejects Dionysus as a god. In fact, Cadmus goes out to worship Dionysus as a deity by dancing, despite his old age. So why is Cadmus punished to such an extreme extent by Dionysus?…
The author and narrator of “The Aeneid” is Publius Vergilius Maro (known simply as “Vergil”), though the tale briefly transitions into Aeneas’s narrative at one point. Responding to audiences who are unfamiliar with his tale and motivated by the need to share it, Vergil recounts Aeneas’s story, from his actions during the fall of the city of Troy to his visit to the Underworld and beyond. Scholars have long studied this piece and debated its significance, either as a simple historical tale of fiction or as a medium across which Vergil expressed his thoughts and musings. (Topic) The best way to interpret "The Aeneid" (Argument) is as a study into the character of Aeneas, who exhibits signs of the Roman virtues virtus and disciplina (or the lack…
When Leunig proclaims “It is the supreme way to hurt my husband,” she reveals to the audience her inability to concede defeat, ultimately leading to the destruction of Jason’s happiness and the City of Corinth’s order. On the surface, it may appear that Medea’s actions are driven by her homelessness and hereditary ties; she faces being left vulnerable with no “native land” to take her back. Yet, ultimately it is Medea’s pride which leads to her exacting revenge. Through her language and character development, Euripides paints the picture of a scorned woman, who must make others share in her own suffering to feel at peace. Medea will ignore the advice and pleas of the Chorus and Nurse, seeing her revenge out until the bitter end.…
Ancient Greeks had a poor and dark view on what happened to them once they died. They did not have a place where they their souls went to rest in peace. Instead, they went to where they were tortured for the rest of their immortal lives. This is shown in both epics, The Odyssey by Homer and The Aeneid by Virgil. In the Odyssey Odysseus into the underworld and you get his count on the awfulness of Hades, and too Aeneas goes to the underworld and you see the different parts and find out the meaning of each section. Both texts have similarities and differences on the interpretations of the after lives of greeks. Throughout time Greeks have changed their understandings of…
Euripides and Ovid present two entirely different sets of motivations for Medea's behavior which surface through her attitude towards Jason. In the Athenian tragedy, it becomes clear from the onset that Medea harbors an unnatural and overwhelming hatred for Jason and anyone he is connected to. Granted, anger is a natural response when one spouse leaves his or her mate for another partner, but it should not consume the abandoned person's life. As the Chorus notes, "It often happens...You must not waste away" (156-158). Medea's stern rejection of this advice is puzzling to the reader, but her reasons soon become clear in a soliloquy following a meeting with Aegeus in which she states "Let no one think me a weak one" (807). Medea is a proud character whose self-image reflects an important person, but as was the case with her anger, she takes this idea to an extreme. The rage that follows Jason's threat to her authority motivates her to think and act destructively. Ovid, on the other hand, saw Medea behaving for a different set of reasons.…
Eurypides uses sound to great effect in Medea. Perhaps most prevalent is the fact that all the women are played by men, most likely talking and singing in a high pitched falsetto, giving the play a high, screeching tone, which would certainly put the audience on edge. This would add to the tension, and provide an exaggerated contrast between the men, speaking in their natural voices, and the women in their falsetto. This also influences the musical nature of the play. As compared to other Greek tragedies where the chorus would have been intentionally all male, Medea would have a very different sound, a much more feminine sound, as would be fitting for one of the few Greek plays with a female protagonist.…
Power, In Medea and Lysistrata emphasizes the different forms of power as well as a different purpose of power through magical events, but both of the poems reveal an output of power. Lysistrata uses power to present her dominance by persuading the role of women. Power occurred in Medea happened naturally and revealed the characters divine qualities through a multitude of magical events. The roles of power are different in both of the poems, but they have similarities such as the character’s manipulation to men and their passion.…