traditional social hierarchies. In Trojan Women, Euripides uses the carnivalesque atmosphere of a conquered city and displays the misery of the city’s captured royal family to challenge the societal roles of Greeks/non-Greeks. The Bacchae presents the assassination of an orthodox king who, obsessed on restricting
The way that this is done emphasizes the importance of gender roles in the world of the Odyssey. Men are encouraged to forge their own path and journey to distant lands. Women, however, are required to stay at home and out of the public sphere of life. In the first set of examples analyzed above, both Odysseus and Telemakhos are glorified, and even though Telemakhos’
Homer who was a trojan hero and in a myth Zeus abducts him in an act of sodomy. This furthers the interjection of homosexuality within the play. Gender roles also appear as a main concept in the play. As shown through Rosalind’s cross dressing which challenges the ideas of what it means to be a man or women. Similarly, the original productions of the show would only be performed by men so Rosalind’s character was played by a man acting as a women dressed as a man which commented on gender fluidity. “Lie
themes within The Oresteia is the destruction of the household. The Greek household, Oikos, was one of the foundations of Greek society. In one sense, the entire cause of the Trojan war was the protection of the household. After Paris stole Helen, he brought about the ruin of Menelaus’ household,
in the perspective of his country of origin, regarding the Trojan War. Virgil’s characters are very vivid and beautifully complex. The women in this work of poetry are no exception to this. When Virgil writes of their faithfulness, popularity and intelligence it is not necessary for him to even include their beauty as it is clearly written between the lines as he describes their power. What were Virgil’s intentions of writing these women characters so well, to compare there strengths in order for
Women of power in the ancient times were rather rare in a world dominated by men of rule. In epic works, women began to be more accepted as people of voice and power within society, having pride in situations of the heart and matter of their people or family. Sometimes these same attributes that were praised can be criticized by the society of their times due to actions that sabotaged their overall goals as powerful women in society. In the works of Sophocles and Virgil, Antigone and Dido are praised
barbaric nature. His plays, though contradictory, incorporate his idea of the minimal differences between Bronze Age men and cavemen. Euripides uses his depiction of men to embody the belief that war is fought over the most microscopic possessions. In Women of Troy, Menelaus takes losses in the thousands to possess “a bitch-whore” (Hughes, 263). In Helen, Menelaus takes losses in the thousands to possess “a shadow” (Euripides, 147). Helen is depicted differently between the two plays, but the belief
Abstract This is the paper examines the cultural variables found in the Femi Osofisan’s Women of Owu and Zulu Sofola’s Wizard of Law; two African plays which are adaptations of two European plays Euripides’ Trojan Women and “pierre pathelin” respectively. The premise of this discourse is that even though cultures differ, there is no denying that there are similarities in the way people relate and create existence for themselves in terms of rules, order of worship, communication processes and interpersonal
In Oresteia, a series of plays by Aeschylus, the relationship between the old and new is portrayed. The plot of “The Eumenides” revolves around the conflict of how Orestes should be judged on his action of killing his mother. The Furies represent the older generation of Gods, who want Orestes convicted and punished for breaking the sacred tie between his mother and himself, a blood bond. Apollo, a young God, wants Orestes to be free, stating that Orestes action were justified because his mother killed