The Rape of Lucretia is a legend that was important to the Romans. It was a tragedy about a Roman matron woman who commits suicide. The story is important because it expresses the role of married women in the Roman civilization. It describes what behavior the Romans considered appropriate for a typical Roman wife. From reading this excerpt from the History of Rome, one learns that a women’s worth is based on their virtue, men considered their wives as possessions, and rape enraged the Roman population.…
This is a reference to Book 13 in Metamorphoses, ‘The Sufferings of Hecuba’, wife of King Priam of Troy. Hecuba is also mentioned in Homers Illiad, however, Ovid gives Hecuba a passion and depth that the Illiad version lacks. In Ovid, Hecuba is a grieving mother and widow, who witnessed the death of her family. This drives the poor woman insane, and who can blame her. She attacks the murderer and savagely tears the man to pieces using only her bare…
“The Odyssey” is a story about a King named Odysseus, who goes off to lead a war and is separated from his family and kingdom for 20 years. While he is away for so many years his son grows up into a man and helps his mother; Odysseus’ wife, Penelope rules the kingdom. After many years of Odysseus being gone, suitors or “wooers” arrive trying to win over the queen. When Odysseus gets back he brutally slaughters everyone who was involved with the suitor’s plans, including the innocent servant women, who were working in his castle at the time.…
In the Phallic stage of psychosexual development, a boy’s decisive experience is the Oedipus complex describing his son–father competition for sexual possession of mother. This psychological complex indirectly derives from the Greek mythologic character Oedipus, who unwittingly killed his father and sexually possessed his…
Jean’s work starts with an account of things that he did during the course of his life. He says that he is about to embark on a journey, and he chooses to confess all of the in the process. This shows that his work is a combination of his life experiences in this world and he later discusses very important matters that help the reader to know the importance of doing well and avoiding evil. This is because Jean seeks forgiveness now that he about to enter a new world where there will be judgment and he is afraid for he wonders if he will be forgiven for the things that he had done while he was in the world. In Metamorphoses, Ovid starts with focusing on how the earth was formed and the things which took place. He divides these seasons into…
This article analyzes the representation of women and gender role in the myth of Oedipus; it critiques the myth that portrays women as victimized heroes. In addition, it talks about heroine’s relation with family: in ancient Greece, they were under the tutelage of all male relatives in her family such as father, brother, husband, or even her grown son. By making Antigone a hero, she also ends up with tragedy. It represents the fears that men have on women at that period of time. I’m planning to use those arguments to support my analysis of “prejudice against female heroes”.…
Philomela, in the tale as told by Ovid in Metamorphoses, was an important figure in this essay as well as in the history of the female voice. She was a woman who was violently and repeatedly raped by her sister’s husband, Tereus. After she threatens to tell everybody what he has done to her, Tereus chooses to cut off her tongue so that she cannot tell anyone about what happened, and even goes as far as to hide her in the woods so that her body shows no sign of the vile act. Without the power of her voice, which is arguably representative of the oppression of speech, Philomela uses her skills as a spinner to tell her story. When the old woman takes the tapestry to Philomela’s sister, Procne, it is immediately understood what has happened. Procne takes action against Tereus. “As such, she comes down to us as the archetypal tale-teller, one who not only weaves the revelatory tapestry but also sings the song which Ovid appropriates as his…
When U2’s Bono sings “women of the future hold the big revelations” (Bono “Get On Your Boots”), he is referencing the rise of women’s roles in Africa in the twenty-first century. Yet, this phrase can also apply to women in other time periods such as in ancient Greece seen in the Sophocles’ play entitled Antigone. In Antigone, the protagonist, Antigone, is a daughter of the house of Lauis, which is a noble, ruling family that has been through much affliction from deaths in the family. When a law forbids Antigone to honor her traitorous (to the state) brother in a proper burial, Antigone disobeys it to honor the gods’ instructions. This act eventually leads to the deaths of Antigone and other main characters. For the twenty-first century reader, it is important to understand how gender roles and relationships vary from time period to time period in order to fully appreciate the equal status of women in today’s society. The authors of the feminist play, Antigone, portrays the society’s perspective of women as vindictive people, the limitations of women, and the growing strong-willed quality of some women that start to rise in the respective time period.…
