ipl-logo

Creation Myth In Oresteia

785 Words4 Pages

A creation myth is an illustrative description of how society began and how the people treat it. Aeschylus created a Greek Trilogy that ties into everyday life situations; for example, revenge, family, death, gender, and justice. Plato’s The Republic also has themes like justice, morality, education, and wisdom. These two texts have helped define people and how they will act towards one another in their community. Gender is a big theme in Oresteia. Aeschylus has shown that his view of society is having men in charge. When the play was first written in 458 B.C. it was a time where the male was shown as the superior role over females. Even though they are portrayed as the better gender in this play, the women make it interesting and are shown to have more intelligence. Clytemnestra is very interesting in the trilogy; she wants to avenge the loss of Iphigenia. The daughter of Agamemnon was lost due to the King trying to please Artemis so him and his troops can pass to Troy. She later kills Agamemnon for this by strategically murdering him. The Queen also has an affair with the King’s brother, Aegisthus, which was condemned by the Chorus because she …show more content…

Aeschylus has brought in the goddess Athena who came in to state that the male dominance is important. “I was born of no mother and I defer to the male, in all things with all my heart, except for marriage, as I will always be the child of my father (736-738, The Eumenides).” Athena shows that she only knows how to think like a man, since she was born from the head of Zeus. She plays a more traditional female role in the trilogy. The gender differences in the play show how Aeschylus was trying to portray his society to be very male dominated when really the females were the foundation of all three plays. If the woman's parts in the play were not as strong, the entire trilogy would have lacked

Show More
Related

  • Roles Of Women In The Odyssey, And Clytemnestra

    1260 Words  | 6 Pages

    In Greek epics, tragedies, and mythology women are portrayed in various ways. Women are mainly considered to be weak and less important than men, but there are some women who are shown to be strong and heroic, despite the reputation that was placed onto them in Ancient Greek civilizations. There were two particular women that were strong and took the roles of their husbands while the men left to fight in the Trojan War. These two women were Penelope, wife of Odysseus, and Clytemnestra, wife of Agamemnon. These two women were different in how they chose to rule while their husbands were at war and how they acted once they got back.

    Read More

  • Gender And Gender Stereotypes In Shakespeare's Macbeth

    1514 Words  | 7 Pages

    Shakespeare’s tragedy, Macbeth, focuses on the tumultuous events that surround a regicide. Despite being the shortest of Shakespeare’s plays, in his critical study of the play A. C. Bradley concludes that due to its vehement nature the audience is left with an impression “not of brevity but of speed” . The principal female character of Lady Macbeth is arguably one of his most contentious. Consumed with intense passion, ambition and greed she challenges the subservient role of the traditional Elizabethan woman. She has disturbed, horrified and intrigued both contemporary and modern audiences alike through her powerful diction.

    Read More

  • The Role Of Women In Homer's The Odyssey

    954 Words  | 4 Pages

    In the epic poem, The Odyssey, by Homer, there are many female characters who play the role of a villain. Calypso, Scylla, Charybdis, and the sirens are among the women with the largest, negative impacts on Odysseus’ journey home. Though some women, such as Athena, Eurycleia, and Penelope, are loyal to Odysseus throughout the poem. With such a wide range of female characters, they all contribute different things throughout the book, whether the impact of their actions is negative or positive. Regardless of the outcomes, Homer has quite a modern view of female representation in his poem.

    Read More

  • Similarities Between Oedipus The King And Antigone

    1222 Words  | 5 Pages

    Oedipus the King and Antigone, by Sophocles, represent the various responsibilities and characteristics of women, as well as how society and men affect their positions. Jocasta and Eurydice demonstrate the role of wives in ancient Greece, while Jocasta and Antigone highlight the roles that women occasionally take as rebels. The roles of wives and rebels illustrate the strong contrast between the societal expectation of weak women and their ability to fight against men’s and god’s tyranny; and the play Antigone demonstrates this more powerfully than Oedipus the King. By revealing women and their different standings in a society, Sophocles shows how they are often objectified to demeaning attributes and are expected to be inferior to men.

    Read More

  • How Is Grief Presented In The Women Of Troy

    873 Words  | 4 Pages

    The Women of Troy is a play constructed by Euripides that primarily focuses on the loss and pain of the Trojan civilians that survived the war, who are sieged in the city after the war and are eventually either killed or enslaved after the fall of Troy. Euripides is constantly unforgiving in his portrayal of the victims suffering in the midst of male warfare, except for the women. Euripides is continually reminding of the fact that the women are now left in this dark and hopeless world. He also utilizes the victim’s new grief and trauma they face to add to the cruel representation of their suffering. However, Euripides also displays the strength and resilience of the women who don’t always see themselves as victims.