In The Odyssey, Odysseus, the king of Ithaca, has been trying to find his way home for twenty years. Ever since the beginning of his trip, Odysseus is introduced as a strong and authoritative figure. However, his journey is filled with temptation, and Odysseus does give in at times. This may be seen when Odysseus chooses to sleep with Circe, despite his yearning to return home to his wife Penelope. This is the complete opposite of a virtuous deed, and it does not go unnoticed. Calypso, a nymph who falls in love with Odysseus, takes note of the disparity among the gods. She is fairly irritated by the fact that male gods may sleep with mortal lovers, while the affairs of the female gods are considered unacceptable, as Calypso describes by saying, “you hate it when we choose to lie with men” (Odyssey, 281). This emphasizes the double standard among the gods – even in the ancient times, outsiders could see how wrong it was to have a love affair; Calypso is helping to point out the prevalent awareness of equality of the time. Although Odysseus is looked upon as a heroic figure, his immoral actions are highlighted and criticized. In modern society, many public figures would instead have their abrasive actions swept under the…
Ovid seems like a man who has a well-built resume of being familiar with women as well as learned from other stories. The majority things he said in the book I am already familiar with and while I was reading I laughed at how time affects this topic very little.…
The Ovidian opinion of human nature is that humans will always do something wrong. When this wrong-doing offends one or more of the gods, the punishment typically results in negative changes in the person’s life, and often their ruin or death. In the myths Ovid presents in his Metamorphoses, the wrong-doing is brought about in one of three ways. The first of these ways is by an act of the gods, seen in the myths of Io and Tiresias. The second way is through bad luck, as we see in the myth of Actaeon. The third and final of the ways the wrong-doing comes about is through intentional wrong-doing, in which the humans choose an action that they know is offensive to the gods, as we see in the myths of Lycaon and Pentheus.…
Idina Menzel sings “Let It Go” for ‘Frozen’ character Elsa. Elsa is a feminist in her own right, singing “It’s time to see what I can do. To test the limits and break through”. (#admirable) Elsa is declaring that no one can hold her back anymore.…
In Theogony, Hesiod expresses misogynistic notions and shows the triviality of the creation of women. Hesiod portrays the insignificant role for women. He uses marriage as a light-hearted yet serious judgment and stereotypes against all women. Hesiod explains the most misogynistic attitudes in the story of Pandora. He works misogyny into female monsters and goddesses that use their tricks on men. Hesiod displays the dominance of the male sex in his poem, Theogony.…
Finally, near the end of the play, Emilia realizes “we must think men are not gods” (3.4.144). Although she knows her correct role in society in order to be accepted, she has come to see the lack of equality between men and women. She understands that in order to be presented to society, they must put on an act for their husbands. They do not need to think of them as gods, but must treat them as they are. She now believes that a woman being referred to as “whore” (4.3.74) is not tolerable. When something goes wrong, the men should not have the power to put the blame on the women. Emilia comes to this realization when she speaks her mind to Desdemona and says “But I do think it is their husbands’ faults / If wives do fall” (4.3.87-88). This is foreshadowing the fate of both woman’s lives in the play. They both die by “faults” of their husbands. “The ultimate irony in the play’s representation of male-female relations is the fact that two women accused by their husbands of “falling” morally, actually fall not morally but physically, before [their] eyes” (Vanita 352). In a…
In the play Medea, Euripides depicted the role of a feminist. Her cunning and cleverness which should be admired however cause her tragedy at that time, the Ancient Greek time, where women are subordinate to men. The dominant men cannot bear that women go over them, thus cause the suffering and pain of Medea in her age. And in this view, I do not assume Medea a feminist but a normal woman who pursue harmony in family and loyalty in love, yet that finally depressed her and drove her into manipulation and brutalization. Here are my few thought about questions involved in the play.…