    Read More

  • Comparing Women In Aristophanes Lysistrata And Homer's Odyssey

    1005 Words  | 5 Pages

    Aristophanes Lysistrata and Homer’s Odyssey both show how women can thrive in their society and fight for what they believe in, even if that goes against the gender roles portrayed in Greek Civilization. In Aristophanes Lysistrata, the author portrays how one woman can fight for what she believes in and make a difference in society. Lysistrata ultimately wanted to end the Peloponnesian War, she knew the only way to do so was to take advantage of the Men. Men were dying day after day because of this war and Lysistrata had enough, she wanted to end it. Lysistrata decided to take a stand; she voiced her plan to

    Read More

  • Homeric Hymns: Ancient Stereotypes Of Women

    1499 Words  | 6 Pages

    The Homeric Hymns portray Aphrodite, Athena, Artemis and Hestia as strong females who uphold their own beliefs; challenging the “typical” gender stereotypes of the time period. Women in antiquity were expected to follow and uphold certain societal rules, most of these rules emphasized the gender stereotypes that women were perceived as being. The use of the goddesses powers challenge these societal rules and ideas about women. Aphrodite, Athena, Artemis, and Hestia are portrayed in the Homeric Hymns in contrast to ancient stereotypical roles of women being confined to the household; as a result this contrast emphasizes that women can showcase strength, intelligence, and power within society. A women’s life in antiquity was constricted by

    Read More

  • Interactive Orals In Sophocles Antigone

    1894 Words  | 8 Pages

    They also had to be painted to convey emotion and characterisation. Also I learned that there were no women in theatre due to role of women in Athenian society. After the discussion of the second group, I understood that Athenian society had a big influence on the play in terms of gender roles, religious beliefs, importance of debate and the reasons why certain characters chose to behave in these manners. For example, Antigone choses to bury Polynices because of her loyalty towards her family and her equal love towards both her brothers, but also due to her Hamartia (her excessive pride).

    Read More

  • The Odyssey Essay: The Role Of Women In Homer's Odyssey

    1255 Words  | 6 Pages

    Women are greatly judged by their looks throughout the book. They believe that a woman is successful if any of her direct family have an important position (e.g. King, God) or is a heroic figure. Even though Athena and Calypso are very different, one evident similarity, is their ability to influence and control men. Athena greatly interferes in Telemachus’ and Odysseus’ lives by utilizing her intellect. Her power, influence and control on men can either be seen as a positivity or as a negativity.

    Read More

  • Patriarchy In The Oresteia Essay

    1039 Words  | 5 Pages

    In the Oresteia, Aeschylus explores social patriarchy through the consistent imagery of women throughout the play. Using similar imagery Aeschylus potentially voices his disagreement with this patriarchy. The Oresteia discusses women in instances to imply the possible patriarchy of the Greeks, in the moments before Clytemnestra’s death and in the discussions of Athena the imagery of the woman is of an inferior person. However, the anger of Clytemnestra and the Eumenides themselves are in contrast to this patriarchy, as Aeschylus potentially recognizes the woman in these scenes. Divine law overrules women in many instances in The Oresteia to establish a pattern of patriarchy.

    Read More

  • Gender Roles In The Bacchae

    1551 Words  | 7 Pages

    In Euripides’s The Bacchae and in William Shakespeare’s As You Like It, I found the gender roles in these particular plays to be very interesting because this was my first exposure to cross-dressing in works of literature. In The Bacchae, women play a huge role because women are often portrayed as feminine and inferior in many past works, however, in The Bacchae, the women of Thebes decide to rebel against the men and join the Greek God of grape harvesting, wine, fertility, and partying, in the woods. The women were manipulated by Dionysus and were turned into maenads because they joined Dionysus and rejected the norms for women, to stay in their place and they all went from the first world they were living in, Thebes, to the second world,

    Read More

  • Essay On Gender Roles In Medea By Euripides

    799 Words  | 4 Pages

    Explaining why the women are being treated unfairly and the outcomes that can happen to women in the Greek society. How men are portrayed in Greek society. Explaining why men have different expectations than women and the political aspects of the male gender role in Greek society. The effects of the non-traditional roles the men and women played in the Medea play. Also, discuss the

    Read More

  • Macbeth And Medea Analysis

    1655 Words  | 7 Pages

    Paul Vu Dr. Elizabeth C. Ramírez THTR 475A.03 2 May 2017 Macbeth and Medea: Breaking Expectations Macbeth by William Shakespeare and Medea by Euripides are known for their powerful critiques on the social expectations of women. Women during the time of Elizabethan and Greek theatre were often stereotyped and considered the weaker sex. Men were depicted as strong individuals who supported and protected women. However, both Shakespeare and Euripides broke expectations by portraying strong and iconic female characters in their respective plays. The idea of a strong female character was often unheard of during the time of Elizabethan and Greek Theatre.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Lysistrata By Aristophanes

    1568 Words  | 7 Pages

    Introduction The purpose of this essay is to investigate the women’s role in Classical Greece society and literature (5th/4th century b.C.). Therefore, I decided to discuss and analyse one of the most controversial comedies of that time, “Lysistrata” by Aristophanes. This text shows how women, sick of their submissive and powerless position in the political scenario of Athens and Sparta, come on the scene and, through a smart stratagem, achieve their expected result.

    Read More

  • Patriarchy In A Midsummer Night's Dream

    986 Words  | 4 Pages

    The male characters in this play often feel uncomfortable when their female counterparts break gendered stereotypes. This is the same feeling that drove Theseus to war with the Amazons. An equally important woman is Hermia: Theseus and her father have in mind Demetrius for Hermia’s groom, yet she still refuses even after a small threat from Theseus, “Be advised, fair maid. To you, your father should be as a god” (1.1.47-48). Here in patriarchal Athens, fathers are the head households and hold influence over near-all decisions.

    Read More

More about Creation Myth In Oresteia

Open Document